Anna-Maria Getos Kalac (PhD Freiburg, 2010; LL.M. Freiburg, 2004) holds a tenured associate professorship at University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law, where she has been teaching criminology, victimology, penology and basics of criminal law since 2006, and as of the academic year 2021/2022 heads the Faculty’s Criminal Law Department. In 2018 she has been appointed Professeur Invité at University of Lausanne’s School of Criminal Sciences, whereas she just completed an extended research stay at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg as foreign visiting professor (09/2017-10/2019).

Prof. Dr. Getoš Kalac back in 2012 initiated the Max Planck Society funded Balkan Criminology research group and has meanwhile managed to revive criminological research in Croatia and the Balkans, thereby re-focusing European criminological attention back to Southeast Europe. The relevant three major “mappings” cover core areas of the criminological landscape of the Balkans: criminology, victimology and penology (Balkan Criminology Book Series). More recently she has conducted the Balkan Homicide Study in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, which focuses on (lethal) violence in 8 states of the region. In 2021, Prof. Dr. Getoš Kalac has come out with a new, pioneering book to offer an in-depth look at (lethal) violence in the Balkans, published by Springer International Publishing as a part of the SpringerBriefs in Criminology. The volume, titled “Violence in the Balkans: First findings from the Balkan Homicide Study", sheds light on a region long neglected in terms of empirical violence research and discusses regional commonalities throughout the Balkans in view of their cultural, historical and normative context. 

From 2018 up to June of 2021, she has been successfully heading a transdisciplinary Violence Research Lab in Croatia, and she chairs the ESC working group “European Violence Monitor”, and has thus worked on topics such as terrorism, political violence and radicalisation; fear of crime and punitivity; crime policy reform in transitional societies; organised crime, criminal state capture and corruption; Croatian and regional crime statistics, incl. European Sourcebook of crime and criminal justice statistics; ISRD3 Croatia; restorative justice. As of June 2021, Prof. Dr. Getoš Kalac is holding a position as a Deputy President of Executive Board of the Croatian Science Foundation (from the field of social sciences). Prof. Dr. Getoš Kalac is fluent in Croatian, German and English and has also published her work in Italian and Spanish.  

Research interests

Balkan Criminology, Violence, Organized Crime and Illegal Markets, Feelings and Perceptions of (In)Security and Crime, International Sentencing, THB

Scholarships

• Max Planck Society Research scholarship for foreign professors (09/2017-09/2019)
• Fulbright Post-doctoral research fellowship (2014/2015 – cancelled due to maternity leave)
• Fast Track Scholarship of the Robert Bosch Foundation (2013-2015)
• Max Planck Society Post-doctoral scholarships (repeatedly between 2012 and 2015)
• Max Planck Society Doctoral scholarships (2004, 2007 and 2010)
• European Society of Criminology Fellowship (2009)
• DAAD annual (10/2002-05/2004) and research scholarships (10/2004-03/2005)
• Doctoral scholarship of the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education (2004/2005)

Memberships

• European Society of Criminology (board member: 2014-2017; member: 2009-present)
• European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (advisory board member: 2015-present)
• European Homicide Research Group (2016-present)
• European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics (member of the expert’s group: 2017-present; regional coordinator for Balkan countries: 2018-present)
• Croatian Association of Criminal Sciences and Practice (member: 2006-2019)
• Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences (regular member: 2011-present; the Academy’s Yearbook executive editor: 2010-2017

Publications (selection)

• Full publication list with English abstracts

Most significant research projects

International
scientific research projects

• 2017-04/2021: Balkan Homicide Study; Role: Principle investigator together with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Jörg Albrecht; Lead Institution: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law in coop. the MPI in Freiburg; Funding: MPI; Duration: 3 years
• 02/2013-04/2019: Max Planck Partner Group for Balkan Criminology; Role: Head of Partner Group; Lead institution: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law in coop. with the MPI in Freiburg; Funding: Max Planck Society; Duration: 6 years, 2 months
• 2012-present: International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-3); Principle investigator: Prof. Dr. Ineke Haen Marshall; Role: Principle investigator for Croatian study; Lead institution: College of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Northeastern University; Co-financing of Croatian study: City of Varaždin and University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Duration: continuous (data collection in 2013 and 2014; analysis ongoing)
• 2006-present: European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics; Principle investigators: Prof. Dr. Marcelo F. Aebi and Prof. Dr. Jörg-Martin Jehle; Role: Member of the experts group, coordinator for Balkan countries and Croatia correspondent (since 2017); Croatian researcher for the 3rd and 4th edition (2006-2010); Lead institution: University of Lausanne – Institut de criminologie et de droit penal; Funding: Council of Europe; Duration: continuous
• 2012-2013: TRAFSTAT – Tools for the Validation and Utilisation of EU Statistics on Human Trafficking; Principle investigators: Prof. Dr. Jan van Dijk and Prof. Dr. Marcelo F. Aebi; Role: Croatia expert; Lead institution: Tilburg University; Funding: European Commission; Duration: 20 months
• 2009-2014: Perceptions of Fear of Crime and Punitivity Among University Students; Principle investigators: Prof. Dr. Helmut Kury and Prof. Dr. John Winterdyk; Role: Principle investigator for Croatian study; Funding: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Duration: 5 years (data collection in 2010 and 2014).

National scientific research projects

• 03/2018-03/2023: Croatian Violence Monitor: A Study of the Phenomenology, Etiology, and Prosecution of Delinquent Violence with Focus on Protecting Particularly Vulnerable Groups of Victims (CroViMo); Role: Head of Project; Lead institution: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Funding: Croatian Science Foundation & University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Duration: 5 years.
• 2017-2018: Violence in Southeast Europe: Comparative Analysis of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina; Role: Head of Project; Lead institution: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Funding: University of Zagreb; Duration: 1 year.
• 2016-2017: Lethal Violence in Southeast Europe; Role: Head of Project; Lead institution: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Funding: University of Zagreb; Duration: 1 year.
• 01/2015-01/2019: Multidisciplinary Research Cluster on Crime in Transition – Trafficking in Human Beings, Corruption and Economic Crime; Principle investigator: Prof. Dr. Davor Derenčinović; Role: Researcher; Lead institution: University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law; Funding: Croatian Science Foundation; Duration: 5 years