Professional Services – Consultancy

Professor Canter provides consultancy services and training to police staff, academics, and business and legal professionals, drawing on his expertise in Investigative Psychology, Environmental Psychology and innovative real-world methodologies for applied research.

Broad areas of consultancy include:

  • Insurance fraud
  • Market research (particularly psychological approaches to identification of market “gaps”)
  • Probity profiling (candidate assessment for senior corporate positions)
  • Programme/intervention evaluation
  • Environment-behaviour interaction
  • Management consultancy (organisational behaviour & social psychology at work)
  • Expert evidence to courts
  • Investigative advice to police

Previous clients include Scotland Yard, British Steel, Scottish Power, Direct Line, Royal Mail, Scottish Hydro Electric PLC, US Army, UK Home Office, DERA, Lowe/Nestle, United Biscuits and B.P. Oil Ltd, along with diverse police forces, Crime and Disorder partnerships, and courts in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Further details:

Insurance fraud
Working with a major insurance company as well as a specialised fraud investigation company, Professor Canter has shown that by drawing on scientific research into the psychology of deception, remarkable decreases in fraudulent claims can be produced. The fraud detection system he has developed is simple, brief and customer-friendly.

Market research
An approach based on formal psychological theory and a highly innovative methodology has allowed Professor Canter to make major new contributions to market place conceptualisation and the identification of market gaps for a variety of products.

The approaches he advocates are unique. They are particularly powerful because, while grounded in advanced statistics and intensive data analysis, they are undemanding for participants and produce immediately understandable visual market models which creative marketing professionals and customers alike can readily interact with.

(Interestingly, his approach to market research has much in common with the approaches that have allowed him to identify so successfully the psychological patterns within the detailed actions of criminals!)

For a detailed account of the approach please contact Dr Donna Youngs via email.

Probity profiling
As a senior Professor of Psychology, pioneer of offender profiling, and expert witness to the courts on personality characteristics of defendants, Professor Canter can provide authoritative evaluations of candidates for senior corporate positions.

His reports provide comprehensive assessments of an individual’s trustworthiness, interpersonal style and propensities for destructive behaviours, as well as for effective leadership and communication.

Programme/intervention evaluation
Professor Canter and his team at the International Centre for Investigative Psychology have extensive experience of the evaluation of diverse programmes and interventions.

They bring a particular expertise in the psychological bases of behavioural differences, deviant behaviour, behaviour-environment interactions and the systematic analysis of behaviour in real world situations.

Environmental/psychological input to building design
Professor Canter provides consultancy on all aspects of environment-behaviour interaction, drawing on his expertise as both an Environmental Psychologist and an Applied Social Researcher.

He has developed specialist methodologies relevant to the psychological input to the design of buildings, providing training in these methodoligies to architects such as Arups. He delivered an invited lecture on these methods to the British Institute of Architects in February 2008.

Management consultancy : organisational behaviour and social psychology at work
Prof Canter has provided occupational psychology/management consultancy guidance to British Steel, Scottish Power, Direct Line, Royal Mail, Scottish Hydro Electric PLC, and BP Oil.