PhD | Human Factors in Cybercrime

The NSCR is looking for a motivated PhD criminology candidate on human factors in cybercrime for the project INTERSECT.

Job description

The successful applicant will examine the decision-making process of cyber offenders targeting IoT devices for illicit purposes. The main goal will be to understand the cybercrime commission process, as well as to identify any stages in this process that are susceptible to intervention and subsequent disruption. To do so, the applicant will design experiments that—through different manipulations—allow to collect objective measures of cyber offenders’ online behavior and measure their effect on cybercrime. Research designs could for example involve the use of honeypots and computer labs. You will be part of a multidisciplinary research team and will work closely with computer scientist from Eindhoven University of Technology. The position has a fixed term of four years.

Your key tasks as a PhD fellow are:

• To manage and carry through your research project.
• To collect and analyze data for the project.
• To write peer-reviewed articles in English and merge them into a PhD dissertation.
• To disseminate your research at scientific conferences and to societal partners.
• To participate in PhD courses.

Requirements

The new PhD candidate we are looking for:

• Has a completed university degree in Sociology, Criminology, Anthropology, Behavioural Biology, Psychology, Economics, or other degree in the Social Sciences.
• Demonstrates a talent for conducting scientific research, documented by participation in a research master’s program, published scientific contributions or excellent grades for papers written during the master’s degree.
• Has a strong social and organizational skills, commitment, and good communication and presentation skills.
• Has experience with quantitative data analysis and statistics, e.g. regression techniques and social network analysis are an advantage.
• Experience or affinity with combining quantitative and qualitative research methods is an advantage.

Terms of employment

You will be appointed at NSCR. You will first receive a contract for the period of one year. If you perform well it will be extended for three extra years. The starting salary for the first year is currently € 2,441,- gross a month and will be up to a maximum of € 3,128,- gross per month. You will also receive an end-of-year bonus of 8.33% and a holiday allowance of 8%. 

More information and job application

For more information about this position please contact Rutger Leukfeldt via rleukfeldt@nscr.nl, or +31 20 598 5172.
Applicants should send a motivation letter and resume before the 4^th of June to vacature@nscr.nl.

Employer

The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) is a national research institute that focuses on fundamental scientific research in the field of crime and law enforcement. It is part of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). NSCR is located in Amsterdam at the VU University campus. The institute conducts interdisciplinary and longitudinal research at the intersection of theory, practice and policy.

Diverse workforce

The NSCR encourages a diverse workforce: we strive to develop talent and creativity by bringing people from different backgrounds and cultures together. We recruit and select based on capabilities and talent. We strongly encourage anyone with the appropriate qualifications to apply for the position, regardless of age, gender, race, sexual orientation or physical ability.