Dr. Florence Seemungal

Florence Seemungal obtained her BSc in Sociology (Hons, 1988) from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and a Certificate in Gender and Development Studies (with Distinction, 1994) from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados based on her dissertation Empowering ‘Survivors’ of Domestic Violence: Feminism as Research for Social-Action Legislation and Agency Response in Trinidad and Barbados. In 2001 she obtained her PhD in Psychology (Cognitive) from the University of Southampton based on her research “Using Remember/Know States of Awareness to Improve the Eyewitness Confidence-Accuracy Relationship”. Subsequently she received a Certificate in International Human Rights Law and Practice (2006) from the Centre for Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). She can be contacted at florence.seemungal@csls.ox.ac.uk

Florence joined the Oxford University Centre for Criminology as a Research Officer between 2000 and 2002 to work with Professor Roger Hood (Director, Centre for Criminology) and Professor Stephen Shute (Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, University of Birmingham) on a study of Ethnic Minorities in the Criminal Courts. Prior to this she was a lecturer in Psychology and Statistics, School of Continuing Studies, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and she tutored Sociology and Psychology (University of the West Indies) as well as Social Psychology and Cognitive Psychology (University of Southampton). She was also an Editorial Intern for the Journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, invited guest lecturer at the Homicide Bureau, Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (2004) and seminar presenter for leaders of NGO’s in Eastern Europe in Unijow, Poland (2003).

She was Research Officer (2003-2005; 2008-2009) attached to the London-based Death Penalty Project located in the offices of Simons Muirhead & Burton. Florence and consultant Professor Roger Hood (CBE, QC, DCL, LlD (Hon) FBA) —Emeritus Professor of Criminology and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls  College Oxford University– conducted a study on A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Conviction for Murder, the Mandatory Death Penalty and the Reality of Homicide in Trinidad and Tobago (2006). The results of their follow-up study Experiences and Perceptions of the Mandatory Death Penalty for Murder in Trinidad and Tobago: Judges, Prosecutors and Counsel (2009) were well received at a conference in Trinidad in March 2009 where the implications of the findings were presented to members of the local Judiciary, Criminal Bar Association, legislators and state prosecutors of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. These studies and their attendant conferences were made possible by grants from the European Commission and the United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office Global Opportunities Fund to the Death Penalty Project. During these projects Florence was Research Associate of the Centre for Criminology, Oxford University. She is a member of the European Psychology and Law Association as well as the American Psychology and Law Society.

Florence is currently collaborating with Professor Denis Galligan, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Dr. Rebecca Williams CUF Lecturer in Law and Fellow of Pembroke College on a funding application for a study on The Effects of Feedback on Decisions and Redress: UK Employment & Immigration tribunals. It was previously submitted to the Nuffield Foundation in 2008 and was short-listed by the Leverhulme Foundation in March 2009.

Research Interests: Eyewitness/Child witness Testimony; Homicide Studies, Offender Profiling; Judicial Sentencing; Capital Punishment; Reasoning and Decision-Making in Administrative Justice.

 

PUBLICATIONS

• Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2011) 'Public Opinion on the Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad', The Death Penalty Project London (http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/content_pages/5)
• Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2009) ‘Experiences and Perceptions of the Mandatory Death Sentence for Murder in Trinidad and Tobago: Judges, Prosecutors and Counsel’ in A Penalty without Legitimacy: The Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, (Centre for Criminology, Oxford University). http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/content_pages/33
• Seemungal, F. (2008) Book Review on ‘Pathways and Crime Prevention: Theory, Policy and Practice’, (2007) Eds. Alan France and Ross Homel, Willan Publishing in Youth & Policy, No. 99, Spring 2008, pp. 108-110.
• Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2007) ‘A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Being Mandatorily Sentenced to Death in Trinidad and Tobago. A summary of the Report to the Death Penalty Project.’ 17 Amicus Journal, 7-16.
• Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2006) ‘A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Conviction for Murder, the Mandatory Death Penalty and the Reality of Homicide in Trinidad and Tobago’, (Centre for Criminology, Oxford University).
• Shute, S., Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2005) ‘A Fair Hearing? Ethnic minorities in the criminal courts’, (Willan Publishing, UK)
• Hood, R., Shute, S. and Seemungal, F. (2003) ‘Ethnic Minorities in the Criminal Courts: Perceptions of Fairness and Equality of Treatment’. Lord Chancellor’s Department, Research Series No. 2/03, UK.
• Seemungal, F. V. and Stevenage, S.V. (2002), Using State of Awareness Judgments to Improve Eyewitness Confidence-Accuracy Judgments, in Meta Cognition: Process, Function and Use, pp. 219-231 (Eds.) M.Izaute, P.Chambres and A.J. Marescaux,, (Kulwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht).

 

CONFERENCE PAPERS

2009       The Mandatory Death Penalty Experience in Trinidad and Tobago, Roger Hood and Florence Seemungal, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port of Spain, Trinidad 7th March, 2009.

2006         A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Facing the Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, Roger Hood and Florence Seemungal, University of Westminster, London, 8th November, 2006.

2006         A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Facing the Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, Roger Hood and Florence Seemungal, University of The West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, 19th June, 2006.

•  Introduction of Closed-Circuit Television in Barbados and Trinidad: The Politics of Resistance and Acceptance. Presented at the University of Sheffield, U.K. January 8-9, 2004. Conference on CCTV and Social Control: The Politics and Practice of Video-Surveillance: European and Global Perspectives.

1999         Eyewitness Confidence-Accuracy & Feeling of Knowing Judgments, Scientific Meta-Cognitive Meeting, Universite Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

1998         The Eyewitness Confidence-Accuracy Relationship in Recall and Recognition Memory, British Psychological Society: Cognitive Division, Bristol University, UK.

1997         The Strength of the Confidence-Accuracy Relationship with Child and Adult Witnesses, British Psychological Society: Division of Legal and Criminological Studies, Cambridge University, UK.

• Guessing with Confidence: Evaluating Eyewitness Recall Accuracy, European Psychology and Law Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.
• The Effects of Age and Gender on Personality Judgments, British Psychological Society: Cognitive Division, Keele University, UK.

1996         Facing Facts: The Influence of Eyewitness Age and Mode of Presenting Testimony in (Dis) Confirming Age Stereotypes of Witness Credibility, European Psychology and Law Conference, Siena, Italy.

1990         National Service: Unity or Diversity. A Socio-Economic and Psychological Analysis of the Potential Impact of National Service on the Development of Trinidad and Tobago, Second Conference of Caribbean Graduate Students, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, July 9-11, 1990.