Dr Nieke Elbers is Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR). Her interdisciplinary research spans psychology, criminology, law and public policy, with particular expertise in victimology, restorative justice, trauma-informed approaches and mixed-methods evaluation.

Her research examines how justice, health and social systems respond to victimisation and trauma, and how empirical evidence can improve policy, practice and access to justice. She has led multidisciplinary and government-commissioned research and evaluation and attracted approximately €2 million / A$3.4 million in competitive, government, industry and commissioned research funding.

Her work has contributed to policy and practice in victims' rights and support, sexual violence, compensation, restorative and procedural justice, and alternatives to incarceration. At VU Amsterdam, she leads the Empirical Legal Studies Helpdesk and contributes to research and institutional leadership through the Amsterdam Law and Behaviour Institute (A-LAB), the WO&MEN@VU network and interdisciplinary initiatives on restorative justice and university culture.

Elbers has longstanding research connections with Australia, including appointments and collaborations with the University of Sydney, Griffith University and Monash University, alongside applied research with Australian government and statutory agencies.

A central theme of Elbers' research is the relationship between justice processes and psychological wellbeing. Her work spans victims' rights and participation, sexual violence, compensation and recovery, restorative justice, procedural justice, access to justice and alternatives to incarceration. She combines qualitative and quantitative methods, with extensive experience in mixed-methods evaluation, evidence synthesis and research involving people with lived experience.

Elbers leads and collaborates on national and international research and evaluation projects. She has led multidisciplinary and multi-jurisdictional teams, including an EU-funded comparative study of compensation pathways for survivors of sexual violence and government-commissioned evaluations of victim impact statements, victim legal representation, psychosocial victim support and sentencing reform. Her research has informed policy, professional practice and legislative reform.

Her work is strongly collaborative and applied, bringing together researchers across psychology, criminology, law, medicine and social science with government agencies, statutory bodies, practitioners and community organisations. She co-founded the international research collaboration Victims, Citizenship and Justice and contributes to interdisciplinary research through A-LAB and initiatives on restorative approaches to institutional culture and social misconduct.

Elbers holds the University Teaching Qualification (BKO/UTQ) and has extensive experience in curriculum design, coordination and teaching across Bachelor, Master of Laws (LLM) and doctoral education. Her teaching is research-led, experiential and student-centred, connecting academic evidence with real-world problems, professional practice and lived experience.

She has led curriculum development and course redesign in restorative justice, empirical research methods and interdisciplinary legal education. As coordinator of the LLM course Restorative Justice, she redesigned the curriculum to integrate experiential practice, lived-experience and practitioner perspectives, international research and reflective assessment. She has also coordinated research-intensive education for high-achieving Master's students and designed specialist methodological training for PhD researchers in Law and Criminology. Her research-led teaching has resulted in a peer-reviewed publication co-authored with participating Master's students.

Elbers has designed and delivered blended and online education using learning-management systems, multimedia resources, online assessment, interactive polling, virtual collaboration and problem-based learning. She also contributes to educational leadership by mentoring colleagues completing the VU University Teaching Qualification (BKO), including guidance on teaching portfolios and participation in their formal final assessment.

Drawing on her experience as an accredited neighbourhood mediator, Elbers brings direct dispute-resolution practice into her teaching and connects students with restorative-justice practitioners, people with lived experience and contemporary government and policy research. She has co-supervised five PhD candidates and supervises Master's researchers across restorative justice, victimology, dispute resolution and empirical legal studies.

• Nederlands Studiecentrum Criminaliteit en Rechtshandhaving | Amsterdam | Medewerker | 2016-04-01 - present

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