Becky McNeill

Becky McNeill is a PhD Candidate in Forensic Psychology, in the School of Humanities at the University of Kent.

PhD Title: 

"Acquired or hard-wired? An exploration of the aetiology and development of paedophilia". 

Becky's research examines various factors implicated in the origin and development of a paedophilic interest, including biological and environmental factors. She has conducted quantitative and qualitative research with people with paedophilia who have and have not come to the attention of the criminal justice system, contributing to a growing body of research conducted with people with paedophilia who have not sexually offended against children or have not been detected.

Her research has revealed a number of critical limitations in diagnostic and assessment measures used in the field, formulated a comprehensive model describing the experiences of people with paedophilia across the lifespan, explored several under-researched correlates of paedophilia, and produced several possible aetiological pathways towards paedophilia and/or sexual offending.

Paedophilia; female paedophilia; female sexual offending; the role of pornography and associated phenomena (e.g., taboophilia, whether pornography can create a sexual attraction, research with people who use child sexual exploitation material and evade detection); romantic elements of paedophilia; auto-paedophilia; emotional congruence with children; incels (and whether there is a relationship between incel ideology and dangerous world beliefs leading to a paedophilic interest).  

Becky has taught on PSYC3000 (Introduction to Psychology Statistics & Practical), PSYC5000 (Psychology Statistics and Practical), PSYC8010/8570/7103 (MSc Advanced Research Methods and Statistics). Becky has also marked assignments for PSYC3020 (Introduction to Social and Developmental Psychology), PSYC4002 (Big Questions in Psychology), PSYC67008 (How Do We Treat Distress? A Guide to Psychological Therapy and Intervention), and PSYC6410 (Mental Health: Diagnosis, Interventions and Treatments).

Supervised by Professor Theresa Gannon, Dr Afroditi Pina and Dr Caoilte Ó Ciardha.

Graduate membership of the British Psychological Society.