Dr Zoe Stephenson MSc, PhD

PhD (Birmingham), ‘Treatment of offenders: The delivery and sequencing of interventions’

M.Sc. Forensic Psychology (Gloucestershire)

B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology with Sociological Studies (Gloucestershire)

Zoe has worked in academia for the last six years in capacities such as Psychology lecturer (BSc Psychology), Course Leader (BSc Psychology), Lecturer (MSc Forensic Psychology), Instructor (Forensic Psychology), and has been in the role of Lecturer in Forensic Psychology for the last year at the University of Birmingham. 

She has conducted research in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on the topic of the sequencing of interventions with offenders.  She has also recently conducted analyses for the Council of Europe into alternatives to imprisonment. 

Zoe currently lectures on the doctorate programme on the topics of research methods, training provision in forensic settings and qualitative analysis.  She supervises a number of Forensic Doctorate and CPD trainees and provides additional one to one support for UG and PG students.

In line with her research interests, she guest lectures on the topics of female offending and managing offenders in the community.

Rehabilitation with sexual and violent offenders
Interventions used in prison or the community aimed to reduce the likelihood of an offender committing further crimes following their sentence. In addition to the content of the intervention (e.g., thinking skills, literacy skills, anger management) it is also necessary to consider the delivery of interventions such as timing (i.e., is an offender motivated to change?) and sequencing (i.e., should an offender take part in interventions in a particular order?).

Female offending
Although female crime rates are still lower than those of their male counterparts for the majority of crimes, it is thought that female crime may be on the rise. The need to consider gender specific risk factors for offending has been recognised with the aim of developing gender specific interventions to reduce rates of re-offending.