Maastricht Institute for Criminal Sciences
Located at the law faculty of the University of Maastricht, the MICS brings together scholars from all over the world with different academic and professional backgrounds such as law, forensic psychology, criminalistics, and criminology. The multidisciplinary research focuses on crime, criminal law, and criminal justice systems combining a legal comparative approach with a social scientific methodology. Our staff teaches a variety of bachelor and master courses both in Dutch and English. MICS is involved in numerous international academic and research networks.
Fast facts
- multidisciplinary and international research on crime, criminal law and its impact on societies
- integrating legal research and legal practice
- teaching in criminal law, criminology, psychology and forensics
- research and education comprises law in the books as well as law in action
Blogs
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The 1st of April 2024 marks the day when Germany adopted the most progressive legal approach to cannabis in Europe. While for the Dutch, this may sound like an April’s fool prank, it is far from it: The new German CanG (Cannabis Law) regulates the consumption, possession, and supply of the soft drug...
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Germany has elected a new government. One of the legal reforms coalition of Social democrats, the Green party and the free liberals want to put on the tracks is the legalization of cannabis. From a criminological point of view, this is the right decision.
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On the 9th of February, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that forcing suspects to provide access to their smartphone with a fingerprint is not a breach of the privilege against self-incrimination. The case originated from an ex officio appeal ‘in the interest of the law’ in a case of the Court of North...
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Dr. Aletta Jacobs is, in ieder geval voor de meeste Nederlanders, de belichaming van vrouwenrechten en gelijkheid. Maar hoeveel weet je nou écht van deze beroemde feministe? En waarom hebben we een onderwijsruimte naar deze vrouw vernoemd?
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The very recent ruling of the CJEU in DK (C-653/19 PPU, 28 November 2019) came to verify two quite depressing suspicions about the current status of European criminal law. First, Directive 2016/343 on the presumption of innocence remains an instrument with staggeringly limited applicability...
Research
Research at MICS is multidisciplinary and covers fields of criminal law, criminology, psychology, neurosciences and forensics. Apart from studying the law in the books and the law in action, the normative, cognitive and operational assumptions that underlie criminal policies and law making are at the core of our research. Contemporary challenges posed by crime are no longer limited to the nation state but require a multidisciplinary and global analytical framework. Shifting paradigms within criminal justice systems broadened the view from the nation state over the cross-border and European level all up to the international level and cyberspace.
MICS conducts cutting-edge research on three main focus-themes:
- Quality standards for criminal justice systems
- Additional and alternative responses to criminal justice
- International cooperation in criminal matters.
MICS’s research takes place in the following four out of five pillars:
1. Global Justice
2. Institutional Transformations
3. Globalising Markets
4. Cross-border Cooperation and Mobility
5. Law and Technology
News
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Criminal justice systems across the globe face similar challenges, yet their solutions to these obstacles might differ for a variety of reasons. This book introduces the most salient aspects of criminal procedure from a comparative perspective.
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This conference aims to compare and critically assess the developments in European Criminal Law and International Criminal Law. The conference sets out to analyse differences and similarities with regard to a variety of different aspects of criminal justice in a globalized world.
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In recent years, with additional funding from the government, several local, regional and national projects have been launched to tackle and nip undermining crime in the bud. This has raised awareness in the Netherlands about the seriousness of that problem and the need to tackle it together. It is...
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“The European professional football industry is highly vulnerable to money-laundering schemes and major tax fraud, but people both inside and outside the industry are collectively looking the other way.”
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Problemen bij het uitvaardigen en uitvoeren van Europese aanhoudingsbevelen (EAB’s) worden – onder meer – veroorzaakt door praktische onvolkomenheden, door onduidelijkheid over de Europese regeling en door fouten in de nationale wetgeving van EU-lidstaten.
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The actor and activist Ossie Davis once said: ‘Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change—it can not only move us, it makes us move.’ In other words, art not only pleases and inspires, but it also provokes people to act. Those actions are not always legal, ethical, or...
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Robert Horselenberg has been in charge of the Maastricht cold-case team since its creation about 10 years ago. Ten students, mostly from the master’s degree in Forensics, Criminology and Law, are given six months to study an existing cold case and come up with recommendations for the Public...
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Elvira Loibl received an honorable mention from the selection committee of the Modderman Prize 2020 for her thesis, entitled 'The Transnational Illegal Adoption Market. A Criminological Study of the German and Dutch Intercountry Adoption Systems'. She wrote this thesis under the guidance of Prof. A...
