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). Drs Seal, Black, Seemungal and Malkani are currently funded by the British Academy to examine the death penalty globally in three areas. First, an historical analysis of the export of the death penalty in the colonial era with a focus on Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Second, an examination of historical and contemporary campaigns against the death penalty. Third, a legal analysis of the UK’s complicity with the global death penalty. Preliminary findings were discussed at the office of the Death Penalty Project London in January, 2020 and will also be discussed via a virtual seminar titled Reforming British Law and Policy on the Global Death Penalty, September 15, 2020. Findings were presented in Black, Seal & Seemungal (2019). Public Opinion on crime, punishment and the death penalty in Barbados, Punishment & Society, 1-18.

Outputs of this project included a Special Issue of Punishment & Society: Legacies of Empire (September 2021) Eds. Dr Lynsey Black, Professor Lizzie Seal, Dr. Florence Seemungal, Dr. Bharat and Dr. Roger Ball. The details can be viewed via the link below.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14624745211040652

In November 2021 and January 2023 funding award was given by the University of Sussex ESRC IAA Fast Track Engagement scheme to Professor Lizzie Seal, University of Sussex, Dr. Lynsey Black and Dr Florence Seemungal. This enabled the recipients to host workshops on theme of the " Reforming the death penalty in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago via (1) consultations and interviews with key elite stakeholders in both islands; and (2) through an analysis of judgements from the Caribbean Court of Justice, The Supreme Court of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. We aim to better understand the factors underlying the sentencing decisions for committals for capital murder and for non-capital murder which resulted in a conviction for either manslaughter or non-capital murder. We are also examining the role of the parole system in the sentencing process for these aforementioned outcomes. 

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 (Professor Alison Denham) and is a founder member of the Oxford-Tulane Developmental Justice Network established in 2017. https://www.developmentaljustice.org/

The network’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 facilities2019-2021 via funding 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.

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.

2022  Dr Florence Seemungal, ‘The paradigm shift to e-justice during the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, with emphasis on Domestic Violence Protection.’ – May 19, 2022, International Criminal Justice Network
https://criminaljusticenetwork.net/in-cj-newsdesk-migration-and-refugees-in-trinidad-and-tobago/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJG6qcecR0

The collection titled "Domestic Abuse and Domestic Violence: A Shadow COVID-19 Pandemic? An International and Interdisciplinary View "  (Seemungal, F. Ed) comprises 22 chapters will be published June 2023 by Routledge/Taylor and Francis. 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 chapter is titled, 'Was domestic abuse and domestic violence in the OECS and Barbados endemic before the COVID-19 pandemic?'

Migration and Border Criminology researcher

In May 2021 Florence and her colleague Georgina Chami established the Global South Human Rights and Border Control Consortium. They are currently preparing their edited collection Border Criminology, Migration and Human Rights in the Global South: An Interdisciplinary View’ (Seemungal, F & Chami, G). Contributors include social and political scientists, lawyers, international relations experts, academic consultants on migration studies, as well as staff from UNHCR and the International Office of Migration (IOM) based in the Southern Caribbean. Twenty-five chapters are currently in preparation for delivery to the publisher for review in February 2023. The Global South is defined by a country's wealth and development rather than a geographical line. Hence, the book covers cutting edge issues in migration and refugee studies supported by empirical evidence from Latin America, South America, Africa, Italy, Australasia, the Caribbean, Afghanistan, Iran and India. It includes a discussion of domestic and public international law.

Florence brings to the border criminology book project 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

    Accepted for publication on January 4, 2023 by Chief editors Professor John Scott and Dr David Rodriguez Goyes, article by Lynsey Black, Lizzie Seal, Florence Seemungal, Bharat Malkani, Roger Ball, , "The Death Penalty in Barbados: Reforming a Colonial Legacy”,  International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy.

    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).

Recent conferences

2022        Florence Seemungal and Georgina Chami - Barriers to the right to work for Venezuelans forced migrants in Trinidad & Tobago, Conference theme ‘Zero-sum game of economic migration: Integration through Rights?’ Oxford-Brookes University Conference -  Symposium September 12, 2022.

2022       July 22 Seminar on Public Opinion and death penalty - Funded by the University of Sussex, Chair Professor Lizzie Seal, Professor of Criminology. Blended event, Radisson Hotel, Trinidad and Zoom
Speaker 1: Dr Florence Seemungal, a review of the opinions of judges in TT from the Hood and Seemungal study (2009); the opinion of the Trinidad public from the Hood and Seemungal study (2011) and the view of elite stakeholders in Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) from the Hood and Seemungal study (2020). Should public opinion matter? (Hood, 2018)

2022     May 30 Seminar on Reform of the death penalty in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean  Funded by the University of Sussex, Chair Professor Lizzie Seals, Professor of Criminology. Blended event, Accra Beach Hotel, Barbados and Zoom
Speaker 1: Dr Florence Seemungal: The Pathway to Abolition in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (review and updates to Hood and Seemungal, 2020)

2022         May 20 Seminar on Religion and the death penalty Funded by the University of Sussex, Chair Professor Lizzie Seals, Professor of Criminology. Blended event, Radisson Hotel, Trinidad and Zoom
Speaker 1: Dr. Florence Seemungal: Religious Identification and Level of Support for the Implementation of the Death Penalty in Trinidad  (Review and update to Hood and Seemungal, 2011)

2022  Dr Florence Seemungal, ‘The paradigm shift to e-justice during the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, with emphasis on Domestic Violence Protection.’ – May 19, 2022, International Criminal Justice Network
https://criminaljusticenetwork.net/in-cj-newsdesk-migration-and-refugees-in-trinidad-and-tobago/

2021 ‘British Colonial Legacy, Protection and Punishment in the Contemporary Commonwealth Caribbean’ American Law and Society Association Conference, Hyatt Hotel, Chicago, May 27.
https://lsa-annualmeeting.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/3/sessiongallery/121/application/1348
 

Oxford Departmental Seminar Presentations
 

2020      Topic: ‘A Case Study of Domestic Violence in Trinidad: Protective Rights and International Treaty Obligations’, in the webinar Global Perspectives on Domestic  and Interpersonal Violence: Courts, Challenges, Solutions ….
with an update on impact of COVID 19. Supported by  the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service UK, held on May 6 via Zoom.  https://www.hmppsinsights.co.uk/

2019      Topic: Social Foundations of Anglophone Caribbean Constitutions: Impact on the Implementation of the Death Penalty in the Caribbean and Impediments Towards Abolition., Center for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford June 6.

2018       The Psycho-Social Needs of Juvenile Offenders in Barbados: The Psycho-Social Needs of Juvenile Offenders in Barbados: Reporting of Data and Identification of Treatment Options, The ASC Complexity Cluster (Oxford Department of Mathematics and Keble College), Complexity Cluster lecture and Oxford-Tulane Developmental Justice Network Meeting, Keble College Oxford, 10th January, 2018.

2017       Juvenile Justice: Calculating the Risk of Recidivism from Young Offenders at the GIS Barbados The ASC Complexity Cluster (Oxford Department of Mathematics and Keble College), Complexity Cluster lecture and Network, Keble College Oxford, 5h July.

2017      Deconstructing Psychopathy to Explain Offending: Preliminary Evidence from a West Indian Prison and Community Sample, Keble College Oxford, Murphy Associative Learning Lab, 26th January, Corpus College, Oxford.

2017      Juvenile Justice: Identifying Risk and Building Resilience with Educational and Psycho-Social Interventions, KE Dialogue, The ASC Complexity Cluster (Oxford Department of Mathematics and Keble College), Complexity Cluster lecture and Network, Keble College Oxford, 18th January.

2016      Using Mathematical Algorithms to Identify Risk and Resilience Factors in Young Offenders, The Advanced Studies Center Complexity Cluster (Oxford Department of Mathematics and Keble College), Complexity Cluster lecture for Michaelmas Term 2016/17, Keble College Oxford, 19th December.

2016     Social media and its influence on the retention or abolition of capital punishment  - with Lizzie Seal - Centre for Socio Legal Studies, University of Oxford, 28th April, 2016

2016      The Role of Mathematical and Statistical Modelling in Crime Solving and Crime Prevention, The ASC Complexity Cluster (Oxford Department of Mathematics and Keble College), Complexity Cluster lecture for Trinity 2016, Keble College Oxford, 25th April.

2015     Prison as a controlled social system: How Risk and Protective Factors May Influence Prisoners’ Offending Behaviour in the Open Social System of the Community, Centre for Socio Legal Studies, University of Oxford, 12th March, 2015

2014      What judges consider when sentencing: Assessing risk and recidivism in convicts, March 13, Centre for Socio Legal Studies, University of Oxford. 

2012      Intersections of psychology and law: sentencing and capital punishment, Associative Learning Lab meeting, 5th December, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

Professional Membership

2021 -Law and Society Association (USA) - since Jan 1, 2021
2020 – Reviewer, International Journal of Human Rights since November, 2020.
2021 – Editor - Special Edition of Journal Discipline & Punish (with Drs Seal, Black and Malkani)
2017 – Reviewer, Current Anthropology, University of Chicago Press.
2015 – Invited Reviewer, Psychopathology, a specialty of the online journal Frontiers in Psychology - http://www.frontiersin.org/Psychopathology
2016 – Member of the Association for Psychological Science – member number 145239.
1996– 2010, Member of the European Psychology and Law Association 
2003- 2010, Member of the American Psychology and Law Society
2006- 2007, Member of AMICUS 
2001- 2009; 2020-2023, Associate of BBS (Behavioural and Brain Sciences) Journal; Invited reviewer 2020 and 2021.

Network member

    Co-Director of the South-South Migration Network since 2020 with Dr Georgina Chami (UWI St Augustine)
http://globalsouthmigration.org/#about

    The Death Penalty Research Project London –since 2003
    Founding member of the Oxford-Tulane Developmental Justice Network – established in 2017
https://www.developmentaljustice.org/

    Founding member - Caribbean Death Penalty Research –established in 2016
https://caribbeandeathpenaltyresearch.wordpress.com
    British Academy Research Network Crime and Its Representation in the Anglo-phone Caribbean, 1834-2018 – member since April 2018.

American Psychological Association professional training

2015       Certificate of Completion in the course ‘Assessing Psychopathy: Clinical and Forensic Applications of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised’, Workshop Conducted by Professor Robert Hare (Developer of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised) and Dr. Matt Logan, Crane Resort, Barbados,