On 30th Aug – 1st Sept 2023, Ross Bartels and Hannah Merdian presented at the 17thIATSO conference in Trondheim (Norway).
Ross presented the findings of a study designed and conducted with Federico Vanni (a previous intern from the University of Padua). The talk was entitled “Do the Sexual Fantasies of Minor-Attracted People Differ Depending on the Target?”.
As an Editor-in-Chief for IATSO’s journal (SOTRAP), Ross also attended the editors meeting at the conference.
Hannah presented a talk showcasing findings from a collaborative project with ‘Stop it Now – Scotland‘. The talk was entitled “Stop It Now! Scotland – Database analysis and development of data quality standards“.
Tochukwu Onwuegbusi (Tochs), Lauren Smith, and Todd Hogue from the FCRG recently attended and presented several papers at the European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL) conference in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (3-8th July, 2023).
Tochs presented some quantitative data of their ARC project
Lauren presented about a project on meeting the needs of autistic adults and adults with learning disabilities in Midlands (UK)
Tochs, Lauren, and Todd gave fascinating on Assisting Rehabilitation through Collaboration: A review
On June June 5th 2023, FCRG member Dr Hannah Merdian presented an invited online talk entitled “OnlinePROTECT – Pathways of Risk and Offender Typologies in the Exploitation of Children via Technologies” to the Medical School Berlin.
The presentation provided an overview of OnlinePROTECT’s research programme, focusing in particular on two current research projects: (1) Circles UK is an international organization providing rehabilitation and rehabilitation services for sex offenders. This offer has now also been extended to online offenders. (2) StopitNow UK provides intervention and prevention work for online offenders, including through an anonymous hotline and therapeutic and psychoeducational offerings.
A successful Pint of Science event recently took place in Lincoln City! The events were hugely popular and all tickets were sold!
One of the speakers was FCRG member Dr Georgina Gous who contributed to the ‘Crime Night’ on 24th May, 2023. Georgina’s talk was entitled “I make my own decisions! When jury biases become a problem“.
Georgina discussed the types of biases that can impact our ability to make fair and impartial decisions in court (for defendants, victims and witnesses), and the new techniques that courts are using to overcome these biases.
At the end of April 2023, FCRG deputy, Dr Lauren Smith, presented at the ‘ECR Addictions’ conference held at Kings College London. Lauren’s paper was entitled ‘Gambling in an English prison: A Whole Prison Response‘.
Lauren also attended the House of Lords following an invite by Lord Goldsmith, KC. This was for the launch of the final report by the Commission for Crime and Gambling Related Harms to which Lauren contributed evidence. The full report can be accessed here.
On 26th April 2023, a fantastic joint conference event between the FCRG and HMPPS North East and Yorkshire Psychology Service entitled “Bridging the Gap” was held at HMP Askham Grange. The event was organised by FCRG member Rachael Dagnall and was attended by the region’s Psychology Senior Management Team and 80 psychology staff, including qualified and trainee Forensic Psychologists.
Todd Hogue, Ross Bartels, Lauren Smith, Phil Willmot, and Michelle Smith facilitated round table discussions during the event to explore future research/practice collaborations. This resulted in some exciting new prospects being suggested for future collaborative ventures. In addition, Ross, Phil, and Michelle undertook collaborative presentations with HMPPS colleagues on their respective research areas. Positive feedback was received and it is hoped that this will become a regular event!
FCRG deputy – Dr Lauren Smith – chaired a panel at The British Academy Early Career Researcher ‘Working with Industry’ event held at UoL. The panel was titled Working with Public Sector Organisations and Niko Kargas was on the panel, alongside colleagues from Law, Health and Social Care, and Social and Political Sciences.
FCRG deputy, Dr Lauren Smith, delivered a webinar on Gambling and Crime: Implications for Probation Practice to probation staff across Wales. Lauren was invited to deliver the webinar following a recent publication: Smith, L. (2022). The role of probation in supporting people who have experienced gambling and crime-related harms. Probation Quarterly, 26, 60-65. https://doi.org/10.54006/QPRS9599.
FCRG member, Dr Tochukwu Onwuegbusi, presented at the Science and Psychology Conference 2022 in London (29th Nov) and Bristol (30th Nov). His talk was titled: “Crime – How do we solveit?” where he described the application of a novel eye-tracking method that can be used to aid police crime investigation, particularly in suspect identification. Tochs presented data suggesting that fixation patterns may be repeated during the recognition of familiar scenes. Thus, tracking eye fixations could give insight as to whether the suspect under police interrogation is lying about having memory of the crime scene.
In October 2022, FCRG lead (Dr Ross Bartels) attended and presented at the 41st Annual Conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse (ATAS) in Los Angles, USA.
Ross gave a talk entitled “The Effect of Bilateral Eye-Movements on Sexual Fantasies” as part of a larger symposium titled “Can EMDR Be Helpful in the Treatment of Sexual SelfRegulation?” (chaired by Wineke Smid).
The talk (and session overall) was very well received, generating interesting discussion and interest in Ross’ work (which he is currently following up).
