Prf Graham Pike

Professor Of Forensic Cognition

Psychology

graham.pike@open.ac.uk

Biography

Research interests

My research uses a broad, applied cognitive approach to generate and apply knowledge across a range of domains, most commonly the criminal justice system. I have a particular interest in developing technology, policy and procedures designed to improve police investigations, particularly with regards to eyewitness evidence. For example, see:

I also have interests in mental health, having worked as part of recent teams exploring the mental health and wellbeing of emergency responders. In addition, I am interested in visual imagination and parasocial relationships, including how psychology is used in creative writing. For example, see:

As well as being a football fan, and three times winner of my school's fantasy football league, I have recently begun to conduct research into being a football supporter using a parasocial lens. For example, see:

Club v Country: The psychology of switching support

I am the founding member and current co-lead of the Forensic Cognition Research Group where I work closely with Gemma Briggs, Lara Frumkin, Gini Harrison, Trina Havard, Hayley Ness, Sarah Laurence, Jen Pink, Martin Thirkettle and Zoe Walkington.

In addition, I am also a founding member, and have been a director, of the Centre for Policing Research and Learning, which is a collaboration between The Open University and 26 UK Police Forces and Agencies, and the Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative (HERC),

Teaching interests

Since coming to the university in 2000, I have worked on a wide range of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Recently this has included designing and directing the following qualifications:

BSc (Honours) Forensic Psychology (Q82)

as well as supporting the development of the following degrees:

and modules:

Projects

Citizen Forensics

The Citizen Forensics project reframes key challenges that underlie modern policing in a socio-technical world; a world instrumented with mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies, in which many citizens and communities live, work and play, but which must also manage threats to their wellbeing and their rights. The project aims to support a new engagement between authorities (such as the police) and communities of citizens in order to better investigate (and in the long term reduce) potential or actual threats to citizen security, safety, and privacy. This includes both empowering the police by opening up new ways of citizens providing data in ways that protect privacy and anonymity, and empowering citizens by using these new technologies to also hold the police to account. We will be harnessing many of the so-called Internet of Things, Smart City and Smart Home technologies to encourage and allow citizens to help the police collect and analyse disparate data to improve public safety at both local and ultimately national levels. This multidisciplinary investigation draws upon expertise in computing, policing, psychology and organisational theory. For more information, see https://www.citizenforensics.org/