USW Criminologist leading on international cold case partnership

Dr Cheryl Allsopp

An initiative set up by Dr Cheryl Allsop is seeing educational institutions and police academies across the world team up on cold case and missing persons investigations.

Dr Cheryl Allsop, senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice at USW, has established the partnership, which sees  the Police Expert Network on Missing Persons (PEN-MP), AMBER Alert Europe and Locate International, working together.

Also involved in the project are are the Police Academy of Lower Saxony from Germany, where cold case analyses have been taking place since 2014, as well as Leeds Beckett University, Staffordshire University, Winchester University, and the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, and Murdoch University and Newcastle University in Australia.

The primary objective of the international collaboration is to enable young police officers and students to establish a close link between theory and practice in cold cases.

It also enhances their investigative mindset by drawing on and learning from students from a variety of disciplines including criminology, policing, forensic science, psychology, forensic archaeology and anthropology.

As well as being established by Dr Allsop, the partnership has already provided to valuable learning opportunities for USW students.

“We have undergraduates in our USW cold case team, who are studying criminology, forensics, and policing, working together with their peers from Germany, Australia, and the UK,” Dr Allsop said.

“They are carrying out this intensive immersive learning on three international cold cases, and doing that alongside their studies. We also have USW students helping to develop the model for future international cross collaborations 

“One of our students has also discovered information on an unsolved attempted murder that hadn't come to light before, and that they will be presenting next week - alongside students from Germany, the UK, and Australia - to the German police and prosecutor.”