Justice, security, & institutional change
Using psychology to understand group behaviour, interactions between justice/government and the public, and to help inform institutional change within security and justice settings.
This theme focuses on how theories from across psychology (and related fields such as Criminology and Law) can be applied to understanding and influencing individual/group behaviour and institutional processes in justice and security settings such as the police, courts, and security agencies. Currently, this includes expertise on policing, vulnerable witness testimony, court practices, and extremism. The Keele Academic Policing Collaboration (KPAC) is an externally-funded centre of policing research which generated high-profile non-academic impact in ERF2021. Other externally funded research projects extend this impact justice organisations within the UK and internationally. This theme has scope to increase interdisciplinary links with social policy, criminology, law, and forensic science. For further information about the Justice, Security, & Institutional Change Group, please contact Research Group Lead, Professor Clifford Stott.
We offer a thriving and dynamic environment for both research and teaching excellence. We are proud of our high-profile research activity, our external impact, and our strong portfolio of courses. We offer a portfolio of MSc Psychology courses which integrate well with our research themes.
Staff expertise and interests
Dr Jais Adam-Troian
Intergroup relations and how threat contexts foster radicalization; violent extremism and conspiracy beliefs; interface between political and health psychology (e.g., the effects of political violence on protester mental health).
View Jais' profile.
Dr Samantha Andrews
Application of developmental, cognitive, and social psychology to inform and improve practice and public policy; the interface between psychology, criminal law, and/or the family; evaluation of the quality of forensic interviewing and courtroom questioning of vulnerable witnesses. View Sam's profile.
Dr Ching-Yu Huang
Investigative interviews with vulnerable populations, working with families in challenging circumstances, as well as cognitive factors influencing investigative decision-making.
View Ching-Yu's profile.
Dr Alexandra Kent
The way language and psychology are understood through conversation analysis. research interests include the negotiation of power and authority in interaction, requests, shared decision-making in interaction, and help-seeking behaviours. View Alexandra's profile.
Professor Clifford Stott
Group Lead and KPAC Director. Crowds, ‘riots’, ‘hooliganism’ and policing, particularly as this related to ‘public order’ underpinned by theoretical perspectives on social identity; social psychological aspects of Procedural Justice Theory; ethnography and participant action research; inter-disciplinary research on security. View Clifford's profile.