Image: © WRR / Photographer: Arenda Oomen

At the WRR, science and policy intersect in a number of areas – from health care to media and from geopolitics to government expertise.

Catrien Bijleveld studied Research Methods at Leiden University and obtained her doctorate in 1989 with the thesis Exploratory Linear Dynamic Systems Analysis. In her doctoral research, she focused on the application and improvement of statistical methods to analyse dynamic systems, with a particular emphasis on non-linear models based on least-squares estimation techniques. In 2002, Bijleveld also obtained a Law degree from Leiden University.

After working as a statistics consultant for the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), she joined Leiden University in the early 1990s as an assistant professor in the Methods and Techniques department of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. In 1997, Bijleveld became programme coordinator at the Ministry of Justice’s Research and Data Centre (WODC), in which role she led studies into environmental law enforcement, persons formerly detained under a secure hospital order, repeat offending and immigration. Since 2001, she has worked for the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement at the Dutch Research Council (NWO), serving as its director from 2014–2019. In addition, she has been professor of Research Methods in Empirical-Legal Studies and Criminology at VU Amsterdam since 2001. Since late 2024, she is professor of Global Justice at the University of Liverpool, and since 2025, endowed professor at the Anton de Kom University of Surinam.

Bijleveld’s research focuses mainly on criminal careers, the effectiveness of interventions, empirical-legal studies, international crimes, historic trends and intergenerational continuity in offending.

Bijleveld has been with the WRR since December 2019. She has contributed to publications including the report Good Business: Policy to Unlock Companies’ Benefit for Society and the report Media Matters.

Request for an interview or speech?

Would you like to invite Bijleveld for an interview or as a speaker? Email your request to secretariaat@wrr.nl.

Additional positions/roles

  • Chair of the Advisory Committee on Information and Public Accessibility of the Ministry of Justice and Security
  • Professor of Global Justice, University of Liverpool (remunerated)
  • Professor by special appointment at the Faculty of Law, Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo
  • Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Amsterdam
  • Member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW)
  • Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

WRR projects

Bijleveld has contributed to the following completed projects:

She is currently workin on te following projects:

WRR publications

Bijleveld has contributed to the following WRR publications: