PW_4_2021

Article

An Evening with a Professional Criminologist Denis Hunt , Secretary No 4 Region (Wales)

The discovery of Zoom has been a blessing during these long periods of lockdowns and restricted gatherings. Section UK has certainly made the most of Zoom, with Coffee mornings, Wine & Whisky (whiskey?) Forums, cultural and professional presentations and the many quizzes, have all featured as attempts to prevent everyone going ‘stir crazy’. Many Members, Regions and Branches took to Zoom like a duck to water, whereas others were reluctant to test the waters.

Colin Drewett dressed for the river

H ere in Wales, we took every opportunity to offer presentations across a variety of themes, including the use of DNA Profiling in crime investigation, a member’s talk on the Jigsaw murders of 1935 where his relative was one of the victims. We even learned a bit of cultural history about the rise of Welsh Male Choirs. However, we believe that we hit a new height, with a presentation by the well-known TV personality and Criminologist Professor Elizabeth (Liz) Yardley. We were joined by 27 members from across Section UK for her fascinating session. Thanks to a link with Lois Ellis and Dan McNulty, Liz offered us an on-line presentation, discussing her role as a Criminologist, and in fact explaining just what Criminology is. Before her presentation, we broke the ice by explaining to Liz: the background of the IPA, when and why it was formed, and what it offers to members both socially and professionally. Liz spoke first on how society attempts to make sense of Crime and their response in general to it. Whilst she touched briefly on various aspects of crime, her main theme was on mass murder (which she defined as, a group of four or more murders). Liz touched on several horrific offences carried out both in America and in the United Kingdom. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the presentation was the description of the commonalities across many mass murder offenders. Liz identified these as being: Failure (in their life generally) Blame (The fault was always other people, never theirs) Isolation (A loner) Trigger (some specific action to act as the trigger, such as divorce or job loss) Weapon (mass murderers generally use a weapon) These Commonalities are usually found in some way as having a clear link to misogyny. Each part of the presentation was delivered in a relaxed and easy to understand package, at the end of which, Liz opened the floor to the members for questions, of which there were many, lasting nearly an hour. Within the group were members who were themselves studying for University Degrees in Criminology or Social Studies, several at Master’s level. The enthusiastic feedback by members on the Section UK Facebook page, was a testament as to how well received the whole evening was, with many thanks being displayed for the organisers, Lois and Dan.

Lowland Search and Rescue Flood support

POLICE WORLD Vol 66 No.4, 2021

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