In the early hours of 20 August, a 17-year-old girl set off on her bicycle, making the journey from central Amsterdam to the nearby village of Abcoude after a carefree evening out. What followed was any parent’s worst nightmare. In distress, the girl dialled emergency services, reporting that she was being chased and assaulted by an unknown man. Police rushed to the scene. The girl, known only to the public as Lisa, was found brutally murdered on a notorious stretch of unlit road near the Amsterdam Arena football stadium.

The authorities strive to manage the danger as best they can – and continue to avoid naming, let alone addressing, its root causes

Within 24 hours, police detained a 22-year-old illegal immigrant at a nearby asylum shelter, a suspect in several sexual assaults in the s

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