Professor of Organized Crime
‘I’m especially interested in the less obvious perspectives.’
Teun van Ruitenburg, professor of Organized Crime
After completing his PhD thesis on outlaw motorcycle gangs, Teun van Ruitenburg started working as a criminologist at the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where he quickly realised that his heart was really in research. He now conducts fundamental scientific research at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) and was recently appointed head of practice-based research on organized crime at the Avans Centre of Expertise for a Safe & Resilient Society. He enjoys combining these two roles: “I think it’s important to approach topics from different perspectives – it makes you understand things better.”
Van Ruitenburg received his PhD in 2020 for a dissertation on administrative interventions to combat outlaw motorcycle gangs in the Netherlands. “In the 1970s, motorcycle clubs still received subsidies for their clubhouses, but today they’re considered a risk factor when it comes to organized crime,” he says. “I interviewed mayors and officials about how they dealt with motorcycle clubs involved in criminal activities and found that there were big differences. Some had a zero tolerance policy, others wanted to keep engaging with them.”
Crime harm index
When Van Ruitenburg joined the NSCR as a researcher in 2021, he decided to explore the next logical question: which approach works best? This time, he deliberately approached his research question from a different perspective: together with two colleagues, he conducted in-depth interviews with 24 members of the Hells Angels. “If you’re the government, you can argue that you’re successful if you’ve closed clubhouses and banned events, but the question, of course, is whether this actually reduces crime,” he explains. “I wanted to hear what individual members of this motorcycle club had to say about this: how had the government’s actions affected them as individuals?” Another question Van Ruitenburg is trying to answer at the NSCR is how science can help the police be more effective, which has led him to develop a crime harm index. “By not only looking at the number of crimes in an area, but also weighing their severity, you may be able to optimise the use of police resources to benefit society.”
Connection to practice and education
As much as Van Ruitenburg enjoys his role at the NSCR, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to also take up a position as professor of Organized Crime at Avans. “Avans is firmly rooted in society: there are close contacts with lots of municipalities, knowledge networks and regional platforms. Together with those partners, we decide which studies to conduct – a researcher’s work doesn’t get more relevant than that.” Van Ruitenburg also has ideas about the connection between his work and education at Avans. “I think it’s important for future professionals to develop a critical, independent outlook, especially with all the political forces at play with regard to this issue. I’m happy to contribute to that.”
Financial crime scripting
Although Van Ruitenburg hasn’t fully fleshed out his research programme yet, there is a topic that fascinates him personally: “Together with my Avans colleague Tom Snaphaan and former FIOD colleague Manon Kostense, I wrote a book on financial crime scripting. By creating a detailed script of all the steps in a criminal process like cocaine trafficking, it becomes easier to see where you can intervene. We focused on cash flows, because once it becomes too hard to make money from an activity the incentive to get involved disappears.” Van Ruitenburg also mentions environmental crime as a potential research topic. In addition, he wants to start focusing on evaluation studies: how are crime policies implemented in practice and what’s their impact? “By linking up with research projects at the NSCR and the other research groups at Avans, I hope to create a constant mutual exchange of knowledge.”