About

I completed my MSc in Clinical Criminology at the University of Leicester in 2014, and my PhD in Psychology at King's College London in 2019. My primary area of research is empirical crime scene analysis, methodologies used in the context of the investigative profiling of homicide and offender psychopathology. I am a Lecturer in Criminal Psychology at the Department of Business, Law and Social Sciences.

Research interests

Behavioural Investigative Advice

• Use of behavioural analytic approaches to inform police decision-making and aid investigative efforts in the areas of suspect prioritisation, offender profiling and crime linkage
• Recording of crime scene data into police databases for analysis of serious and violent crime
• Data collection methods for collecting behavioural data from crime scenes and/or crime files

Offender psychopathology

• Mental illness in offenders convicted of serious and violent crime

Multivariate visualisation statistical methods applied to crime scene analysis

• Multiple correspondence analysis, principal component analysis and cluster analysis

Membership of professional bodies

British Psychological Society Chartered Membership

Qualifications

• PhD Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
• MSc Clinical Criminology with Merit, University of Leicester
• BSc Psychology (First-class honours), Metropolitan Autonomous University

Recent conferences

• ‘Investigating homicide offender typologies based on their clinical histories and offence patterns’, European Congress of Psychology, Moscow, July 2019
• ‘The patterns of homicide offence characteristics and their associations with offender psychopathology’, Division of Forensic Psychology Annual Conference, British Psychological Society, June 2018

Recent publications

• Abreu, V., Barker, E., Dickson, H., Husson, F., Flynn, S., & Shaw, J. (2019). Investigating homicide offender typologies based on their clinical histories and crime scene behaviour patterns. Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice.
• Abreu Minero, V., Dickson, H., Barker, E., Flynn, S., Ibrahim, S., & Shaw, J. (2018). The patterns of homicide offence characteristics and their associations with offender psychopathology. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 15(3), 304-318.
• Minero, V. A., Barker, E., & Bedford, R. (2017). Method of homicide and severe mental illness: a systematic review. Aggression and violent behavior, 37, 52-62.