Kathryn Cahalin

Kath has worked in the Criminal Justice environment for almost 20 years. She started her career as a researcher at the Home Office in the Prison Research Directorate, she then joined Northamptonshire Police to lead the research team, then moving to Northamptonshire’s Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) before joining the IPSCJ in 2015.

She has a BSc In Behavioural Sciences and an MSc in Social Psychology, which included formal training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis. Throughout her career she has utilised these skills on countless projects, including projects requiring analysis of large scale datasets at a National level and very in-depth qualitative projects. She is passionate about conducting high quality and robust research that allows policy makers and practitioners to better people’s lives and society.

Throughout her career she has contributed to a wide range of research projects and evaluations including: the evaluation of a National early release scheme for prisoners, the development of a risk/ needs assessment tool for prisoners and analysis of the variation in parole by ethnicity at the Home Office. Whilst working for Northamptonshire Police and the OPCC, research subjects included victim satisfaction and public perceptions of the police, organisational development, the use of stop search, online safety and young people’s experiences of unhealthy relationship behaviours.

Her key areas of focus are currently citizens in policing, organisational development and women within the Criminal Justice System.

Citizens in policing - The IPSCJ has established a national profile across the ‘Citizens in Policing’ (‘CiP’) agenda in England and Wales and Kath has played a key role in both the collection and analysis of this data and co-authoring National reports on volunteer Police Cadets, Mini-Police, Specials and Police Support Volunteers.

Organisational Development & Wellbeing - Through projects with police forces she has played a central role in helping these organisations better understand the factors that affect their workforces job satisfaction, organisational identification, wellbeing and morale. The work that IPSCJ has conducted in the area of organisational development and wellbeing, has made a significant wider impact, for example, with it contributing to the Governments ‘Front Line Review’ (2018).

Women within the Criminal Justice System – Kath has played a key role in a number of projects involving vulnerable women within the Criminal Justice System including the use of a women’s centre programme as an out of court disposal option, an evaluation of the use of Community Safety Treatment Requirements (CSTR’s) and the evaluation of perinatal care for women in prison.