Dr Rebecca Phythian is a Reader in Policing and currently holds a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship, exploring international law enforcement information exchange.
After completing her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in psychology, Becky was awarded her PhD in Applied Psychology in which she examined the criminal histories of serious violent offenders (using police data).
Becky was previously seconded to Lancashire Constabulary’s Evidence Based Policing Research Hub, working on various projects with police officers, staff and analysts. She continues to collaborate with industry, police forces and other criminal justice organisations, and has presented her research at national and international academic and practitioner conferences. Recent funded, national projects include examining the use of the Police National Database in agency information sharing (supported by CGI and the National Police Chiefs Council), and a commissioned research series on police wellbeing (working with Oscar Kilo and the National Police Wellbeing Service).
Becky is also a judge on the sifting panel for the National Police Chiefs' Council Problem Solving and Crime Prevention Programme’s national Tilley Awards, which celebrates problem-oriented projects that have successfully resolved problems experienced by the community, partners and/or the police. Other external networks include RUSI’s Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research.
Before joining Edge Hill University in 2020, Becky held various teaching roles in policing, psychology and research methods at the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University and Laureate Online Education.
