About Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law

About us

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) is a growing European center for research in public security matters, criminal law, criminology, and fundamental legal research. The Institute is part of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science – one of the world’s most distinguished research organizations. The high level of its fundamental research is reflected not least by the 31 Nobel Prizes awarded to Max Planck scientists since the Society was founded in 1948.

The Independent Research Group “Personality, Identity, and Crime” headed by Dr. Isabel Thielmann works towards increasing the understanding of the interplay between self-perception, other-perception, identity, and behavior in the context of moral vs. immoral behavior. The group is embedded within the Department of Criminology (Director: Prof. Dr. Dr. Jean-Louis van Gelder), which offers a highly interdisciplinary and dynamic research environment in which psychologists, sociologists, economists, mathematicians, criminologists, and computer scientists work together to understand the causes and consequences of criminal and related behavior.

The Institute, with its approximately 150 employees, is located in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), a dynamic university city with a 900-year history. The city in the trinational border region (Germany, Switzerland, and France) impresses newcomers with its high quality of life and international flair. Freiburg ranks third on Lonely Planet’s “Best in Travel 2022” list of the top ten city destinations in the world.