Acronym
UGent Crime Lab
Duration
01 January 2025 → Ongoing
Faculties
Group leader
Research disciplines
-
Natural sciences
- Applied mathematics in specific fields not elsewhere classified
- Statistical methodology in social, behavioural and educational sciences
- behavioural ecology
-
Social sciences
- Statistics and data analysis
- Social psychology not elsewhere classified
- Causes and prevention of crime
- Criminography and methods of criminological investigation
- Criminological theories
- Safety, prevention and police
- Criminology not elsewhere classified
- Social geography
-
Engineering and technology
- High performance computing
- Modelling and simulation
Keywords
Quantitative
crime
Criminology
data analysis
Description
Crime Lab is an academic research group based at the Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University. It brings together cutting-edge expertise in computational, quantitative, and analytical criminology to advance the scientific study of crime and society’s responses to it. With a strong interdisciplinary orientation, the group bridges criminology, psychology, data science, spatial analysis, behavioral ecology, and computer science.
The team explores a wide range of topics, including the micro-geography of crime, policing strategies, predictive modeling, environmental criminology, public perceptions of crime and safety, and transgressive behaviors such as sexual offending. A central focus lies in understanding the mechanisms behind cooperation and its breakdown—why, when, and how individuals engage in rule-breaking—and how societies can respond effectively.
Crime Lab combines crime data with experimental, (factorial) survey, field, and meta-analytic methods to investigate both individual and aggregate patterns of crime and societal reaction. Its members are committed to producing robust, data-driven insights that contribute to academic knowledge and have real-world impact.