Yesterday, the whole of the Psychology department and many other STEM students in the sixth form attended a conference on Forensics and Criminology at The Royal Institution, London.

It was a full day of lectures on topics we had never experienced before, looking at psychology, natural sciences, mathematics and archeology. I was so impressed with how intense and engaging the speakers were, regardless of the audience’s academic preferences, because everyone enjoyed all of the different lectures and range of interests which they addressed. The topics ranged from FBI work and cryptography to bullet residue analysis to explosives attacks. The high academic level of the conference immersed us right into the new topics and left us feeling extremely knowledgeable.

One interesting point from the first speaker was about crime prevention and the “crime triangle”. There are three necessary conditions: hot location, hot target and hot offender. If you improve one of the three conditions, for example place CCTV or other safety measures in the location, it makes the offender less likely to commit the crime. It was also interesting to learn about DNA and GSR (gunshot residue) and how they can be spread to places the person has never actually been, such as through handshakes, so analysts must be careful before making arrests. One of the speakers also addressed Mrs Hammond’s favourite question- “So what?” -which highlighted to us the real-life implications of their work and research in solving crimes in such technologically developed times.

This day has greatly interested the girls and perhaps inspired some to take this experience even further by studying it in the future.

By Madelyn (UVI)