Professor Leam Craig, member of the Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology in the School, has received the 2013 Senior Academic Award from the Division of Forensic Psychology, for distinguished contribution to academic knowledge in forensic psychology.
Professor Craig has published well over 70 peer review publications, editorials and book chapters, many of which as lead author, and his work has been translated into five different languages. He has seven books published or in press, the most recent being What Works in Offender Rehabilitation: An Evidence Based Approach to Assessment and Treatment (Wiley, 2013). He was one of the first to cross validate sexual offender actuarial risk assessment scales on UK samples and to identify differences in actuarial characteristics between sexual offenders against adults and those against children. He has examined the psychometric properties of actuarial measures and his discussion on the methodological approaches when analysing the predictive accuracy of actuarial measures has advanced the debate when evaluating risk scales. In 2009/2010 he was invited to write, and published guidance on Best Practice when using actuarial scales in journals Aggression and Violent Behavior and Journal of Sexual Aggression.
His recent research has shed light on the effects of age on sexual recidivism examining sexual reconviction data on age bands of sex offenders. His research publication in 2004 in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology was in the top ten most downloaded journal articles in that year. His research publication in 2008 in the Journal of Sexual Aggression was the second most downloaded journal article in that year. He has authored three out of the fifteen most cited research articles in the Journal of Sexual Aggression, recorded in 2011, 2012 and 2013.