On 27 February 2024, Marin Hoekstra, alumna of Erasmus School of Law, was presented with the Jan van Dijk Award during the annual conference of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. In this article, Marin reacts to this exemplary award and discusses her thesis Experiences of Gender Intimidation within the Online Gaming World from the Victim's Perspective.
Marin regularly finds herself in the online gaming world and noticed the repeated gender-specific harassment here. "Unfortunately, I also discovered that this specific topic is still under-researched in academia", Marin says. Therefore, she decided to dedicate her thesis to this topic. "My thesis is about gender-specific harassment towards female gamers within the online gaming world. In doing so, I researched adult women's experiences of such harassment, the impact of the experiences on their mental well-being, what coping styles they use to deal with it and whether they need improvement in the online gaming community."
A first step
Marin won the Jan van Dijk Award with her thesis. "I was very surprised and a bit confused", she responds to the award. "My thesis, which I thought was mainly a milestone to complete my studies, impressed others more than I had thought beforehand. After the award ceremony, several attendees asked if they could read my thesis, which I see as a great first step to tackle the problem."
Jan van Dijk Award
The Jan van Dijk Award is an initiative of Fonds Slachtofferhulp. The Award encourages university education to pay more attention to victimology (victim science) and victims' rights and assistance. The award is named after Jan van Dijk, a renowned Dutch Criminologist and Victimologist who is considered one of the pioneers in international victimology research. He won the Stockholm Prize in Criminology in 2012, which is regarded as the Nobel Prize in Criminology. The Jan van Dijk Award honours his valuable contribution to victimology.
"Marin is a student with very original and well-thought-out ideas”
Tamar Fischer, Associate Professor of Criminology at Erasmus School of Law, supervised Marin's thesis process. "She always helped me very much during the thesis process and was, like me, enthusiastic about the topic I had chosen", Marin states. "She gave useful tips and feedback and was always willing to help. So, thanks to the guidance, I got the feeling that I was not alone, which motivated me even more!"
Fischer also looks back positively on working with Marin. "Marin is a student with very original and well-thought-out ideas. In her research, she cleverly applies knowledge and skills from the Criminology course in a new context - both theoretical knowledge and knowledge about doing good empirical research. Marin knows an enormous amount about the online gaming world and could conduct honest and meaningful scientific research from that insider's perspective. It was a joy to guide her in this process".
Increased awareness of online harassment
The presentation of the Jan van Dijk Award took place during the annual conference of the Netherlands Study Centre for Crime and Law Enforcement. Marin reflects on a highly valuable day: "It is great to see how my thesis has created more awareness about online harassment within a particular target group. For this, I am very grateful!"
'Did you miss that shot because of your period?'
"Hippity hop pity women are property", "Go back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich", and "Did you miss that shot because of your period?". This is just a small selection of the gender-specific harassment Marin encountered during her research. Are you interested in the effects of this form of harassment on, among other things, female gamers' mental well-being and how this can be improved? Then read Marin's full thesis below.