We are happy to share the excellent news that 2 members of the FCRG won at this year’s College of Social Science (CoSS) Showcase Award.
Dr Hannah Merdian won ‘Most significant local and/or national impact’ for her work on Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM), including their beliefs, sexual interests, and pathways to offending.
Dr Lauren Smith won the ECR Award, and was also part of the winning Prison Governors Wellbeing Project who won ‘Most novel public engagement or dissemination’
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.
FCRG lead – Dr Ross Bartels – has published in a new, two-study paper entitled “Public Stigmatizing Reactions Toward Nonoffending Pedophilic Individuals Seeking to Relieve Sexual Arousal” in the Journal of Sex Research. The first study showed that the use of the nonsexual pictures and sex dolls to relive sexual arousal led to more stigmatising responses in the public than did the use of the testosterone-lowering medication. The results of Study 2 indicated that stigmatization was driven by disapproving the use of child stimuli rather than the relief of sexual arousal in general.
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!
