UTFacultiesBMSNewsERC Consolidator Grant for Jean-Louis van Gelder

ERC Consolidator Grant for Jean-Louis van Gelder

Dispositional theories argue that stable factors within the individual, such as lack of self-control, are the main causes of criminal behaviour. Sociogenic perspectives, on the other hand, focus on contextual factors such as rough neighbourhoods, parental unemployment and deviant peers. Prof. dr. Jean-Louis van Gelder outlines a new theoretical perspective on criminal behaviour by integrating both views. He was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his project ‘Crime and Time’.

Jean-Louis’ theory is premised on the idea that short-term mindsets encourage crime and specifies how both individual dispositions and sociogenic variables can encourage such mindsets. In his research program he uses virtual reality technology in combination with a smartphone application to instill a future-oriented mindset in offenders. This combination of novel theory and innovative methodology may lead not only to a breakthrough in our understanding of delinquency but can also provide a blueprint for a scalable and evidence-based intervention to reduce it.

Jean-Louis is a researcher at the BMS department of Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety (PCRS). His work focuses on the use of novel methods to study phenomena related to crime and public safety. Using these and more traditional research methods, he studies what factors render people shortsighted and how this shortsightedness results in self-defeating behaviour.

ERC Consolidator Grant
The ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded annually to scientists by the European Research Council. The European Research Council is one of the most prestigious funders of frontier research worldwide. Its mission is to encourage highest quality research in Europe, supporting individual investigators across all fields, on the basis of their scientific excellence. The Consolidator Grant is intended for talented, outstanding researchers with 7 to 12 years of experience since the completion of their PhD research.