What Role Can Private Citizens Play in Preventing or Disrupting Crime?

Daniel S. Nagin Provides Insights

Criminologist Daniel Nagin’s collaboration with his colleagues Christoph Engel (Bonn) and Jean-Louis van Gelder (Freiburg) has been instrumental in advancing crime research. Together, they form a Max Planck Law Fellow Group.

 Daniel Nagin’s research focuses on the evolution of criminal and antisocial behaviors over the life course as well as on the deterrent effect of criminal and non-criminal penalties on illegal behaviors. His recent work investigates the motivations and ways private citizens choose to serve as guardians for the purpose of disrupting an ongoing criminal event or preventing it from occurring altogether. It also examines factors affecting perceptions of the attractiveness of potential criminal opportunities.

He has been affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn as a Max Planck Law Fellow since 2021. He heads the Max Planck Law Fellow Group “Criminal Law as a Tool for Governing Society”.

Dan Nagin was jointly nominated as Max Planck Law Fellow by Jean-Louis van Gelder (Freiburg) and Christoph Engel (Bonn). Becoming a Max Planck Law Fellow is the highest honor that Max Planck Law, the network of nine Max Planck Society institutes focused on law, can confer on scholars outside the Society.

In spring 2024, Dan Nagin’s Law Fellow Group was extended for a period of three years.