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Professor Gavin Oxburgh

Professor

Department: Social Sciences

Professor Gavin Oxburgh is a Professor of Police Science and an Assitant Director of The Northern Hub for Veteran and Military Familes Research (with a focus on the Criminal Justice research agenda). Gavin is a 22 year veteran of His Majesty's Royal Air Force Police where he was a senior detective specialising in child protection and sexual offences. He is an HCPC Registered Forensic Psychologist, a Chartered Psychologist and Scientist, and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). He is also a registered Expert Witness with the BPS providing advice in legal cases in the UK and overseas. 

Gavin works in close collaboration with many police forces and law enforcement agencies around the world, providing consultancy and training on a wide variety of topics relating to legal psychology and human rights. He has previoulsy worked in close collaboration with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, and provided specialist advice and training to their Investigations Division. He is active in International Human Rights and sits on a UN-led International Steering Committee co-ordinated by the Association on the Prevention of Torture (APT) that developed The Mendez Principles on Effective Interviewing.

Gavin Oxburgh

Gavin's research draws upon, and contributes to, the broad area of military veterans' research, together with legal and criminological psychology including: International human rights, the prevention of torture, ethical and non-coercive interviewing; false and recovered memories, and; (cyber) crime in the cloud. He has attracted over £4.2m in research grants to date from the ESRC, EPSRC, The British Academy, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Fund, The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), the UK College of Policing, and the N8 Policing Research Partnership. 

Gavin has published widely in the area of legal and forensic psychology, policing, and communication. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, and an Editorial Advisory Board member of the Torture Journal. In 2017, he was awarded Associate Investigator status of the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) which is EPSRC and GCHQ managed.

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Developing a narrative theory of deception for the analysis of mock-Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) accounts, Moffett, L., Oxburgh, G., Gabbert, F., Dresser, P. 12 Feb 2024, In: Police Journal
  • Evaluation of Forensic Interviews and Interrogations: A Thematic Analysis of Law-Enforcement Views, Farrugia, L., Oxburgh, G., Gabbert, F. 16 Jul 2024, In: Journal of Criminal Psychology
  • Forensic interviews conducted with autistic adults in Japan: a review of the literature and directions for future research, Walsh, D., Brooks, G., Naka, M., Oxburgh, G., Kyo, A. 3 Mar 2024, In: Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
  • One is too Many: A Conceptual Framework for Safety Planning within Service Delivery for Veterans and their Families, Kiernan, M., McGill, G., Watson, P., Farrell, D., Oxburgh, G., Arnfield, J., Rebair, A., Knibbs, L., Allen, S., Gettings, R., Senior, E. 20 Mar 2024
  • Politeness, face, and rapport-building in remote and face-to-face investigative interviews with witnesses, MacLeod, N., Oxburgh, G., Walsh, D., Farrugia, L., Nash, A. 21 May 2024, In: International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law
  • Concluding Remarks on the Future of Interviewing and Interrogation: Advancing Science and Practice, Hartwig, M., Fallon, M., Myklebust, T., Oxburgh, G. 3 Nov 2023, Interviewing and Interrogation, Brussels, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher
  • Interviewing and Interrogation: A Review of Research and Practice Since World War II, Oxburgh, G., Myklebust, T., Fallon, M., Hartwig, M. 3 Nov 2023
  • Investigating the Moral Challenges Experienced by UK Service Police Veterans, Allen, S., Oxburgh, G., Kiernan, M. 24 Jan 2023, In: Journal of Veteran Studies
  • Keeping our wits about us: introducing a bespoke informant interview model for covert human intelligence source (CHIS) interactions, Moffett, L., Oxburgh, G., Dresser, P., Gabbert, F., Watson, S. 3 Jul 2023, In: Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism
  • Mapping the Lie: A Smallest Space Analysis of Truthful and Deceptive Mock-informant Accounts., Moffett, L., Oxburgh, G., Dresser, P., Gabbert, F. 1 Sep 2023, In: The Police Journal

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Physical and psychological torture: Multi-disciplinary approaches to a global problem. 2019
  • Publication Peer-review: Torture : quarterly journal on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture (Journal) 2019
  • Publication Peer-review: International Journal of Forensic Mental Health (Journal) 2018
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: The immorality and ineffectiveness of physical and psychological torture 2017
  • Publication Peer-review: Applied Cognitive Psychology (Journal) 2017
  • Publication Peer-review: Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (Journal) 2017
  • Publication Peer-review: British Journal of Forensic Practice (Journal) 2016
  • Invited talk: Contemporary developments in investigative interviewing: The importance of research in practice 2015
  • Publication Peer-review: International Journal of Police Science and Management (Journal) 2012
  • Publication Peer-review: Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling (Journal) 2012

Lee Moffett Adopting a holistic approach to the development of a bespoke informant interview model Start Date: 01/09/2020 End Date: 29/09/2022

International Collaboration and Consultancy

In 2021, Gavin co-founded ETICA (Global), a not-for-profit organisation established to deliver capacity-building through training, professional advisory services, knowledge exchange, and innovation for ethical investigative practice across the globe. In 2007, he co-founded the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG) an organisation he Chaired until Jul 19.

He has trained investigators from many international organisations including the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Investigation Services, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the the Finnish and Swedish Competition Authorities in specialist interview techniques. He has previously provided specialist training to members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and South African Prosecution Services on non-coercive interviewing in cases of child sexual abuse and on-line child exploitation. He was a specialist advisor to the Credibility Assessment Research Summit (CARS), Washington DC, on Educing Information from suspects, a US Government research group sponsored by the Defence Academy for Credibility Assessment (DACA).

He has previoulsy worked closely with the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) on: (i) organising an international conference entitled Physical and psychological torture: Multi-disciplinary approaches to a global problem, in London (Jun 19); (ii) delivering training to investigators and prosecutors from Ukraine, and; (iii) co-hosting a roundtable discussion at the UK's House of Lords on the draft universal protocol on non-coercive interviewing (together with legal and procedural safeguards). He has been an invited expert to the Great Britain-China Centre (London) and the Supreme People’s Court of China assisting on the process of conducting effective non-coercive interviewing.  

Membership of Professional Bodies

Gavin is a member of the following professional bodies:

  • The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP);
  • The UK Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC);
  • The British Psychological Society (BPS);
  • The American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS); 
  • The European Association of Psychology & Law (EAPL); 
  • The UK Higher Education Academy (HEA);
  • The UK Science Council (UKSC). 

 

  • Psychology PhD December 01 2011
  • Teacher Training (University) PGCLTHE July 01 2008
  • Psychology MSc October 01 2004
  • Psychology BSc (Hons) October 01 2002
  • Registered Forensic Psychologist (HCPC) 2010
  • Chartered Scientist (UKSC) CSci 2010
  • BPS Chartered Psychologist (Research & Teaching) CPsychol 2010
  • Fellow of the British Psychological Society FBPsS 2010


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