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Dr Julia Shaw is an honorary research associate in the University College London (UCL) Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (PALS).
Dr Julia Shaw is a psychological scientist who specialises in research on memory and investigative interviewing. She also applies insights from criminal psychology to broader forms of social justice, and existential threats.
Memory
Dr Shaw is best known for her research on false memory. Her 2015 study, co-authored by Dr Stephen Porter, "Constructing Rich False Memories of Committing Crime" is one of the most cited research studies in forensic psychology. Her book "The Memory Illusion" chronicles her research and contextualises it within the broader body of knowledge on how memory works.
Dr Shaw’s research continues to explore the implications of memory malleability in legal contexts, including working with researchers at the University of Maastricht to check the validity and reliability of memory research, and how it should be used by expert witnesses in courtrooms.
Dr Julia Shaw regularly gives lectures and conducts training on the topic of memory malleability for lawyers, police, students, and people in various other professions. She is also an assessor for Netherlands Register of Court Experts (NRGD), which is part of the Dutch Ministry of Justice. And, in the UK, she regularly acts as an expert witness in cases where the reliability of witness memory is challenged.
Dr Shaw has also studied how AI can help to preserve memory evidence. This line of work includes the publication of one of the first peer-reviewed evaluations of an AI chatbot designed to implement cognitive interview techniques. She is the co-founder of the AI-based reporting tool Spot (talktospot.com), which uses her research as the foundation of the interview protocol.
Green Crime
Dr Shaw is passionate about applying criminal psychology to help protect our planet. Bridging the gap between environmental experts and activists, and social scientists.
In her book "Green Crime: Inside the minds of the people destroying the planet, and how to stop them" (published autumn 2025) Dr Shaw centres interviews with people who helped to crack, and solve, six of the biggest environmental crimes in history. Throughout, Dr Shaw applies research from criminal psychology to understanding how the perpetrators think. In her book she proposes the "six pillars" model of environmental crime.
Social Justice
Dr Julia Shaw has contributed to research and advocacy on Bisexuality. In 2020 she founded the international Bisexual Research Group (bisexualresearch.com) and hosted its first academic conference which now runs annually. She also published a book summarising the state of scientific knowledge on Bi+ people, called "Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality".
Other
Dr Shaw's wider work includes research on lie detection, public misconceptions about criminal psychology, and biases in police investigations.
Dr Shaw is also a TV and audio presenter. Recently she co-hosted the BBC Radio 4 series "The Human Subject" with Dr Adam Rutherford, and the long-running BBC Sounds podcast "Bad People". She is also the presenter of the ITVx series "Killers Caught on Camera".
Collaborate with Dr Shaw
Currently, Dr Shaw is actively looking for proposals to do research on criminal justice reform. Particularly related to understanding the appeal of tough-on-crime policies, changing harmful attitudes of incarcerated persons, and reform of sentencing guidelines.
