Carlijn van Baak

carlijn van baak

I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). I hold a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice & Criminology (M.A.) from Sam Houston State University, USA and a Master’s degree in Criminal Law (LL.M.) from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

My PhD project focuses on the actions of bystanders in interpersonal - public and private - conflicts and the role that gender plays within these conflicts. For the first part, focusing on public conflicts, I am using CCTV footage to analyze how male and female bystanders act in public conflicts, and to identify potential differences and similarities between male and female bystanders. Further, I will analyze how bystanders act in male-female conflicts specifically. For example, are bystanders more likely to intervene in male-female conflicts compared to conflicts involving men only?

The second part of the project focuses on bystanders of intimate partner violence specifically, which typically occurs behind closed doors. I will use case files from Veilig Thuis (a domestic violence hotline) to analyze reports from bystanders who called the organization to report suspicions of intimate partner violence. Contrary to physical intervention in public, which is a direct form of intervention, (anonymously) reporting suspicions of intimate partner violence can be perceived as an indirect form of intervention. Specifically, I will focus on gender of the reporting bystanders and analyze what motivates male and female bystanders to intervene by (anonymously or non-anonymously) reporting their suspicions.

The study aims to combine social psychology theories on gender and bystanders, including the social role theory, with a micro sociological approach.