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dr. Tanja van Veldhuizen

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Criminology

Assistant Professor, A-LAB

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

Personal information

Tanja van Veldhuizen is Assistant Professor in Legal Psychology at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She obtained her PhD in 2017 from Maastricht University and the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) as part of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Programme The House of Legal Psychology.

She has extensive experience in translating legal psychological research into practical recommendations for professionals across legal contexts, including criminal and asylum procedures, providing training and expert lectures for legal practitioners about eyewitness memory, statement validity, credibility assessment and evidence assessment. She is also a registered expert within the Netherlands Register of Court Experts (NRGD).

Van Veldhuizen is affiliated with the Amsterdam Laboratory for Legal Psychology (ALLP) and involved in Project Reasonable Doubt. As a member of the steering group of the Psych-Aid network, she works with international partners to promote the use of psychological research in asylum procedures and decision-making.

Research

Testimonial evidence often plays a crucial role in legal decision-making, not only in criminal cases but also in other legal domains, such as asylum procedures. Yet people do not always perceive, remember, and report events in the same way. Tanja van Veldhuizen’s research examines how accounts of past experiences are generated, how they are evaluated by legal professionals, and how psychological science can contribute to more accurate and fair decision-making.

Central themes in her research are investigative interviewing, statement validity, and evidence assessment. She studies how interview techniques influence the quantity and quality of information obtained from interviewees, how legal professionals assess the validity and credibility of testimonial evidence, and how evidence is interpreted and weighed in legal decision-making.

In addition, she investigates cultural influences on memory and reporting. Her research combines experimental and more qualitative research methods. Through this work, she aims to strengthen the scientific foundation of interviewing practices and evidence-based decision-making across legal contexts.

Teaching

Tanja van Veldhuizen is Programme Coordinator of the Bachelor's programme in Criminology. She teaches courses both at the Bachelor's and Master's level. Her teaching focus is on law enforcement, legal psychology, and (forensic) evidence assessment. She supervises bachelor's theses, master's theses, and PhD projects. In addition, she contributes annually to the VU Law Academy's postgraduate course in Criminal Evidence Law, where she lectures on eyewitness testimony.