dr. Jessica Hill

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Criminology

Assistant Professor, A-LAB

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

Personal information

Jessica Hill is an assistant professor at the Criminology department, Faculty of Law. She obtained her MSc in social psychology (cum laude) at the VU university in 2014. She carried out her PhD research at the NSCR, Amsterdam. In September 2017, she defended her PhD 'On the Road to Adulthood' at Leiden University. In her thesis she looked at desistance processes in young Dutch adults, using a variety of longitudinal research methods. From 2017 to 2020 she worked at the WODC in The Hague. During her time at the WODC she examined reoffending by ex-forensic care patients and youth offenders. She developed a new method for measuring reoffending during forensic care treatment. She has been teaching and carrying out research at the VU University since August 2020. Since starting at the VU she has developed a new research line, examining environmental harm, for example within the agricultural industry. In her teaching she focuses on empirical research methods and sustainability issues.

Research

For several years, Jessica carried out research in the field of life course criminology. She used a variety of longitudinal, quantitative methodologies. She has recently switched fields to examine environmental harm, making use of her experience with longitudinal methods, but also employing a mixed methodology and collborating with researchers within and outside of criminology. Current research interests include, but are not limited to, manure fraud, the nitrate crisis, and interventions tackle environmental crime.

Teaching

Jessica teaches in the Law in Society programme, and the bachelor and masters Criminology programmes.