Florence Seemungal

Biography

Florence Seemungal is a Trinidadian multi-disciplinary researcher: BSc Sociology Hons, University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus; Certificate in Gender and Development Studies (Distinction), University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus; PhD Cognitive Psychology, University of Southampton, 2001; Certificate in International Human Rights Law and Practice, LSE 2006.  She was a former Research Officer at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford and she is currently a Research Associate of the Centre for Criminology. As Adjunct Staff of the University of the West Indies Open Campus  (2011 to present time) she delivers courses in Abnormal Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Community and Environmental Psychology, Psychology Practicum, Introduction to Social Psychology and Sociology of Youth.

https://www.open.uwi.edu/

Death Penalty Researcher since 2003

Her teaching and research themes are linked to the Centre of Criminology’s Death Penalty Research Unit. As a researcher for the Death Penalty Project London (2003-2020) she is co-author, with Professor Roger Hood, of various reports: A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Conviction for Murder, the Mandatory Death Penalty and the Reality of Homicide in Trinidad and Tobago (2006); Experiences and Perceptions of the Mandatory Death Sentence for Murder in Trinidad and Tobago: Judges, Prosecutors and Counsel, in A Penalty without Legitimacy: The Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago (2009); Public Opinion on the Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad (2011), and Sentenced to Death Without Execution. Why capital punishment has not yet been abolished in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados: The views of opinion formers (2020). She also co-authored two book chapters with Dr Lizzie Seal: Impact of the Imposition of the Death Penalty on Families of the Convicted in the Caribbean (2016) and Death Penalty and its Impact on the Professionals Involved in the Execution Process (2016) in Death Penalty and the Victims (UN, OHCHR). She continues to expand the pioneer work of Roger Hood in the Caribbean with Professor Lizzie Seal (University of Sussex) and Dr Lynsey Black (Maynooth University, Ireland) with joint funding to P.I.Professor Seal from the British Academy (£49,000) for research on 'Reforming British Law and Policy on the Global Death Penalty'. Several grants were received from the University of Sussex ESRC IAA Fast Track Engagement scheme for seminars with criminal justice stakeholders including Barbados judges and the President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Port of Spain, Trinidad. These engagements linked academics with practitioners and provided the context for the publications listed on this page.

Psychology and law researcher

Florence’s empirical work links to the Centre for Criminology’s focus in Psychology and Law. She collaborates with colleagues in the Department of Experimental Psychology (Professors Murphy, Martin and Dr. Dowker) as well as the Faculty of Philosophy/St Annes College (Professor Alison Denham). She is a founder member of the Oxford-Tulane Developmental Justice Network established in 2017 now rebranded to the Oxford-Maudsley Developmental Justice Consortium

https://www.developmentaljustice.org/

The Consortium's studies on  mental health and psychopathology in adult and juvenile prisoners (primarily in Barbados) was funded by Oxford University via the John Fell Fund, the KE Knowledge grant and the KE Seed grant. The network completed a two-year juvenile justice project in Barbados at the State detention facilities 2019-2021 via funding (USD275,000) from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The study included a comprehensive mental health assessment of the detained youths 13 to 16 years and the roll out of a PATH mentorship program to assist their reintegration into society post-detention, to manage their risk taking behaviours, and to build resilience and risk adverse behaviours. Florence continues her collaborations with Barbados Probation Services via Ag Deputy Chief Probation Office, Dr Angela Dixon.

https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/newsletter/philosophy-professor-awarded-templeton-grant-juvenile-justice-reform

In May 2020 and May 2022  Florence and other researchers across the Law Faculty partnered with Oxford Brookes University and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services (HMPPS) to form a Domestic Violence Network and to present papers at a virtual seminar titled Global Perspectives on Domestic  and Interpersonal Violence: Courts, Challenges, Solutions. Focus was placed on the potential of confinement, curfews and lock-downs due to the COVID-19 pandemic to threaten the safety of adults and children who were vulnerable to domestic violence abuse.  The discussion explored the extent to which courts are employing e-technology in domestic violence case management during the lock down period and post-confinement period. This resulted in an edited book (Routledge/Taylor and Francis). The 22 chapters offer an inter-disciplinary view of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the incidence of domestic violence. It includes analysis and policy recommendations from social scientists, psychologists, lawyers, economists, medics, and members of the judiciary. The global coverage includes the Caribbean, South and Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australasia.

Florence's current projects incorporates her experience as a reviewer for the International Journal of Human Rights, Former Editorial Intern and Current Associate of Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Current Anthropology and co-guest editor of Punishment & Society (September 2021). Special Issue: Legacies of Empire. She welcomes collaborations with interested academic and non-academic stakeholders.

Florence.Seemungal@crim.ox.ac.uk

Florence.Seemungal@open.uwi.edu 

Publications

    Seal, L. Black, L. and Seemungal, F. (forthcoming 2025) Punishment’s Imperial Legacies in Death as Punishment, in Handbook of Criminology and the Global South, Kerry Carrington, Roxana Cavalcanti Russell Hogg and John Scott (editors) (2 ed) Palgrave

    Seemungal, F. (forthcoming August 2025), Domestic Violence and Abuse as a Shadow Pandemic: An International and Interdisciplinary (Routledge/Taylor and Francis)

    Lynsey Black, Lizzie Seal, Florence Seemungal, Bharat Malkani, Roger Ball (September 2023), , "The Death Penalty in Barbados: Reforming a Colonial Legacy”,  International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.2676

    Bekaert, S., Seemungal, F. & Nott, E. (2022). The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 England and Wales: Implications for nurses, British Journal of Nursing, Vol. 31, No. 20 
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjon.2022.31.20.1046

    Black, L. Seal, L., Seemungal, F. Ball, R, Malkani, B. (2021, August) Punishment & Society ‘Legacies of Empire’ Special Issue Introduction (DOI: 10.1177/14624745211040652/ ID: PUN-21-0116).

    Chami, G. and Seemungal, F. (2021). The Venezuelan Refugee Crisis in Trinidad and Tobago. Available at: 
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2021/04/venezuelan [April 6]

    Chami, G.,  Seemungal F. and Zimmer, C. [submitted]
Let Them Work: Barriers to the right to work for Venezuelans in Trinidad & Tobago
Georgina Chami and Florence Seemungal
Migration, Displacement, & Humanitarian Policy, Centre for Global Development
Washington, USA.

    Black, L., Seemungal, F. & Seal, L. (2020). British Legacy and the Global Death Penalty,  Amicus Journal Issue 40, 11-14.
https://www.amicus-alj.org/aj40-0610-bb-v2/#page=1

    Hood, R. and Seemungal, F. with A. Athill (2020),  Sentenced to Death Without Execution. Why capital punishment has not yet been abolished in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados: The views of opinion formers, The Death Penalty Project London. 
https://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/knowledge/sentenced-to-death-without-execution-why-capital-punishment-has-not-yet-been-abolished-in-the-eastern-caribbean-and-barbados/

    Black, L., Seal, L. & Seemungal, F. (2019). Public Opinion on crime, punishment and the death penalty in Barbados, Punishment & Society, 1-18.

    Hood, R. and Seemungal, F. (submitted), Empirical Evidence in Support of Abolition of the Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, in (Eds) R. Bell Antoine and A. Balkan, The Death Penalty. UWI. St. Augustine.

    Seemungal, F., Seal, L. and Black, L. (2016). ‘Impact of the imposition of the death penalty on families of the convicted in the Caribbean’, pp. 212-226 in Death Penalty and the Victims, New York: UN, OHCHR.

    Seemungal, F., Seal, L. and Black, L. (2016). ‘Death Penalty and its impact on the professionals involved in the execution process’, pp. 249-260, in Death Penalty and the Victims, New York: UN, OHCHR    

    Seemungal, F. (2016). Book Review on ‘Drug Mules: Women in the International Cocaine Trade, (Dr. Jennifer Fleetwood, 2014) in ECAN Bulletin Issue 28, pp. 38-40 London, UK: Howard League Penal Reform

    Seemungal, F. (2015). Book Review on ‘Capital Punishment in Twentieth- Century Britain: Audience, Justice Memory, (Dr. Lizzie Seal, 2014) in ECAN Bulletin Issue 25, January, pp. 34-35. London, UK: Howard League Penal Reform.

    Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2011) ‘Public Opinion on the Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad’, (The Death Penalty Project, London). http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/content_pages/5

    Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2009) ‘Experiences and Perceptions of the Mandatory Death Sentence for Murder in Trinidad and Tobago: Judges, Prosecutors and Counsel’ in A Penalty without Legitimacy: The Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, (The Death Penalty Project, London). http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/content_pages/33

    Seemungal, F. (2008) Book Review on ‘Pathways and Crime Prevention: Theory, Policy and Practice’, (2007) Eds. Alan France and Ross Homel, Willan Publishing in Youth & Policy, No. 99, Spring 2008, pp. 108-110.

    Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2007) ‘A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Being Mandatorily Sentenced to Death in Trinidad and Tobago. A summary of the Report to the Death Penalty Project.’ 17 Amicus Journal, 7-16. 

    Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2006) ‘A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Conviction for Murder, the Mandatory Death Penalty and the Reality of Homicide in Trinidad and Tobago’, (Centre for Criminology, Oxford University). http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/content_pages/26

    Shute, S., Hood, R. & Seemungal, F. (2005) ‘A Fair Hearing? Ethnic minorities in the criminal courts’, (Willan Publishing, UK)

    Hood, R., Shute, S. and Seemungal, F. (2003) ‘Ethnic Minorities in the Criminal Courts: Perceptions of Fairness and Equality of Treatment’. Lord Chancellor’s Department, Research Series No. 2/03, UK.

    Seemungal, F. V. and Stevenage, S.V. (2002), Using State of Awareness Judgments to Improve Eyewitness Confidence-Accuracy Judgments, in Meta Cognition: Process, Function and Use, pp. 219-231 (Eds.) M. Izaute, P. Chambres and A.J. Marescaux,, (Kulwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht).

More than 30 conference papers

2024 June 21  Seminar/Network meeting on After Death...What Next? Funded by the University of Sussex, Chair Professor Lizzie Seal, Professor of Criminology. Held at the University of Westminster, 

2024 February 21, 2024: Seminar with Appeal Court Justice Francis Belle (Barbados Supreme Court) and Ms Angela Dixon (Barbados Probation Services) – discussion on the need for a parole system, reform of the current system, and the need to expedite the back log cases relating to murder and homicide- often prisoners on remand 5-10 years awaiting trial or the completion of their case. 

2024  February 22,  Florence Seemungal, ‘Mitigating Domestic Violence and Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados:  Pandemic Lessons for Achieving the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Against Violence.’ Centre for Criminal Justice and Security, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.