Dr. Turner received his PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus in Forensic Psychology from Sam Houston State University. He has published numerous research articles and book chapters on risk assessment of sex offenders, risk assessment tools, child sex offender and victim behaviors, risk assessment of child pornography offenders, and juror perceptions and decision making in sex offense cases. He worked for a period of time at the United States Penitentiary at Pollock, Louisiana, in the Federal Bureau of Prisons as a staff psychologist. 

Currently, Dr. Turner is in private practice. He works throughout the nation as an expert witness for attorneys in various state and Federal Courts and as a consultant with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on the topics of victim behavior in child sex offenses (e.g., reasons for delays in disclosure, reasons why victims may appear “attached” to their offenders) as well as offender characteristics such as grooming of child victims, self-grooming, grooming of the environment, assessment, and detection. 

He has been an invited presenter at conferences and trainings across the United States and internationally, and he is a frequent consultant to various media outlets. Agencies with which he has consulted include the FBI, NCIS, United States Marine Corps, and Department of Homeland Security. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Turner worked in an undercover capacity during sex offense and narcotics investigations with local law enforcement in Louisiana. 

Dr Julie Gawrylowicz is a lecturer in Psychology interested in memory in applied settings. Her research concerns how memory is working and what factors might negatively or positively impact our memory recall. She applies this knowledge to forensic settings, such as the reliability of eyewitnesses and police investigative interviews. 

Before she joined Abertay in August 2018, she worked as a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, where she mainly taught on their MSc program Forensic Psychology. Before that she was a senior lecturer at London South Bank University. She completed her PhD in 2010 at Abertay University. Her PhD project was funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and examined facial composite construction by individuals with intellectual disabilities. 

After her PhD, she was a post-doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway University of London. She worked on a Leverhulme funded project investigating eyewitness memory recall in elderly mock-witnesses. Her recent line of research explores how alcohol influences memory, and discovered that alcohol can protect memory in certain situations.

Title: Eyewitness Evidence: Where, when, and how should witnesses and victims be interviewed?

Abstract: The account of an eyewitness can be very persuasive, but often their testimony is inaccurate and incomplete. This lecture will examine factors that might impact eyewitness testimony and apply what we have learned from psychological research to the investigative interviewing context.  We will also identify factors that might render a witness or victim vulnerable, such as alcohol intoxication, age, and/or suffering from a disability. It will be explored how the investigative interviewing environment can be adjusted to accommodate the needs of vulnerable witnesses and victims to ensure fair access to justice.