University of York

Faculty Member, Sociology

Lecturer in Social Psychology

About

I have a long-standing interest in how people interact in police investigations. After learning about theories of social behaviour, I graduated from Loughborough University with a BSc Social Psychology. Thanks to an ESRC Postgraduate Studentship, I completed the MSc in Investigative Psychology at the University of Liverpool and developed an interest in the language of investigative interviewing.

Following projects with Merseyside Police on the impact of suspect credibility on interviewing and the ODPM on UK provisions for arsonists, I returned to Loughborough and was introduced to critical approaches to social psychology and the detailed analysis of talk. My PhD, funded by the ESRC and supervised by Professor Mick Billig, used in-depth qualitative methods to examine real-life police interviews with individuals suspected of sex offences against children.

I arrived at York in 2005 as an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow and in 2007, became Lecturer in Social Psychology. I teach topics in critical social psychology, police investigation, and the analysis of language and social interaction.

I also work in collaboration with police constabularies across the UK, analysing interviewing practice, particularly in cases involving individuals suspected of sex offences against children. My work involves the digitisation, transcription, and detailed analysis of audio- and video-recorded data. I am involved with Continuing Professional Development at York, advising practitioners on interaction in forensic settings. My work has practical applications for talk in a variety of organisational contexts.

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