Main Focus
Gunda Wössner is one of the heads of the Virtual Burglary Project. As head of the research project Sex Offenders in the social therapeutic institutions in the Free State of Saxony, Gunda Wössner's research areas are sexual delinquency and violent offending with a special focus on treatment evaluation of these offender groups, risk assessment and the examination of risk and protective factors that are associated with recidivism and desistance. This includes research on developmental pathways to sexual offending and violent offending. Since June 2021, she has been leading the module "Violence against partners and children" of the research project The consequences of the Covid-19 Pandemic for crime in southwest Germany (COVID-19-KRIM), which is funded by the BMBF and conducted at the Max Planck Institute.
Another research focus included the evaluation of "Electronic monitoring of prisoners in Baden-Württemberg/Germany".
She was also a member of the Steering Group on the DAPHNE III project Developing
integrated responses to sexual violence: An
interdisciplinary research project on the potential of
restorative justice.
Her research interests include:
- Sexual (re)offending and violent (re)offending, (terrorist) risk assessment, developmental pathways
- Offender treatment, offender rehabilitation, desistance, and reentry research
- Electronic monitoring
- Evaluation
- Victimology and restorative justice.
Curriculum Vitae
- since Oct. 2016: Senior Researcher and project head, Department of Criminology, Max Planck Institute.
- 2015–16: Professor of Psychology, University of Applied Police Sciences, Baden-Wurttemberg, Villingen-Schwenningen.
- 2006–14: Senior Researcher and project head, Department of Criminology, Max Planck Institute.
- 2006–10: Worked as a psychotherapist-in-training in the psychotherapy outpatient clinics of the universities of Freiburg and Münster.
- 2006: Doctoral degree, thesis on "Sexual Offender Typology," Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg.
- 2005–06: Researcher and Clinical Psychologist at the University of Münster, clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy.
- 2004–05: Received re-entry bursary from the Vice-Chancellor and the Women’s Office of the University of Freiburg.
- 2001–04: Researcher (Doctoral candidate), Max Planck Institute.
- 2000: Research assistant at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP), Freiburg
- 1998–99: Externship at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (D.C.).
- 1998: Graduated in psychology from the University of Freiburg ("Diplom").
