Clarissa Meerts is Assistant Professor of Criminology at the Faculty of Law. She is a graduate in criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She has worked at Erasmus University Rotterdam as a lecturer and researcher, and later PhD candidate, before starting as an Assistant Professor at VU Amsterdam in 2017. In 2018, she obtained her PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam. From 2021-2024 Clarissa was the Programme Coordinator of the Criminology Bachelor programme of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and currently serves as the programme's Selection Coordinator. She is a member of the Division for organisational crime of the Dutch society of criminology (NVC) and European working group on Organisational Crime (EUROC) of the European Society of Criminology. Her main expertise lies with corporate private justice systems, private investigations and public-private cooperation in the field of financial crime. She furthermore supervises two PhD projects on financial crime scripting.

Clarissa Meerts is a graduate in Criminology (Bsc., Msc. and PhD). In 2018 she published her PhD research 'The semi-autonomous world of corporate investigators' on corporate investigations, corporate justice systems and public-private cooperation in the Netherlands and has published numerous works since. 

Clarissa conducts research in the programme Empirical and normative studies.

Her research interests lie at the crossroads of criminology, law and organisational studies. She mainly applies a qualitative research approach. Her main expertise concerns issues related to criminology, corporate and private investigations and corporate justice systems, financial crime and and transgressive/inappropriate behaviour ('grensoverschrijdend gedrag'), and public-private relations within the security field.

After completing her bachelor in criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam (cum laude), Clarissa Meerts (1986) completed a master in International and Comparative Criminology (cum laude) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2009. In 2018 she succsessfully defended her PhD thesis on corporate investigations and public/private relations in the corporate security sector at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In 2012 Clarissa Meerts received a NWO Research Talent grant for her PhD research on corporate security. Other significant funding includes the funding of a research project on public-private relations in the field of financial crime, funded by Politie & Wetenschap (see Living apart together? | Politie en Wetenschap) and a WODC research project on self investigation and self reporting in cases of corporate fraud or corruption (see Onderzoek naar voor- en nadelen van zelfonderzoek en zelfmelden door bedrijven | Welk onderzoek doen we? | WODC - Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum).

In addition to other teaching qualifications, Clarissa is in posession of both a Basic Teaching Qualification (BTQ) and Senior Teaching Qualification (STQ). 

In her teaching Clarissa focusses on the impact of society on crime. She currently teaches two core courses within the Criminology Bachelor programme of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: Introduction to sociology (Inleiding sociologie, B1) and Theoretical criminology (Theoretische criminologie, B2). In addition she is a thesis supervisor in the Criminology Master's programme of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Additionallly, she is interested in the development of criminology education and has therefore previously served as the Programme coordinator for the Criminology Bachelor programme of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She currently is the coordinator for the selection process of the Criminology Bachelor programme of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In this capacity she has redeveloped the Programme's selection proces.

• Tijdschrift voor Veiligheid | Den Haag | Redacteur | 2023-03-15 - present

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