Dr. John Synnott

Dr John Synnott is a Chartered Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychology Society, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and an Associate Director of the MSc Investigative Psychology Deputy Director of the MSc in Security Science and Associate Director of the Secure Societies Institute at the University of Huddersfield. John has presented research on the Psychology of Crime and Offender Decision Making at conferences around the world. He recently presented a keynote talk in Baghdad, Iraq on the application of Investigative Psychology with his colleague Dr Ioannou. Dr Synnott, again with his colleague Dr Ioannou, recently delivered a number of keynote presentations to the Royal Thai Police in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai Thailand in December 2018. Dr Synnott has contributed reports to the Irish Police Force (An Gardai), the Irish Prison Service (IPS), the Irish Governments White Paper on Crime and to the Minister for Justice Office, Ireland. Dr Synnott recently provided consultation with his colleague Dr Maria Ioannou on the development of a Risk Assessment Tool for Domestic Violence for the Irish Police Force and Department of Justice Ireland and has consulted on similar Domestic Violence Risk Assessment Scales for a police force in the UK. He has recently evaluated a prison training program, again with his colleague Dr Ioannou, for offenders at Shelton Abbey Prison in Ireland and has just completed a Mental Wellbeing project at the same facility that was presented at the British Psychology Societies Division of Forensic Psychology conference in Bristol. Dr Synnott is a member of the School Research Ethics Panel and also the School Business and Consultancy Committee. Dr Synnott recently published a special issue as guest editor on the topic Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse for the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling. He currently directs a number of projects and supervises a number of PhD candidates on but not limited to the following topics; the use of the polygraph in the detection of deception, risk taking behavior amongst elite athletes, the role of open prisons on mental wellbeing, sexual assault on campus, sexual offending in South East Asia, illegal migrate experiences of travel through Libya, missing persons, childhood bullying, examination of county lines in the UK, Rape myth acceptance, Stalking and narratives of mentally ill offenders. He is currently completing a project with his colleague Dr Ioannou funded by Merseyside Police on the non-consensual distribution of imagery amongst adolescents and recently completed with his colleagues at Huddersfield a funded rapid evidence assessment for the Home Offices, Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Dr Synnott was a Principle Investigator on a recently completed project with his colleague Dr Ioannou which was an Evaluation of a Domestic Violence Fast Tracking Protocol in a UK Crown Court. This work was recently presented at Thames Valley Police Conference at the University of Oxford (January 2019). Dr Synnott has extensive Media experience having appeared on radio (Newstalk, Capital FM) and television (BBC) and his work has featured in media nationally and internationally (Washington Post & CNN) as well as being featured in the prestigious journal of Nature. Dr Synnott was recently interviewed as part of a state funded documentary in Thailand, on the issue of online abuse.