Children in Court: Children and Criminal Justice in the Dutch Republic
| Author | Florike Egmond |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399300200104 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
73
CHILDREN
IN
COURT:
CHILDREN
AND
CRIMINAL
JUSTICE
IN
THE
DUTCH
REPUBLIC
FLORIKE
EGMOND
University
of Leiden,
The
Netherlands
HANNA
BROENS
ANNA
BROENS
was
born
near
Hamburg
and
belonged
to
a
notorious
rural
band
called
the
Zwartjesgoed
(the
Blacks)
which
operated
all
over
the
northern
Netherlands
and
some
adjacent
areas
during
the
years
1798-1806.
Members
of
this
group
committed
numerous
rural
thefts
and
burglaries,
as
well
as
at
least
five
armed
robberies
in
the
course
of
which
they
brutally
murdered
their
victims.
Together
with
several
other
band
members -
among
them
her
lover
Franqols
Sellerin -
Hanna
was
arrested
in
the
summer
of
1805
and
questioned
by
the
Court
of
Oudewater,
a
small
provincial
town
not
far
from
Utrecht.
By
then
she
was,
according
to
her
own
statement, 17
or
just
18
years
old.’
Hanna
had
previously
toured
the
northern
Dutch
and
German
countryside
together
with
her
parents
and
brothers.
Around
1802
she
left
her
family,
travelled
to
the
western
half
of
the
Netherlands
and
joined
the
Zwartjesgoed
band.
In
the
spring
of
1805
she
participated
in
the
robbery
and
murder
of
a
skipper
from
Groningen,
who
was
on
his
way
to
Dordrecht
near
Rotterdam.
Members
of
the
band
had
met
the
man
at
a
tavern
near
the
river
Waal.
They
drank
and
danced
together
to
the
music
provided
by
Hanna’s
half-brother,
who
played
the
violin.
Hanna
danced
several
times
with
the
skipper,
who
was
kind
enough
to
pay
for
74
their
drinks
and
careless
enough
to
give
them
a
glimpse
of
the
money
he
was
carrying.
He
gladly
fell
in
with
their
proposal
to
continue
their
journey
together,
and
after
crossing
the
river
the
whole
company
walked
together
along
the
riverbank.
Hanna
accompanied
the
skipper,
going
somewhat
faster
than
the
rest
of
the
company.
At
a
prearranged
sign,
Sellerin
hit
the
skipper
on
the
head
with
a
heavy
block
of
wood
from
his
knife-grinder’s
cart,
whereupon
two
of
the
band
members
stabbed
the
man
with
their
long
knives.
The
skipper
rolled
down
the
dike
and
was
robbed
of
his
money,
watch,
heavy
silver
buttons,
buckles,
etc.
Hanna
also
climbed
down
the
riverbank
in
order
to
cut
off
his
golden
shirt-buttons,
but
she
discovered
that
the
man
was
not
yet
dead.
Her
half-brother
shouted
’he
is
still
alive,
let
him
have
it
with
your
scissors’.
Saying
’now
he
has
had
enough’,
Hanna
stabbed
him
with
her
scissors
right
under
the
heart,
using
so
much
force
that
the
blood
spurted
into
her
brother’s
face.
On
23
April
1806
the
public
prosecutor
demanded
the
death
penalty
against
Hanna.
The
court
hesitated
and
decided
on
12
May
to
reserve
judgment,
perhaps
because
the
judges
could
not
agree,
but
certainly
because
Hanna
had
in
the
meantime
submitted
a
request
to
a
higher
court
asking
for
leniency.
Among
other
excuses
she
put
forward
the
fact
that
her
parents
had
died
when
she
was
still
very
young;
that
she
had
come
under
the
control
of
her
brother
Peter
Jansen,
who
had
to
provide
for
her ...
but
who
also
demanded
from
early
childhood
blind
submission.
If
she
failed
to
comply,
he
vented
his
wrath
with
such
violence
that
besides
being
entirely
dependent
on
her
brother
for
her
very
existence,
she
had
no
choice
but
to
obey
his
commands.
The
request
furthermore
stated that
Hanna -
contrary
to
her
previous
account -
was
not
yet
17 years
old
when
she
was
arrested,
and
had
thus
been
only
15
at
the
time
of
the
murder.
It
also
pointed
out
that
there
was
no
corpus
delicti
(the
skipper’s
body
had
not
been
recovered
from
the
river
Waal),
and
insisted
that
the
case
against
her
rested
completely
on
the
unreliable
testimony
of
her
accomplices
and
on
her
own,
repeatedly
retracted,
confessions.
The
request
was
granted,
even
though
the
court
of
Oudewater
declared
that
Hanna
was
probably
much
older
than
she
pretended;
that
for
months
she
had
fastened
the
blame
for the
fatal
thrust
with
the
scissors
on
another
female
band
member;
and
that
she
had
not
exactly
impressed
the
court
by
showing
remorse
or
other
signs
of
repentance.
Nonetheless,
the
judges
pitied
her,
and
did
indeed
agree
that
her
youth
and
defective
education
should be
taken
into
account.
Consequently
they
argued
for
’remission’
of
the
death
penalty.
On
17
July
1806
a
royal
decree -
Louis
Napoleon
had
in
the
meantime
become
king
of
Holland -
revoked
the
death
sentence
against
Hanna
Broens
and
gave
the
court
of
Oudewater
permission
to
pronounce
a
new
sentence.
In
August
the
court
condemned
Hanna
to
life
imprisonment.
CHILDREN
OR
ADULTS
The
case
of
Hanna
Broens
is
exceptional
mainly
because
it
is
so
well
documented,
informing
us
about
the
deliberations
of
the
judges
which
were
only
rarely
written
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