Biography
Claire Nee is Professor Emerita of Criminological Psychology. She joined the Department of Psychology in 1996 from the Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate. She founded the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology in 1997 and was Director until 2021.
Claire, with her team at Portsmouth, Vrije University and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime and Law, was the first in the world to use virtual reality to study criminal decision-making and behaviour as it happens. She is a visiting professor at both the Max Planck Institute at Freiburg and the Institute Phillipe Pinel in Montreal. With Professor Tony Ward (NZ) she developed the theory of Dysfunctional Expertise in offending behaviour. Claire has been Associate Editor of numerous peer reviewed journals and is currently on the editorial board of Criminology.
Research interests
Claire's research has included a variety of areas in correctional psychology, including crime-specific research (burglary and car theft); interventions in prisons; criminality in children; personality disorder in female offenders; electronic monitoring of offenders; intensive probation; self-reported offending; and racism and sexism within the police force. Her current research projects include virtual re-enactments of burglary and predatory sexual offending. She is a mixed methods researcher, with a heavy emphasis on phenomenology using virtual re-enactments, eye-tracking, physiological measures and spontaneous verbalisations.
Research outputs
2024
Virtual reality-based retrospective think aloud (VR-RTA): a novel method for studying offender decision-making
Sergiou, C., Gerstner, D., Nee, C., Elffers, H., van Gelder, J.
9 Nov 2024, In: Crime Science. 13, 1, 17p., 39
Research output: Article
The impact of emotion on offender decision-making: advancing our understanding through virtual re-enactment
Nee, C.
24 Jan 2024, In: Psychology, Crime & Law
Research output: Article
Assessing the deterrent effect of symbolic guardianship through neighbourhood watch signs and police signs: a virtual reality study
van Sintemaartensdijk, I., van Gelder, J., van Prooijen, J., Nee, C., Otte, M., van Lange, P.
1 Jan 2024, In: Psychology, Crime & Law. 30, 1, p. 1-21, 21p.
Research output: Article
2023
A comparison of younger and older burglars undertaking virtual burglaries: the development of skill and automaticity
Meenaghan, A., Nee, C., Vernham, Z., Otte, M.
24 Jun 2023, In: Journal of Experimental Criminology
Research output: Article
2022
Personality and burglary: a virtual reality study
van Sintemaartensdijk, I., van Prooijen, J., Nee, C., Otte, M., van Lange, P.
1 Oct 2022, In: Personality and Individual Differences. 196, 11p., 111712
Research output: Article
2020
Mere presence of informal guardians deters burglars: a virtual reality study
Van Sintemaartensdijk, I., Van Gelder, J., Van Prooijen, J., Nee, C., Otte, M., van Lange, P.
14 Apr 2020, In: Journal of Experimental Criminology
Research output: Article
Using simulated environments to understand offender decision making
Nee, C., Meenaghan, A. K.
8 Apr 2020,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Expertise, emotion and specialization in the development of persistent burglary
Meenaghan, A., Nee, C., Van Gelder, J., Vernham, Z., Otte, M.
21 Feb 2020, In: The British Journal of Criminology
Research output: Article