Joyce Schot is affiliated to the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology as a PhD-candidate since February 2025. Her doctoral research focuses on the role of victim impact statements in legal decisions.

More information about Joyce Schot

Joyce Schot is associated with the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology as a PhD candidate. She completed her bachelors in Criminology and Law, and her Master of Science in Forensic Criminology at Leiden University. Her studies and work as student-assistant on the Criminology department sparked her interest in victim impact statements. Therefore, she studied the influence of victim impact statements on the emotional recovery of victims for her master thesis. At the same time, she assisted during an internship at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement at a research on the extension of the right to deliver a victim impact statement. After graduating in 2023, Joyce worked as a Criminology Lecturer. Joyce was also participating Leiden Law School's Pre-PhD-Programme and her research proposal was selected for a Meijers-grant.

Research

Since February 2025, Joyce started with her doctoral research, focused on studying the role of victim impact statements in legal decisions on guilt and sentencing. She will combine three different research methods: interviews, case file analysis and experiments. Joyce's research is embedded in the research programme 'Criminal Justice: Socially effective criminal justice'. Particularly, the research adds to the sub-programmes 'Fact finding' and 'Punishment'.

Publications