Afwezigheid van alle schuld

From an ever-increasing political emphasis on prevention and safety, so-called 'risk assessment instruments' have acquired a permanent place in Dutch probation practice in the past two decades. The risk of committing a criminal offence is determined by combining factual data about the person in question — home address, criminal record, drinking behaviour, relational status, etc. — with criminologically established correlations between these factors and the risk to criminal behaviour. By unleashing a fictional case on Dutch criminal law, the film Afwezigheid van alle schuld (Absence Of All Guilt) examines the possibility to use risk assessment instruments to break down the idea of criminal responsibility.