Research Hub

Challenges of Asylum Seeking: Survivors’ Voices

On Thursday 5th May 2022, CSEL was thrilled to premiere a new short film aimed at helping asylum seekers and refugees navigate the UK system. This video was made in collaboration with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Life Seekers Aid. The project was funded by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Public Engagement and Unbound Philanthropy. Involved in production were Yulia Hauer Visuals  Home (yuliahauer.com) and Pen Mendonca Graphic Facilitator  Pen Mendonca | Graphic Facilitator, Cartoonist, Artist. The video can be viewed here, please share it widely!

 

The emotional impact of interpreting in asylum interviews

A summary of research written by Louisa Morrison, based on work undertaken by Louisa Morrison, Amina Memon and Zoe Given-Wilson.

 

 

 

 

 

The challenges of seeking asylum

A picture to capture the collaborative process of identifying the challenges of seeking asylum.
It was developed from two co-created focus groups around challenges to seeking asylum in the UK.
With thanks to Life Seekers Aid, Pen Mendonca (www.penmendonca.com) and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Please click on the image to see full screen.

 

 

 

**New Report: Working in UK prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic**

Abstract: This report presents a preliminary analysis of a confidential survey conducted in the early part of 2021 by the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law at Royal Holloway University of Prison Office Association members in England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland.

The survey found high levels of anxiety and burnout. These feelings were exacerbated amongst respondents with caring responsibilities and those who had concerns about COVID-19 safety measure in their workplace. Respondents as a whole reported very low levels of emotional support in their workplace. 81% of the sample reported that their mental and physical health has deteriorated since the pandemic.

**To read the report, click here**

 

**New article: How do Adults with Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder from Childhood Trauma talk about single versus repeated traumas?**

New research by Amina Memon (CSEL) and colleagues has recently been published in Applied Cognitive Psychology. This work examines the memory reports of adult survivors of (mostly) child abuse comparing the reports of those reporting single vs repeat episodes.

If you are interested in reading about the findings, an open access copy of the article is available here.

 

 

**New article in press**

Vulnerability to Interrogative Suggestibility and the role of negative life events:   A comparison of unaccompanied asylum seeking youth with age-matched peers

New research by Samantha Childs, Zoe Given-Wilson (CSEL), Stephen Butler, Amina Memon (CSEL) and Gisli Gudjonsson has been accepted for publication in Personality and Individual Differences.

Read more about the research here.

Childs, S., Given-Wilson, Z., Butler, S. Memon, A. & Gudjonsson, G. (in press) Vulnerability to Interrogative Suggestibility and the role of negative life events:   A comparison of unaccompanied asylum seeking youth with age-matched peers, Personality and Individual Differences.

 

**Student CSEL Member Alex Lloyd contributes to POST briefing**

PhD student Alex Lloyd will be receiving an acknowledgement from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) for his contribution to their briefing on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline workers.

Click here to view the briefing.

 

 

 

 

**New submitted article**

Collaborating For Creativity In The Preservation Of Digital Memories: An Experiential Approach

Jill Marshall (CSEL), Xiaoyu Zhang (Engineering) , Diego Martinez Castro and Dr José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón (Management)

This work is based on an interdisciplinary event as a first exploratory exercise of collaboration between scholars, students and practitioners from the management, arts, law and computer science departments. The main aim was to gain an insight on what constitutes collaborative creativity and what it might generate in order to contribute to digital preservation of historical memories of marginalised communities. The main focus of the event was to critically engage with concepts about memory, stimulating these discussions with activities that bring a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and insights.

For more information about the event, click here.

 

**New special issue: Perceptions and Narratives of EU Crisis Diplomacy**

CSEL member Ben O’Loughlin along with Natalia Chaban and Alister Miskimmon have published a new special issue of European Security entitled, Perceptions and Narratives of EU Crisis Diplomacy. The articles present research from the three-year project, Crisis, Conflict and Critical Diplomacy: EU Perceptions in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine (C3EU). The context for the research is that the European Commission and the EEAS aim to more effectively engage with publics and stakeholders in the European Neighbourhood. Ukraine, Israel and Palestine are currently embroiled in conflicts set in differing contexts which threaten the EU’s eastern and southern edges. The research in these new articles diagnoses perceptions and narratives of the EU in these volatile strategic neighbours and tracks expectations about what role the EU should play. The research indicates how these expectations are laden with emotions — Ukrainian hopes, Palestinian disappointments, Israeli confidence — and how these emotions become embedded in narratives (see e.g. chapter by Miskimmon and O’Loughlin) and metaphors (chapters by Pshenychnykh and by Morozova). Read it here.

If you are interested in how communication works in international relations and how people in conflict societies invest hope in different visions of the future, this is important reading.

Publications

Aldridge, A. (2020). Intoxicating the ‘charmed circle’: Constructions of deviance and normativity by people who combine drugs and sex. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 1748895820937332.

Alghrani, A.,  Ali, A., & Marshall, J. (2019). Leyla Sahin v Turkey. In L. Hodson & T. Lavers (Eds.), Feminist Judgments in International Law (1st. ed., pp.203-230). Hart Publishing

Barn, R., & Barn, B. S. (2019) Youth Justice in the Digital Age: A Case Study of Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Challenges and Opportunities of Social Technology in Their Techno-Habitat in the United Kingdom. Youth Justice, 19(3), 185-205.

Barn, R & Mansuri, N. (2019) “I Always Wanted to Look at Another Human and Say I Can See That Human in Me”: Understanding Genealogical Bewilderment in the Context of Racialised Intercountry Adoptees. Genealogy, 3(4), 71.

Barn, R; Feilzer, M. & Hardwick, N. (2018) Black and Minority Ethnic Boys and Custody in England and Wales: Understanding Subjective Experiences through an Analysis of Official Data. Social Sciences 7, 226. pp1-16

Barn, R., & Powers, R. A. (2018) Rape Myth Acceptance in Contemporary Times: A Comparative Study of University Students in India and the United Kingdom. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260518775750.

Begum, L. & Barn, R. (2019) Crossing Boundaries: Bras, Lingerie and Rape Myths in Postcolonial Urban Middle-class India, Gender, Place & Culture, 26(10), 1324-1344.

Bögner, D., Brewin, C. and Herlihy, J. (2010). Refugees’ Experiences of Home Office Interviews: A Qualitative Study on the Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36(3) 519-535

Bögner, D., Herlihy, J. and Brewin, C. (2007). The impact of sexual violence on disclosure during Home Office interviews. British Journal of Psychiatry 191 75-81

Brickell, K., and Cuomo, D. (2019). Feminist geolegality. Progress in Human Geography 43(1) 104-122

Brickell, K. (2016). Gendered violences and rule of/by law in Cambodia. Dialogues in human geography 6(2) 182-185

Childs, S., Given-Wilson, Z., Butler, S. Memon, A. & Gudjonsson, G. (in press). Vulnerability to Interrogative Suggestibility and the role of negative life events:   A comparison of unaccompanied asylum seeking youth with age-matched peers. Personality and Individual Differences.

Clayton, S., A. Gupta and Willis, K. (eds) (2019). Unaccompanied Young Migrants: Identity, Care & Justice. Policy Press

Cochrane, C., and Rosselson, R. (ed) (2012). Evidence in Practice: CSEL Research Dissemination Project for Women Toolkit

Cuomo, D., and Brickell, K., (2019). Feminist legal geographies. Economy and Space 51(5) 1043-1049

Devasundaram, A. I., & Barn, R. (2020) Performativity of rape culture through fact and fiction: An exploration of India’s Daughter and Anatomy of Violence. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 1367877920911937.

Dominguez, S.F, Storey, J., and Glorney, E., (2019). Help-seeking Behavior in Victims of Elder Abuse: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence and Abuse https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838019860616

Given-Wilson, Z., Hodes, M. and Herlihy, J. (2018). A review of adolescent autobiographical memory and the implications for assessment of unaccompanied minors’ refugee determinations. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry 23(2) 209-222

Given-Wilson, Z., Herlihy, J., and Hodes, M. (2016). Telling the Story: A Psychological Review on Assessing Adolescents’ Asylum Claims. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne 57(4) Nov 2016 265-273

Graham, B., Herlihy, J. and Brewin, C.R. (2014). Overgeneral memory in asylum seekers and refugees. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 45 375-380

Hellmann, J. H., Übergünne-Otte, L., Heimlich, S., Kalyegira, J., Echterhoff, G., Memon, A., Knausenberger, J., & Schlechter, P. (2021). Ugandan and British individuals’ views of refugees in their countries: An exploratory mixed-methods comparison. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology.

Herlihy, J., and Turner, S. (2015). Untested assumptions: psychological research and credibility assessment in legal decision-making. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 6(1) 27380

Herlihy, J., Jobson, L. and Turner, S. (2012). Just Tell Us What Happened to You: Autobiographical Memory and Seeking Asylum. Applied Cognitive Psychology 26 661–676

Herlihy, J., Gleeson, K. and Turner, S. (2010). What Assumptions about Human Behaviour Underlie Asylum Judgments? International Journal of Refugee Law 22(3) 351-366

Herlihy, J., & Turner, S.W. (2006). Should discrepant accounts given by asylum seekers be taken as proof of deceit? Torture 16(2) 81-92

Herlihy, J., Scragg P, and Turner S. (2002). Discrepancies in autobiographical memories-implications for the assessment of asylum seekers: repeated interviews study. British Medical Journal 324 324-7

Jones, W., and Teytelboym, A. (2018). The Local Refugee Match: Aligning Refugees Preferences with the Capacities and Priorities of Communities. Journal of Refugee Studies 31(2) 152-178

Jones, W., & Teytelboym, A. (2017). ‘The International Refugee Match: A System that Respects Refugees’ Preferences and the Priorities of States.’ Refugee Survey Quarterly 36(2) 84-109

Lloyd, A, and Borrill, J. (2019) Examining the Effectiveness of Restorative Justice in Reducing Victims Post-Traumatic Stress. Psychological Injury and Law https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-019-09363-9

Marshall, J. (2020). Social Conditions of Freedom, International Human Rights Law and Women’s Dress: identity, belonging and recognition. In (A. Matwijkiw & A. Oriolo (Eds.), Law, Cultural Studies and the “Burqa Ban”. An Interdisciplinary Handbook . Intersentia Ltd (Chapter forthcoming)

Marshall, J., (2018). Secrecy in births, identity rights, care and belonging. Child and Family Law Quarterly 30 167-185

Marshall, J., (2016). Human Rights, Identity and the Legal Regulation of Dress. Nottingham Law Journal 25 73-85

Marshall, J., (2014). Human Rights Law and Personal Identity. Routledge

Rogers, H., Fox, S. and Herlihy, J. (2015). The importance of looking credible: the impact of the behavioural sequelae of post-traumatic stress disorder on the credibility of asylum seekers. Psychology, Crime & Law 21(2) 139-155

Rogers, M., and Storey, J., (2019). Elder homicide: A systematic literature review. Aggression and Violent Behavior 48 141-151

Storey, J., (2018). Risk factors for elder abuse and neglect: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.101339

Tonsing, J., & Barn, R. (2020). Help-seeking behaviors and practices among Fijian women who experience domestic violence: An exploration of the role of religiosity as a coping strategy. International Social Work, 0020872820904159.

Wilson-Shaw, L., Pistrang, N. and Herlihy, J. (2012). Non-clinicians’ judgments about asylum seekers’ mental health: How do legal representatives of asylum seekers decide when to request medico-legal reports? European Journal of Psychotraumatology 3 18406