Thom Snaphaan
Biographic Data
| ID | 162740 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thom Snaphaan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thom |
| FAMILY NAME | Snaphaan |
| SIGNATURE | SNAPHAAN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7887-4723 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Examining Financial Trails of Online Frauds and Money Laundering Choices of Cybercriminals
While many cybercrimes are financially motivated, the financial aspects of cybercrime remain insufficiently understood. The aim of this study is to provide greater insight into the financial trails of online fraud and the choices of cybercriminals in the concealment of illicit proceeds. To do so, we utilize data from 15 completed police investigations into cybercriminal networks in the Netherlands and apply financial crime scripting as an analyti…
Love as Bait
This study presents a scoping review and crime script analysis of the modus operandi of online romance scammers. Online romance scams are a form of fraud in which perpetrators fabricate online romantic relationships with victims, aiming to emotionally manipulate and, ultimately, financially exploit them. The review aims to synthesize existing research on how scammers operate and to develop a comprehensive crime script that can guide prevention an…
Does crime (n)ever skip a beat? Analyzing crime heartbeats in a European city
This study applies the crime heartbeat methodology to empirically examine the temporal concentration of crime in a European city (Ghent, Belgium) in relation to police-registered data collected for five specific crime types (aggressive theft, residential burglary, assault and battery incidents, bicycle theft, and car theft) spanning a 12-year period (2007–2018). The temporal concentration of these crime types is quantified by computing the crime …
Connecting the dots
The growing availability of new and emerging data sources (e.g. mobile phone data, social media data, and open access administrative data) offer promising avenues for crime related research. For today's generation of researchers, the challenge appears to lie less in accessing rich datasets than in creating value from them. With the development of powerful computational techniques, such as those emerging from the field of artificial intelligence, …
Rating places and crime prevention
Collective efficacy and disorder through the eyes of neighbourhood inhabitants and key informants
This study examines the ecological reliability, convergent validity and ecological stability of neighbourhood (dis)organizational processes measured by means of two methods: inhabitant surveys and the so-called key informant analysis technique. Considering that ecological processes play a major role in many contemporary criminological theories and research, it is vital to take into account methodological challenges and to question the reliability…
Using Systematic Social Observations to Measure Crime Prevention through Environmental Design and Disorder
This study focuses on the use of systematic social observations (SSO) to measure crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and disorder. To improve knowledge about measurement issues in small area research, SSO is conducted by means of three different methods: in-situ, photographs, and Google Street View (GSV) imagery. By evaluating the methodological quality of the observation methods, the results of our study suggest that virtual SS…
Do Mobile Phone Data Provide a Better Denominator in Crime Rates and Improve Spatiotemporal Predictions of Crime
This article assesses whether ambient population is a more suitable population-at-risk measure for crime types with mobile targets than residential population for the purpose of intelligence-led policing applications. Specifically, the potential use of ambient population as a crime rate denominator and predictor for predictive policing models is evaluated, using mobile phone data (with a total of 9,397,473 data points) as a proxy. The results sho…
Utilizing geo-referenced imagery for systematic social observation of neighborhood disorder
A Multilevel Perspective on the Health Effect of Social Capital
Employing a multilevel perspective on the health effects of social capital, this study analyzes how individual and neighborhood differences in self-rated health in Ghent (Belgium), relate to individual and collective social mechanisms, when taking demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals into account. This study estimates the health effects of social trust, informal social control and disorder at the neighborhood level and soc…
Research Note
Even though the dark number is especially high for cybercrimes, it is unclear by whom and to whom cybercrime is reported. Therefore, this study will answer the following questions: (1) who reports cybercrime incidents, and (2) to whom do victims report cybercrime? Analyses based on survey data including 334 recent cybercrime victims, indicate that 73.4% of victims do not report the incident. Cybercrime victims who do report are significantly olde…
Help, I need somebody
Using Systematic Social Observations to Measure Crime Prevention through Environmental Design and Disorder
This study focuses on the use of systematic social observations (SSO) to measure crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and disorder. To improve knowledge about measurement issues in small area research, SSO is conducted by means of three different methods: in-situ, photographs, and Google Street View (GSV) imagery. By evaluating the methodological quality of the observation methods, the results of our study suggest that virtual SS…
Help, I need somebody
Do Mobile Phone Data Provide a Better Denominator in Crime Rates and Improve Spatiotemporal Predictions of Crime
This article assesses whether ambient population is a more suitable population-at-risk measure for crime types with mobile targets than residential population for the purpose of intelligence-led policing applications. Specifically, the potential use of ambient population as a crime rate denominator and predictor for predictive policing models is evaluated, using mobile phone data (with a total of 9,397,473 data points) as a proxy. The results sho…
Utilizing geo-referenced imagery for systematic social observation of neighborhood disorder
A Multilevel Perspective on the Health Effect of Social Capital
Employing a multilevel perspective on the health effects of social capital, this study analyzes how individual and neighborhood differences in self-rated health in Ghent (Belgium), relate to individual and collective social mechanisms, when taking demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals into account. This study estimates the health effects of social trust, informal social control and disorder at the neighborhood level and soc…
Research Note
Even though the dark number is especially high for cybercrimes, it is unclear by whom and to whom cybercrime is reported. Therefore, this study will answer the following questions: (1) who reports cybercrime incidents, and (2) to whom do victims report cybercrime? Analyses based on survey data including 334 recent cybercrime victims, indicate that 73.4% of victims do not report the incident. Cybercrime victims who do report are significantly olde…
Collective efficacy and disorder through the eyes of neighbourhood inhabitants and key informants
This study examines the ecological reliability, convergent validity and ecological stability of neighbourhood (dis)organizational processes measured by means of two methods: inhabitant surveys and the so-called key informant analysis technique. Considering that ecological processes play a major role in many contemporary criminological theories and research, it is vital to take into account methodological challenges and to question the reliability…
Using Systematic Social Observations to Measure Crime Prevention through Environmental Design and Disorder
This study focuses on the use of systematic social observations (SSO) to measure crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and disorder. To improve knowledge about measurement issues in small area research, SSO is conducted by means of three different methods: in-situ, photographs, and Google Street View (GSV) imagery. By evaluating the methodological quality of the observation methods, the results of our study suggest that virtual SS…
Rating places and crime prevention
Love as Bait
This study presents a scoping review and crime script analysis of the modus operandi of online romance scammers. Online romance scams are a form of fraud in which perpetrators fabricate online romantic relationships with victims, aiming to emotionally manipulate and, ultimately, financially exploit them. The review aims to synthesize existing research on how scammers operate and to develop a comprehensive crime script that can guide prevention an…
Does crime (n)ever skip a beat? Analyzing crime heartbeats in a European city
This study applies the crime heartbeat methodology to empirically examine the temporal concentration of crime in a European city (Ghent, Belgium) in relation to police-registered data collected for five specific crime types (aggressive theft, residential burglary, assault and battery incidents, bicycle theft, and car theft) spanning a 12-year period (2007–2018). The temporal concentration of these crime types is quantified by computing the crime …
Connecting the dots
The growing availability of new and emerging data sources (e.g. mobile phone data, social media data, and open access administrative data) offer promising avenues for crime related research. For today's generation of researchers, the challenge appears to lie less in accessing rich datasets than in creating value from them. With the development of powerful computational techniques, such as those emerging from the field of artificial intelligence, …
Examining Financial Trails of Online Frauds and Money Laundering Choices of Cybercriminals
While many cybercrimes are financially motivated, the financial aspects of cybercrime remain insufficiently understood. The aim of this study is to provide greater insight into the financial trails of online fraud and the choices of cybercriminals in the concealment of illicit proceeds. To do so, we utilize data from 15 completed police investigations into cybercriminal networks in the Netherlands and apply financial crime scripting as an analyti…
Computer Science (8 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance (5 works) · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies (5 works) · Criminology (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Data science (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · The Internet (3 works)