Rigorous research to assess efficacy, highlight best practice, and improve performance.
Our team is strongly committed to research and scholarship. Staff Expertise includes areas of forensic psychology such as: evaluation of offending behaviour treatment; decision making in court; the impacts of fear of crime; terrorism and people's attitudes and response to crime.
Topics include:
With radicalisation increasingly becoming an alternative path for vulnerable individuals, more research is needed to better understand the key influences leading to violent extremism. Our team have developed expertise in using sensitive, nuanced approaches to providing empirical evidence of the impact of strategies such as PVE-Pathfinder and Prevent. We have drawn on mixed method strategies, and work has been enhanced by the use of peer researchers who bring insight and community knowledge that adds additional depth. We are thus building our expertise and a broader picture of the social, political, religious, and educational experiences of vulnerable individuals living within culturally diverse communities, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the key influences of and ways to prevent violent extremism.
A collaborative project working closely with a probation trust and partner agencies, we took an action research approach to this study of the community engagement of released radicals. By surveying various projects run by Muslim communities, interviewing a range of participants working with people convicted of terrorist offences, drawing upon anonymous case files, and identifying needs for capacity building, this research has lead to the creation of a model to evaluate the state of preparedness for community projects to engage in partnership in delivering sensitive work relating to CONTEST and improved community provision for these offenders.
