Our multidisciplinairy research team

Willem Bantema, PhD (1984) works as lecturer-researcher at the Cybersafety Research Group. In 2010, he graduated in Sociology at the University of Groningen with a specialization in quantitative policy research. From 2011 to 2016 he finished his PhD in Sociology of Law at the Department of Law at the University of Groningen. He specializes in quantitative and qualitative research methods (mixed methods) in the field of regulatory compliance and law enforcement. His dissertation was titled: ‘Why do bars rebel against the smoking ban? A socio-legal analysis of motivational postures and regulato…

Maike (1996) is a junior researcher since December 2020. Since the third year of studying safety and security management she specialised in Cybersafety and graduated in the summer of 2020. Since the third year of education she specialised in Cybersafety. She primarily focused on the prevention of cybercrime. And there are several research projects in which she played part and where she gained new knowledge. Such as a research for a municipality to engage an Electronic-boa at the department of Monitoring and Enforcement. The subject of her graduation thesis was the implementation of the leadin…

Jildau Borwell MSc (1988) is an external PhD candidate at the Cybersafety Research Group since December 2018. Her research subject is the impact of cybercrimes on victims and its consequences for the role of the police. The choice of the subject is partly prompted by the information requirements of the Digitization and Cybercrime programme of the Dutch police.

In 2011 Jildau completed the Master of Sociology at the University of Groningen, with a specialization in Criminality and Safety. Subsequently she enrolled in the Bachelor of Policing at the Police Academy in Apeldoorn, which she complet…

Sander Ebbers, MSc (1989) works as a lecturer-researcher and PhD-candidate at NHL Stenden and the Cyber Science Center. He graduated in Industrial & Organizational Psychology at the University of Groningen. Previously to his current position he worked 5 years as a cyber-security consultant. On behalf of a wide range of organizations, Sander conducted Security Awareness and Privacy Awareness programs during his time as a consultant. Within the research group, Sander investigates how the behavior of employees can contribute to a safe digital environment within organizations, from a I&O-…

Bram Emmen MSc (1986) has been working as a PhD-researcher at the Cybersafety Research Group since 2017. In 2016 he completed his master's degree in Criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam with his thesis on the possibilities and risks of big data analysis for crime prevention. In addition, he defended his thesis in Porto (Universidade do Porto) during an international criminology congress where the research was assessed with distinction. As a PhD-researcher, Bram conducts research within the multidisciplinary international research project "Police Detectives on the Tor-network" (PDTOR).…

Jurjen Jansen PhD (1983) is a senior researcher at the Cybersafety Research Group where he has been working since 2010. Jurjen’s work focusses on issues related to digital resilience of people and organizations. His research interests include human aspects of information security, cybercrime, victimization, human-computer interaction and behavioral change. In 2018, Jurjen obtained his PhD in "behavioral information security" at the Open University of the Netherlands. His doctoral research focused on strengthening the online resilience of end users in the context of online banking. Jurjen also…

Joyce Kerstens (1965) is Associate Professor of Police, Partners and Digitization (Digital Blue) and conducts research on cybercrime and trends in digitization, the use of digital technology by police and partners and, innovative forms of citizen participation on behalf of the detection of cybercrime. The Associate professorship is part of the Cyber Safety Research Group at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences and the Police Academy. Joyce Kerstens is a sociologist with a focus on the significance of a technology-driven and data-driven environment for humans, i.e. users

Joyce obtained he…

Nicolien Kop is a psychologist and lecturer Crime Prevention and Criminal Science at the Police Academy in Apeldoorn. Since the early nineties she has been conducting a broad field study into and to the police, specifically into the investigation in the past fourteen years. She regularly publishes articles, books and reports on the subject. Previously she worked as a researcher at Utrecht University and the Institute of International Relations Clingendael. In 2012, she presented her public lecture: From detection to crime control.
Furthermore Nicolien is involved as co-promotor in various PhD…

Christianne de Poot (1966) is a linguïst and psychologist. She graduated with honors from the University of Nijmegen in 1990 and received her doctorate in 1996 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on a study on leading questions in interrogation situations. Her dissertation was awarded the ASPO-dissertation award.
Since then she has been carrying out and guiding empirical and experimental research in investigation processes, methods of detection and crime phenomena such a organized crime, cyber-crime and jihadist terrorism. Christianne specializes in conducting empirical and experimental socia…

At the moment I am lecturer law and policy at NHL university of applied sciences in Leeuwarden, where I coach students in their last year of study for a bachelor in law. In this last year they have to design and perform a research in legal applied sciences. I have a legal background: I studied public administration at Bachelor level and law at the University in Groningen at Master level and worked for 25 years for several governments. In a few of these jobs I did research in public administration and law. My focus in the field of law is the enforcement of law in specific. With this last part…

Wouter Stol worked for the police in Amsterdam (1981 - 1992) and studied sociology (University of Amsterdam, 1984 - 1989). He received his doctorate 'Police action and Information Technology (VU, 1996). Since 1995, he has been leading a research group, successively at police advice center In-Pact (1995-2000), the Police Academy (2000-2004) and the NHL (2004-present). Dominant in his research and publications are law enforcement and new technology, focusing on digitization and cybercrime since about 1998. Wouter is currently lector on Cyber Safety at NHL and the Police Academy and professor of…

Litska Strikwerda (1983) works as a university lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural and legal sciences at the Open University. There she provides education and research at meta-legal level, among others in the field of cybercrime. Litska studied law at Utrecht University and Applied Ethics at the Norwegian Technical and Natural Science University (NTNU). She was previously employed at the University of Utrecht, Twente University and Loyola University (Chicago, USA). In 2014 she obtained on het thesis entitled "Virtual Acts, Real Crimes? A legal-philosophical analysis of virtual cyber-crime" fo…

Saskia Westers (1991) works as a researcher at the Cybersafety Research Group since the beginning of 2018. In 2017 she finished both her masters Psychology and Law at Maastricht University and Forensic Criminology at Leiden University. She carried out research focused on children’s eyewitness testimonies and food(in)securities of (ex-)prisoners. At the ING bank she gained working experience in the fraud department detecting and tackling fraud and scam cases.

Mr. Rogier de Groot MSc. (1980) is a doctoral researcher at the Lectureship MID and Juvenile Crime. In 2007 he graduated as a criminologist and as a criminal lawyer in 2009 in 2009 at Leiden University. From 2008 to 2010 Rogier was attached to the COT Institute for Safety and Crisis Management. Since 2010 he has worked as a lecturerer and researcher at Leiden University. As a researcher he worked on the study 'Unlimited access tot justice?', a research on victimization of people with learning disabilities in the criminal justice systems. Besides this, he coordinates the minor Working in the Y…

Since 2003 I have been working as an university lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (PenOw) of the Open University. I work in particular on course development for the Bachelor and Master and I supervise students of (Health) psychology. With regards to research, I have been actively doing research into cyberbullying with my colleague Francine DeMuth over the last ten years. In addition to various international publications and contributions to conferences I was guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Community and Social Psychology Concerning Antisocial beh…