by rbartels | Mar 1, 2015 | Forensic
Last week, on the 24th February, FCRG members Prof. Todd Hogue and Craig Harper launched the first Big Lincoln Election Survey 2015 in conjunction with local newspaper, The Lincolnite.
The online-based project is designed to provide members of the local public the chance to give their views on the issues they feel are most important to them in the run-up to the election. This includes issues at both the local and national level. The initial survey takes only 5 minutes to complete, with weekly follow-up questions regarding voting intentions taking no more than one minute to complete. The survey will remain open until after the election closes. Furthermore, there will be a chance to win a £25 Amazon voucher each week for everyone who completes the survey.
The findings of the project will provide an insight into the voting intentions of local Lincoln-based residents.
For more information about the project, as well as the chance to take part, click here
by rbartels | Feb 22, 2015 | Forensic
We are pleased to announce that FCRG member and PhD student Rachel Orritt has been awarded a conference grant to attend the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour’s (ASAB) Easter Meeting (18-20th March) at Durham University.
This is the second time that Rachel has received this award and, this year, Rachel is hoping to also present at the event. If Rachel’s application to present is accepted, we will post the details about her presentation in a future FCRG post. We have our fingers crossed for you, Rachel!
You can contact Rachel at rorritt@lincoln.ac.uk and/or follow her on Twitter
You can also keep up-to-date about the ASAB Easter Meeting by following the event on Twitter
by rbartels | Feb 19, 2015 | Forensic
The FCRG are pleased to announce that, on Thursday 14th May, an exciting one-day conference will be taking place at the University of Lincoln, entitled “Let’s Talk About Sex in Sexual Offending Research and Practice”.
The aim of the conference is to present cutting-edge theory and research related to the topic of sexuality and sexual offending. Specific topics include sexual interest assessment, sexual arousal and decision-making, risk intervention, anti-libidinal medication, psychopathy, sexual fantasising, and online child exploitation material.
Each forensic-focused staff member of the FCRG will present their most recent work, along with three keynote addresses from some of our external collaborators. These include:
– Dr Alexander Schmidt (University of Luxembourg)
– Dr Andreas Mokros (Psychiatric University Hospital, Zurich)
– Dr Karen Harrison (University of Hull) and Dr Kerensa Hocken (HMP Whatton)
Each speaker will address the impact of their work in terms of how it can be applied to practice. As such, the event is aimed at those who work with individuals who have sexually offended or who are at risk of sexually offending. This includes professionals (and students) working in criminal justice, medical and mental health, academia, and other related-fields.
More information (including fees) is provided in this leaflet
To register for the conference, please click here.
If you’d like any more information about the conference itself, please contact Ross Bartels (rbartels@lincoln.ac.uk).
We hope to see you there!
by rbartels | Feb 11, 2015 | Forensic
FCRG member and PhD student – Julie Pattinson – will present some findings from her doctoral research at the 2015 Postgraduate Student Conference: Public Engagement. The talk will be entitled “Predictive risk factors for problem gambling behaviour in UK older adults”.
Julie’s research focuses on trying to understand the largely ignored issue of gambling-related harm within UK adults over the age of 65 years. As her presentation title signals, the research Julie will present aimed to identify the major psychological and physical factors associated problem-gambling in a sample of older adults (65+) from across the UK (n = 695).
Five factors were found to most accurately predict problem-gambling behaviour in UK older adults, with the strongest being the level of gambling participation and playing slot machines. Other predictive factors included anxiety, playing bingo, loneliness and number of different gambling activities one plays regularly.
Come down to hear Julie and other postgrad students discuss their research on Thurs 26th March at the Riseholme Park Conference Centre (Riseholme Park Campus, Lincoln).
by rbartels | Feb 6, 2015 | Forensic
Yesterday (5th Feb), PhD Student and FCRG member – Craig Harper – was elected on to the committee of the BPS’s Division of Forensic Psychology after applying for the position through the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group (PsyPAG).
PsyPAG is an organisation that seeks to represent the views of postgraduate students in psychology within the rest of the national field, and offers financial and academic support to these students.
Craig first became interested in PsyPAG after attending and presenting at their annual conference in Lancaster in 2013, when FCRG colleague Dr. Ross Bartels still held the position of Forensic Psychology Representative for PsyPAG. This position is now taken up by Craig (along with his place on the DFP committee). Having presented at two conferences, Craig applied for this position in January 2015, and his election was confirmed on yesterday on 5th February.
Craig welcomes all forensic psychology postgraduates, from Lincoln to anywhere else in the country, to get in touch with any issues that they would like be raised at national level. You can contact him via email (charper@lincoln.ac.uk), or find him on Twitter.
by rbartels | Feb 3, 2015 | Forensic
Elspeth Dustagheer – a graduate of the MSc Forensic Psychology programme at the University of Surrey – has been shortlisted for the BPS Dissertation Award. Her project, an exploration of pathways to the downloading of Child Sexual Exploitation Material, has been conducted as part of the onlinePROTECT research programme and was supervised by Dr Hannah Merdian (University of Lincoln), Professor Derek Perkins (University of Surrey and Royal Holloway, NHS) and Dr Emily Glorney (University of Surrey and Royal Holloway).
The full article can be read in the DFP’s January issue of the Forensic Update
The onlinePROTECT team is very proud of Elspeth’s achievements!
by rbartels | Jan 31, 2015 | Forensic
onlinePROTECT is an international research collaboration led by FCRG member Dr Hannah Merdian (University of Lincoln) and Prof Derek Perkins (Surrey University & West London Mental Health NHS Trust). The core aim of onlinePROTECT is to address the safety of children and young people in online and offline environments.
onlinePROTECT has now launched a brand new website that details their aim, research, previous and upcoming events, as well as up-to-date news items. To visit the onlinePROTECT website, click here.
In related news, onlinePROTECT will be running a new one-day workshop entitled “Internet-based Sex Offending: Case Formulation and Intervention Planning” on the 5th March (2015) in Edinburgh. For more details on what the event will entail, fees, and location, please click here (see the links below also).
Course Leaflet (Page 1)
Course Leaflet (Page 2)
You can also keep up-to-date with the work of onlinePROTECT by following them on Twitter
by rbartels | Jan 27, 2015 | Forensic
During the prize giving event at this year’s January graduation ceremony, a graduate in MSc Forensic psychology (Ashley Mason) received the School of Psychology Prize for MSc Forensic Psychology (presented to her by Prof. Todd Hogue).
This is a great achievement for Ashley as the prize is an accolade to the hard work she put into her degree, as well as the high-standard of academic work that she produced.
Ashley is certain to have a great future and we in the FCRG (and at University of Lincoln) wish her, and all our graduates, the best in their coming careers.
by rbartels | Jan 27, 2015 | Forensic
In Novemeber, FCRG member Dr Lynsey Gozna attended and presented at the 7th International and 12th National Congress of Clinical Psychology in Seville, Spain (14-16th November).
As part of her doctoral training (at the University of Nottingham), Lynsey presented a poster detailing a clinical case study of a schema therapy intervention with a female patient residing in a secure forensic mental health setting with diagnoses of emotionally unstable personality disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, a history of varied substance abuse, and criminal convictions including revenge-motivated arson.
The presentation received much interest by the attendees, and Lynsey is now currently writing-up the case for publication.
Please email Lynsey Gozna to a request a PDF copy of the poster.
by rbartels | Dec 15, 2014 | Forensic
In a unique piece of research funded by the University of Lincoln’s Research Investment Fund, people from all corners of the globe answered a questionnaire about their attitudes towards dogs and their experiences of dog ownership. This research is part of a project by members of the FCRG (Rachel Orritt and Prof. Todd Hogue) that looks to understand the dog-human relationship, with a particular focus on human-directed aggressive behaviour.
To investigate this complex social issue, the researchers needed to gather a lot of data within a short period of time. With the help of an IPad Prize incentive, just short of 1500 responses were collected. The lucky winner of the IPad Air was Sam Watts, a student at the University of Lincoln (pictured receiving his prize in the cover photo for this post).
The same team will be running a follow up survey in the near future, so watch this space to be in with a chance of becoming our next prize winner!
