Research Interests

My research lies in the interface between Psychology and Criminology, particularly with regard to the management and treatment of offenders. 

In particular, my research has two main concerns: 
(1) the measurement of risk and need with offender populations;
(2) the evaluation of initiatives intended to reduce criminal behaviour, particularly criminal violence, with a focus on young offenders.

Research Projects 

With colleagues at Leicester, principally Charlotte Bilby, Ruth Hatcher and Emma Palmer, and together with James McGuire at the University of Liverpool, I have worked on a range of research projects.  Our research is mainly funded by the Home Office and The Ministry of Justice and some examples of this and other work are given below.

Home Office (2000-2005):  Evaluation of community-based offending behaviour programmes for offenders (with Charlotte Bilby, Ruth Hatcher, James McGuire, and Emma Palmer).

NHS National R&D Programme on Forensic Mental Health (2004-2005): Long-term follow-up of Arnold Lodge admissions 1983-1999 (with Steffan Davies and Conor Duggan).

Northern Ireland Office (2006):  Evaluation of offending behaviour programmes in Northern Ireland (with Charlotte Bilby, Ruth Hatcher, James McGuire, and Emma Palmer).

Home Office (2007-2008):  Evaluation of the Together Women Project (with Carol Hedderman and Emma Palmer).

Ministry of Justice (2008-2009):  An outcome study of the Together Women project (with Carol Hedderman, Darrick Jolliffe, and Emma Palmer).

Professional Activities

Editor of the journal Psychology, Crime, & Law.

Consulting Editor to the Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research.

Editorial Board of Sexual Abuse:  A Journal of Research and Treatment.

Editorial Board of FWU Journal of Psychology.

Editorial Board of Journal of Criminal Psychology

Advisor to several government departments including the Prison and Probation Service for England and Wales, the Scottish Prison Service, the Women’s Policy Unit (Home Office), and The Probation Board of Northern Ireland.  Outside the UK I have acted as an advisor to the New Zealand Department of Corrections and in Scandinavia to the Nordic Forum of Ministries of Justice.

Selected Invited Lecture and Conference Presentations

2006 Incorporating psychological factors into an understanding of criminal behaviour.  Invited presentation to Round Table, Security: Preventing Crime and Assisting Victims, Democratic Dialogue & Probation Board for Northern Ireland, Belfast.

2006 Applying psychological research to work with young offenders.  Invited presentation at Young Offenders:  Challenges for Psychology and Education, University of Nottingham.

2007 Pathways and beyond:  Engagement, compliance and reconviction.  Invited presentation at the “Regional Conference for Practitioners Working with Prolific and Other Priority Offenders: Pathways to Improvement”, National Offender Management Service and Government Office North East, County Durham.

2007 Terms and concepts in risk assessment. Invited presentation at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.

2007 Evaluating “What Works“ in offender rehabilitation.  Paper presented at the Launch of the Forensic Research Centre, University of Leicester.

2008 Offending behaviour programmes.  Yorkshire and Humberside Prison Psychologists Area Conference, Wakefield.

2008 The rise, fall, and resurrection of the rehabilitative ideal.  Plenary paper at the Conference “Applying Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending”, University of California, Irvine, USA.

2009 The grim reality behind the published papers:  5 years in the field as an applied researcher.  Invited presentation, Academic and Research Unit, The Claire Chilvers Centre, Rampton Hospital.

2010 What have we learned from initiative to reduce reoffending in general offender populations?  Keynote address at the 7th National Conference "Research in Forensic Secure Units", Institute of Psychiatry, London.

2010 Cognitive skills programmes:  Where have we been?  What do we know?  Where are we going?  Keynote Address at NOMS Treatment Managers Conference, HM Prison service Staff College, Newbold Revel, Warwickshire.

2011 Needs, risk and evidence-based interventions:  Where is it all taking us?  Keynote Address at the 11th Annual Annual Conference of the International Association of Forensic Mental Heath Services, Barcelona, Spain.

2011 Recent developments in forensic psychology:  where to next?  Keynote Address at the opening of the Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury. 

Postgraduate Supervision

Current Ph.D. Students (first supervisor):

Glen Thomas:  Substance misuse, mental disorder, and violence (NHS funded).

Rosie Travers:  Evaluating cognitive skills programmes in prisons (Home Office funded).

Caroline Falgate:  Working with short-term prisoners (Home Office funded).

I am always happy to discuss ideas with potential PhD students.

Teaching

I teach on the 1st Year Module "Approaches to Psychology" and the 3rd Year Module "Legal psychology"; I supervise 3rd Year Projects and Dissertations.

I also teach on the MSc in Forensic Psychology.

I am an External Examiner for a postgraduate course at the Open University.