Professor Jessica Woodhams

Professor Jessica Woodhams

School of Psychology
Head of Research
Professor of Forensic Psychology

Contact details

View my research portal
Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
B15 2TT
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Jessica is a chartered psychologist and an HCPC registered forensic psychologist. She is the School of Psychology’s Head of Research. Her primary areas of research are policing and sexual offending and much of her research is co-produced with practitioners from UK and international policing and law enforcement. She is the founder of the international academic-practitioner C-LINK network (Crime Linkage International NetworK), Co-Director of the Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing at the University, and the lead of two work streams within the Institute for Global Innovation’s theme of 21st Century Transnational Crime.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Leicester), ‘Juvenile sex offending: An investigative perspective’.
  • M.Sc. Forensic Psychology (Kent)
  • B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology (Southampton)

Biography

Jessica began her career in forensic psychology as a crime analyst for the London Metropolitan Police. Following this, she worked at two other universities before arriving at the University of Birmingham in 2010 as a senior lecturer. She was promoted to Reader in 2016 and to Professor of Forensic Psychology in 2018. While at the University she has held and continues to hold several leadership roles. She was the Director of the Centre for Applied Psychology from 2017-2020 and she is currently the School’s Head of Research. She is the Co-Director for the Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing. She also leads two work steams within the Institute for Global Innovation's Challenge Theme of 21st Century Transnational Crime.

Jessica works closely with practitioners in her research and since becoming an academic has continued to stay involved in case work and consultancy. She has been consulted on high profile cases for the London Metropolitan Police, West Midlands Police and the Scottish Crown Office, and has advised international police forces on the development of their crime linkage capability. She conducts operational research for the Home Office, the National Crime Agency, the College of Policing, the National Police Chief’s Council, UK police forces and agencies and numerous overseas police forces. She has attracted more than £5 million in grants and contracts for her research.

In 2013, following the award of the Leverhulme International Networks grant, she founded C-LINK (Crime Linkage International NetworK), an international network for practitioners and researchers with a professional interest in the behavioural linking of crimes. Since 2015, she has co-hosted an academic advisory group for police and law enforcement. She is a member of the Metropolitan Police’s Research Ethics Committee.

Teaching

Jessica gives lectures and workshops on our undergraduate Psychology programme and on our professional doctorate degrees. She supervises the research of trainees on our professional doctorates and supervises several PhD students at any one time.

Postgraduate supervision

Jessica has supervised more than 100 MSc students to date and 19 ForenPsyD/ClinPsyD students.

Current PhD students:

  • Shoshana Gander-Zaucker
  • Thomas Klaus
  • Manuela Mihauic
  • Prachi Shah

Completed PhD Supervision:

  • Kari Davies
  • Fazeelat Duran (co-supervised with Darren Bishopp)
  • Kamonchanok Montasevee (co-supervised with Louise Dixon and Darren Bishopp
  • Teresa da Silva
  • Mark Kells
  • Zoe Stephenson
  • Matthew Tonkin
  • Shannon Vettor
  • Chelsea Slater
  • Paul Dawson 

Research

Research Interests

Investigative Psychology
Informing police decision-making and developing decision-support, including crime linkage (behavioural linking of crimes), suspect prioritisation, classification of IIOC, offender profiling. She also evaluates police interventions in terms of effectiveness, as well as conducting process evaluations.

Sexual and Serial Offending
Sexual offending (particularly offences committed by strangers, juveniles and groups, as well as Internet-facilitated child sexual abuse), modus operandi, victim behaviour, rape myths and stereotypes, serial offending (including robbery, burglary and sexual offences).

Wellbeing of Criminal Justice Professionals
Occupational stress, the effect of exposure to other people’s traumatic experiences, coping strategies used by professionals.

Research Funding

Jessica has attracted more than £5M in research grants and contracts.

Selected research grants and contracts

2020 & 2021: Internet child sexual offending. Principal Investigator, £1.74M

2021: Investigating the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on stranger sex offender behaviour and victim vulnerability. Principal Investigator, £295k

2019: Evaluation of crime linkage processes in Switzerland. Co-Investigator, £57k

2019: Independent Evaluation of Policing Interventions tackling Vulnerability and/or Violent Crime. Co-investigator and Lot 4 Lead, £668k

2017 & 2019: Academic Advisory Group. Principal Investigator, £30k

Other activities

  • Director of the Centre for Applied Psychology
  • Co-Director of the Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing
  • Co-organiser of the Academic Advisory Group
  • Associate Editor for Journal of Sexual Aggression
  • Editorial Board Member for Legal and Criminological Psychology

Publications

Journal Articles since 2016

    1. Duran, F., Bishopp, D., & Woodhams, J. (in press). Relationships between psychological contract violation, stress and wellbeing in firefighters. International Journal of Workplace Health Management.
    2. Duran, F., Woodhams, J., & Bishopp, D. (in press). An interview study of the experiences of police officers in regard to psychological contract and wellbeing. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.
    3. Kloess, J.A., Woodhams, J., Whittle, H., Grant, T., & Hamilton-Giachritis, C.E. (in press). The challenges of identifying and classifying footage of child sexual abuse. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment.
    4. Stephenson, Z., Woodhams, J., & Harkins, L. (in press). The sequencing of interventions with offenders: views of offender managers and supervisors. Journal of Forensic Practice.
    5. Woodhams, J., Tonkin, M., Burrell, A., et al. (2019).  Can crimes be linked by modus operandi? An ecologically valid test of the principles underpinning crime linkage. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 24, 123-140.  
    6. Da Silva, T., Woodhams, J., & Harkins, L. (2018). “An adventure that went wrong”. Reasons given by convicted perpetrators of multiple perpetrator rape for their involvement in the offence. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47, 443-456.
    7. Duran, F., Woodhams, J., & Bishopp, D. (2018). An interview study of the experiences of firefighters in regard to the psychological contract, stressors, and well-being. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 30, 203-226.
    8. Stephenson, Z., Woodhams, J., & Harkins, L. (2017). The sequencing and delivery of interventions: Views of Imprisoned for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners in the UK. Journal of Forensic Psychology: Research and Practice, 17, 275-294.
    9. Tonkin, M., Pakkanen, T., Siren, J., Bennell, C., Woodhams, J. et al. (2017). Using offender crime scene behaviour to link sexual assaults: A comparison of three statistical approaches. Journal of Criminal Justice, 50, 19-28.
    10. Tonkin, M., & Woodhams, J. (2017). The feasibility of using crime scene behaviour to detect versatile serial offenders: An empirical test of behavioural consistency, distinctiveness and discrimination accuracy. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 22, 99-115.
    11. Sturgess, D., Woodhams, J., & Tonkin, M. (2016). Treatment engagement from the perspective of the offender: reasons for non-completion and completion of treatment - a systematic review. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60, 1873-1896.

Books and Book Chapters since 2016

  1. Davies, K., Woodhams, J., & Rainbow, L. (2018).  Crime linkage and sexual homicide. In J. Proulx, E. Beauregard, A. Carter, A. Mokros, R. Darjee & J. James (Eds). International handbook of sexual homicide studies.  Routledge.
  2. Woodhams, J., & Tonkin, M. (2017). Offender profiling and crime linkage.  In G. Davies & A. R. Beech (Eds.), Forensic psychology (3rd ed). Chichester, UK: Wiley.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Policing and sexual offending

Culture and collections

Schools, institutes and departments

Services and facilities