From 14 – 16 May 2023, some of our criminology students and colleagues attended the Common Study Programme in Critical Criminology hosted at the University of Hamburg (Germany). The Common Study Sessions are organised twice a year by variating participating universities and are an opportunity for researchers and students to exchange their expertise and ideas on topics within ‘critical criminology’. The theme of this spring edition was ‘Rethinking the dangerous in scary times’. Read more about our students experiences and the latest Common Study Session at the news page of Erasmus School of Law ..read more

Pictured: Mike at Museumpark An urban sporter facing foregrounded fences by Julie le Sage What was once a colourful playing ground and hangout for all kinds of people is now a faceless square marked off by steel fences. Together with Mike – resident of Rotterdam, skater, and urban activist – I stand at the edge of these fences. Our eyes focused on what lies behind them, a place that holds a special place in Mike’s memory. ‘Memory’, because the city of Rotterdam has other plans in store for this place. We are looking at the former skate square, located at Rotterdam’s Museumpark. A place that ..read more

by Cybele Atme Since 2019, Lebanon’s financial crisis was taking the headlines of major newspapers. Lebanon has been cited to have suffered one of the worst financial crises in the world since the mid-1800s (Hubbard, 2021). Most articles attributed the crisis to what may be one of the biggest Ponzi-schemes[1] in the history of banking, involving the country’s central bank, Banque du Liban (BDL). This has sparked an interest in investigating the past decade of financial arrangements and political alliances involved in this nation-wide scheme and bringing criticism about the financial system i ..read more

As of 2023, the streets of the ‘Linker Rottekade’, a street in Crooswijk, Rotterdam, will permanently smell of coffee due to the arrival of Sharo’s coffee hotel. With an in-house roastery and around twenty hotel rooms, Paul Sharo, of the well-known Rotterdam coffee roaster ‘Man met Bril’ (Man with the glasses) will soon welcome guests and baristas from all over Europe to stay at his place. However, behind this positive image of the place, the ‘coffee hotel’ is also the centre of a local neighborhood conflict that has some interesting implications for criminologists interested in the topic of u ..read more

Student blog post by International Master’s in Advanced Research in Criminology student Elise Maes (she/her) I am a vegetarian dating a pig farmer Growing up in a desolate village, I knew I would want to move to Ghent and never come back. Among others, being a vegetarian, but only having pig farmers in my dating pool; being a feminist, but having to fight the rape culture in masculine associations to maintain a social life; having concentration issues, but growing up in a catholic school that did not approve of psychiatric diagnosing, all contributed to that feeling. However, removing oneself ..read more

by dr. Jing Hiah & prof.dr. Richard Staring In een recentelijk verschenen onderzoek van het NRC-handelsblad naar de Aziatische horeca en het Wokakkoord (d.d. 4 juni 2022) wordt een groep restauranteigenaren weggezet als mensensmokkelaren en mensenhandelaren al voordat het strafrechtelijk onderzoek is afgerond en de rechter een uitspraak heeft gedaan. Het Wokakkoord is een visa quotasysteem waarbij arbeidsmigranten vanuit buiten Europa op basis van speciale regels in Nederland te werk gesteld kunnen worden om zo de hiaten in de Aziatische horeca op te kunnen vangen. Helaas past dergeli ..read more

by Isabella Regan It’s Thursday, 24 February, 2022. While most of the world is processing the reality of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a small group of online investigators are meticulously studying published footage of attacks. By now, these investigators know: any video posted on social media may hold possible clues about what is happening on the ground during the armed conflict; clues that are necessary for finding out which battalions are entering Ukraine, where they are coming from, and what the impact of their military action is on civilians. These clues may be of crucial importance fo ..read more

by Abby Muricho Onencan ‘All people are equal, but unequal’ is a statement I gathered on January 13th, 2022, during the Leiden University annual Diversity and Inclusion Symposium. The phrase embraces the complexity we live in, given that all universities are comprised of diverse groups of researchers and lecturers, who want to feel included as equals, acknowledged for their individual contributions, and belong. It also echoes the need for a research community whose foundations are not purely based on equal treatment. Laws and policies that promote equal treatment lump everyone together and a ..read more

Op 17 juni 2020 zagen agenten een auto vanuit Almere slingerend de A6 oprijden. De bestuurder bleek aan het bellen en werd aan de kant stilgezet. De agenten ontdekten vervolgens enkele kilo’s drugs in de auto. De bestuurder werd aangehouden wegens verdenking van het overtreden van de Opiumwet.  Echter, de rechtbank sprak de verdachte vrij. De ruwe camerabeelden van de staandehouding, gemaakt door een bekende politievlogger die hiervan een gemonteerde versie op Youtube plaatste, bleken op cruciale punten niet overeen te komen met het proces-verbaal. Ook liet het proces-verbaal, mede opges ..read more

by Irma Cleven Op woensdag 26 mei vond de eerste zittingsdag plaats van het hoger beroep in de zaak over de in 2018 doodgeschoten Hümeyra.[1] Zij werd op 16-jarige leeftijd op klaarlichte dag voor haar school neergeschoten door haar ex-partner. Maanden van stalking gingen hieraan vooraf, waarvan Hümeyra herhaaldelijk meldingen heeft gemaakt en aangifte heeft gedaan bij de politie. Eén van de maatregelen die waren getroffen om haar in die periode te beschermen was een strafrechtelijk contactverbod. Strafrechtelijke contact-, locatie- of gebiedsverboden kunnen vanaf het moment na aangifte worden ..read more