Dr Craig Bennell

Founding Member (Canada)

Dr. Bennell is the Director of the Police Research Lab at Carleton University, Canada. Dr. Bennell holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Alberta (Canada), and an MSc and PhD from the University of Liverpool (UK). He is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, a previous President of the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology, and a previous Editor of the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. He currently sits on the editorial board of 5 peer-reviewed forensic/police psychology journals, and has co-authored two psychology textbooks. His primary areas of research are the reliability, validity and/or utility of psychologically-based investigative techniques (e.g. offender profiling and crime linkage), use-of-force decision making and training, and evidence-based policing. Dr. Bennell is an experienced crime linkage researcher and is a pioneer in the development of crime linkage techniques. Together with Professor Jessica Woodhams, he co-edited the book, Crime Linkage: Theory, Research, and Practice.

Dr. Bennell’s responsibilities in relation to the C-LINK project include the collection of data from the Canadian police organisations, data analysis (in particular receiver operating characteristic analysis), and participation in the workshops. Dr. Bennell will also support the dissemination of the research findings, and will be involved in planning the future of the network.