In her research, Lindegaard focuses on criminology, Artificial Intelligence and the use of video data recorded with public cameras. The aim is to find interactional and situational explanations for crime and violence that will help developing and improving prevention programmes.

The dynamics of crime and violence

How do crime and violence develop in sequences of interactions? What do people do if they become involved in such interactions and how can we understand and explain their behaviours? What are the consequences of their actions for the safety of all those involved and how can crime and violence be managed and controlled? These questions are at the heart of Lindegaard’s research.

The point of departure is that even people with the strongest inclinations to become involved in crime and violence seldom actually do become involved in it, and that crime and violence are dynamic and interactive processes: generally speaking, they are reactions to specific circumstances. Consequently, Lindegaard focuses on types of behaviour that can influence the actions of perpetrators, including bystander intervention, victim resistance, and responses of law enforcement officers. Such explanations facilitate the development of behavioural prevention measures aiming at deescalating conflicts and preventing harm and injuries.

With the arrival of the professor by special appointment of Dynamics of Crime and Violence, there will also be a greater focus on criminology and violence within the curriculum, particularly in the Violence and Conflict Studies minors. Among other things, Lindegaard will help Master’s students with their theses and supervise PhD candidates within the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).

About Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard

Lindegaard obtained a degree in Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen and went on to obtain a doctorate in Anthropology from the UvA. She has worked for the NSCR since 2008, and has been a senior researcher there since 2016. In addition, Lindegaard has been associate professor in the Department of Sociology of the University of Copenhagen since 2016. Prior to that, she was also assistant professor of Criminology at VU Amsterdam.

Lindegaard is author of the monograph Surviving Gangs, Violence and Racism in Cape Town: Ghetto Chameleons and a member of the editorial board of the academic journals International Criminal Justice Review and Qualitative Criminology. Between 2015 and 2018, she was a member of the board of the Netherlands Association of Criminology. She has obtained a number of major research grants, including a grant from the Danish Independent Research Council, a Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and a COVID-19 grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw).