News & Events

EventsAugust 2024The next iIIRG in Conversation webinar will be about Child Investigative Interview Training and led by Prof Martine Powell, Linda Codisco Steele and Dr Hamida Zekiroski! Wednesday, August 7th, 9 am (Australia Eastern Standard Time) WEBINAR NOW AVAILABLE (CLICK TO WATCH)

EventsJune 2024On June 10th – 11th Martine visited Barcelona as part of the launch of a new child investigative interviewer training program for professionals working in the Barnahus locations in Catalonia, Spain.

NewsMay 2024Dr Natalie Martschuk is the proud recipient of the Nina Westera post-doctoral fellowship commencing 31st May 2024.

NewsFebruary 2024Congratulations to Hamida Zekiroski who had her PhD conferred on 28th February. Dr Zekiroski’s thesis (Evaluation of a New Training Program Designed to Enhance Open-Ended Question Usage Among Generalist Police) was supervised by Prof Martine Powell, Dr Sonja Brubacher and Dr Kate van Doore.

NewsFebruary 2024A/Prof Gunn Astrid Baugerud from OsloMet University visited the Centre to continue collaborative work on AI-based avatars for interviewer training. Gunn Astrid is pictured here with one of the Centre’s industry partner collaborators – Detective Inspector Glen Donaldson from Queensland Police Service.

NewsFebruary 2024Timothy Dutton commenced his PhD research “Questioning practices in investigative interviews with child victims of repeated abuse: An assessment, framework, and a dynamic avatar for training”. Timothy is completing his candidature at USyd, supervised by A/Prof Helen Paterson and co-supervised by Prof Martine Powell.

NewsFebruary 2024Robyn Lehmann, successful scholarship recipient associated with the ARC Discovery Grant (DP230101634), commenced her PhD research “Memory for repeated events: The confidence-accuracy relationship”. Robyn is supervised by Prof Martine Powell and Dr Sonja Brubacher, in collaboration with A/Prof Helen Patterson and Prof Ron Fisher.

NewsDecember 2023Mohammed Mussa Ali attended his PhD graduation ceremony.

NewsNovember 2023On Thursday 2nd November, Martine Powell participated in the Law Futures Centre Academic Roundtable with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale, Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Children, Ms Mama Fatima Singhateh.

NewsOctober 2023PhD Candidate, Catherine Clancy was interviewed by ABC News for the work she does with ‘Yoga On the Inside’ facilitating trauma-informed yoga sessions to incarcerated women. Catherine’s PhD is titled “Examination of communication between custodial staff and women in prison: Assessment and training evaluation”. She is supervised by Prof Martine Powell, Prof Susan Dennison and Dr Natalie Martschuk.

NewsJuly 2023Francisco Garcia attended his PhD graduation, along with Martine and his Chilean family.

NewsJune 2023Dr Emily Denne (left), pictured here with Natalie Martschuk and Martine Powell, is visiting the Centre from Arizona State University. Emily is conducting research on the grooming of children for sexual abuse as part of a Griffith University Postdoctoral Fellowship.

EventsJune 2023Natalie Martschuk gave a talk at the Emerging Challenges in Management of Sexual Assault Trials conference at the Monash Law Chambers entitled ‘Legal Professionals’ Perspectives on Best Practice Cross-examination of Child Witnesses’.

EventsMay 2023Martine Powell, along with Emily Sanders from the Commission for Children and Young People, gave a presentation entitled Interviewing children and young people in reportable conduct investigations at the 13th National Investigations Symposium in Sydney on 24 May.

NewsApril 2023Our article ‘Urgent issues and prospects at the intersection of culture, memory, and witness interviews: Exploring the challenges for research and practice’ received the Top Downloaded Article award from Legal and Criminological Psychology (one of the most downloaded papers during its first 12 months of publication). Click to read.

NewsMarch 2023We have released a new film, ‘Workplace Bullying: Elise’s story’, promoting awareness of good workplace investigation. Available now on our Resources page.

NewsFebruary 2023Two international PhD candidates visited the Centre this month. Katie Winks (USA) and Adriana Arellano (Mexico) visited to make connections, observe the Centre’s activities, and develop a roadmap for future research and training collaborations. Here they are on a wildlife sanctuary outing along with other international visitors to the Griffith Criminology Institute.

NewsDecember 2022Pictured is Centre Director, Martine Powell, in Norway with esteemed colleagues who are collaborating on the development of a digital child avatar.

Events, NewsDecember 2022On Tuesday 6th, Martine Powell presented a keynote address at the 1st Annual Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Avatars for Investigative Interviews, Possibilities, Challenges and Lessons Learned Conference in Oslo, Norway.

NewsDecember 2022Two scholarships, funded by an ARC Discovery Project grant (DP230101634), will each provide support for 3 years on a full-time basis for a research project leading to a PhD. Click here for more information.    

NewsSeptember 2022We have released a new video learning resource, an overview on Memory and Interviewing, available now via our Resource Page. (Click Here)

NewsAugust 2022Work by Martine Powell and colleagues on creating realistic virtual child avatars for investigative interview training was featured in BBC Science Focus. (Click here).

NewsJuly 2022After 2 years of rescheduling her graduation ceremony due to COVID, Maddie’s PhD is now official!

NewsJuly 2022The Centre was a Partner Affiliate for the 7th Annual Conference of the Australian Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (Pacifica Congress).

NewsJuly 2022Natalie Martschuk was awarded a Griffith University New Researcher Grant for her project Developing a framework to improve cross-examination of child witnesses.

NewsJune 2022Martine Powell is featured at 197/3640 on the Top Psychology Scientists rankings published by Research.com

NewsApril 2022Melanie Lawrie submitted her PhD thesis, Factors That Underlie Success in Child Witness Interviewing Training.

NewsMarch 2022Francisco Garcia submitted his PhD thesis, Techniques to Elicit Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse in Investigative Interviews.

NewsFebruary 2022Jhalak Sharma Sapkota commenced his PhD on Preventing and Combating Trafficking of Nepalese Women and Adolescent Girls to the Gulf States for Labour Exploitation through Comprehensive Legal Reform in Nepal in collaboration with the Centre.

NewsFebruary 2022Joyce van der Mark-previously member of Dutch Police- arrived from Netherlands to commence her PhD research on investigative interviewing of adult sexual assault victims.

NewsFebruary 2022Jack Staniland commencing PhD research (in collaboration with criminologist Professor Susanne Karstedt and Associate Professor of Law Nandor Knust) on the topic of investigative interviewing during investigations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

NewsNovember 2021SA Law Reform Institute published a report on the Communication Partners scheme (co-authored by Martine Powell) which includes reference to recent Centre research.

NewsNovember 2021Centre director Martine Powell has been elected as Fellow of the prestigious Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Congratulations!

Events, NewsOctober 2021Martine Powell overviewed the state of knowledge on effective interviewing at the launch of Dr Robyn Blewer’s book ‘Child Witnesses in Twentieth Century Australian Courtrooms’ on 19 October.

Events, NewsAugust 2021The animation ‘How to be a good questioner of children’ won a bronze medal at the Australian Effects and Animation Festival 2021 (Education & Infographics category) on 20 August.

NewsJuly 2021Our video How to be a Good Questioner of Children is a finalist at the 2021 AEAF Awards (Australian Effects and Animation Festival) under the Education & Infographics category. The AEAF Awards will be screened on 20 August.

Events, NewsJuly 2021The Centre’s Director Prof Martine Powell has been awarded the Pro Vice Chancellor’s 2021 Research Leadership Award for the Faculty of Arts, Education and Law. 

NewsMay 2021Congratulations to Dr. Sonja Brubacher for receiving the 2021 American Psychological Foundation’s Division 37 Diane J. Willis Early Career Award! The Div. 37 Willis award is given to talented young psychologist’s making contributions toward informing, advocating for, and improving the mental health and well-being of children and families, particularly through policy. Dr. Brubacher is an […]

NewsMarch 2021Martine Powell and Sonja Brubacher have been awarded a 3-year Australian Research Council Linkage grant, in partnership with Territory Families, to develop a framework for adapting child interview protocols in complex cases.

NewsMarch 2021Martine Powell contributed to the “Guide for including children and young people in reportable conduct investigations during COVID-19” recently published by the Commission for Children and Young People (Victoria); see: Interviewing Children and Young People During Co-Vid

NewsFebruary 2021The Centre’s Director, Martine Powell is co-author on a paper published on medical communication training in the prestigious Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – view article here: Cochrane Library

NewsJanuary 2021Martine Powell is an international partner investigator on a grant awarded by the Norwegian Research Council (approx. $1.88 million AUD). The project, led by Gunn Astrid Baugerud at Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway) involves the creation of an artificial avatar for use in interviewer training.

NewsWinners!See us win our 2020 ATOM award 47:02 is our category announcement:

NewsSeptember 2020Three out of four submissions by Martine Powell and the Centre for Investigative Interviewing are finalists in the 2020 ATOM Awards in the ‘Best Instructional/Training Video or Website (Tertiary/General) Winners will be announced at the Tertiary & Industry Awards Night on Thursday 10 December.

NewsMarch 2020Devi’s mum sent her away for a better life. She unwittingly handed her into a nightmare

Monthly Article Summaries, NewsMarch 2020“He’s just a baby”: Forensic interviewers’ experiences and perceptions of maltreated preschoolers’ participation in the criminal justice system.

NewsFebruary 2019Madeleine Bearman was in Adelaide to present on interview training as a solution, at the Glass Half Full or Half Empty? Measures to Assist Vulnerable Parties in the Justice System workshop for Adelaide University Law School Litigation Unit & the South Australia Law Reform Institute (SALRI).

NewsDecember 2019Resources off to a good start, with animation narrated by Naima leading the way. We welcome suggestions for added content.

NewsNovember 2019Griffith University released a strategic plan to halve carbon emissions by 2030.

NewsOctober 2019Martine Powell was awarded the 2019 APS Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award from the Australian Psychological Society.

EventsAugust 2019Madeleine Bearman was awarded a PhD for her thesis on interviewing adults with limited expressive language.

NewsAugust 2019Two new executives joined the CII: Centre Manager (Liz Henshaw) and Training Coordinator (Maddie Bearman)

EventsJuly 2019Martine Powell was a panel member in “Raise your kids to raise their voice”, hosted by Aus & NZ Assoc for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse and Griffith Criminology Institute.

NewsJune 2019Dr Chelsea Leach joined the CII and Griffith Criminology Institute as an Adjunct Research Fellow, collaborating on research involving young offenders.

EventsMay 2019The Centre completed its first ‘train the trainer’ course with learner trainers from University of Tasmania and Griffith University.

NewsMay 2019To mark the 2nd anniversary of the passing of Dr Nina Westera (Centre member) a bushwalk was held in her memory.

NewsApril 2019Martine Powell (in association with Tasmania Police and Geoffrey Wright) created a film on best-practice interviewing of an alleged murderer.

NewsApril 2019The Centre (in collaboration with the QLD Police Service) were awarded funding by the Australian Institute of Criminology for research aimed at reducing internet child exploitation material.

NewsApril 2019Dirkje Gerryts was awarded the Nina Westera Scholarship to conduct PhD research on police interviewing of adult victims of domestic violence.

NewsMarch 2019Martine Powell met with General Director Héctor Espinosa, and National Chief against Sexual Offenses Héctor González Aranguiz, about the Chile PDI’s experience with video-recorded investigative interviews.

NewsMarch 2019Martine Powell visited the Ministerio de Justicia y derechos Humanos En Argentina to discuss research on human trafficking.

EventsMarch 2019Martine Powell delivered a talk at Chile PDI (investigative police)’s National Headquarters for Sexual Crimes.