If the subject of crime fascinates you, then come and join us for a festival of interactive crime displays showcasing the most recent advances in tackling and understanding complex cases.
Hosted by the University of Portsmouth’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and with partners in policing, the fire service and the military, there will be something for everybody on the day.
From solving your own mystery through quizzes and puzzles and getting up close with crime scenes to meeting police officers and crime writers, the festival is open to all and is completely free to attend.
Festival of Crime
See what we got up to at the last Festival of Crime.
Join us for the Festival of Crime on Saturday 4th May 2024.
For interactive crime scenes, fingerprinting, meeting a best selling crime author, police officers, investigation dogs, crime experts, plus lots more. All absolutely free.
On the day, you'll get to...
- Walk through interactive crime scenes and help solve the crime
- Test your skills identifying finger marks and microscopic traces
- Explore the criminal mind with interactive psychology displays
- Try out a fully functioning mock courtroom
- Take part in crime‑solving challenges, quizzes and puzzles
- Discover how cybercrime, cybersecurity and forensic computing tackle online threats
- Meet police officers, criminologists, psychologists and forensic experts
- See how our students and researchers are shaping the future of criminal justice
Optional Talks and Sessions
Richmond Building, Lecture Theatre 1 (LT1)
What do you know about crime and punishment?
Speaker: Marc Jacobs
Time: 10.30am
Good cop bad cop: Police interviewing – what works?
Speaker: Becky Milne
Time: 11.30am
I volunteered to go to prison in Iceland, as a researcher. Here is what I learned about how to make prisons better in the UK.
Speaker: Francis Pakes
Time: 12.30pm
Ships, Shopping and Dirty Money: How Trade Hides Crime
Speaker: Branislav Hock
Time: 1.30pm
Scams: what not to do - an interactive session
Speaker: Professor Mark Button and Dr Peter Tickner
Time: 2.30pm
Research and Rescue: How research can support and enhance the search for vulnerable missing people
Speaker: Craig Collie
Time: 3.30pm
Richmond Building, Lecture Theatre 2 (LT2)
Women behaving badly: female crime in the 17th century'
Speaker: Fiona McCall
Time: 11.00am
“Done to death by the system": railway worker accidents as "conventional crime" in 19th and 20th century Britain
Speaker: Mike Esbester
Time: 12.00am
How to be a Tudor traitor!
Speaker: Katy Gibbons
Time: 1.00pm
Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes in Portsmouth
Speaker: Christopher Pittard
Time: 2.00pm
Graham Hurley, DI Faraday and Portsmouth
Speaker: Christine Berberich
Time: 3.00pm
Richmond Building, Lecture Theatre 3 (LT3)
Inside the Manosphere: Exploring Incels, Online Misogyny, and Contemporary Online Harms
Speaker: Anda Solea
Time: 10.15am
Expectations, entitlements and experiences - what happens if you become a victim of crime?
Speaker: Jacki Tipley
Time: 11.15am
Fancy a Smoke, Boss? The Dis/integration of Vietnamese Farm Workers in Taiwan
Speaker: Isabelle Cockel
Time: 12.15pm
Understanding GPS, Curfew and Alcohol Monitoring in Probation Practice
Speaker: Natalie Fleming
Time: 1.15pm
Poached, Traded, Lost: Inside Wildlife Crime
Speaker: Nick Pamment and Jac Reed
Time: 2.15pm
Could you be a CSI?
Speaker: Paul Smith and Colin White
Time: 3.15pm
Portland Building, Lecture Theatre 0.28
Real time forensics and crime prediction with SpiderNet
Speaker: Dr Mo Adda
Time: 1.45pm
Inside Southeast Asia’s Billion-Dollar Scam Industry
Speaker: Dr Bing Han
Time: 2.45pm
Venue:
This year's Festival of Crime will take place across Portland Building (PO1 3AH), Richmond Building (PO1 3DE), and Dennis Sciama Building (PO1 3FX).
You can check-in at any of these three locations.
Criminology BSc (Hons)
Study criminology to explore why people commit crimes and how we should respond. Discover what criminology is all about and prepare for a career in the police, probation or prison services.
Foundation year option available
Start date: September 2026
Discover the world of crime firsthand at the University of Portsmouth’s interactive festival
Aspiring detectives and true crime enthusiasts won’t want to miss the Festival of Crime this spring
