prof. dr. D.R. (René) Veenstra

I give lectures and supervise Master Theses and PhD's

Lectures

In my lectures I discuss the following topics:

Sociology of crime and safety

Why are people violent or criminal? Why do people prepare terrorist attacks? The module will deal with the influence of individual features (genes, self-control, intelligence) and environmental features (social bonds) and the interaction between them on antisocial behaviour. Attention will also be paid to which people are more often victims of other people’s antisocial behaviour. Finally, there will be a focus on how people react to violence and crime, how afraid people are and which punishments people find suitable for a crime.

After this course the student can:

• Give an informed opinion on the causes of crime on the basis of major theories
• Interpret how group processes play a role in crime
• Debate about the interaction between genes and the environment in the development of behaviour
• Comment on policy which underpins the grounds of crime and safety with evidence (police records versus victim surveys), investigation of proven effectiveness and cost benefit analysis
• Reason about current issues such as white-collar crime and terrorism

Other lectures

• Police records versus victimization surveys
• Trajectories of crime
• The importance of self-regulation: Goal framingtheorie
• Terrorism
• Group processes in delinquency
• Evidence-based interventions
• Gene and environment
• Selectivity in penal law
• Neighborhoods and crime
• Bullying as a group process
• Victimization and costs of crime
• White-collar crime