Job vacancies

The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement employs almost 95 staff members: scientific researchers, post-doctoral researchers, PhD candidates and support staff. Most of the NSCR staff is supported by the Institutes Organization of the Dutch Research Council (NWO-I) or has a (part-time) contract in collaboration with Dutch universities.

The NSCR regularly has space for interns. Acquisition is not appreciated.

PhD Cybercriminal decision-making

Are you the cybercriminology expert of tomorrow? Do you get excited about doing real-world experiments? Did you graduate with flying colors from a (Research) Master in Crime Science or Criminology, Sociology, Psychology, Economics, or a related discipline with an emphasis on experimentation? Then you might be the candidate we are looking for!

Job description

The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) is looking for a PhD candidate who will restart the Follow the Honey research project. The goal of this project is to experimentally assess to what extent risks, rewards, and effort affect cybercrime offenders’ target choices and methods. It builds on recent developments in Computer Science that allow for directly observing cybercrime offenders when they gain illegal access to online accounts. Honey accounts will be used to attract and monitor cybercrime offenders who believe the targets to be real, which guarantees that their criminal decision-making can be studied while they behave naturally.

Tasks

• Designing and implementing honey account experiments, which should lead to a PhD dissertation in 3 years (at 1.0 fte appointment) or 4 years (at 0.75 fte appointment).
• Publishing articles about the experiments in peer-reviewed journals.
• Presenting research findings at (inter)national scientific conferences.
• Contributing to knowledge transfer activities aimed at professionals and the general public.

Requirements

Excellent candidates, who graduated with at least 7.5 average grade (3.37 GPA) for Bachelor’s degree and 8.0 average grade (3.95 GPA) for Master’s degree in Crime Science or Criminology, Sociology, Psychology, Economics, or a related discipline with an emphasis on experimentation, are invited to apply.

The PhD candidate we are looking for:

• has knowledge of human decision-making.
• has strong empirical research skills.
• has experience in designing and implementing research experiments.
• is computer savvy.
• is both a team player and able to work independently.
• has a good command of English, both spoken and written, the same in Dutch is an advantage.

Conditions of employment

You will first receive a contract at NSCR for the period of one year. If you perform well it will be extended for two (at 1.0 fte) or three (at 0.75 fte) extra years. The salary starts at € 2407,- per month on the basis of a full-time appointment and increases to € 2939,- per month in the third year. You will also receive an end-of-year bonus of 8.33%, holiday allowance of 8%, good pension, discount for health insurance at Ohra, allowance for relocation to the Netherlands, possibility to work part time up to at least 32 hours a week, generous leave regulations, 338 hours of holiday leave for a full time appointment, parental leave, both paid and unpaid.

More information

For more information about this position, you can contact Prof. Stijn Ruiter via Ruiter@nscr.nl. Information about the recruitment procedure and secondary employment conditions can be requested by Manon Quik, HR Advisor, via MQuik@nscr.nl.

Job application

Applicants should send a motivation letter and resume before May 1, 2021 to vacancy@nscr.nl.