Are you interested in developments in society, curious about human behaviour and do you closely follow current affairs? Then the bachelor’s programme Criminologie is for you

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology comprises two departments. One focuses on research and teaching in the field of criminal law and procedure and the other on criminology.

Money laundering, fraud, DNA testing: current affairs is key in this master’s programme. 'Forensische Criminologie' provides specialist expertise related to the criminal justice system - from forensic psychiatry to criminalistics.

Criminology and Security Policy is a challenging Dutch-taught master's programme at the renowned Leiden Law School of Leiden University. This programme – with its multidisciplinary perspective - focuses on the security issues in society and the development of effective and legitimate policy in order…

Everyone most obey the law. If you don’t, you will face the police and the courts. The application of national, European and international criminal law would seem to be a matter of following the letter of the law. But the reality is more nuanced. Criminal law scholars and criminologists from very different…

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology is committed to international cooperation and exchange.

Analysing the ways in which immigration structurally challenges and changes the organization and conceptual boundaries of national welfare states.

The SENSYN project has found a solution to few public datasets for criminological research: synthetic datasets. Marieke Liem talks about this unique innovation

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology’s ‘Vulnerable Groups and Inequality’ research project draws on a number of disciplines.

The European Registry of Exonerations database provides an overview of miscarriages of justice in Europe with a view to preventing future errors.

In the Criminal Justice research programme, (criminal) law researchers and social scientists – many of whom are criminologists – collaborate on various projects. The research programme focuses on the content and form of decisions that could be, should be and are taken in by actors in the criminal justice…

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology conducts extensive research on imprisonment. Sending a person to prison is the most severe form of punishment that can be applied in the criminal justice systems of European countries. In most countries, the number of prisoners has risen in recent decades.…

As of today, Maartje van der Woude (Professor of Sociology of Law, Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance & Society) has become a member of the advisory board for Oxford Law’s research platform Border Criminologies.

Fergus McNeill has been appointed as visiting professor at the Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology of Leiden Law School.

The practice of the application of pre-trial detention in the Netherlands raises questions in light of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and must be adjusted.

Ten years ago, a new reward system was introduced in Dutch prisons: the only way prisoners could earn extra ‘freedoms’ was through good behaviour. Jan Maarten Elbers concludes that this system does little to encourage behavioural change and can even be counterproductive.

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology is located in the Kamerlingh Onnes Building (KOG).

A punishment that fits the crime is the cornerstone of the rechtsstaat or constitutional state. But opinions differ greatly on what constitutes a just and effective punishment. Research by Leiden University provides politicians, legislators, law enforcers and the public with new information and insights…

Marieke Liem en Edwin Bakker have published an article in the Dutch Magazine Criminology. The article tells us the following:

Both departments provide teaching in the bachelor and master programmes.

Leids onderzoek naar bestraffing komt tot stand uit verschillende disciplines. Het onderzoeksproject kent een juridische, criminologische, sociaalwetenschappelijke en filosofische invalshoek.

A quantitative study on the use of pre-trial detention of juveniles in The Netherlands.

On 21 Januari 2020, Patrick van Berlo defended his thesis 'Human Rights Elephants in an Era of Globalisation: Commodification, Crimmigration, and Human Rights in Confinement'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.P. van der Leun and Prof. M.A.H. van der Woude.

On 3 November 2021, Lucas Noyon defended the thesis 'Strafrecht en publieke opinie'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.H. Crijns and Prof. J.W. de Keijser.

There are frequent calls from society for heavier prison sentences, but the question is whether longer sentences result in a safer society. Judges are seeing more and more offenders with social and psychological problems and they therefore often prescribe a programme of treatment and monitoring for…

Joni Reef was among those present at the opening of Expertise Centre KIND in 's-Hertogenbosch on Thursday 22 November 2018. She spoke to Dutch newspaper Brabants Dagblad afterwards.

Why do certain incidents of serious violence end lethally whereas others do not? What role do personal characteristics of offenders and victims play and how do immediate situational factors influence outcomes?