Forensic science in the Netherlands

Forensic science in the Netherlands is organised around the Nederlands Forensisch Instituut (NFI), which describes itself as the institute for complex and multidisciplinary forensic research and as a state knowledge institution for innovation and knowledge-sharing in the field. It is based in The Hague and states that it has nearly forty different research areas under one roof.

The institutional position is the part that does not travel. The NFI states that it acts “als agentschap van het ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid” — as an agency of the Ministry of Justice and Security. It is therefore neither a police laboratory nor an independent body outside government: it sits inside the justice ministry while working for parties who are opposed to each other in a courtroom.

That last point is the structural fact worth carrying away. The institute states that it performs forensic research for the police, the Openbaar Ministerie, the judiciary and other investigation services, and also for international organisations such as the United Nations. A reader from a system where forensic science is a police function should not assume the Dutch arrangement is the same one under a different name.