Government & open data
WODC
The Research and Data Centre (WODC) is the Dutch knowledge institute for the rule of law and has operated since September 2019 as an independent service within the Ministry of Justice and Security. It conducts or commissions research and publishes the reports openly in its own repository. Its work is organised in knowledge lines such as asylum and migration, the digital rule of law, forensic care, juvenile crime, the justice system, organised crime and law enforcement, and criminal-justice interventions, alongside ongoing statistics and monitoring.
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What this source does not give you
A WODC report is research, not law and not policy: it describes, measures and evaluates, but sets no norm and binds no one. The minister's response to a report is not part of it — that follows in a letter to parliament. Individual case data is likewise unavailable; what the WODC publishes is aggregated and anonymised.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a WODC report the ministry's position?
- No. Since September 2019 the WODC has been an independent service within the Ministry of Justice and Security and explicitly presents itself as a self-contained organisation that voices dissent where it considers that necessary. The policy position on a report is formulated separately, usually in a letter to parliament.
- Where are the reports and are they freely accessible?
- In the WODC's public publication repository. It is searchable without an account and serves the reports in full, including completed studies the WODC commissioned from external research agencies or universities.
- What is this source useful for in a case file?
- For factual grounding: what has been measured about reoffending, about how an intervention works, about the load on a chain of agencies, or about the effects of a legislative change. It is empirical evidence alongside the legal argument, not a substitute for it — for the norm itself you stay with legislation and case law.
- Which topics recur in WODC research?
- Crime and safety, sentencing and measures, the administration of justice and legal aid, and migration. Within those run knowledge lines such as asylum and migration, the digital rule of law, forensic care, juvenile crime, the justice system, organised crime and law enforcement, and criminal-justice interventions, plus recurring monitors and forecasts for the justice chains.
- Why is the WODC a source for BEVER?
- Because administrative decision-making on safety, enforcement and social services leans on the research the WODC publishes. For a council proposal, a policy evaluation or an audit-office review, that is public, published evidence that can be cited traceably.