Dr Liam Satchell, University of Winchester

"Beyond 'ill' or not and 'criminal' or not - Understanding dimensional frameworks in forensic clinical practice."
Due to high rates of comorbidity in mental health diagnoses, and issues with the predictive validity of categorical diagnoses, many academics and practitioners are now calling for a dimensional approach to mental health diagnoses. Whilst these ideas have been discussed for many years, significant progress in this area is now being made by those of us in the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) consortium. This talk will cover the latest from HiTOP, and how this might be relevant in forensic and psycholegal contexts. I will draw on our published and forthcoming research on personality approaches to psychopathy and 'microcrime', to highlight how dimensional approaches to externalising behaviour is useful for criminal justice contexts.

Friday 19th January 2024, 13:15pm - 14:00pm BST
Please register your attendance and access the talk here.


Dr Malin Joleby, The Caroline Institute

"Prevent It - Anonymous Online Therapy on the Darknet for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse"
The vast majority of sexual offenses against children go undetected by legal authorities. Furthermore, factors such as shame, fear of prosecution, and limited access to treatment can serve as barriers to seeking help for individuals with unwanted attractions towards children. Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of this group want help, as they experience guilt, shame, anxiety, and hopelessness related to their urges or behaviors. In our international, EU-funded project we aim to reduce the barriers for accessing treatment by offering anonymous online treatment to at-risk individuals. During this presentation, Malin Joleby will discuss the ongoing clinical trial of "Prevent It" and share results from the first completed Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) conducted by Lätth et al. in 2022.

Thursday 21st March 2024, 12:45pm - 13:30pm BST
Please register your attendance and access the talk here.


Dr Melanie Sauerland, Maastricht University
Details TBA


Thursday 18th April 2024, 12:45pm - 13:30pm BST
Please register your attendance and access the talk here.


Dr Linda Geven, Leiden University

"The European Registry of Exonerations (EUREX)"
The goal of the European Registry of Exonerations (EUREX) is to collect data on European cases of miscarriages of justice and establish an online registry to inform academics, lawyers, police, practitioners, students and policy makers on the number, causes, and consequences of wrongful convictions in Europe.
Using an archival approach, jurisprudence investigation and actively contacting local innocence projects in European countries, convictions that were officially overturned by courts and prosecutors are included. However, it is recognized that these miscarriages of justice may not represent all innocent defendants in Europe. For example, not included are those who are wrongfully convicted but have not successfully obtained exoneration. By finding common themes in wrongful convictions in an empirical manner, EUREX may aid such individuals in future appeals.
The registry will provide detailed information about exonerations in the European context, including reports on demographics of exonerees and case factors with visual infographics. All individual cases will be coded for various factors, including – but not limited to – contributing causes such as false confessions and eyewitness misidentifications.
In this talk, the findings of the EUREX dataset will be presented and contributing factors will be explored using examples from the registry.

Thursday 9th May 2024, 12:45pm - 13:30pm BST
Please register your attendance and access the talk here.


Dr Nkansah Anakwah, Birmingham City University

"Cross-cultural investigative interviewing."

Friday 7th June 2024, 13:15pm - 14:00pm BST
Please register your attendance and access the talk here.