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Dr Anna Bussu

Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice

Law, Criminology & Policing

Headshot of Dr. Anna Bussu

Department: Law, Criminology & Policing

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Biography

Dr Anna Bussu

Anna is a Chartered psychologist (Division of Forensic Psychology and Academics, Researchers and Teachers) and Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice and PL in Psychosocial Analysis of Offending Behaviour (PAOB). She has worked at Edge Hill University since September 2016.

Anna completed her PhD in Forensic Psychology from the University of Sassari, Italy). Her dissertation investigated “Functions and competencies of the police officers to conduct an interrogation. The contribution of Forensic Psychology and qualitative research to define training requirements”. During her postdoc positions (2009-2012) and assistant professorship (2012-2015) at the University of Sassari (Italy), she collaborated on several international research projects.

In 2022, she secured external funding for implementing a research project in collaboration with a local charity, Early Music As Education -Liverpool; she has recently completed the project and published the research project  “Exploring the Impact of Music on the psychosocial wellbeing and life skills development of Liverpool’s children, young people and their local communities”.

Anna was awarded a Prometeo Scholarship. From 2015 to 2016, she spent over six months in Ecuador, where she worked at the Faculty of Psychology (University of Guayaquil) to implement her project on life skills and restorative practices.

From 2014 to 2016, she was a visiting scholar in the USA (e.g. University of San Diego, Skidmore College) and at several European Universities (e.g. Universidad de Girona, Université de Corse Pascal Paoli). From 2010 to 2015, she worked as a research coordinator and life coach at the Center for Counselling and Coaching at the University of Sassari.

From Jan 2011 to Dec 2013, she was an Honorary Judge (Expert in Forensic Criminology) at the Surveillance Court of Sassari. From 2004 to date, she has been a Trainer and Life Coach.

 

Research Interests

Her current research interests focused on:

Deviance and Crime prevention: risk and protective factors in offending behaviour; diversion & children and young people; cybervictimization; restorative practices and Police Practice.

Training and Vocation: peer mentoring and coaching; life skills development; professional training requirements; career guidance and vocational training.

Since December 2017, she has been Managing Editor of “Police Practice & Research – An International Journal”.

 

Teaching and Learning

Anna is a Senior Fellow of Higher Education. Her objective is to implement and develop projects and initiatives both within the EHU and on a national and international scale. She focuses on supporting the vision of maintaining teaching excellence, as evidenced by the TEF Gold standard and promoting student retention.

In 2022, she designed and delivered a peer mentoring scheme for Early Career Academics organised by the Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI). She conducted training sessions for senior academics, serving as mentors and for Early Career Academics as mentees. Additionally, she successfully implemented a second edition of the program in 2023.

These are the modules she currently works on:

CRI2030: Women, Girls and Offending (ML)

CRI1127: Addictions and Offending (ML)

CRI1124: Introduction to Criminological Theory

CRI3027: Dissertation

CRI4005: Offending and Risk

Supervision: Master AMOB (Applied Management of Offending Behaviour)

Supervision: PhD in offending behaviours, psychology and health and social care

Recent organisational responsibilities
o June 2023 – present, Internationalisation Coordinator, School of Law, Criminology & Policing, EHU.
o September 2023- present, Faculty reps on Research Degrees Sub-Committee, EHU.
o 2022 -present, Member working group on “Workload Allocation Model”, EHU.
o July 2020 -present, Programme Leader of BSC Psychosocial Analysis of Offending Behaviour (PAOB).