Bias in Forensic Psychology: Live at the European Congress of Psychology, Brighton 2023

12/14/23 • 49 min

Martine Ratcliffe has worked as a forensic psychologist for HM Prison and Probation Service for 20 years. She’s currently the national diversity and inclusion (D&I) lead for the Psychology Services Group. Her passion for D&I has been amplified through her work with men, women and children in custody and from personal experience as a mixed-race woman working within HMPPS.

Dr Tansy Warrilow is a clinical psychologist at Rampton High Secure Hospital. She has introduced innovative techniques within her practice to address sources of cultural bias for clients.

Lawrence Jones is a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist and has worked in community, prison and NHS settings with people who have offended with a range of mental health difficulties. He is a former chair of the DFP serving two terms. He has been involved with the DFP EDI committee. He is a white cisgendered man and acknowledges his privilege. He has co-edited a book on addressing bias in forensic practice.

Yin, R.K. (1984), Case Study Research. Design and Methods, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Hammond, & O’Rourke, M. (2022) The Cumulative Modelling of Risk. In Liell, G.C., Fisher, M.J. & Jones, L.F. (Eds) Challenging Bias in Forensic Psychological Assessment and Testing: Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Working with Diverse Populations.

On what to do:Day, A. Woldgabreal, Y., & Butcher, L. (2023) Cultural Bias in Forensic Assessment: Considerations and Suggestions 245-258. In Liell, G.C., Fisher, M.J. & Jones. L.F. (eds.) Challenging bias in forensic psychological assessment and testing : theoretical and practical approaches to working with diverse populations.

On grids: Blagden N., & Needs, A. (2023) Personal Construct Psychology and Repertory Grids: Acknowledging and Exploring Perspectives 259-277. In Liell, G.C., Fisher, M.J. & Jones. L.F. (eds.) Challenging bias in forensic psychological assessment and testing : theoretical and practical approaches to working with diverse populations. And the fantastic website with software that analyses grids and introduces them too: https://www.idiogrid.com/

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Dr Tansy Warrilow is a clinical psychologist at Rampton High Secure Hospital. She has introduced innovative techniques within her practice to address sources of cultural bias for clients.

Yin, R.K. (1984), Case Study Research. Design and Methods, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

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Psychology Across HMPPS: Wales

In this special mini-series of the Forensic Psychology Podcast, Sally and Kerensa talk to people who work as psychologists across the five directorates of the prison service, to get an idea of what their jobs entail and the environments they work in.

Rebecca Ministro and Harriet Chapman both work in the directorate that covers prisons in Wales.

For more information about careers in prisons, visit https://jobs.justice.gov.uk

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Open Prisons

Adrian Turner joined the prison service 1988 as a prison officer, working at Ashford Remand Centre. He subsequently worked at HMP Full Sutton, HMP Norwich, HMP Whitemoor, PSC Newbold Revel, HMP Lindholme, HMP Channings Wood, HMP Gloucester, HMP Eastwood Park, HMP Bristol, HMP Sudbury and currently works as the Senior Operational Lead for the open estate. Prior to working in headquarters he was Governing Governor of Sudbury open prison for seven years. He has worked at every level of HM Prison and Probation Service and in every type of establishment. His main motivation is to help rehabilitate prisoners and give them the skills they need to lead a crime free life. Sudbury was particularly strong in this area with around 50,000 ROTL events per year helping prisoners build and embed protective factors such as accommodation, employment, children and families which are known to be key to successful rehabilitation. At Sudbury they would routinely have between 150 and 200 prisoners at work in the community each day, working in multiple industries matched to their skills, knowledge and qualifications. This gave them the best opportunity to lead crime free lives on release creating safer communities.

Dr Gary Goodley is a principal Forensic Psychologist working in prisons across the Midlands. He has over 16 years experience working in prisons, the last 10 of which have been spent based in open prisons. Gary recently completed a PhD evaluating the effectiveness of risk management protocols in open prisons.

Key references:

Andvig, E., Koffeld-Hamidane, S., Ausland, L. H., & Karlsson, B. (2021). Inmates’ perceptions and experiences of how they were prepared for release from a Norwegian open prison. Nordic journal of criminology, 22(2), 203-220.

Clark, D. A., Fisher, M. J., & McDougall, C. (1993). A new methodology for assessing the level of risk in incarcerated offenders. The British Journal of Criminology, 33(3), 436-448.

Goodley, G., & Pearson, D. (2023). Monitoring prisoners preparing for release: Who ‘fails’ in open prison conditions?. European Journal of Criminology, 14773708231183570.

Goodley, G., & Pearson, D. (2023). Risk management in open prisons: A critical analysis and research agenda. Probation Journal, 02645505231173683.

Mastrobuoni, G., & Terlizzese, D. (2022). Leave the door open? Prison conditions and recidivism. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 14(4), 200-233.

McDougall, C., Pearson, D. A., Willoughby, H., & Bowles, R. A. (2013). Evaluation of the ADViSOR project: Cross‐situational behaviour monitoring of high‐risk offenders in prison and the community. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 18(2), 205-228.

Statham, B. M., Winder, B., & Micklethwaite, D. (2021). Success within a UK open prison and surviving the ‘pains of freedom’. Psychology, Crime & Law, 27(8), 729-750.

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