Peter Wetzels

Prof. Dr. Peter Wetzels is a Professor of Criminology at the Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, where he has held his chair since October 2002. He is actively involved in academic governance, serving as chair of the doctoral committee and member of the faculty council and early career researcher promotion committees.

• Studied economics, psychology, and law at the University of Bremen
• 1985: Diplom in Psychology
• 1990: Single-phase law training
• 1997: PhD (Dr. phil.) at University of Bremen
• 2001: Habilitation and venia legendi for criminology and legal psychology

His research spans dark field research, juvenile delinquency, political extremism, procedural fairness, and crime prevention. Recent work includes analyzing refugee attitudes, child abuse trends, and extremist ideologies through large-scale population surveys like MOTRA, MiD, and JuMiD.

Key publications address procedural justice in policing, radicalization after international conflicts, and cross-cultural youth crime patterns. He collaborates with institutions like the Kriminologisches Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen (KFN) and serves as editor for Rechtspsychologie journal.

His work emphasizes empirical validation of criminological theories, policy-relevant research, and interdisciplinary approaches combining psychology, law, and sociology.