The Forensic and Investigative research group is concerned with i) applying psychological theory and empirical knowledge to forensic and investigative processes and practice and ii) exploring emerging forensic and investigative challenges through a psychological lens to advance understanding. Researchers conduct high-quality research and training that addresses gaps in knowledge or applies existing knowledge to various stakeholder contexts.
We comprise British Psychological Society Chartered psychologists, Health Care Professional Council regulated psychologists, Chartered Scientists and experienced expert witnesses. We collaborate with national and international governments and non-government organisations, including Police, Probation service, Charities and national and international Security organisations to undertake research, consultancy and bespoke accredited training.
Current projects in the research group include:
- Eyewitness memory in face-to-face, remote and virtual environments, investigating how retrieval contexts, external retrieval support techniques, and interviewer behaviours impact on memory performance,
- Vulnerability and the criminal justice system towards improving access to justice, including the experiences of male victims and survivors of sexual assault, barriers and enablers to access for victims and survivors of modern slavery and neurodiverse children and adults, and suicide prevention in Probation settings,
- Detecting deception and human intelligence gathering in aviation security contexts, in face-to-face and remote virtual environments, cross cultural deception, insider threats and asynchronous and synchronous communication textual cues to deception,
- County lines criminal exploitation of children towards understanding grooming and coercion practices and procedures, and the societal cost of the county lines illicit drugs trade.
People researching within this theme: