Research Criminal Law
Crime research is intrinsically practice-oriented. The Department focuses on substantive criminal law and criminal procedure, on understanding criminal phenomena and their effects on society and on victims, as well as on the management of crime.
The emphasis of the research is on complex forms of organized crime and organizational crime, summarized under the heading 'subversive crime.' This research is conducted in close cooperation with other scientific disciplines and social partners, such as municipalities and the police.
Our research program
Our research program Crime and Criminal Justice in the Age of Globalization and Digitalization focuses on ‘subversive crime’ that undermines societies worldwide. We study the changes in crime, how these materialize and the responses to them.
Society is faced with crime that increasingly undermines societal institutions – municipalities, businesses, local communities – and affects vulnerable groups. These forms of ‘subversive crime’ (ondermijnende criminaliteit) not only adversely impact the functioning of society and democratic values, but also create feelings of insecurity, mistrust, and marginalization. Examples of subversive crime include organized crime, financial crime, terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and hate speech.
With the rise of powerful new actors (e.g., big tech) as well as new configurations of traditional governance actors (municipalities, cities, the EU, international criminal courts) we also witness new approaches to combat crime. State and non-state entities collaborate to fight transnational and international crime while the digitalization of crime has led to changes in techniques of prevention, detection, and criminal investigation.
This research program studies the changes in crime, how these materialize and the responses to them. We focus on legal pathways at the intersections of criminal law, labor law, administrative law (e.g., migration law) and tax law, all at various levels: domestic/comparative, European, as well as international and global levels. A critical approach to the role of law, informed by the reality on the ground, should lead to a 'reimagination' of legal pathways.
Our Projects
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Migration and crime at the EU borders in Croatia
How do migration and crime relate to one another in the context of clandestine mobility-gatekeeping across external EU borders in Croatia? This project analyzes and compares differing perceptions around the crime-migration nexus.
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Program subversion De Langstraat
This program focuses on undermining issues facing small and medium-sized (rural) municipalities, such as dumping drug waste, problems around vacation parks, the willingness of citizens living in rural areas to report signs of undermining crime, and the resilience of municipal councils, local governments and civil service organizations to criminal influence.
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Roaming mobile gangs in the EU
The IMOBEX project focuses on itinerant mobile gangs in the EU and more specifically on how to deal with members of such gangs who are victims of criminal exploitation.
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Families in organized crime
Family structures play an important role within criminal networks and intergenerational transmission of criminal and nuisance behavior is a structural problem within such families.
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