Dr Pekka Santtila
Police College of Finland

Dr Santtila has had the opportunity of applying the results of his research as a consultant to ongoing police investigations as well as participating in the development of projects related to crime analysis and witness psychology within the police. Dr Santtila has been the member of ministerial working groups related to criminal profiling, deception and witness statements and the psychology of human sexuality. He has also been a member of the Board of Forensic Psychology of the Finnish Psychological Association for two years. In addition, Dr Santtila has acted as an expert witness on issues related to witness psychology in a number of legal proceedings in the Finnish Courts. In terms of critical incident decision-making, Dr Santtila is supervising an ongoing research project looking at risk factors for violence as well as police decision-making in hostage and barricade situations using a data set of 80 such Finnish cases.

Recent example publications

1. Santtila, P., Häkkänen, H., & Fritzon, K. (2003). Inferring the characteristics of an arsonist from crime scene actions: a case study in offender profiling. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 5, 1-15.

2. Santtila, P., Korpela, S., & Häkkänen, H. (in press). Expertise and decision-making in linking car crime series. Psychology, Crime, & Law.

3. Santtila, P., Zappalà, A., Laukkanen, M., & Picozzi, M. (2003). Testing the utility of a geographical profiling approach in three rape series of a single offender: A case study. Forensic Science International, 131, 42-52.