Meet Dr Kathryn Hughes

I have always been fascinated by crime and criminal behaviour. I would watch fictional TV programs and true crime documentaries and often wonder if it was possible to get into the mind of the offender. I thought I could do it myself because I had watched that many programs! My favourite film was Silence of the Lambs, my favourite TV series were Cracker and CSI. I would watch many experts give psychological profiles of famous criminals and would have so many questions. I wanted to know, what drives people to commit crimes and how are these people different from the rest of us?

I became a student later in life. When I went to college and university to learn about the psychology of offending, I was a little bit disappointed to learn that you couldn’t deduce everything about an offender by examining the crime scene, but the reality was so much better.

I was lucky enough to work alongside one of the world leaders in criminal psychology, Professor David Cante. I worked as an intern and research assistant for Professor Canter. It was very much a sink or swim situation – fortunately I stayed afloat.

One of my first assignments was to go out and interview members of the general public. This led to me doing interviews with prisoners in North West England. That was like a dream come true. I got to interview murderers, gang members, fraudsters, and many more about their crimes. I’m sure at one point I asked to be referred to as Clarice! I was surprised by how nice the majority of prisoners seemed to be.

I decided to set up CrimePsych to share my knowledge and experience in the psychology of offending. I want to share my passion for learning with others and encourage people to ask questions and seek answers. For every crime, there is a victim. Therefore it is against my moral values to glorify or dramatize offending. Everything I do is based on fact and research and aimed at improving understanding.