Lisette Dirksen

Lisette Dirksen is a PhD Candidate at the Criminal Law and Criminology department, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), and also affiliated with NSCR (Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement). Her research focuses on the intergenerational transmission of violent extremist ideologies through child protection measures.

Her educational background includes:

• Master's degree in International Crimes, Conflict and Criminology from VU Amsterdam (2018-2020)
• Bachelor's degree in Criminology from VU Amsterdam (2015-2018)
• Minor in Criminology from the University of New Mexico (2017)

Dirksen's research interests center around extremism and radicalization, particularly examining how extremist ideologies are transmitted across generations and how child protection systems can intervene. Her work intersects with family law, human rights, and judicial decision-making in radicalization cases. She investigates the complex balance between protecting children from exposure to extremist beliefs while respecting family rights and international human rights law.

Her scholarly contributions focus on the practical implementation of counter-radicalization measures within the Dutch legal system, with particular attention to how courts handle cases involving extremist beliefs and child protection. Her research addresses critical gaps in understanding how professionals in the youth protection chain identify and address extremism.

Dirksen has been actively participating in academic conferences including:

• Nationale Vereniging voor Criminologie (NVC) congress 2023 and 2024
• European Society for Empirical Legal Studies conferences in 2023 and 2024
• American Society of Criminology conference (2024)
• European Society of Criminology EUROCIM conference 2023

As an educator, Dirksen has taught various criminology courses including Introduction to Criminology, Introduction to Sociology, Law Enforcement Agencies, Media Narratives Analysis, Theoretical Criminology, Types of Crime, and Victimology.