Dr Melissa de Vel-Palumbo

Broadly speaking, I am interested in issues at the nexus of psychology and the criminal justice system.

My research, which employs quantitative and qualitative methods, is focused on two areas: (1) psychosocial needs of perpetrators; and (2) lay perceptions of crime. My key area of research investigates (1) the social and psychological factors that facilitate reconciliation and reintegration—from the perspective of the perpetrator—in order to understand the efficacy of various approaches to crime prevention. I approach this question from an applied criminological basis (e.g., the effects of sanctions and other responses to injustice on people who commit transgressions) as well as from a basic psychological basis (e.g., processes of change, emotion and identity regulation, and rehabiliation). A second research stream involves examining (2) lay views about crime—particularly moral judgments, punitive attitudes, and justice-related cognitions that may come into conflict with the rehabilitative and reintegrative goals of correctional policy.