Dr Terri Cole
- tcole at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
- http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7649-480X
- Principal Academic In Forensic Psychology
- Poole House P116, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
Biography
I am a Principal Academic in Forensic Psychology. My main role at BU is as Programme Leader for the Investigative Forensic Psychology Masters Course. The course was designed based upon my experience working in practice, alongside the theoretical requirements underpinning the field. It is investigative focussed - so looks from crime scene to court room rather than beyond. I also lecture on some of our undergraduate units.
Research wise I supervise many Masters and PhD students and attempt to conduct my own research. This has a focus on sexual violence and current project have included diversion for domestic violence perpetrators and abuse of position for sexual gain (initially within the police service). We have strong links with Dorset Police and work on research in conjunction with partners/pragmatic considerations - as such much of our work is applied, and of use for practitioners.
I completed my undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Psychology with Criminal Justice from the University of Plymouth in 1999... Within this I undertook a placement year with the National Crime Faculty at Bramshill Police College, where I returned upon graduation, working in the Serious Crime Analysis Section as an Assistant Analyst and then as a Serious Crime Analyst until 2002. I then succeeded in gaining a position there as a Behavioural Investigative Adviser (and latterly Senior Behavioural Investigative Adviser). My role entailed attending incident rooms and crime scenes advising serious crime investigations throughout the UK (predominantly stranger murder, rape and serious sexual offences) in relation to offender profiling, behavioural crime scene assessment, offence linkage and prioritisation of persons of interest to the investigation.
In 2010 I completed a PhD from the University of Surrey entitled "Behavioural Investigative Advice in Difficult to Detect Murders; a Pragmatic Psychological Approach" which was a mixed methods design asking Senior Investigating Officers what they wanted from Behavioural Investigative Advisers, and exploring how, using data from previous cases, we could most reliably provide this information to them.
I have given many guest lectures to undergraduate and masters level courses and have also been involved in training many police personnel at different levels across many forces in the UK. I have spoken at a number of seminars, courses and conferences within policing, prisons, special hospitals and academic environments both in the UK and Internationally.
I am a member of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Division of Forensic Psychology.
moreJournal Articles
- Cole, T., Harvey, O., Healy, J.C. and Smith, C., 2025. Contemporary Treatment of Crime Victims/Survivors: Barriers Faced by Minority Groups in Accessing and Utilizing Domestic Abuse Services †. Behavioral Sciences, 15 (2).
- Harvey, O., Cole, T., Healy, J. and Levell, J., 2024. Explorations of attitudes towards accessibility and accessing domestic violence and abuse (DVA) perpetrator support programmes by victim-survivors and perpetrators across five European countries. Abuse, 5 (1), 26-45.
- Sweeting, F. and Cole, T., 2023. Sexual Misconduct in Police Recruits as identified by Police Trainers. Police Journal, 96 (2), 245-266.
- Sweeting, F. and Cole, T., 2023. The sharks and the fishermen: An exploratory content analysis of police officers who abused their positions for a sexual purpose. International Journal of Police Science & Management.
- Sweeting, F. and Cole, T., 2023. “We do employ some morons”: police trainers' opinions on recruitment procedures. Policing and Society: an international journal of research and policy.
- Skinner, R., Cole, T., McAlaney, J. and Hills, P., 2022. Personalised normative feedback as an intervention for sexism and rape myth acceptance. Psychology of Women and Equalities Section Review, 5 (2), 52-63.
- Sweeting, F., Cole, T. and Hills, P., 2022. Is the blue wall of silence a fallacy in cases of police sexual misconduct? International Journal of Police Science and Management, 24 (3), 285-297.
- Healy, J., Levell, J. and Cole, T., 2022. An intersectional analysis of domestic abuse perpetrator service adaptation during COVID-19: findings from the UK, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Romania. Journal of Gender Based Violence, 6 (2), 348-363.
- Sweeting, F., Arabaci-Hills, P. and Cole, T., 2021. Outcomes of Police Sexual Misconduct in the UK. Policing Oxford, 15 (2), 1339-1351.
- Mulholland, P. and Cole, T., 2021. A Comparison of Attribute-Focused and Harm-Focused Methods for Assessing the Risk of Organized Crime Groups: Are They in Agreement? Policing Oxford, 15 (2), 1367-1383.
- Hills, P.J., Pleva, M., Seib, E. and Cole, T., 2021. Understanding How University Students Use Perceptions of Consent, Wantedness, and Pleasure in Labeling Rape. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50 (1), 247-262.
- Wignall, L., Portch, E., McCormack, M., Owens, R., Cascalheira, C.J., Attard-Johnson, J. and Cole, T., 2021. Changes in Sexual Desire and Behaviors among UK Young Adults During Social Lockdown Due to COVID-19. Journal of Sex Research, 58 (8), 976-985.
- Hills, P.J., Seib, E., Pleva, M., Smythe, J., Gosling, M.R. and Cole, T., 2020. Consent, wantedness, and pleasure: Three dimensions affecting the perceived stress of and judgements of rape in sexual encounters. Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied, 26 (1), 171-197.
- McAlaney, J., Hills, P., Cole, T., Skinner, R. and Thomson, S., 2018. Sexual assault and campus culture. Psychologist, 31 (5), 7-8.
- Taylor, J., McAlaney, J., Muir, S. and Cole, T., 2017. Teaching Sensitive Issues in Cyberpsychology. Psychology Teaching Review, 23 (1).
- Cole, T. and Brown, J., 2013. Behavioural Investigative Advice: Assistance to Investigative Decision-making in Difficult-to-detect Murder. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling.
- Cole, T. and Brown, J., 2012. When is it best to seek assistance from a Behavioural Investigative Adviser? Journal of Homicide and Major Incident Investigation, 8 (1), 61-75.
Books
- McAlaney, J., Hills, P.J. and Cole, T., 2024. Forensic Perspectives on Cybercrime Human Behaviour and Cybersecurity. Taylor & Francis.
- McAlaney, J., Hills, P.J. and Cole, T., 2024. Forensic Perspectives on Cybercrime: Human Behaviour and Cybersecurity.
- Brown, J., Shell, Y. and Cole, T., 2023. Revealing Rape’s Many Voices: Differing Roles, Reactions and Reflections.
- Brown, J., Shell, Y. and Cole, T., 2015. Forensic Psychology Theory, research, policy and practice. SAGE.
Chapters
- Cole, T. and Brown, J., 2011. What do Senior Investigating Police Officers want from Behavioural Investigative Advisers? In: Alison, L. and Rainbow, L., eds. Professionalising Offender Profiling. Oxon: Routledge, 191-201.
- Cole, T. and Brown, J., 2011. What do senior investigating police officers want from behavioural investigative advisers? Professionalizing Offender Profiling Forensic and Investigative Psychology in Practice. 191-205.
Conferences
- Healy, J., Cole, T. and Hylton, G., 2019. Evaluating the (best) use of Stop and Search: Police Officer Perspectives. In: British Society of Criminology annual conference 3-5 July 2019 University of Lincoln.
- Cole, T., 2018. Abuse of police powers for sexual gain. In: Tackling Police Corruption in Partnership 5 November 2018 Worchester, UK.
- Cole, T., 2018. KEY NOTE SPEECH Forensic Psychology: Its usefulness in serious crime investigation. In: International Conference on Current Trends in Forensic Sciences, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology 26-28 October 2018 Pimpri, Pune, India.
- Cole, T. and Elliot, K., 2017. Sexual misconduct amongst police employees. In: Professional Standards and Ethics National Conference 27-28 November 2017 Stratford Upon Avon.
- Cole, T., 2017. Sexual misconduct amongst police employees - identifying key indicators to preduct abuse of powers for sexual gain. In: South Regional Policing Corruption conference 6 July 2017 Portishead, Bristol, UK.
- Cole, T., 2016. What is Forensic Psychology. In: London Student Conference Series 27 June 2016 Parkstone Grammar School.
- Cole, T., 2016. Improving Crime Analysis in Policing. In: Division of Forensic Psychology British Psychological Society Annual Conference 14-16 June 2016 Brighton.
- Cole, T., 2016. The Myths and Realities of Offender Profiling. In: Wessex Branch of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Student Conference 23 April 2016 Bournemouth University.
- Cole, T., 2016. How can academia help you? In: Major Incident Analyst Forum 16-17 March 2016 Heathrow.
Reports
- Cole, T., smith, C., Healy, J. and Harvey, O., 2024. Final Report for Yellow Door and Stop Domestic Abuse. Bournemouth University / Yellow Door.
- Healy, J., Levell, J., Harvey, O., Cole, T. and Pritchard, C., 2021. Time for Change: Evidence Based Research for New Practice Approaches.. European Union / OSSPC. Available from: https://www.osspc.eu/app/sites/default/files/inline-files/2021_OSSPC_Time_for_Change_Report.pdf.
- Healy, J., Levell, J., Harvey, O., Cole, T. and Pritchard, C., 2021. Country Report: United Kingdom. The Other Side of the Story: Perpetrators in Change. The Other Side of the Story: Perpetrators in Change, EU. Available from: https://www.osspc.eu/app/sites/default/files/inline-files/2021_OSSPC_UK_Country_Report_0.pdf.
Others
- Sweeting, F.R. and Cole, T., 2023. “We do employ some morons”: police trainers' opinions on recruitment procedures. Published.
PhD Students
- Fay Sweeting, 2022. Sexual misconduct in police officers: development of a risk assessment tool for the early identification of police officers and staff who abuse their positions for a sexual purpos, (In progress)
- Rachel Skinner, 2022. Cyber-Sexism and Sexual Assault: Impact and a Step Towards Intervention., (In progress)
- Elie Chrabrieh, 2022. The Creation and Validation of an Actuarial Lebanese Risk Assessment Tool, (In progress)
- Laura Preedy-Maher, 2024. Exploring abuse against children in educational organisations: The role of organisational and individual factors, (In progress)
- Chloe Smith, 2025. Experiences of those within minority sexuality and gender groups of domestic abuse and isolation, (In progress)
- Debbie Persuad, 2022. Is time of the essence - time estimation in victims of rape and sexual assault, (On hold)
Profile of Teaching PG
- Investigative Psychology
- Professional Practice and Court Skills
Profile of Teaching UG
- Forensic Psychology - Psychology Level 6
- Introduction to Forensic Psychology - Forensic Science Level 4
- Developmental and Applied Psychology
Invited Lectures
-
Psychology in Serious Crime Investigations, University of Exeter, 15 Mar 2022 more
Annual guest speaker - Forensic Science
Conference Presentations
- Indian Association of Medico-Legal Experts, Psychological crime scene assessment and offence linkage: A UK rape case study, 11 Sep 2019, Kathmandu, Nepal
- Asian Conference of Criminal and Operations Psychology, Sexual misconduct amongst police employees – predicting abuse of powers for sexual gain, 09 Jul 2019, Singapore
- Indian Association of Medico-Legal Experts, Forensic Psychology: Its usefulness in Serious Crime Investigation, 24 Oct 2018, Pune, India
- Celebration of Joanna Adler - Inaugural Lecture, Sexual Violence, 12 Jun 2013, Middlesex University
- Sexual Violence, Behavioural investigative advice for sexual crimes: Useful or not?, 08 Sep 2011, Middlesex University
- Division of Forensic Psychology Annual Conference, Current developments in behavioural advice to serious crime investigations, 23 Jul 2007, University of York
- Division of Forensic Psychology Annual Conference, History and Development of Behavioural Investigative Advice, 23 Mar 2005, Coventry University
Qualifications
- PhD in BIA in difficult to detect murders (Univeristy of Surrey, 2010)
- BSc (Hons) in Psychology with Criminal Justice (University of Plymouth, 1999)
Memberships
- BPS Division of Forensic Psychology, Member (1995-),
- British Psychological Society, Member (1995-),
External Media and Press
- Investigation and prosecution of rape, Home Affairs Committee, 17 Jun 2021. https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1160/investigation-and-prosecution-of-rape/publications/