Research Summary

Research in the Forensic Psychology Research Group focusses on application of research into fundamental psychological function in the legal and forensic setting.

Research themes

• Crime analysis and psychological profiling

• Decision making in criminal justice

• Evaluation of offender intervention effectiveness

• Interrogative Suggestibility and Compliance

• Interviewing

• Offender assessment and intervention

• Perception of crime and risk

• Sexual offending

• Witness testimony & identification

Researchers   

• Full list of publications from the Forensic Psychology Group since 2000
• Full list of conference presentations from the Forensic Psychology Group since 2006

Recent research grants

Bull R. (2007)  Raising challenges to deception. EPSRC,  £154,947.

Holliday R., Bull R., Milne R. & Memon A (2007) Interviewing older witnesses. Leverhulme Trust, £50,498.

Bilby, C., Jolliffe, O., Hodgkinson, S. & Hatcher R., (2007) Development of an offender feedback questionnaire for the Ministry of Justice,  Ministry of Justice, £116,000.

Hatcher R., Bilby C., Hollin C., Palmer E., McGuire J (2006) Evaluate offending behaviour programmes for the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Probation Board of Northern Ireland,  Northern Ireland Office (extension of previous grant), £3,098 

Hatcher R., Bilby C., Hollin C., Palmer E., McGuire J (2005)  Evaluation of Offending Behaviour Programmes for the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Probation Board of Northern Ireland,  Northern Ireland Office, £79,345)  

Selected recent research papers

Almerigogna, J., Ost, J., Bull, R., and Akehurst, L.  (2007). A state of high anxiety: How unsupportive interviewers can increase the suggestibility of child witnesses.  Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 963-974.

Berkowitz, S.R., Laney, C., Morris, E.K., Garry, M., & Loftus, E.F. (2008). Pluto behaving badly: False beliefs and their consequences. American Journal of Psychology, 121, 643-660.

Boon, J.C.W. and Gozna, L, F. (2009) Firing pea-shooters at elephants. The Psychologist, 22-9,762-765.

Boon, J.C.W., Gozna, L.F. and Hall, S. (2008). Detecting 'faking bad' on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 263-272.

Charles, K.E., Egan, V.  (2009).  Military interests are not a simple predictor of adolescent offending: evidence from a large normal British sample.  Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 235 – 240.

Drake, K., Bull, R., and Boon, J.  (2008).  Interrogative suggestibility, self esteem, and the influence of negative life events.  Legal and Criminological Psychology, 13, 299-307.

Egan, V.  (in press) Personality theories and offending. In Brown, J., (editor).  Cambridge Dictionary of Forensic Psychology.  Cambridge University Press (in press).

Egan, V, Campbell, V.  (2009).  Sensational interests, sustaining fantasies and personality predict physical aggression.  Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 464 - 469.

Egan, V., Cordan, G,.  (2009).  Barely legal: perceptions of attraction and age as a function of make-up, sex, age of participant and alcohol use.  British Journal of Psychology, 100, 415 – 427

Egan, V., Hamilton, E.  (2008).  Personality, mating effort and alcohol-related violence expectancies.  Addiction Research and Theory, 16, 369 – 381.

Hatcher, R. M., Palmer, E. J., McGuire, J., Hounsome, J. C., Bilby, C. A. L. & Hollin, C. R. (2008). Aggression Replacement Training with adult male offenders within community settings: A reconviction analysis. Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 19, 517-532.

Laney, C. (in press). Unbelievable eyewitnesses. Psychology Review.

Laney, C., Bowman Fowler, N., Nelson, K.J., Bernstein, D.B., & Loftus. E.F. (2008). The persistence of false beliefs. Acta Psychologica, 129, 190-197.

Laney, C., Kaasa, S.O., Morris, E.K., Berkowitz, S.R., Bernstein, D.M., & Loftus, E.F. (2008). The red herring technique: A methodological response to the problem of demand characteristics. Psychological Research, 72, 362-375.

McGuire, J., Bilby, C., Hatcher, R. M., Hollin, C. R., Hounsome, J., Palmer, E. J. (2008). Evaluation of structured cognitive-behavioural treatment programmes in reducing criminal recidivism. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 4, 21-40.

Mitchell, I.J., Rutherford, V., Wrinch, K.A.J., Egan, V.  (2008).  Paradoxical effects of acute alcohol intoxication in a convivial social setting on attitudes to violence.  Addiction Research and Therapy, 16, 503 - 513.

Nelson, A., Woodhams, J. A., & Hatcher, R. M. (in press). Female prisoners’ explanations of bullying in prison and their methods of coping: A multinational perspective. Psychology, Crime and Law.

Palmer, E. J., McGuire, J., Hatcher, R. M., Hounsome, J. C., Bilby, C. A. L., & Hollin, C. R. (2009). Allocation to offending behavior programs in the English and Welsh Probation Service. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36, 909-922.

Philippon, A., Cherryman, C., Bull,R., and Vrij, A.  (2007).  Earwitness identification performance: The effect of language, target, deliberate strategies, and indirect measures.  Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 539-550.

Soukara, S., Bull, R., Vrij, A., Turner, M., and Cherryman, C.  (2009).  A study of what really happens in police interviews with suspects.  Psychology, Crime and Law, 15, 493-506.

Takarangi, M. K. T., Polaschek, D. L. L., Hignett, A. J., & Garry, M. (2007). Chronic and temporary aggression causes hostile false memories for ambiguous information. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22, 39-49.

Takarangi, M. K. T., & Strange, D. (in press). Emotional impact feedback changes how we remember negative autobiographical experiences. Experimental Psychology.

Vrij, A., Mann, S., Fisher, R., Leal, S., Milne, R., and Bull, R.  (2008).  Increasing cognitive load to facilitate lie detection.  Law and Human Behavior, 28, 253-265.

Wade, K., & Laney, C. (2008). Time to rewrite your autobiography? The Psychologist, 21, 588-592.

Conference presentations

Members of the research group regularly present papers, as either oral or poster communications at national and international conferences.  Some examples of recent conferences:

• American Psychological Society, San Francisco, USA, 2009
• American Psychology-Law Society Conference, San Antonio, USA, 2009
• European Association of Psychology and Law, Sorrento, Italy, 2009
• International Association of Law and Mental Health.  New York, USA, 2009
• International Association for the Treatment of Sex Offenders.  Cape Town, SA, 2008
• International Conference on Investigative Interviewing, Quebec, Canada, 2008
• International Society for Research on Aggression XVIII World Meeting, Budapest, Hungary, 2008
• Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Kyoto, Japan, 2009
• Western Psychological Association Meeting, Irvine, USA, 2008