The Forensic and Clinical Science Group

The Forensic and Clinical Science (FCS) Group is a dynamic hub for research, specialist teaching, and consultancy within the area of forensic and clinical psychology.

We seek to advance psychological theory and knowledge in legal and wellbeing contexts and to address real-world issues by developing and testing evidence-based interventions and solutions.

Psychologists in this research group work closely with local and international external agencies such as police forces, prisons, charities, and NHS Trusts.

Visit individual staff web pages to learn more about specific research interests, recent papers, grants and awards.

Research Highlights

• We are delighted to welcome Brian McKenzie to our research group. Brian is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in personality disorder (PD) in forensic settings.
• Ashok Jansari has won an Erasmus Visiting Fellowship to develop research collaborations with colleagues at the University of Chieti in Italy.
• Fiona Gabbert and Adrian Scott have established a Cold Case Unit in partnership with Locate International to develop psychologically informed investigative tools to help unsolved missing person cases.

Research Outputs

• Powell, A., Scott, A.J., & Henry, N. (2020). Digital harassment and abuse: Experiences of sexuality and gender minority adults. European Journal of Criminology, 17(2), 199-223.
• Gabbert, F, Hope, L, Luther, K, Wright, G, Ng, M, Oxburgh, G. (2020). Exploring the use of rapport in professional information-gathering contexts by systematically mapping the evidence base. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(2), 329-341.
• Davies, E., Read, J., & Shevlin, M. (2021).  Childhood adversities among students at an English University: A latent class analysis.  Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, in press.
• Florez, E., Cohen, K., Ferenczi, N., Linnell, K. J., Lloyd, J., Goddard, L., Kumashiro, M., & Freeman, J. (2020). Linking recent discrimination-related experiences and wellbeing via social cohesion and resilience. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 4(1), 92-104.
• Hørlyck, L.D., Obenhausen, K., Jansari, A., Ullum, H., Miskowiak, K.W. (2021). Virtual reality assessment of daily life executive functions in affective disorders: associations with neuropsychological and functional measures. Journal of Affective Disorders

Research Grants

• Fiona Gabbert is working with colleagues Laura Farrugia (Sunderland University) and Gavin Oxburgh (Northumbria University) to develop a secure computer programme - The Forensic Interview Trace (FIT)© - designed to record the structure, content, and characteristics of a forensic interview, funded by a Defence and Security Accelerator grant.
• Fiona Gabbert and colleagues, Ruth Horry (Swansea University) and Lorraine Hope (University of Portsmouth) have been awarded a grant from the Road Safety Trust to develop a Self-Administered Interview to capture the best information from witnesses to serious road traffic collisions
• Adrian Scott is part of a team investigating Revenge pornography with funding from an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant.

Research Dissemination

• Alice Jones Bartoli has recently been interviewed for ACAMH podcast.
• Fiona Gabbert presented a talk titled ‘Exploring the use of rapport in professional information-gathering contexts’ to the Deception Research Society.
• Ashok Jansari has developed a series of free public talks on a range of topics in psychology/neuroscience.
• Fiona Gabbert advised on the development and drafting of New Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information Gathering (the Méndez Principles) that will support the United Nations in the legal prohibition of torture and coercive interrogation practices.

Find out more

Send us an email if you'd like to talk to us about our research, discuss potential collaborations, or to join our mailing list to hear about upcoming events - FPU (@gold.ac.uk).