Since 1 November 2023, André van der Laan has been appointed professor by special appointment of Juvenile and Adolescent Crime at the Child and Health Law department of Leiden Law School. The chair was established on behalf of the Leiden University Fund and is funded by the Research and Data Centre (WODC), the knowledge centre of the Ministry of Justice and Security in the Netherlands. André is also a senior researcher and coordinates research studies on juvenile crime at the WODC.
André studied developmental psychology at Leiden University. In 2004 he received his PhD from the University of Groningen with his thesis ‘Defiance and delinquency'. He has worked at the WODC since 2004, first as a researcher and since 2009 as a senior researcher in the field of juvenile and adolescent crime. In the period 2013-2020 he was also acting head of an internal research department of the WODC. Since 2022, in addition to being a senior researcher, he also coordinates the Juvenile Crime research line at the WODC, where research is conducted into juvenile and adolescent crime and the (un)intended consequences of reactions to juvenile and adolescent crime.
Research
André's research interests include developmental and life course criminological questions and evaluations of justice youth policy and sanctions. He is involved in research into (explanations for) developments in juvenile and adolescent crime and cybercrime. He is also interested in multidisciplinary evaluations of (extra)judicial approaches aimed at juvenile and adolescent crime, such as the Dutch Adolescent Criminal Law or diversion measures (e.g. the Halt intervention). His research not only focuses on the (un)intended consequences of reactions to juvenile or adolescent crime, but also on the other consequences, including compliance with children's rights in practice. As a project eader he carried out the research programme Monitoring and Evaluating Adolescent Criminal Law (2015-2023). As a project leader he coordinates the Youth Crime Monitor which is currently being repeated at the WODC (2022-2026), including the Juvenile Delinquency suvey and research into violence by young people, and the research programme Evaluation of the Halt intervention, which includes a monitoring and process evaluation and a randomised experiment (2023-2028).
Education
Within the master's degree programme 'Jeugdrecht' (Child Law), Van der Laan teaches in the field of (developments in) juvenile and adolescent crime and evaluations of policies and responses aimed at this.
Other
André is an editorial board member of the Dutch Journal of Criminology (TvC) and a member of the editorial board of the journal Secondant.
WODC Chair in Juvenile and Adolescent Criminal Law
The chair in juvenile and adolescent criminal law was made possible by a collaboration between the WODC and the Leiden University Fund. The chair focuses on further interpreting and explaining developments in youth and adolescent crime and evaluating approaches aimed at this target group. The LUF has set up a fund for this purpose called Fund for the Study of Juvenile and Adolescent Crime.
Professor by Special Appointment Juvenile and Adolescent Crime
