Insight Conferences Update – Death Row, Psychopaths, Female Offending, Eyewitness Testimony and Offender Profiling
November 12th, 2007 | by Mark Holah |
Insight Conferences have sent me an update on their November and December crime conferences. They still have some places available. The conferences will be suitable for students studying Law, Psychology, Sociology, Forensics etc.
Venues will include:
- Friends House, Euston Road, London, Friday 16th November 2007
- Gala Theatre, Durham Monday 26th November 2007
- Hulme Hall, University Manchester, Friday 30th November 2007
- Torquay Riviera Centre, Monday 3rd December 2007
- Portsmouth Friday 10th December 2007
Speakers will be people who work or research the areas they are speaking about and who have a true insight. The conference will consist of presentations with at least two during the day being interactive and requiring student participation.
The conference will run between 10am and 3.30pm and the cost will be £20.00 per student.
Areas covered include:
Death Row – Hear from a death row prisoner who was exonerated after 8,057 days. He was the first death row prisoner to use DNA science to prove his innocence. Hear his story ……
Psychopaths – Nature v Nurture – The concept of the psychopath (or more currently dangerous severe personality disorder) is central to many arguments on the nature and nurture of homicide and particularly serial homicide. These issues will all be explored with their relevance to the study of psychology in mind and illustrated by reference to case examples.
Female Offending – The way in which women are perceived within the criminal justice system. Traditionally and still apparent in current times, female offenders are viewed as “mad” rather than “bad”. Using the presenters own experiences of the culture in female jails followed by case studies of female prisoners she has worked. Students will be asked to get together in groups in order to discuss whether a particular offender is best viewed as mentally ill (mad) or psychopathic (bad). This will be linked to the topic of the media portrayal of prolific female offenders, specifically analysing the discourse used in newspaper articles.
Treatment needs of female offenders. Self-harm, arson, sexual offending areas for women in our prison system. Students will be asked why they think these are important areas for female offenders. Their reasoning shall be compared with explanations drawn from psychological theory.
Offender Profiling – The definitions and assumptions underlying offender profiling shall be discussed and a recent case involving fatal arson in which a psychological profile was undertaken shall be presented. The aim of the session is to encourage a critical assessment of what can be achieved by offender profiling and how this can be improved with scientific methods.
Eyewitness Testimony – This presentation will examine the fascinating subject of eyewitness testimony. Every year prisoners are released from prison after serving part of a prison sentence for a crime they did not commit. Often, the evidence used to convict these innocent individuals is eyewitness testimony; the testimony of a victim or witness claiming to remember the perpetrator and picking him/her out of mug shots or police line-ups. How fallible is human memory? When are we accurate and when are we poor at remembering scenes, faces and crimes?
For a copy of their brochure, email insight.conferences@ntlworld.com with your full postal address.
Insight Conferences are also running a number of in-house conferences across the country for the names of schools/colleges involved and to see if there is one in your area please contact them
Insight also have their Applied Psychology conference running in Torquay on 3rd December which will cover Stress, Memory, Attachment and in the afternoon students will have a presentation covering Mental Health and then have the opportunity in groups to speak to people suffering from Schizophrenia, Brain Tumour, Depression and Phobia.
Insight will be running both of these conferences again during March 2008 and anybody interested in dates and venues should contact them via email.