Dr. Janna Verbruggen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she has been employed since February 2019. Before returning to Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, she worked at Cardiff University (United Kingdom) as a Lecturer in Criminology (2014-2018) and subsequently as a Senior Lecturer in Criminology (2018-2019).
Prior to her appointment at Cardiff University, she worked as a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Between 2009 and 2013, she was a PhD candidate at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her PhD research examined the longitudinal relationship between employment and offending among high-risk youth, focusing on the effects of employment on criminal behaviour, the consequences of a criminal record for employment opportunities, and broader life-course outcomes.
Janna Verbruggen holds a Bachelor's degree in Developmental Psychology, a Bachelor's degree in Criminology, and a Master's degree in Criminology.
Research
Janna Verbruggen's research focuses on interpersonal violence and criminal careers across the life course. Her main research interests include:
- Intimate partner violence
- Stalking
- Human trafficking and sexual exploitation
- Life-course criminology
- Desistance from crime
Her research combines insights from life-course criminology with the study of violent and exploitative behaviors, with a particular interest in understanding offending trajectories, risk factors, and pathways to desistance.
Janna Verbruggen was awarded an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant for a two-year project examining intimate partner violence from a life-course criminological perspective. This project investigated how the development of intimate partner violence perpetration relates to broader offending trajectories and identified factors associated with desistance from intimate partner violence.
She also contributed to a two-year project funded by the Welsh Government, led by Dr. Sophie Hallett, which examined outcomes for young people at risk of sexual exploitation.
Teaching
Janna Verbruggen is coordinator of the Master's programme in Criminology and serves as thesis coordinator. She has played an active role in the development of the Bachelor's programme Law in Society, including the design of two new courses. She currently coordinates and teaches the courses Criminology (Year 1) and Qualitative Research Methods (Year 2).
