Tolerant judgments of Muslims' political rights and dissenting beliefs and practices by ethnic Dutch adolescents (12-18 years) were examined. Participants (N = 632) made judgments of different types of behaviors and different contexts in an experimental questionnaire study. As in other studies, tolerance was found to not be a global construct. Adolescents took into account various aspects of what they were asked to tolerate and the sense in which they should be tolerant. The type of actor, the nature of the social implication of the behavior, the underlying belief type, and the dimension of tolerance, all made a difference to the tolerant judgments. Additionally, the findings strongly suggest that tolerance judgments do not develop through an age-related stage-like sequence where an intolerant attitude is followed by tolerance. For females, there were no age differences, and older males were less tolerant than younger males. There were also gender differences with males being less tolerant for some types of behavior and females being less tolerant for behaviors that negatively affected Muslim females. Level of education had a positive effect on tolerance. The findings are discussed with reference to social-cognitive domain theory.

An experimental questionnaire study, conducted in The Netherlands, examined adolescents' reasoning about freedom of speech and minority rights. Muslim minority and non-Muslim majority adolescents (12-18 years) made judgments of different types of behaviors and different contexts. The group membership of participants had a clear effect. Muslim participants were less in favor of freedom of speech if it involved the offending of religious beliefs and were more in favor of Muslim minority rights. There were also cross-group gender differences whereby parental practices that negatively affect females were more strongly rejected by Muslim females than by Muslim males and non-Muslim females and males. The findings are discussed with reference to social-cognitive domain theory and intergroup theories.

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Violent outbursts in Paris (2005), London (2011), and Ferguson (2014) illustrate the problematic and disturbing relationship between citizens and police in the ‘West’. While these episodes are often portrayed as ‘apolitical’ and ‘criminal’ in media and political debates, they are in the academic literature predominantly seen as (unarticulated) forms of political protests against structural inequalities. Building on this political perspective, I will first argue that the interplay between structural, police, and ‘private’ violence is at the core of these urban uprisings. Subsequently, I will identify four common factors that contributed to the onset and legitimization of collective violence in Paris, London, and Ferguson: an emotive and symbolically significant incident, often with a young inhabitant of a marginalized neighbourhood as protagonist; police involvement; unclarity and pre-violence rumours; and pre-existing us-them divides. In the conclusion, I will emphasize the importance and need of a systemic approach towards police reform.