Short bio
Pieter Leloup is a research professor of Criminology at the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP), Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University, and the Crime & Society (CRIS) research group, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
He holds a PhD in Criminology (Joint PhD Ghent University-Vrije Universiteit Brussel), MSC in History (Ghent University, 2009), Criminology (Ghent University, 2012), and postgraduate degree in Global Security (King’s College London, 2023).
His main research focusses on policing, private security and historical criminology. The principal focus of his work has been on historical patterns of (private) security provision and changing relationships between state and private security actors since the nineteenth century until today.
He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Sheffield, UK, and visiting scholar at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is a member of the International advisory board for Policing and Society. An International Journal of Research and Policy.
Work details
- EMAIL: pieter.leloup@ugent.be
- TELEPHONE: 32 9 264 69 48
- TELEPHONE SECRETARIAT: +32 9 264 69 30
- ADRESS: Universiteitstraat 4, Ghent, Belgium
- ORCID: 0000-0002-9982-3116
Selected societal impact activities
Board member of Criminologists Association for Private Security, an academic working group with the aim to advance private security research.
Public lectures on plural policing, private security and historical criminology.
Selected media
De Morgen, Wat de wetenschap voor het bendedossier kan betekenen, 2024
- 2015 – Fokus Magazine, Veiligheid in de samenleving – Article: Over risico’s en percepties
Selected events
Expertise
- Plural policing
- Private Security
- Historical Criminology
Selected projects
- 2024 – 2028: 4-year fundamental research project (PhD), “Public attitudes towards and experiences with plural policing actors: perceptions of legitimacy and procedural justice”.
- 2024: 1-year research project: comparative legal research on private security in seven European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden), in collaboration with University of Liège.
- 2023: 1-year research project: strengths and weaknesses of public-private cooperation regarding alarm systems and management of alarm centres in Belgium.
- 2021 – 2025: 4-year PhD Fellowship fundamental research: “Tackling fraud at the border. Understanding the changing nature, role and place of customs in protecting the security, safety and health of the Belgian state”.
- 2021 – 2025: 4-year fundamental research project: “Private investigations: not a public inquiry”. A historical criminological analysis of post-war developments in policy, regulation and nature of the private investigation industry in Belgium (1945-2020)”.
- 2021: 1-year research project regarding 20 years of Brussels-Capital Region Police.