Jean-Louis Van Gelder
Biographic Data
| ID | 288171 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jean-Louis Van Gelder |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jean-Louis |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Gelder |
| SIGNATURE | VAN GELDER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 51 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 224 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 22 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Focal Visual Attention in Crime Decision Making: Behavioral Insights from Immersive 360° Video Eye-Tracking
Hiring Decisions as a Tale of Risk Aversion Versus Stigma
Effect of Early Interactions With the Police on Intertemporal Choice: A Longitudinal Study of Zurich Public School Students
Adolescents tend to increase their offending after police contact, contrary to predictions of choice-based theories. This may be due to police contact altering their view of their future prospects, leading them to prioritize the present. Preregistered fixed effects analyses of longitudinal data collected from Zurich public school students provide no support for an association between police contact and a change in impulsivity, sensation-seeking, …
Choice, Social Structure, and Crime
On May 22 to 23, 2023, a workshop held at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law explored the gap between macro-level sociological perspectives and micro-level rational choice perspectives in criminology. The current special issue is the fruit of that effort. Three main themes—structural and cultural constraints, economic opportunities and criminal justice involvement, and moral and ethical contexts—are examined in seve…
The future of interpersonal violence research: Steps towards interdisciplinary integration
Interpersonal violence is a high-priority issue for the general public, policymakers, and academics. It is commonly defined as the use of physical force - threatened or actual - with the intent to cause harm or injury (Dahlberg & Krug, 2002 ), and can be contrasted with collective or political forms of violence. Its negative consequences range from immediate effects, such as personal harm and injury, to longer-term consequences for offenders, vic…
Neighborhood crime reduction interventions and perceived livability: A virtual reality study on fear of crime
High levels of Fear of Crime (FOC) are associated with people engaging with their community less, lower use of public spaces, and a general sense of overall anxiety. In short, such fear may reduce the livability of an area. The primary goal of this research was to examine the potential consequences of environmental interventions intended to reduce crime on FOC and perceived livability of the area. Using immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technology, …
Is there a cybercriminal personality? Comparing cyber offenders and offline offenders on Hexaco personality domains and their underlying facets
Cyberspace creates opportunities for new forms of crime that may be related to specific personality characteristics of offenders. Few studies have investigated the personality characteristics of cyber offenders. We address this gap by comparing a judicial sample of 261 suspects of cyber-dependent crime, 260 suspects of offline crime, and a community sample of 512 participants on the HEXACO personality domains and their underlying facets. This pro…
Die Lücken in der kriminologischen Wissensgrundlage schließen: Eine Forschungsagenda für die kommenden zehn Jahre
In der Wissensgrundlage der kriminologischen Forschung bestehen gegenwärtig beachtliche Lücken: Es mangelt an wirklich interdisziplinärer Forschung; das Verständnis, wie Persönlichkeitseigenschaften mit kriminellem Verhalten zusammenhängen, ist begrenzt; dem Potenzial neuer Technologien, die helfen können, ein besseres Verständnis für die Prozesse zu bekommen, die während der Begehung von Straftaten ablaufen, wird zu wenig Beachtung geschenkt; un…
Adolescent Stressful Life Events Predict Future Self- Connectedness in Adulthood
In this study, we investigate how the accumulation of stressful life events and chronic stressors experienced in adolescence predict young adults’ future self-identification (i.e., connectedness, vividness, and valence of the future self) in a sample of 1482 Swiss youth. Furthermore, we investigate future self-identification as a source of resilience mediating the association between accumulated stressful life events on the one hand, and increase…
Virtual Reality for Criminologists: A Road Map
Virtual reality (VR) technology offers unique and as yet largely untapped potential for criminology. It can address problems that have traditionally plagued the field, provide an ecologically valid alternative for conventional research methods, and create novel possibilities for theory testing, and it allows for the study of phenomena that are difficult to research in the real world for ethical, safety, or practical reasons. This essay reviews th…
The shortsighted victim: Short-term mindsets mediate the link between victimization and later offending
Predominant explanations of the victim-offender overlap tend to focus on shared causes, such as (low) self-control or risky lifestyles. Such explanations bypass the possibility of a causal link between victimization and offending. We draw on evolutionary developmental psychology and criminological research to propose and test the hypothesis that victimization induces what we refer to as a short-term mindset, i.e., an orientation towards the here-…
A future orientation intervention delivered through a smartphone application and virtual reality: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
This study will provide information on the effectiveness of the intervention and allows for comparisons between delivery methods using novel technologies, a smartphone app versus immersive VR. Knowledge gained through this study can be used for further intervention development as well as theory building. Trial registration This trial is registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05578755) on 13 October 2022
The Co-development of Friends’ Delinquency with Adolescents’ Delinquency and Short-term Mindsets: The Moderating Role of Co-Offending
The companions in crime hypothesis suggests that co-offending moderates the link between peer delinquency and adolescent delinquency. However, this hypothesis has rarely been investigated longitudinally. Hence, this study investigated the co-development of friends’ delinquency and adolescents’ delinquency, as well as the co-development of friends’ delinquency and short-term mindsets (impulsivity and lack of school future orientation). Whether thi…
Expertise, Emotion and Specialization in the Development of Persistent Burglary
This article describes a qualitative analysis of interviews conducted among 70 experienced residential burglars regarding the reasons for getting involved in and maintaining criminal behaviour. Themes emerging reflected an interaction between skill-development and affect, which played a key role in the initiation and continuation of burglary-related behaviour. Early participation in burglary seemed to be strongly influenced by the desire for exci…
Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only, Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap
Cybercrime research suggests that, analogous to traditional crime, victims are more likely to be offenders. This overlap could be caused by shared risk factors, but it is unclear if these are comparable to traditional risk factors. Utilizing a high risk sample of computer-dependent cyber-offenders and traditional offenders (N = 535) we compare victimization, offending, and victimization-offending between cybercrime and traditional crime. Cybercri…
Punitive Parenting and Delinquency: The Mediating Role of Short-term Mindsets
Drawing from life history theory and developmental perspectives, we test the hypothesis that the relation between parental discipline practices and delinquency is explained in part by short-term mindsets. We argue that such practices induce an orientation towards the here-and-now rather than the future, which, in turn, promotes delinquency. We used longitudinal data (N = 1,197) from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into…
Seeing is Believing? Comparing Negative Affect, Realism and Presence in Visual Versus Written Guardianship Scenarios
We compared participant responses on three written guardianship scenarios versus visualized versions of the same scenarios in terms of realism, presence, negative affect elicited by the situation, perceived risk, and the choice to intervene. We find that people who received the visual scenarios report higher presence, but not realism, than those who received the written version. Furthermore, visual scenarios elicited stronger negative affect and …
Getting Closer to the Action: Using the Virtual Enactment Method to Understand Burglary
In this article we describe a new method, the Virtual Enactment Method (VEM), to enhance offender recall and motivation to disclose information by having burglars reflect on their experience while committing a crime in a simulated virtual environment. Participants, a sample of 61 incarcerated burglars, ‘thought aloud’ whilst undertaking a virtual burglary. Following the ‘virtual’ burglary, emerging themes were expanded upon in an interview. We sh…
Situational Crime Prevention and Offender Decision Making
This chapter focuses on situational crime prevention, a method for reducing opportunities for crime by manipulating the immediate environment. It begins by charting the origins and development of situational crime prevention. It then describes how rational choice was later added as the model of offender decision making to underpin situational crime prevention. Three questions are then considered: Is rational choice the only possible theoretical u…
Co-offending and Co-offender Selection
A notable proportion of crime is committed in company, particularly during youth, but relatively little attention has been paid to the influence of co-offenders on criminal decision making. This chapter reviews current theory and research on co-offending as it relates to three aspects of offender decision making: the decision to (co)-offend, the selection of accomplices, and choices shaping the characteristics of the criminal event (planning, tar…
Observational Methods of Offender Decision Making
The strength of ethnography is that it combines the insights of what people say about crime with what they do when they make the decision to commit crime. Participant observation has played a key role in ethnographic research on crime, but it has become rare in criminology. This chapter argues that despite this development, new types of camera-based observations are emerging that can potentially bring new life into ethnographic research on crime.…
Victim Selection
This chapter reviews what is known about victim selection—that is, the question of why offenders select some people, but not others, to be victims of crime. It first addresses theoretical perspectives on victim selection, namely the structural–choice model of victim selection, social interactionism, and target congruence. It then describes three data sources that have been used in prior research to study victim selection: police reports, victimiz…
Burglary Decisions
This chapter examines burglary event decisions, decisions leading up to the burglary, and the burglary characteristics that provide insights into them. It critically reviews the evidence on burglary decisions; highlights gaps in knowledge, methodologies, and aspects of theory; and discusses the potential for additional research. It draws on studies based on interviews and experimental research with imprisoned offenders and, less commonly, active …
Organized Crime and Protection Rackets
By relying on a broad rational choice perspective, this chapter explores the key mechanisms underpinning the workings of organized crime and specifically protection rackets. It first defines organized crime in terms of its attempt to monopolize markets, and then the chapter explores the factors that may lead to the emergence of criminal monopolies. Next, it discusses some distinctive features associated with protection rackets, with a focus on th…
Police and Offender Choices
Police influence on offender choices has largely been described in terms of general and specific deterrence. This chapter expands this description by examining the quantity and quality of police influences. With regard to quantity, theory and research from environmental criminology have described a rich set of influences that have direct and indirect effects on offenders. Indirect influences operate through various third parties and by manipulati…
What tenure security? The case for a tripartite view
Paradoxes of Urban Housing Informality in the Developing World
This article addresses a series of paradoxes regarding informal settlements in cities in the developing world and their relation with the legal system. The first paradox regards the penalization of illegal land occupations on the one hand versus the legalization of that same practice on the other. Second, it looks at the relationship between land occupations as systematic violations of property rights, but with the goal of forming new property ri…
Feeling and thinking: Quantifying the relationship between perceived tenure security and housing improvement in an informal neighbourhood in Buenos Aires
Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only, Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap
Cybercrime research suggests that, analogous to traditional crime, victims are more likely to be offenders. This overlap could be caused by shared risk factors, but it is unclear if these are comparable to traditional risk factors. Utilizing a high risk sample of computer-dependent cyber-offenders and traditional offenders (N = 535) we compare victimization, offending, and victimization-offending between cybercrime and traditional crime. Cybercri…
Land titling, perceived tenure security, and housing consolidation in the kampongs of Bandung, Indonesia
Tales of Deviance and Control: On Space, Rules, and Law in Squatter Settlements
In Latin American cities, around a third of the urban population lives in tenure situations that can be designated as informal, yet variation in the ways and extent to which these arrangements do not comply with law is extensive. Furthermore, informal dwellers often employ a variety of strategies to legitimize and ultimately legalize their tenure, implying a dynamic rather than a static relationship between illegality and legality. Conceiving of …
Getting Closer to the Action: Using the Virtual Enactment Method to Understand Burglary
In this article we describe a new method, the Virtual Enactment Method (VEM), to enhance offender recall and motivation to disclose information by having burglars reflect on their experience while committing a crime in a simulated virtual environment. Participants, a sample of 61 incarcerated burglars, ‘thought aloud’ whilst undertaking a virtual burglary. Following the ‘virtual’ burglary, emerging themes were expanded upon in an interview. We sh…
Housing informality in Buenos Aires: Past, present and future
As in most other Latin American cities, a principal way of accessing housing for the urban poor in Buenos Aires has been through the illegal occupation of land. Over a period of roughly eight decades, this has led to the formation of hundreds of informal settlements in the city. This article traces the historical development of informality in Argentina’s capital. It shows that different phases in this development, each with particular characteris…
Tenure Security as a Predictor of Housing Investment in Low-Income Settlements: Testing a Tripartite Model
Tenure security is widely believed to contribute to low-income settlement development by encouraging investment in housing improvement. However, in spite of consensus about its importance, it is still unclear what tenure security exactly entails and few studies have examined how it relates to housing improvement. Using survey data from six informal neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina, we empirically test a model that specifies how the differ…
Seeing is Believing? Comparing Negative Affect, Realism and Presence in Visual Versus Written Guardianship Scenarios
We compared participant responses on three written guardianship scenarios versus visualized versions of the same scenarios in terms of realism, presence, negative affect elicited by the situation, perceived risk, and the choice to intervene. We find that people who received the visual scenarios report higher presence, but not realism, than those who received the written version. Furthermore, visual scenarios elicited stronger negative affect and …
Punitive Parenting and Delinquency: The Mediating Role of Short-term Mindsets
Drawing from life history theory and developmental perspectives, we test the hypothesis that the relation between parental discipline practices and delinquency is explained in part by short-term mindsets. We argue that such practices induce an orientation towards the here-and-now rather than the future, which, in turn, promotes delinquency. We used longitudinal data (N = 1,197) from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into…
Neighborhood crime reduction interventions and perceived livability: A virtual reality study on fear of crime
High levels of Fear of Crime (FOC) are associated with people engaging with their community less, lower use of public spaces, and a general sense of overall anxiety. In short, such fear may reduce the livability of an area. The primary goal of this research was to examine the potential consequences of environmental interventions intended to reduce crime on FOC and perceived livability of the area. Using immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technology, …
Virtual Reality for Criminologists: A Road Map
Virtual reality (VR) technology offers unique and as yet largely untapped potential for criminology. It can address problems that have traditionally plagued the field, provide an ecologically valid alternative for conventional research methods, and create novel possibilities for theory testing, and it allows for the study of phenomena that are difficult to research in the real world for ethical, safety, or practical reasons. This essay reviews th…
Expertise, Emotion and Specialization in the Development of Persistent Burglary
This article describes a qualitative analysis of interviews conducted among 70 experienced residential burglars regarding the reasons for getting involved in and maintaining criminal behaviour. Themes emerging reflected an interaction between skill-development and affect, which played a key role in the initiation and continuation of burglary-related behaviour. Early participation in burglary seemed to be strongly influenced by the desire for exci…
The shortsighted victim: Short-term mindsets mediate the link between victimization and later offending
Predominant explanations of the victim-offender overlap tend to focus on shared causes, such as (low) self-control or risky lifestyles. Such explanations bypass the possibility of a causal link between victimization and offending. We draw on evolutionary developmental psychology and criminological research to propose and test the hypothesis that victimization induces what we refer to as a short-term mindset, i.e., an orientation towards the here-…
Feeling and thinking: Quantifying the relationship between perceived tenure security and housing improvement in an informal neighbourhood in Buenos Aires
What tenure security? The case for a tripartite view
Land titling, perceived tenure security, and housing consolidation in the kampongs of Bandung, Indonesia
Tales of Deviance and Control: On Space, Rules, and Law in Squatter Settlements
In Latin American cities, around a third of the urban population lives in tenure situations that can be designated as informal, yet variation in the ways and extent to which these arrangements do not comply with law is extensive. Furthermore, informal dwellers often employ a variety of strategies to legitimize and ultimately legalize their tenure, implying a dynamic rather than a static relationship between illegality and legality. Conceiving of …
The Dutch Prosecution Service
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service has undergone major changes in recent decades. Public prosecutors were initially little more than intermediaries who delivered cases from the police to the judge, but the modern-day public prosecutor has many tasks entrusted to him and wide-ranging responsibilities. The case-oriented magistrate who dealt with cases from behind his desk now actively operates outside the confines of his office, developing local …
Vividness of the Future Self Predicts Delinquency
The tendency to live in the here and now, and the failure to think through the delayed consequences of behavior, is one of the strongest individual-level correlates of delinquency. We tested the hypothesis that this correlation results from a limited ability to imagine one’s self in the future, which leads to opting for immediate gratification. Strengthening the vividness of the future self should therefore reduce involvement in delinquency. We t…
Movilidad social espacial en los asentamientos informales de Buenos Aires
Como na maioria das cidades da América Latina, uma das formas de acesso central à terra e à habitação para os setores populares em Buenos Aires é através da criação de assentamentos informais. Este artigo analisa o desenvolvimento da informalidade urbana, os padrões de mobilidade social e trajetórias residenciais em empreendimentos informais e na Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, durante as últimas décadas. Usando a informação quantitativa (ger…
Affect and Cognition in Criminal Decision Making: Between Rational Choices and Lapses of Self-Control
Paradoxes of Urban Housing Informality in the Developing World
This article addresses a series of paradoxes regarding informal settlements in cities in the developing world and their relation with the legal system. The first paradox regards the penalization of illegal land occupations on the one hand versus the legalization of that same practice on the other. Second, it looks at the relationship between land occupations as systematic violations of property rights, but with the goal of forming new property ri…
Tenure Security as a Predictor of Housing Investment in Low-Income Settlements: Testing a Tripartite Model
Tenure security is widely believed to contribute to low-income settlement development by encouraging investment in housing improvement. However, in spite of consensus about its importance, it is still unclear what tenure security exactly entails and few studies have examined how it relates to housing improvement. Using survey data from six informal neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina, we empirically test a model that specifies how the differ…
Housing informality in Buenos Aires: Past, present and future
As in most other Latin American cities, a principal way of accessing housing for the urban poor in Buenos Aires has been through the illegal occupation of land. Over a period of roughly eight decades, this has led to the formation of hundreds of informal settlements in the city. This article traces the historical development of informality in Argentina’s capital. It shows that different phases in this development, each with particular characteris…
Situational Crime Prevention and Offender Decision Making
This chapter focuses on situational crime prevention, a method for reducing opportunities for crime by manipulating the immediate environment. It begins by charting the origins and development of situational crime prevention. It then describes how rational choice was later added as the model of offender decision making to underpin situational crime prevention. Three questions are then considered: Is rational choice the only possible theoretical u…
Co-offending and Co-offender Selection
A notable proportion of crime is committed in company, particularly during youth, but relatively little attention has been paid to the influence of co-offenders on criminal decision making. This chapter reviews current theory and research on co-offending as it relates to three aspects of offender decision making: the decision to (co)-offend, the selection of accomplices, and choices shaping the characteristics of the criminal event (planning, tar…
Observational Methods of Offender Decision Making
The strength of ethnography is that it combines the insights of what people say about crime with what they do when they make the decision to commit crime. Participant observation has played a key role in ethnographic research on crime, but it has become rare in criminology. This chapter argues that despite this development, new types of camera-based observations are emerging that can potentially bring new life into ethnographic research on crime.…
Victim Selection
This chapter reviews what is known about victim selection—that is, the question of why offenders select some people, but not others, to be victims of crime. It first addresses theoretical perspectives on victim selection, namely the structural–choice model of victim selection, social interactionism, and target congruence. It then describes three data sources that have been used in prior research to study victim selection: police reports, victimiz…
Burglary Decisions
This chapter examines burglary event decisions, decisions leading up to the burglary, and the burglary characteristics that provide insights into them. It critically reviews the evidence on burglary decisions; highlights gaps in knowledge, methodologies, and aspects of theory; and discusses the potential for additional research. It draws on studies based on interviews and experimental research with imprisoned offenders and, less commonly, active …
Organized Crime and Protection Rackets
By relying on a broad rational choice perspective, this chapter explores the key mechanisms underpinning the workings of organized crime and specifically protection rackets. It first defines organized crime in terms of its attempt to monopolize markets, and then the chapter explores the factors that may lead to the emergence of criminal monopolies. Next, it discusses some distinctive features associated with protection rackets, with a focus on th…
Police and Offender Choices
Police influence on offender choices has largely been described in terms of general and specific deterrence. This chapter expands this description by examining the quantity and quality of police influences. With regard to quantity, theory and research from environmental criminology have described a rich set of influences that have direct and indirect effects on offenders. Indirect influences operate through various third parties and by manipulati…
Modeling Offender Decision Making with Secondary Data
Many questions about offender decision making are answered by analyzing data from secondary sources, which include police records and other law enforcement sources, but also full population registries containing data on birth, death, family composition, schooling, employment, and social and health service usage. Although secondary data are not collected for research purposes, they have a number of advantages over regular survey data. This chapter…
Emotions in Offender Decision Making
This chapter examines the influence of emotions on offender decision making. It reviews the empirical and theoretical criminological literature on the role of emotions in crime causation but also draws from other disciplines in the behavioral and cognitive sciences that have examined the influence of emotions on human decision making. Specific attention is devoted to appraisal theories of emotion, which, it is argued, provide a useful theoretical…
Dual-Process Models of Criminal Decision Making
This chapter discusses the application of dual-process and dual-system models to offender decision making. It is argued that these models offer a more accurate account of the decision process than the traditional choice models in criminology, such as rational choice and deterrence models, and can overcome their various limitations. Specific attention is devoted to the hot/cool perspective of criminal decision making, which takes the dual-process …
Perceptual Deterrence
In theory, deterrence is a behavioral response to an individual’s perceptions about the certainty and/or severity of criminal justice sanctions. The perceptual underpinnings of compliance with the law are therefore of long-standing interest in perceptual deterrence scholarship. This chapter provides an overview of the broad scope of this scholarship. After reviewing the basic perceptual elements of crime decision-making models, attention turns to…
Experimental Designs in the Study of Offender Decision Making
Research on offender decision making has utilized experimental designs and has often coupled these strong designs with the use of hypothetical vignettes that describe specific offending circumstances for the would-be offender to consider. In some cases, these studies have experimentally manipulated situational elements of the imagined setting. In others, researchers have experimentally manipulated the context in which the participants make the de…
The Effect of Alcohol and Arousal on Criminal Decision Making
Consequentialist theories of criminal decision making assume crime is a choice that one undertakes if the perceived benefits of the act outweigh its costs. This a priori assessment of costs and benefits involves the use of several neurological components, including the amygdala–striatal system and the prefrontal cortex. Crime is commonly committed by individuals under the influence of alcohol and/or experiencing heightened states of emotional aro…
Informal Guardians and Offender Decision Making
Research has demonstrated that informal guardians affect offender decision making in a variety of crime contexts. This chapter highlights what can be learned from empirical research about the way offenders perceive informal guardianship and how it affects criminal choices. Focusing specifically on studies that elucidate the offenders’ perspective on guardians, this chapter reviews what is known from studies on burglars, armed robbers, and sex off…
Psychology (37 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (31 works) · Social Psychology (28 works) · Political science (24 works) · Criminology (23 works) · Computer Science (20 works) · Law (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Economics (11 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (9 works)