Biography

Dr. Youngs currently works with Professor Canter directing a series of recently won research projects looking at a variety of crimes and criminals. These studies explore a range of Investigative topics from the Geographical Profiling of Burglary, to Street Robbery, Youth Crime and Antisocial behaviour, Fraudulent Crime Reporting, Insurance Fraud and the Social Networks of Prolific Offenders. A further study is exploring the Prostitution in particular violence against Prostitutes from an Investigative perspective. Dr. Youngs and Professor Canter lead a team of 8 researchers interviewing offenders both in and out of prison, as well as working with police forces and other agencies to collect data on patterns of offending.

Donna has been a part of the Centre for Investigative Psychology since the early days, joining shortly after Professor Canter had first begun helping the police and defining the scientific discipline of Investigative Psychology- and establishing the Centre for Investigative Psychology as the first place in the world where this can be studied. Donna won ESRC awards to study for both her M.Sc. and Ph.d. degrees. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally. In relation to the course, her role is as Placement Tutor and she is also able to provide academic guidance and assistance.

In addition to her current research, Donna's specialist areas and research interests extend to Criminal Specialisation, Differentiation and Consistency, Self-reports of Crime, the relationship between Personality and Criminal Style and the psychological analysis of Threat and Extortion letters.

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