Short bio

Prof. Dr. Lieven Pauwels is full professor of criminology and is currently in charge of courses on Evolution and Human Behaviour, the Aetiology of Crime, Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) and Statistics. His current research interests deal with the application of evolutionary theories of social behaviour (from kin selection to indirect reciprocity) in the domain of (biosocial) criminology.

Specific research topics guided by evolutionary theorizing include ingroup favouritism and outgroup violence (e.g. in the context of violent extremism), the psychology of crime and human nature, antecedents and consequences of antisocial behavioural strategies, the role of moral emotions and environmental triggers in moral decision-making.

Work details

Selected societal impact activities

Selected media

Selected events

Expertise

  • Antisocial behaviour and person-environment interactions
  • Human prosociality, empathic concern, (dark) traits and individual differences
  • Moral emotions, moral judgments, and moral decision-making
  • Crime Statistics, (International) Crime Victim Surveys, Self-Reported Delinquency Surveys,  Survey Methodology, Questionnaire Design, Quantitative Methods and  Data Analysis
  • Crime Concentrations and Human (Behavioural) Ecology
  • Sociobiology of Intergroup Violence

Selected projects

  • 2012-2019 International Self-Reported Delinquency Study (ISRD3)
  • 2012-2014 Radicalization and the use of social media (RADIMED), Belspo / BiZa
  • 2009-2015 SPAN-Project
  • Selection of supervised PhDs
    • Ann De Buck: ‘Explaining intentions to steal : the roles of moral emotions and personal moral norms’
    • Ben Heylen: The Dark Side of Humanity: the evolutionary roots of  contemporary prejudice and bias motivated behaviors
    • Maarten De WaeleThe use of violence by youngsters in far-right groups in Flanders
    • Anjuli Van Damme: Trust in police procedural justice. Testing and elaborating Procedural Justice Theory 

Publications