The Bonger Institute of Criminology is a multidisciplinary research group within the Faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam. The institute was named after Willem Adriaan Bonger (1876-1940), the University's first professor in Sociology and Criminology. In this spirit we study criminological developments in relation to law enforcement. This dynamic relationship is studied on the basis of three main questions:

• How is criminality formally controlled?

• How and on what scale are the nature and scope of criminality developing?
• How do these areas relate to each other?

The main topics are drugs and violence. For example research is conducted on the developments of the Dutch market for cannabis. Our research is strongly grounded in an empirical tradition and comprises theoretical scientific studies as well as policy-oriented societal research.