Annalisa Hughes

Cultural Context and Crime: How should the sociocultural environment feature in psychological explanation and practice for forensic purposes?

Annalisa Strauss-Hughes

PhD Student
School of Psychology

Profile

Annalisa completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Victoria before entering the MSc of Forensic Psychology programme in 2017, and the Clinical Psychology programme in 2018. Her master’s thesis, submitted in March 2019 and also supervised by Tony Ward, has provided the platform on which her PhD research continues to build. Annalisa is concerned with developing a better theoretical understanding of the role of culture in the explanation of human behaviour, specifically offending behaviour. As a student of Māori heritage, she is interested in the interface between Western scientific paradigms and indigenous knowledge, particularly given that the criminal justice area sees devastating and intergenerational over-representation of indigenous cultures.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology (MSc in FPSY)

Research Interests

Indigenous knowledge and methodologies, criminal justice systems, philosophy of knowledge, cultural explanation, forensic explanation

Publications

Hughes, A. (2018). Aotearoa New Zealand cultural interventions: Current issues and potential avenues. Practice: The New Zealand Corrections Journal. 6(2). 20-23. Retrieved from https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/newsletters_and_brochures/journal/volume_6_issue_2_november_2018/aotearoa_new_zealand_cultural_interventions_current_issues_and_potential_avenues

Strauss-Hughes, A., Heffernan, R., & Ward, T. (2019). A Cultural-Ecological Perspective on Forensic Explanation. Psychology, Psychiatry, and Law 26(6). 938-958. DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2019.1644250