Dr Armon Tamatea

Associate Professor, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Armon Tamatea (Rongowhakāta; Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki) is a clinical psychologist who served as a clinician and senior research advisor for Ara Poutama Aotearoa before joining the School of Psychology at the University of Waikato. He has worked extensively in the assessment and treatment of violent and sexual offenders and contributed to the design and implementation of an experimental prison-based violence prevention programme for high-risk offenders diagnosed with psychopathy. Armon is the Director of clinical psychology training at the University of Waikato as well as the project lead for Nga Tūmanakotanga, a multi-year MBIE-funded research programme that aims to understand and reduce prison violence in New Zealand. His research interests include institutional violence, psychopathy, New Zealand gang communities, and exploring culturally-informed approaches to offender management. Armon currently divides his professional time between research, teaching, and supervision in the criminal justice arena.

Prof Devon Polaschek

Director of NZ Institute Security Crime Science/Psychology Professor, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Devon Polaschek, MNZM is a Clinical Psychologist, Professor of Psychology and  Director of Te Puna Haumaru New Zealand Institute of Security and Crime Science, The University of Waikato/Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. She is the author of  more than 150 journal articles, book chapters and government reports. Her research interests include risk assessment, understanding and preventing reoffending in people with histories of serious violent and sexual offenses, family violence, psychopathy, imprisonment, desistance, reintegration, and parole.

Lars Brabyn

Associate Professor of Geography, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Dr Lars Brabyn is an Associate Professor in the Geography Programme, School of Arts, University of Waikato where he has worked since 1998. He specializes in the application of Geographical Information Systems and quantitative data analysis, especially big datasets that require automated analysis using scripts, online python libraries, and machine learning. In particular, he has a number of journal publications that link GIS and quantitative data analysis to a range of applications including health, crime, migration, demography, landscape and ecology. There is considerable overlap in the analysis techniques used between subjects, such as data visualization and machine learning, and Dr Lars Brabyn has been able to apply his lateral thinking skills to utilize these technologies across a wide range of data sets and applications.

Randolph Grace

Professor of Psychology, University of Canterbury

Randolph Grace is Professor of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, where he currently leads an interdisciplinary research group on mathematical and spatial cognition. He holds a BSc in electrical engineering from MIT and a PhD in psychology from the University of New Hampshire. He has published widely in a variety of research areas in the social sciences including behaviour analysis, experimental psychology, forensic psychology, comparative cognition, behavioural economics, mathematical psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, and statistics/methodology. He is past President of the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. In addition, he has over 20 years’ experience providing advice to the public sector on risk assessment and programme evaluation.

Professor Michael Daffern

Professor of Clinical Forensic Psychology and Director, Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science (CFBS), Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Michael Daffern is Professor of Clinical Forensic Psychology and Director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. He is also a Consultant Principal Psychologist with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare). He began his career as a psychologist in the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services in 1992 and he has worked in general and forensic mental health services since this time. He divides his time between research, teaching and clinical practice. His research interests focus on the assessment and treatment of people who have offended.