Wim Hardyns

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Penal Law and Criminology

Academic dishonesty has recently attracted the attention of scholars worldwide in the aftermath of severe breaches of academic rules of conduct. As today's students are tomorrow's leading academics and professionals, it continues to be of importance to understand the basic explanatory mechanisms of academic dishonesty. The present cross-cultural in...

This study introduces an algorithmic strategy for measuring dimensions of police presence at microgeographic units using GPS data from police patrol units. The proposed strategy builds upon the integrated theory of hot spots patrol strategy from Sherman et al. (Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 30:95–122, 2014), focusing on three key dimensi...

This study provides an overview of the modus operandi used in one of the biggest fraud cases in Belgian football, known as the Zheyun Ye case. The case consists of several phenomena related to betting-related match-fixing. Given the fact that money laundering and tax fraud are often essential factors in betting-related match-fixing schemes and the...

In this study, we provide a nuanced perspective on a sub-type of match-fixing, called non-betting-related match-fixing (NBMF). Using a cross-sectional survey, we measured the prevalence and motives behind NBMF in Belgian amateur football and tennis. Additionally, we conducted a thorough study of the regulatory documents of the relevant (sports) org...

In dit artikel wordt nagegaan of de ambient population, oftewel het aantal mensen dat op een bepaald tijdstip in een bepaald gebied aanwezig is, een geschiktere maatstaf biedt om het criminaliteitsrisico in tijd en ruimte in te schatten voor delicten met mobiele doelwitten dan de residentiële populatie. Meer specifiek wordt de potentie van het gebr...

Cyber dating abuse (CDA) concerns the use of digital technology to control, monitor, and hurt one’s intimate partner. CDA can have profound detrimental outcomes, such as mental health problems. As such, it is important to identify intrapersonal factors that may explain these behaviors. Previous research suggests that one such factor is the personal...

This study assesses how the quality of place management (measured with user-generated ratings from Google Places) is related to crime occurrences at specific settings and whether specific crime types are related to specific types of places. In 50 randomly sampled neighborhoods in Ghent (Belgium) and London (United Kingdom), we analyzed Google Place...

A key challenge within the (violent) extremism research field is building a comprehensive understanding of the process toward (violent) extremism. The lack of overarching models and the fact that explanatory models of (violent) extremism are often isolated/stand-alone, fuels disagreement on how to understand the phenomenon. The goal of this article...

Despite the increasing academic interest in match-fixing, little is known about the behavioral determinants of this phenomenon. This study applies key theoretical concepts of situational action theory (SAT) to sportspersons’ decision-making process when confronted with sports-related match-fixing (SRMF) propositions. Using a factorial survey, amate...

As romantic relationships in young adulthood (18-25 years) are frequently characterized by experimentation and risk-taking, this could make young adults particularly vulnerable to experience sexual harassment by a dating or committed partner. This study examines young adults' victimization and perpetration experiences of online and in-person sexual...

Sexting concerns the act of sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages or photos (i.e., ‘sexts’) through electronic means. When sexts are received or forwarded without the consent of the original sender, this is called non-consensual sexting. Our study set out to increase our understanding as to why individuals engage in non-conse...

This study tests the law of crime concentration at place in Brussels Capital Region (approx. 1.2 million inhabitants) and examines the spatial stability of crime concentrations by applying Andresen’s Spatial Point Pattern Test. Besides testing the law of crime concentration city-wide, this study also tests the law of crime concentration in the cont...

Occupational deviance is one of the most rampant and alarming phenomena in the workplace. It can have negative effects on the individual employee, the organization, the profession, and the larger society. Therefore, it is important to better understand the etiology of such behavior in the hopes of providing solutions to reduce it. One such theory t...

Research question Fraud is a major threat to the integrity of sports. Sport federations play a key role in safeguarding the integrity of their sport thus emphasizing the importance of internally strengthening their practices. However, a lack of research exists in understanding meso-level processes that contribute to organizations vulnerabilities to...

In this contribution, the authors examine the spatiotemporal distribution of residential burglaries in a Belgian police zone based on monthly residential burglaries before and during the COVID-19 crisis and assess the performance of a predictive crime model during this period. In general, compared to 2019, there were fewer home burglaries in 2020 d...

Purpose In this empirical study, we assessed the reputational consequences of a large-scale football fraud scandal by measuring fans’ integrity perceptions. More specifically, we targeted inherent, personal, organizational, and procedural integrity. Methodology We used a cross-sectional survey distributed through a Belgian sports newspaper to reac...

The current study examines whether the predictive modelling of crime can be applied consistently across different urban settings. An ensemble network was applied to generate crime predictions regarding three specific urban settings, for which both crime and supporting data were employed spanning the period from 2012-2016. For each setting, predicti...

This paper aims to determine the prevalence of the use of online neighborhood networks (ONNs) and explores which socio-demographic, socioeconomic status (SES), social integration, and media use determinants predict ONN membership and uses. Drawing on a stratified random sample (Ghent, Belgium), we found that over a third of the population are ONN m...

In this chapter, we describe the development of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relation with different crime patterns in Belgium. Based on crime statistics, we examined the occurrence of various crime types in 2020 and made comparisons with previous years. Additionally, we paid extra attention to the case of domestic violence during the pandemic usi...

The present study investigates to what extent the three key concepts from the Dark Triad Theory can explain individual differences in adult offending. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey amongst a representative sample of 1587 adults, living in Ghent, Belgium (Mage = 48.06, 51.4% female). Negative binomial regression analyses are r...

Wetenschappelijk onderzoek kan niet meer zonder statistiek. In het gros van de wetenschappelijke artikels en rapporten worden statistische methoden en technieken gebruikt, van zeer eenvoudig tot zeer geavanceerd. Studenten, onderzoekers en professionals uit verschillende disciplines hebben er dan ook alle belang bij statistiek te kunnen toepassen:...

The availability and use of new and emerging data sources has increased exponentially. The variety of these data sources offers opportunities to complement, replace, improve or add to conventional data sources. Survey data is one kind of these conventional data sources. In survey research, a framework to assess the accuracy of survey data already h...

This study provides a structured overview of the literature published between 2010 and 2020 on the causes and consequences of fraud in sport using a systematic search strategy. Our results show that the current literature on this phenomenon is mostly focused on football as a specific type of sport, and on competition manipulation as a specific type...

This study examines whether residential stability and neighbourhood SES, two key neighbourhood structural characteristics from Social Disorganisation Theory (SDT), have a contextual effect on perceived social trust, perceived informal social control, and perceived social disorder and whether these contextual structural and perceptual measures are r...

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated quarantines in many urban settings, and rules have been enforced to ensure that citizens are complying with health-related mandates. However, anecdotal and empirical evidence confirm the prevalence of policy transgressions. Non-compliance with COVID-19 mandates can have severe consequences for individual healt...

Partner phubbing (Pphubbing) concerns the act of ignoring a romantic partner during a conversation by paying attention to the mobile phone. In previous research, Pphubbing has been associated with several negative relationship outcomes, such as relationship dissatisfaction. In this study, we propose that another consequence of Pphubbing may be that...

Multi-agency working (MAW) has increasingly been considered a promising approach to enable the early and effective identification of individuals and communities that are at risk of radicalisation and violent extremism. Multi-agency responses usually involve collaboration between local organisations and are based in the belief that the complex probl...

The next part of the process evaluation consisted of qualitative semi-structured interviews with participants of the MAW structures. The original intention was to include three cities per country and five interviews per city (3*15) in order to achieve a representative sample. Due to staff turnover involving our contacts in one Belgian city, this ci...

The first part of the fieldwork within the process evaluation is participatory observations. These were carried out during MAW structures’ meetings in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Prior to the participatory observations, the MAW meeting being observed explained and introduced their work, and highlighted the strengths and pitfalls of MAW th...

As there is currently no thorough evaluation research on MAW in the context of radicalisation and violent extremism (Gielen, 2020), we carried out a process evaluation of MAW within three countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany). Process evaluations are used to identify the effective key components of an intervention and thus help us to unders...

As the third and last part of the realist process evaluation, two rounds of focus groups were organised within the three countries (3*2). The first round asked MAW practitioners about the proposed structure and content of the self-evaluation tool. The research team then constructed a preliminary draft of the website-based self-evaluation tool, and...

Multi-agency working (MAW) has increasingly been considered a promising approach to preventing violent radicalisation, allowing early and effective identification of individuals who may be at risk of violent radicalisation, and breaking down historical silos between agencies. This article provides an overview of the MAW approaches in the context of...

As policy makers are developing new alternative strategies to prevent bicycle theft, a nudging approach could provide useful insights in this field. In the current study, two different nudges were implemented at a selection of bicycle parking facilities in the neighborhood of a Belgian university campus. To measure the effectiveness of the nudges,...

Dutch: De komst en razendsnelle evolutie van het internet en sociale media hebben belangrijke gevolgen voor de manier waarop we met elkaar omgaan, communiceren en informatie tot ons nemen. Deze evoluties hebben repercussies voor het politiewerk en ook voor de samenwerking tussen politie en burger. Een van die samenwerkingsvormen tussen politie en b...

The present study examined men’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and associated mental health problems. Specifically, we investigated men’s (poly)victimization, (poly) perpetration, and victim-perpetrator overlap experiences of physical, sexual, psychological, and cyber IPV, and associations with anxiety and depression. Data were col...

Dutch: In dit themanummer wordt gereflecteerd over big-datatoepassingen bij de politie. Terpstra en Salet (2020) noemen dit ‘een van de grootste veranderingen binnen de politie over het afgelopen decennium’ (p. 25). Naast de aandacht voor dit onderwerp in het Nederlands taalgebied (bijv. Janssen et al., 2020; Spithoven & Beerends, 2019), wordt de r...

Dutch: De beschikbaarheid en het gebruik van big-databronnen neemt exponentieel toe. De grote variëteit aan nieuwe en opkomende databronnen biedt opportuniteiten om ze aan te wenden naast of ter vervanging van conventionele databronnen. Een van die conventionele databronnen is surveydata. Binnen surveyonderzoek bestaat al langere tijd een raamwerk...

Special issue on big data policing

This study focuses on the use of systematic social observations (SSO) to measure crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) and disorder. To improve knowledge about measurement issues in small area research, SSO is conducted by means of three different methods: in-situ, photographs, and Google Street View (GSV) imagery. By evaluating the...

Buurtinformatienetwerken (BIN’s) zijn partnerschappen waarin de politie, buurtbewoners en gemeenten hun krachten bundelen in de strijd tegen criminaliteit. Deze worden vaak opgericht in een buurt vanwege een bezorgdheid over de veiligheid, zoals bij hogere politiecijfers voor diefstallen uit voertuigen, woninginbraak en/of vandalisme. Met deze stu...

Welke rol kunnen personeelsleden en studenten zelf opnemen in de beveiliging van hogeschool- en universiteitscampussen? De bijzondere eigenschappen van hogere onderwijsinstrellingen zorgen ervoor dat gesofisticeerde technologische beveiligingsmaatregelen vaak niet haalbaar of wenselijk zijn. Veel potentieel kan daarom toegeschreven worden aan de me...

Multi-agency working (MAW) has increasingly been considered a promising approach to enable the early and effective identification of individuals and communities that are at risk of radicalisation and violent extremism. Multi-agency responses usually involve collaboration between local organisations and are based in the belief that the complex probl...

The aim of this study is to gain insight into the prevalence of intoxicated cycling at night, why young people choose a bicycle as transport modus when intoxicated and what they know about the penalization of intoxicated cycling. Two methods of data collection were used: a survey and breathalyzer in the field (n=68) and an online survey (n=2709). R...

Today, the need to deal with workplace security threats has become an important matter for many organisations. While companies have invested in technological and organization measures, the human processes behind these techniques are often ignored. However, employees’ awareness of security procedures and policy of the organisation may strengthen or...

Today, the need to deal with workplace security threats has become an important matter for many organisations. While companies have invested in technological and organization measures, the human processes behind these techniques are often ignored. However, employees’ awareness of security procedures and policy of the organisation may strengthen or...

This report describes main findings from a longitudinal survey study in Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2021. It shows the longitudinal impact of the pandemic and governmental lockdown measures on many aspects of people's life, such as their mental health, work, parenthood, finances, and their intimate relationships.

Research methods in social science take advantage from broader trends such as digitalization and increasing computational power, however, this is an evolving explorative search. The main purpose of this article is to describe the methodological innovations in the collection and processing of geo-referenced imagery for the observation of neighborhoo...

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected people’s lives and relationships. On March 13, 2020, the Belgian government issued lockdown measures which constrained most people’s work and social life to the confines of their own home. For couples who lived together, being locked down together potentially placed a lot of stress on their relationshi...

This paper describes changes in police recorded crime rates and changes in patterns of self-reported domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 - December 2020) in Belgium.

There has been an increase in research into the security culture in organizations in recent years. This growing interest has been accompanied by the development of tools to measure the level of security culture in order to identify potential threats and formulate solutions. This article provides a systematic overview of the existing tools. A total...

Over the past decade, the (violent) extremism, terrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) research field is witnessing an increasing number of studies based on primary data collection. Despite this evolution, however, conducting face-to-face interviews with former or active (violent) extremists and terrorists still appears to be the exception...

This article assesses whether ambient population is a more suitable population-at-risk measure for crime types with mobile targets than residential population for the purpose of intelligence-led policing applications. Specifically, the potential use of ambient population as a crime rate denominator and predictor for predictive policing models is ev...

Multi-agency working (MAW) has increasingly been considered a promising approach to preventing violent radicalisation, allowing early and effective identification of individuals who may be at risk of violent radicalisation, and breaking down historical silos between agencies. This article provides an overview of the MAW approaches in the context o...

Digital media offer ample possibilities for individuals to control and monitor their dating or romantic partner and to make hurtful comments. Although online psychological intimate partner violence has received increased research attention over the past few years, much remains unknown about its nature and its association with offline psychological...

Campussen van hogescholen en universiteiten en hun omgevingen hebben specifieke eigenschappen die zorgen voor grote uitdagingen op het vlak van criminaliteit, overlast, onveiligheidsbeleving en beveiliging en vereisen een aangepast beveiligingsmodel. Hoewel hoger onderwijsinstellingen vaak investeren in technologische maatregelen, zoals camerabewak...

De longitudinale resultaten van dit vragenlijstonderzoek brengen de impact van de coronacrisis op diverse levensaspecten in kaart. Op het gebied van mentale gezondheid, werk, ouderschap, financiën en relaties zijn de gevolgen van de pandemie zichtbaar wanneer we vergelijkingen maken met de resultaten van exact één jaar geleden, in april 2020. Op ba...

Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Wechselwirkungen zwischen der extremistischen Disposition und der Online-Exposition gegenüber extremistischen moralischen Normen auf politisch-religiös motiviertes Gewalthandeln. Während bei der Erklärung der Delinquenz von Jugendlichen ein stabiler Interaktionseffekt zwischen der Disposition zu...

The global spread of the coronavirus has drastically impacted people’s lives. Due to governmental lockdown measures, most people’s work and social life were suddenly confined to their own home. For partners who lived together, this could put serious strain on their relationship, which could result in conflicts and violence. In this study, we aimed...

This study examines the ecological reliability, convergent validity and ecological stability of neighbourhood (dis)organizational processes measured by means of two methods: inhabitant surveys and the so-called key informant analysis technique. Considering that ecological processes play a major role in many contemporary criminological theories and...

Even though the dark number is especially high for cybercrimes, it is unclear by whom and to whom cybercrime is reported. Therefore, this study will answer the following questions: (1) who reports cybercrime incidents, and (2) to whom do victims report cybercrime? Analyses based on survey data including 334 recent cybercrime victims, indicate that...

Elke laatstejaarsscholier die van plan is om verder te studeren in het hoger onderwijs dient een keuze te maken tussen verschillende hogescholen of universiteiten. Om deze keuze gericht te kunnen maken, worden verschillende factoren tegenover elkaar afgewogen. Terwijl buitenlandse studies hebben aangetoond dat zowel factoren met betrekking tot de k...

Employing a multilevel perspective on the health effects of social capital, this study analyzes how individual and neighborhood differences in self-rated health in Ghent (Belgium), relate to individual and collective social mechanisms, when taking demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals into account. This study estimates the he...

Social support is a prominent factor in mental health etiology. According to the social support deterioration model, exposure to chronic stressors may over time erode people's social support, thereby contributing to increases in mental health issues. Although there is mounting evidence indicating the beneficial consequences of online social support...

The current study explores the role of individual and environmental determinants on students' fear of crime. Based on a large-scale survey among students of a Belgian university (n = 1,463), the relationship between perceived social and physical disorder and the three dimensions of fear of crime (perceived risk of victimization, feelings of anxiety...