Yana Audrey Demeyere

Yana Demeyere is a teaching assistant and PhD candidate. She holds a master’s degree in Criminology (VUB, 2018). For her Master's thesis, she examined how far the UPP (Brazilian police force in Rio de Janeiro) could be considered a model of community policing as known in the Global North, and the impact it had on the ongoing police violence in Rio. In 2018-2019, she has conducted research on the role and function of police officers from a migration background in strengthening police legitimacy with ethnic minority groups, a project called ‘voicing diversity’, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Currently, she is doing a doctoral research on child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA) in Belgium, focusing on the lived experiences of parents, children and siblings involved on how they conceptualise, explain and deal with this phenomenon. As well as how practitioners deal with child-to-parent violence and abuse and what needs they perceive in addressing it. 

Research Lines

Policing & Surveillance

Youth Justice Studies 

Current Research Projects

Parental abuse by adolescents, a multi-voice story. A qualitative study of experiences and approach of parental abuse in Belgium. 

Courses (2024-2025)

Kwalitatief criminologisch onderzoek

Jeugdcriminologie