A Dutch criminologist who fled to Spain in the 1980s after being attacked over his controversial views on crime and heredity has been rehabilitated. The Dean of Leiden University's Law Faculty, Carel Stolker, told the university's Mare weekly that he visited the 76-year-old criminologist, Wouter Buikhuisen in Spain to apologise for the lack of support from the university over the past quarter century.

When Wouter Buikhuisen was appointed Professor of Criminology at Leiden in 1978, he proposed research into socio-biological aspects of criminal behaviour. Some of his fellow academics objected strongly. The proposals caused a furore in the media, with some columnists drawing parallels between Mr Buikhuisen's research and policies of eugenetics and extermination applied by the German Nazis in World War II.

Personal attacks
He was planning to integrate insights from neuropsychology, endocrinology and psychophysiology to explain criminal behaviour. "Links between crime and unemployment or low education are proven. But not all unemployed or low-educated people become criminals, so there must be more factors." The professor tried to continue his work at the Faculty of Law despite incessant criticism in the media and even vicious personal attacks. He told Mare,

"I tried to protect my family as well as I could, but still we got hate phone calls, threats saying We'll get you in the end, excrement being pushed through the letterbox... It went on for years."

Support in the academic world dwindled rapidly. "The governors of the university and administrators of the Law Faculty turned their backs on me. My research had become a liability. I called on the Royal Academy of Sciences because I felt that academic freedom was at stake, but nobody helped."

In 1988 Professor Buikhuisen gave up his research and became an antiques dealer in Spain.

Hoping for peace of mind
In February, Mr Buikhuisen said in an interview with Mare that the 25 years after his resignation from the university had been a dark period. "At my age, the only thing that counts is peace of mind. I'm still receiving mail from the university, and every time I open the envelope I hope it contains a sort of apology for that black period. If only they showed some recognition of having failed, it would make me very happy."

Research acceptable today
The Dean of Law told the university weekly, "The stain on the relation between our faculty and Mr Buikhuisen has been removed. The research he promoted at the time would be completely acceptable today. It's now clear we missed some opportunities in the past." Mr Stolker added, "At last we're no longer speaking about the Buikhuisen Affair. It's now Wouter Buikhuisen plain and simple."

Mr Buikhuisen has welcomed the rapprochement. "It was a pleasant meeting. I'm glad I can go and comfortably visit the Leiden Law Faculty. I'm very much looking forward to working with students next April." Leiden University invited Mr Buikhuisen to give a guest lecture at a criminology conference next year.