Thomas Søbirk Petersen

Thomas Søbirk Petersen is a Professor of Ethics at the School of Communication and Humanities, Roskilde University. His research spans multiple domains in applied ethics, political philosophy, and legal philosophy, with a focus on medical ethics, neuroethics, sports ethics, business ethics, and criminal justice ethics. He holds a Dr. phil. (2021) and PhD (2001) in Philosophy from Roskilde and Copenhagen Universities, respectively.

• Key Affiliations:
  • Member, Research Group for Criminal Justice Ethics
  • Member, Danish Council on Animal Ethics (since August 2013)
  • Former member, Danish Council of Ethics (2017-2019)

Petersen's work bridges theoretical and practical ethics. He specializes in:

• Philosophy of Law: Criminalization theory, theories of punishment
• Political Theory: Egalitarianism, libertarianism
• Theories of Well-Being: Hedonism

His recent publications (2025-2026) focus on ethical dilemmas in sports (doping, fairness, neuro-enhancement), AI applications in crime prevention, and reproductive rights with particular attention to surrogacy and assisted reproduction. Petersen has received the Research Communication Award (2013) from the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education.

He leads the Center for Criminal Justice and Artificial Intelligence (CenCAI) (2025-2030) and contributes to projects on:

• Situational Crime Prevention and Ethics (SITE)
• Ethics, Crime Prevention and the City
• International Network for Neuroethics (INNETT)