dr. Clarissa Meerts

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Criminology

Assistant Professor, A-LAB

Assistant Professor, Research Programmes - Law, Empirical and Normative Studies

Personal information

Clarissa Meerts is Assistant Professor of Criminology at the Faculty of Law. She is a graduate in criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She has worked at Erasmus University Rotterdam as a lecturer and researcher, and later PhD candidate, before starting as an Assistant Professor at VU Amsterdam in 2017. In 2018, she obtained her PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is Selection Coordinator of the BSc in Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and member of the Division for organisational crime of the Dutch society of criminology (NVC) and European working group on Organisational Crime (EUROC) of the European Society of Criminology.

Research

Clarissa Meerts is a graduate in criminology. In 2018 she published her PhD research 'The semi-autonomous world of corporate investigators' on corporate investigations in the Netherlands. She has previously worked as lecturer and researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Clarissa conducts research in the programme Empirical and normative studies.

Her research interests lie at the crossroads of criminology, law and organisational studies. She mainly applies a qualitative research approach. Her main expertise concerns issues related to criminology, corporate and private investigations and corporate justice systems, financial crime and public-private relations within the security field.

Education

After completing her bachelor in criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam (cum laude), Clarissa Meerts (1986) completed a master in International and Comparative Criminology (cum laude) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2009. In 2018 she succsessfully defended her PhD thesis on corporate investigations and public/private relations in the corporate security sector at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Teaching

Clarissa currently teaches Introduction to sociology (Inleiding sociologie, B1) and Theoretical criminology (Theoretische criminologie, B2) in the Criminology bachelor's programme of VU Amsterdam and is a thesis supervisor in the VU Amsterdam Criminology master's programme. Additionallly, she is the coordinator for the selection process of the Criminology bachelor's programme of VU Amsterdam.

Grants

In 2012 Clarissa Meerts received a NWO Research Talent grant for her PhD research on corporate security. Other significant funding includes the funding of a research project on public-private relations in the field of financial crime, funded by Politie & Wetenschap (see Living apart together? | Politie en Wetenschap) and a WODC research project on self investigation and self reporting in cases of corporate fraud or corruption (see Onderzoek naar voor- en nadelen van zelfonderzoek en zelfmelden door bedrijven | Welk onderzoek doen we? | WODC - Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum).

Ancillary activities