Researcher - High-risk Criminal Networks (HRcns)

**Faculty of Law and Criminology**:

- **Department: RE23 - Criminologie, Strafrecht en Sociaal Recht**:

- **Occupancy rate:100%**:

- **Number of positions: 1**:

- **Type of employment: Contract of limited duration**:

- **Term of assignment: 24 maanden**:

- **Wage scale: WM1 to WM4 (master degree or doctoral degree)**:

- **Required diploma:Master or PhD**

**ABOUT GHENT UNIVERSITY**

Ghent University is a world of its own. Employing more than 15,000 people, it is actively involved in education and research, management and administration, as well as technical and social service provision on a daily basis. It is one of the largest, most exciting employers in the area and offers great career opportunities. With its 11 faculties and more than 80 departments offering state-of-the-art study programmes grounded in research in a wide range of academic fields, Ghent University is a logical choice for its staff and students.

**YOUR TASKS**

Background of the research project:
High-risk criminal networks (HRCNs) are currently one of the biggest threats to the European security landscape, according to Europol. And the threat is still increasing, including internationally (UNODC). The current global context, characterised by social decay and various humanitarian emergencies (due to economic, environmental and demographic challenges), creates several opportunities for criminal interference. For instance, HRCNs have greatly expanded in the areas of human trafficking, migrant smuggling and drug crime as a result. The overall criminal organised landscape is an increasingly networked environment with fluid, sustained and profit-driven international operations. In response to the socio-economic situation, the European Commission developed an ‘EU Roadmap for Combating Drug Trafficking and Organised Crime’ in 2023 to tackle high-risk criminal networks.

The PREVENT project was developed to contribute to the goals of the EU Roadmap, in particular by contributing to a strategic, intelligence-driven methodology and cooperation between European member states and Europol under the EMPACT framework. Thus, it aspires to establish uniform indicators and provide a systematic way of analysing relevant data, in order to coherently map phenomena EU-wide. First, the project will contribute to the identification and deepening of indicators and methods to detect HRCN. It will also work on clearing the financial profile of these actors by gaining substantial knowledge in the business strategies and intertwining of HRCN in the legal economy. The project will also provide insights for administrative approaches to organised crime and strengthen local efforts to prevent criminal infiltration into the legal economy and local infrastructures. Finally, from a crime-prevention framework, PREVENT assesses how socio-economic initiatives can create a new kind of ‘social capital’ and provide an alternative to participating in HRCN.

**Tasks**:

- Contribute to the overall management of Ghent University's responsibilities in PREVENT: help prepare meetings, take minutes and keep track of deadlines and deliverables.
- Conduct a literature review on high-risk criminal networks (HCRNs), in particular pre-existing indicators and methods to identify the phenomenon, and on criminal infiltration into the legal economy.
- Conducting interviews with experts, transcribing and analysing them.
- Contribute to the development, Belgian introduction and validation of the project framework (HRCN scorecard), in particular the deepening to harm and threat indicators to strengthen the detection of HCRNs.
- Conduct a case study in a selected Belgian city on the local criminal landscape and criminal networks to gain an in-depth picture of criminal infiltration into the legal economy (HRCN scorecard). This also includes interviews with police forces, financial intelligence units, local authorities and business representatives.
- Contributing to the project-wide comparative analysis of the case studies and analysing the impact (harm) of criminal entanglement in the legal economy by HRCN.
- Develop a project-wide data management plan, develop a research framework for the case studies and organise methodological workshops to streamline the research protocol.
- Assist in writing a manual to shape a model approach to HRCN prevention and control.
- Contribute to the dissemination of research findings.

**WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR**
- You hold a Master of Science in Criminological Sciences, a Master of Science in Economics or related disciplines.
- Basic knowledge of organized crime, organized crime policies and the EU Policy Cycle for organized and serious international crime is required.
- Experiences with (financial) crime script analyses, logístical analyses of (organized) crime phenomena are an asset.
- Demonstrated research experience in criminology or economics and related fields with regard to qualitative methodology is required.
- Excellent spoken and written Eng