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Our student coordinators play a vital role in ensuring that SIPR activities are student-led where possible and supporting our mission to nurture the next generation of policing researchers. Our student coordinators work closely with the SIPR leadership Team to shape the future of the student network through engagement with the postgraduate community and the development of key postgraduate activities.
Oana Petcu – PhD Candidate, University of Edinburgh & University of Glasgow.
“Oana is a doctoral student in Criminology at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on drug markets and new technology in Scotland. In particular, her interest lies with how technology is adopted in drug practices in both urban and rural areas across Scotland. Oana has previously worked on projects on missing people, human trafficking, sex work, financial crimes, and mental health. In recent years there have been significant changes in global drug markets, driven by the development of new technologies. In Scotland, these changes have manifested through an increase in illegal drugs entering the market and the expansion of drug markets into rural areas. Although we have made significant developments towards understanding this phenomenon, little is known about the localised changes and what new challenges and harms these may bring. My doctoral research aims to bridge this knowledge gap by assessing how online drug markets co-exist with more traditional forms of drug practices in both urban and rural areas of Scotland.”
Sam Conway, PhD Candidate, Abertay University.
“I am a Psychology PhD student at Abertay University in Dundee. I started my PhD in June 2021. My research focuses on how the use of novel technologies (such as avatars) might assist forensic interviewers with eliciting disclosure and episodic memory from children. In 2019, I graduated with a BSc in Psychology from Abertay University. In 2020, I graduated with an MSc in Forensic Psychology from Glasgow Caledonian University. My research interests are in applied memory research and investigative interviewing. I am particularly interested in which factors improve witness memory and which factors may facilitate greater witness disclosure. I am also interested in missing persons’ research and how we can apply this knowledge to police practice. As one of the SIPR postgraduate coordinators, I am looking forward to networking with other PGR students and helping create a sense of community.”
Larissa’s PhD thesis explored the role, value, and culture of learning within Police Scotland, utilising a mixed-methods approach to identify perceptions and lived experiences of learning in the police organisation in Scotland. Her findings are currently influencing the development of Police Scotland’s people strategy and will inform future reform in the police learning landscape in Scotland and beyond.
Most recently, Larissa has worked as an Associate Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University supporting the new BSc (Hons) Policing and Criminology programme. From 2019 to 2022, she was the Scottish Institute for Policing research (SIPR) postgraduate research coordinator, and still strongly supports the development of early career researchers.
Additionally, Larissa is the conference lead for the European Society of Criminology Policing Working Group actively supporting the development of policing research across Europe. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Larissa worked as a Special Constable with Police Scotland.
Larissa is working on the project Bradford mapping research: service provision for vulnerable groups in contact with the police. In this project, Larissa will be working closely with the Centre’s Born in Bradford partners, to map and understand the distribution of vulnerabilities and services across the city. Larissa will also be working on the project Co-designing community resilience to online child sexual victimisation.
Simon-Lewis is currently undertaking a PhD project in the communication of scientific evidence and its influence upon decision making during cases of sexual and non-sexual violent crime in the Scottish Criminal Justice System.
Simon-Lewis was one of the first Volunteer Student Coordinators for the Scottish Institute of Policing Research.
Simon-Lewis holds an MSc in Applied Criminology and Forensic Psychology from Edinburgh Napier University and a BSc First Class Honours Degree in Applied Criminology: Offender Management from the University of Derby.
Simon-Lewis has experience in using quantitative methodologies most notably in both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation projects. Likert Scales and a combination of paired t-tests and crosstabulations were employed to comparatively analyse attitudes to capital punishment in undergraduate dissertation. These methods as well as forms of trend analysis were used to determine to what extent, if any, there were divergences between England and Wales and Scotland relating to sentencing and disposals of drug offences as part of postgraduate dissertation.
Most recently, Simon-Lewis has been working as the full time SIPR Administrator.
Nesha Dixon is a psychology PhD student at Abertay University where her research focuses on developing an evidence-based structured professional judgement risk assessment tool for missing person investigations. Prior to her PhD, Nesha worked for Thames Valley Police as a Criminal Researcher and Intelligence Development Officer in the area of modern slavery, exploitation and human trafficking, where there was a significant overlap with missing persons. In her recent internship with the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), Nesha also completed a scoping review to understand child criminal exploitation in Scotland, commissioned by CYCJ, Action for Children and the Scottish Government. Nesha is passionate about undertaking research that will have a valuable impact on society and can inform evidence-based policing practices.
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