Course Details

---

Successfully engaging a sex offender during interview can make all the difference to the outcome of an investigation and to effective risk management. How can you maximise co-operation?

This course provides participants with a tried and tested methodology for developing, preparing and implementing effective interview strategies with perpetrators of child sexual abuse and those about whom there are concerns, both in the online and offline environments.

This training ensures that all participants will recognise the value of crucial information and teaches how to harness it in order to further develop the interview. By analysing a series of video interviews with offenders, participants get a first-hand opportunity to understand how interview skills can be implemented and built upon.

Dr Sullivan's comprehensive specialist interview system has been specifically designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of those professionals who interview child sex offenders in the course of law enforcement investigations, child protection evaluations and risk assessment and/or management of offenders.

Topics covered include:

• What encourages engagement in interview
• How theory informs practice in interview planning
• Protocols for interview planning
• Offence analysis and sexual offending against children
• Designing a layered interview approach
• Identified subject profiling
• Advanced techniques and practical skills in interviewing child sexual offenders
• Using the Sullivan Behaviour Analysis Tools (S-BAT) in designing interview strategies
• Demonstrations of interview planning and the delivery of interview strategy

What Participants Gain

This course provides core knowledge and skills for those whose work involves interviewing or meeting with sex offenders. It is particularly relevant to offender managers, social workers, and public protection officers. The content is beneficial to those engaged in risk assessments, intervention programmes, investigation and/or risk management.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Use advanced techniques and practical skills to encourage engagement in interview
• Apply theoretical techniques to plan effective interviews
• Better analyse sexual offending against children • Profile a suspected perpetrator of sexual crimes against children
• Understand and apply the Sullivan Behaviour Analysis Tool (S-BAT)
• Utilise the Projected Personalities Matrix (PPM)
• Design a layered interview approach

Dr Sullivan is a Registered Forensic Psychologist, holding a PhD in Forensic Psychology, a Masters Degree in Criminology, a Diploma in Psychology, a Degree in applied Social Sciences, and a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work. Dr Sullivan is an honorary lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Dr Sullivan has worked with police officers, social workers, probation officers, faith groups and educationalists to provide insights into the motivations, thoughts and behaviours of child sex offenders. He undertakes assessments for Social Service Departments, Probation, Churches and Education bodies and is an expert witness in the criminal, civil and family courts.

Dr Sullivan has worked extensively in law enforcement, assisting police forces with investigations into the sexually motivated abduction, murder and assault of children. Dr Sullivan was the Chief Forensic Psychologist in the Behaviour Analysis Unit at CEOP, receiving a Chief Constable's Commendation for his contribution to the investigation of the sexually motivated abduction and murder of a child in 2001.

Dr Sullivan has also undertaken assessment and therapeutic intervention work with women who sexually abuse children and adults accused or suspected of professional sexual misconduct. Part of his work also includes the assessment and treatment of adult survivors of child sexual abuse.

Dr Sullivan has published and presented papers to national and international conferences on the techniques he uses for engaging, assessing and interviewing sexual offenders.

Currently available courses and events can be found here