My teaching and research in criminology mainly focuses on cybercrime and related topics.
I am an assistant professor in Criminology at the Department of Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. In 2018 I completed my dissertation research entitled: ‘Cyber offenders versus traditional offenders: an empirical comparison’ at the NSCR (Netherlands Institute for the study of Crime and Law Enforcement). My current research focuses mainly on four themes around cybercrime offending and prevention: 1. differences with traditional crime; 2. the role of online and offline peers; 3. the role of (IT) education; and 4. ethical hacking and positive use of IT skills. For this fourth research line I received a prestigious personal VENI grant from NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) for a 5-year research project entitled ‘Choosing the good side: life-course, cultural, and situational factors that lead to non-criminal hacking.’
I published two text books about Cybercrime (both now a second edition). One in Dutch "Basisboek Cybercriminaliteit" and one in English "Essentials in Cybercrime". See this page of the publisher: Publisher webpage
Short information about main projects:
- VENI: Audio interview about my VENI-research (in Dutch):
CCV Secondant interview: ETHISCHE HACKERS HEBBEN EEN STERKE MORAAL
- Podcast episode about my VENI-research (in English):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LBiqH6Y5uSkImd0m75fFQ?si=OKbBEgQ0TveNWK7-RxyneA
- UK Home Office OTTO project Understanding cybercriminal behaviour among young people.
- Dissertation:
Easy to read pieces about my dissertation research: