Marguerite Trabut

Please tell us about your research project.
My PhD research project in political science deals with the different modes of psychological interventions upon police officers in the French policing institution. On the one hand, police officers are said, by the different actors involved in this issue, to be reluctant to seek help from mental health professionals. On the other hand, psychological facilities for police staff have, in France, rapidly grown since the 1990’s. My research question is : what has brought and shaped the increase of in-house psychologists for police officers said reluctant to this approach? I spent the first two years of my PHD conducting field work (interviews and observations) among psychologists, police commanders and officers. I am now to analyse the data I collected and to explore more systematically the literature on this subject. My stay at la MFO is particularly timely for that !

Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?
Spending one month in Oxford will hopefully enable me to familiarize with the English literature on policing and more specifically on psychological intervention upon police officers. During my stay here, I will also present my research work at the Howard League Conference on Crime, Justice and the Human Condition. This will provide me the opportunity to meet different scholars on this topic and to get to know their ongoing research projects and discussions.

First impressions of Oxford/the University?
I really much enjoyed my first walks among Oxford’s buildings and canals.  Yet the furniture of the MFO, very typical of the 1960’s also caught my attention. And I have of course been astonished by the concentration of libraries in the city centre.