What is psychology and how can I study it?

I have always been fascinated by crime and criminal behaviour. I would watch fictional TV programs and real crime documentaries and often wonder if it was actually possible to get into the mind of the offender. Actually, I thought I could do it myself because I had watched that many programs! My favourite film was Silence of the Lambs and my favourite TV series were Cracker and CSI. I would watch many experts give psychological profiles of famous criminals and would have so many questions. I wanted to know, what drives people to commit crimes and how are these people different from the rest of us?

I have always had a passion for learning and decided to become a student later in life. I went to college and university to learn about the psychology of offending. I was a little bit disappointed to learn that you couldn’t deduce everything about an offender by examining the crime scene, but the reality was so much better.

I was lucky enough to work alongside one of the world leaders in criminal psychology, Professor David Canter. As soon as I started university I was determined to get involved in his work. I worked as an intern and research assistant for Professor Canter and it was very much sink or swim – fortunately I stayed afloat.

One of my first assignments was to go out and interview members of the general public. This led to me doing interviews with prisoners in North West England. That was like a dream come true. I got to interview murderers, gang members, fraudsters, and many more about their crimes. I’m sure at one point I asked to be referred to as Clarice! I was surprised by how nice the majority of prisoners seemed to be.

I decided to set up CrimePsych to share my knowledge and experience in the psychology of offending. I want to share my passion for learning with others and encourage people to ask questions and seek out answers. For every crime there is a victim, therefore it is against my moral values to glorify or dramatize offending in any way. Everything I do is based on fact and research and is aimed at improving understanding.

The mission of CrimePsych is to enhance the understanding of the Psychology of Offending. It does so by providing online courses and live events where people from any background can learn the motivations, justifications and underlying behavioural characteristics of criminality. CrimePsych aims to bring awareness of Investigative Psychology, Offender Profiling, and Forensic Psychology to illustrate the ways in which these disciplines can be used to understand offending.

CrimePsych helps people develop the knowledge, understanding, and skills that will enable them to interpret offending behaviour and gain insight into criminality. CrimePsych offers information on many aspects of criminality including deception, stalking, domestic abuse, rape, and murder, which are delivered through weekly blogs, vlogs, live events and online courses.