Dr Freya O'Brien
School of Justice Studies
Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies
Email: F.OBrien@ljmu.ac.uk
Freya O’Brien is a Chartered Psychologist and an internationally recognised expert in missing people research (e.g., invited to Chair 4th International Conference in Children and Adults at the University of Liverpool in 2019, member of National Police Chief’s Council’s Missing Persons Expert Reference Group, Editor for International Journal of Missing Persons).
Freya specialises in applying fundamental research (e.g., Cognitive/Social Psychology, Environmental Criminology) to applied contexts (e.g., examining factors that influence memory for missing people appeals, modelling the spatial behaviour of missing people), and increasing scientific rigour in this field (e.g., using regression analysis to examine relationships between missing persons’ spatial behaviour and their circumstances). Freya has over years’ experience working in partnership with regional and national law enforcement agencies and charities (including the Metropolitan Police Service, National Crime Agency, Missing People UK) to conduct research and evaluation. She has an extensive track record of to provide an evidence base for missing investigations, including examining harm prediction whilst missing, the impact of the pandemic on missing people, risk assessment, modelling spatial behaviour whilst missing, and memory for missing people appeals. Freya’s work has shaped policy and practice and she has the skills to measure impact (e.g., led evaluation of ITOK for Missing People and NSPCC Childline).
Freya has also generated income & opportunities for Early Career Researchers [e.g., Emotional expression and memorability for missing persons (BPS internship), multi-agency responses to children missing from residential care (ESRC CASE award)] and has disseminated her work to the wider community via international public engagement outlets (The Conversation) and media appearances (e.g., The ‘I’, BBC Radio Merseyside). Freya has previous PhD supervision experience and has acted as an external and internal examiner for PhDs and Professional Doctorates.
Freya is the Programme Director for the Professional Doctorate in Policing and Criminal Justice and supervises seven PhD candidates (two as an External Supervisor), and four Professional Doctorate candidates.
Internet publication
O'Brien F. 2025. From trauma to anxiety and depression, how online sexual harassment can seriously harm victims’ mental health Publisher Url
O'Brien F, Collie C, Giles S. 2021. Lockdown 3: stricter rules could lead to more vulnerable people going missing Publisher Url
Report
James A, Pajon L, O'Brien F, Carr R. 2024. Whodunnit? Do officers have the skills they need to answer that eternal question? Whodunnit? Do officers have the skills they need to answer that eternal question? Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Waring S, Monaghan P, Yates A, Girgiel N, Giles S, O'Brien F. 2022. An Independent Review of Partnership Working in Response to Missing Children in South Wales. Report produced for South Wales Police.
O'Brien F, Waring S, Giles S. 2022. An Independent Evaluation of ‘Is This OK?’ Reach, Process and Outcome. Report produced for the ‘ITOK?’ design and delivery team, Missing People, and Childline, NSPCC.
Giles S, Oh H-K, Waring S, O'Brien F. 2022. A New Missing Person Question Set Protocol for Missing Children Investigations: An Independent Pre-implementation Process Evaluation and Outcome Map.
Cathers S, Giles S, O'Brien F, Waring S. 2022. ‘Listen to Me, Talk to Me, Care About Me.’ Identifying Mechanisms for Improving Trust with Young People from Alternative Education Provisions. Report produced for Alternative Education Provisions in the North West of England.
Waring S, Fusco-Maguire A, Conway B, Bromley C, Giles S, O'Brien F. 2021. An Independent Process and Outcome Evaluation of the South Wales Police Missing Persons Team. Report produced for South Wales Police. An Independent Process and Outcome Evaluation of the South Wales Police Missing Persons Team. Report produced for South Wales Police.
Allsop C, Shalev Greene K, O'Brien F. 2020. Evidence base for review of the Missing People APP
Wake G, O'Brien F, Almond L. 2017. Predicting the future convictions of stranger rapists from crime scene behavior of an index offence.
Almond L, McManus M, Bal A, O'Brien F. 2017. Predicting the criminal record of a stranger rapist: a contemporary replication of Davies, Wittebrood & Jackson (1997)
Gerard J, O'Brien F. 2017. Comparison between juveniles and adults’ crime scene behaviour in hard-to-solve homicides
Giles S, Jarman I, Reilly D, Etchells T, Walters L, Smith A, O'Brien F, Wren C. 2014. ‘Proof of Feasibility’ studies to develop an interactive geo-spatial decision support system for police forces (CASPER)
O'Brien F. 2012. A geo-behavioural model of stranger rape: Implications for offender profiling and linking.
Alison L, Eyre M, Newman F, Schneider M. 2011. Vulnerable Localities Index: features of vulnerable localities.
Crego J, Alison L, Eyre M, Almond L, Newman F. 2008. Review of rape and serious sexual violence investigations.
Almond L, McManus M, Ward D, O'Brien F. Exploring the associations between crime features and journey to crime in stranger rape
Journal article
Monaghan P, Waring S, Giles S, O'Brien F. 2024. What works in improving inter-agency responses to missing children investigations: A scoping review Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, :1-25 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Iroegbu M, O'Brien F, Clara Muñoz L, Parsons G. 2024. Investigating the psychological impact of cyber sexual harassment Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence, :1-22 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Cox C, Yates J, O'Brien F, Pajon Moreno L, Farrell A, Ward M, McCabe P, James A, McNamara-Catalano I. 2024. Wearable Technology: A Wellbeing Option for Serving Police Officers and Staff? A Comparison of Results of a Pilot Study with Firearms Officers and a Group of Mixed Officers and Staff International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21 :1-17 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Waring S, Fusco-Maguire A, Bromley C, Conway B, Giles S, O'Brien F, Monaghan P. 2023. Examining the impact of dedicated missing person teams on the response to missing children Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 7 :1-30 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Waring S, Monaghan P, Yates A, Girgiel N, Giles S, O'Brien F. 2023. Examining what factors affect inter-agency working in missing child investigations Policing, 17 :1-14 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
O'Brien F, Collie C, Greene KS, Giles S. 2022. The impact of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on missing person reports Policing and Society: an international journal of research and policy, 32 :997-1011 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
O’Brien F, Palmer S, Blinkhorn V. 2022. Factors that predict the referral of adult Modern Day Slavery cases to the UK's National Referral Mechanism International Journal of Police Science & Management, :146135572210749-146135572210749 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
O'Brien F, Giles S, Waring S. 2021. Relationships between demographic and behavioural factors and spatial behaviour in missing persons' cases Criminology and Criminal Justice, DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Brewer G, Lyons M, Perry A, O'Brien F. 2021. Dark Triad Traits and Perceptions of Sexual Harassment JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE, 36 :NP7373-NP7387 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
O'Brien F, Thorley C. 2020. Memory of people from missing person posters: the number of posters seen, the number of times they are seen, and the passage of time matter PSYCHOLOGY CRIME & LAW, 27 :779-795 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Lyons M, Houghton E, Brewer G, O'Brien F. 2020. The Dark Triad and Sexual Assertiveness Predict Sexual Coercion Differently in Men and Women Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence, 37 :7-8 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Stevens C, Giles S, O'Brien F. 2019. Gender Differences in the Journey to Suicide: Comparing distance decay functions of home and found locations in missing person reports to the police Journal of Search and Rescue, 3 :59-82 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Almond L, McManus MA, Bal A, O'Brien F, Rainbow L, Webb M. 2018. Assisting the Investigation of Stranger Rapes: Predicting the Criminal Record of U.K. Stranger Rapists From Their Crime Scene Behaviors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url
Chapters
O'Brien F, Burrell A. 2020. The impact of property crimes on victims. Burrell A, Tonkin M. Property Crime Criminological and Psychological Perspectives Routledge 9781351803038
O'Brien F. 2008. Rape. Criminal Psychology Routledge
Thesis/Dissertation
O'Brien F. A geo-behavioural model of stranger rape: Implications for offender profiling and linking Alison L, Wagstaff G.
preprint
O'Brien F, Palmer S, Blinkhorn V. Factors that predict the referral of adult Modern Day Slavery cases to the UK's National Referral Mechanism DOI Publisher Url
Other Professional Activity:
Internal Examiner for PhD: Investigating the effects of psychopathic traits on pain perception and empathy in the general population. LJMU. 2024
Internal Examiner for PhD: Big data and serious crimes investigations. LJMU. 2024
Internal Examiner for PhD: Occupying a Pracademic space in making new knowledge: The experiences and consequences for researchers and practitioners alike in building and sustaining collaborative police-academic partnerships. LJMU. 2024
Internal Examiner for PhD: Examining the role of individual differences in juror note taking during trials and recall of trial evidence. University of Liverpool. 2019
Internal Examiner for PhD: Narcissism in females: Relationships to attitudes towards violence, sexual coercion, and offending behaviour in a non-forensic sample. University of Liverpool. 2018.
Award:
Nominated for VC Award for Excellence - Postgraduate Research Supervisor. 2024
Nominated for VC Award for Excellence - Postgraduate Research Supervisor. 2023
Research Grants Awarded:
Grant value (£): 3,438.96, LJMU Quality Research Fund, Study 1: Memorability of missing person appeals. Study 2: long-term impact of Covid on missing investigations.. 2024
Grant value (£): £9,652.92, LJMU Quality Research Fund, Exploring experienced and anticipatory stigma felt by children with a lived experience of going missing and innovative and creative ways of engaging them in research.. 2024
Duration of research project: 12 months, Grant value (£): £70,000, Home Office STAR fund, Dr Carol Cox, Dr Freya O'Brien, Dr Laura Pajon, Moya Ward, James Yates, Prof Ian Jones, Dr James Baker, Dr Ellen Dawson., Police officer's wellbeing and the use of wearable technology.. 2024
Grant value (£): £2,292.64., Forensic Research Institute, LJMU, Dr Freya O'Brien, Missing children project. 2024
Grant value (£): 2,600, Forensic Research Institute, LJMU, Dr Freya O'Brien, Dr Laura Pajon, Project to support research seminar series on the interlink between going missing and exploitation.. 2024
Grant value (£): £8,516, LJMU Quality Research Fund (Community and Impact), Dr Freya O'Brien, Dr Laura Pajon, Dr Laura Boulton, Exploring the response to repeat missing children in a UK Police Force.. 2023
Grant value (£): £9,819, LJMU Quality Research Fund, Dr Adrian James, Dr Freya O'Brien, Dr Laura Pajon, Whodunit: do detectives have the skills they need to answer that eternal question?. 2022
Grant value (£): 180,000, Oscar Kilo (Home Office), Dr Carol Cox (PI) et al., Wearable technology. 2022
Grant value (£): £1,260, British Psychological Society Student Internship, Dr Freya O'Brien, Charlotte Lord, Emotional expression and prospective person memory for missing person appeals..
Grant value (£): £15,600, BBC Childline, Dr Freya O'Brien, Dr Sara Waring, Dr Susan Giles, Evaluation of Is This ok? Chatbot targeting children at risk of exploitation.
External PGR examinations performed:
PhD, University of South Wales, A critical evaluation of police policy implementation in the case of domestic abuse victim satisfaction: insights from Mid and Southern Regions in Wales. 2024
PhD, University of Portsmouth, Exploring The Effectiveness of Social Media Appeals in The Search for Missing Persons. 2023
PhD, Abertay University, Multiple Missing: An Exploration of Behavioural Consistency in Repeat Missing Adults. 2022
PhD, University of Huddersfield, An empirical investigation into the operational indicators of modern slavery and human trafficking. 2022
PhD, University of Huddersfield, Criminal Narrative Experience and Emotional State of Schizophrenic Offenders.. 2020
DProf, University of Portsmouth, Safe and Well? Police Voices in Managing the Return of Repeatedly Missing People in England and Wales.. 2019
PhD, University of Huddersfield, An Exploration of the Effectiveness of Missing Children Publicity Appeals.. 2019
Conference presentation:
Oral presentation, University of South Wales, Cardiff Stadium, 5 th International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, The impact of age, type of facial expression, and continuity of expression on the memorability of missing person posters. 2023
Oral presentation, University of South Wales, Cardiff Stadium, 5 th International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, Exploring spatial consistency in repeat missing children and adults. 2023
Oral presentation, Liverpool John Moores University, APSS Conference, Missing Persons Research. 2023
Oral presentation, University of Portsmouth, 5th International Conference on Children and Adults, The impact of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on missing person reports. 2021
Oral presentation, University of Portsmouth, 5th International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, Expert Opinions on the Effectiveness of Risk Assessment in Missing Persons Investigations. 2021
Oral presentation, University of Portsmouth, 5th International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, Relationships Between Demographic and Behavioural Factors and Spatial Behaviour in Missing Persons Cases. 2021
Oral presentation, University of Liverpool, 4th International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, Gender Differences in the Journey to Suicide: Comparing distance decay functions of home and found locations in missing person reports to the police. 2019
Oral presentation, University of Liverpool, 4th International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, Predicting harm in missing person cases.. 2019
Oral presentation, Liverpool, Division of Forensic Psychology conference, BPS, Attrition of Modern Day Slavery cases. 2019
Oral presentation, University of Birmingham, UK, Better Policing Collaborative Research Fair, Casper.. 2014
Oral presentation, University of Portsmouth, 1st International Conference on Missing Children and Adults, The Geographies of Missing Persons: Using primary, applied research and secondary data analysis to develop a Google© map application to assist investigative and strategic decision making.. 2013
Oral presentation, Portsmouth, Division of Forensic Psychology Conference, BPS, Linking stranger rapes by offences by inter-crime proximity and behavioural similarity.. 2011
Oral presentation, Los Angeles, UK, Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Exploring Geo-Demographics in Relation to Journey to Crime.. 2006
Oral presentation, 16th European Association of Psychology and Law, Exploring Geo-Demographics in Relation to Journey to Crime.. 2006
Oral presentation, UCL, UK, National Crime Mapping Conference., iOPS: An Interactive Geo-Behavioural Profiling system – Description and Evaluation.. 2006
Oral presentation, London, UK, 8th International Investigative Psychology Conference, The Main iOPS Functions.. 2005
Oral presentation, Dublin, Eire, AGIS/EU International Police Profiling Conference, Developments in Geo-behavioural Analysis: Investigative Psychology in Action (iOPS).. 2005
Oral presentation, Vilnius, Lithuania, 15th European Conference on Psychology and Law., iOPS: Outline of the Interactive Offender Profiling System.. 2005
Editorial boards:
Editor, International of Journal of Missing Persons. 2021
Other invited event:
National University of Public Service. Budapest, Hungary., Geographies of missing: Investigating the spatial behaviour of missing people., Future directions in Investigative Psychology. 2020
Metropolitan Police Service Headquarters, New Scotland Yard, Presentation of findings from PhD to Chief Superintendent in charge of and 20+ Detective Inspectors and analysts from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Sapphire Command, Metropolitan Police Service’s Sapphire Command meeting. 2012
Conference organisation:
Chair, 4th International Conference of Missing Children and Adults. 2019
Organising Committee, Geographical Offender Profiling Workshop. 2007
Organisation Committee, 16th European Association of Psychology and Law, Liverpool.. 2006
Organising Committee, 8th International Investigative Psychology Conference. 2005
Teaching qualification:
Certificate of Professional Studies in Learning and Teaching. 2015
Membership of professional bodies:
British Psychological Society, Chartered Psychologist.
Fellowships:
Higher Education Academy, Senior Fellow.
External committees:
Missing People, Member, Policy and Research Advisory Group.