The project

How safe do you feel when you’re walking around the streets of Leiden? Do you generally feel safe? Are there any situations when you feel unsafe in the city? These are the kinds of questions that Leiden’s City Criminologist Marianne Franken – from Leiden University – hopes to be able to answer. In collaboration with the municipality of Leiden and the police, she is leading a research project on perceptions of safety across the city. All residents of Leiden aged 18 and over can participate in this research.

De Leidse Stadscriminoloog (Leiden’s City Criminologist) is an extensive four-year research project in order to improve perceptions of safety. The aim of this collaboration between Leiden University, the municipality of Leiden and the police is to identify perceptions of safety among Leiden’s residents and enable targeted intervention where necessary. The research combines multiple perspectives, sources of information and intervention options in order to improve experiences and understandings of safety.  

The research project entitled De Leidse Stadscriminoloog (Leiden’s City Criminologist) has three main goals: 

• to increase knowledge about perceptions of safety among Leiden’s residents; 

• to recommend targeted interventions in order to improve perceptions of safety among Leiden’s residents; 

• to support effective, lasting collaboration between the municipality, the police and Leiden University.