The EAPL Scientific Impact Award recognises individuals or teams whose research has made an internationally noteworthy contribution to the field of psychology and law. Contributions for consideration include the development of new and innovative methods, generating findings that advance understanding of psychological mechanisms or processes within the legal context, and expansion of knowledge in new ways. Previous winners of this prize have gone on to become some of the foremost names in Psychology and Law internationally.
Dom was nominated for the award by Dr Celine van Golde at the University of Sydney who commented “Dom Willmott has established himself as a leading voice in the domain of jury decision making within sexual offence trials and over recent years his mock jury research has had a major influence on criminal justice policy and legal reforms. To do this, he has had to navigate complex legislative restrictions that all but prevent researchers in the UK from speaking with genuine trial jurors by developing and carrying out what is widely perceived to be the most realistic and ecologically valid mock jury research ever conducted within a UK context.”
Dom is a Reader in Legal and Criminological Psychology, interested in bias within legal decision-making. His main specialism is jury decision-making within sexual offence trials alongside investigating the impact of rape myths and broader social cognitions in gender-based violence. He has published more than 70 scientific articles and research outputs and received almost £5 million pounds in funding to carry out his research.
The European Association of Psychology and Law is a learned society that promotes research and the exchange of knowledge between psychology and law. The EAPL was established in 1992 in Oxford and has established itself as the leading European learned society for psychology applied to law.
The award was presented at the EAPL 2024 conference in Caparica, Portugal which Dom attended along with Dr Neema Trivedi-Bateman where they presented their research to attendees from around the world.