Current Project Themes
Child Witness Memory
This project focuses on trying to identify the best ways to talk to children about their memory of the events they have experienced and the people they have seen.
Funding: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Adult Perceptions of Child Honesty and Credibility
This project focuses on trying to understand how adults perceive the information provided by a child. The goal of this project is to better understand how legal decision-makers, such as jurors, may judge the credibility of evidence provided by children.
Children in Canadian Courts
This CCIRT project focuses on exploring how children give testimony in Canadian courtrooms, including what questions are asked to them by lawyers.
Funding: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Adult Eyewitness Memory
This project focuses on understanding how different system variables, such as lineup presentation, influence the accuracy of adult eyewitness testimony, including how adults are different from child eyewitnesses.
Funding: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Children's Honesty
Exploring when (and to whom) children are willing to tell about something they were asked to keep secret. The goal of this project is to better understand how to promote honesty in children.
Funding: Luther College President's Research Fund at the University of Regina
Police Memory & Experiences
Exploring how the way police retrieve memories influences their ability to fully remember experiences. The goal of this project is to provide insight into training techniques for use with police cadets.
Interviewing Children During COVID-19
The goal of this CCIRT project will be to identify how investigators’ and treatment providers’ day-to-day work has been impacted and the influence on their well-being. Specifically, this project will assess how Covid-19 has affected:
(1) how workers are interacting with children and families (i.e., changes in agencies protocols).
(2) workers’ perceptions of current barriers and opportunities in adapting their work practices.
(3) workers’ concerns with their effectiveness in their roles and their personal well-being.
Funding: President’s Research Fund (Luther College, University of Regina), Internal SSHRC Grant (McGill University), CRISS Research Award (Brock University), and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Project Grant.
Intimate Partner Violence Treatment: Developing an Inventory of Evidence-based Programs in Saskatchewan
Despite decades of research into what works for reducing intimate partner violence (IPV), there is a lack of agreement regarding the effectiveness of treatment for perpetrators of IPV. This may be due to a lack of accordance between research and practice. This project is designed to:
(1) document knowledge of, and adherence to, evidence-based principles of treatment adapted by the federal government within the context of IPV treatment in Saskatchewan;
(2) gather feedback from treatment program facilitators on successes and room for improvement in reducing IPV in Saskatchewan
(3) develop an inventory of program information (self-referral, length, modality, etc.) that can be shared widely with community partners.
Project Collaborator: Crystal Giesbrecht, Director of Research and Communications PATHS
Funding: University of Regina: President’s Research Seed Grant & SSHRC Explore Grant
Child Maltreatment
This project explores child perceptions of suspicious interactions as well as instances of child maltreatment. The goal of this project is to provide insight into how to protect children and support child victims of crime by:
(1) Analyzing behaviours of perpetrators through court documents
(2) Exploring how children view different types of child-adult interactions