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Dr Heather Panter

School of Justice Studies

Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies

Email: H.A.Panter@ljmu.ac.uk

Telephone: 0151 231 3879

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Dr. Heather Panter is a retired American police detective with 13+ years of law enforcement experience with local and federal police agencies. She has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (USA). She also has a Master of Science (M.S.) in Criminal Justice with a Concentration in Forensic Science from Saint Leo University (USA). In 2016, she earned her PhD in Criminology from Cardiff University (UK).

As an academic, her previous research involved the comparative cross-examination of policing within the United States and the United Kingdom in respect to officers’ cognitive and social perceptions of LGBT+ identities and LGBT+ police. This research focused on biases, gender theories, psychological conflict theories, intersectionality, subconscious bias, and the issues surrounding social acceptance of those in stigmatised minority groups within policing. This research was published in her first book titled 'Transgender Cops: The Intersection of Gender and Sexuality Expectations in Police Cultures'.

Currently, she is examining trends and stigmas in LGBT+ homicides with how victims are depicted. A portion of this research has been published in her recent edited book 'Transgender People and Criminal Justice: An Examination of Issues in Victimology, Policing, Sentencing, and Prisons'.

She is a member of multiple interdisciplinary research networks linking forensic science, homicide victimology, and technology in policing. Her on-going broad research interests focus on:

1. LGBT+ Victimology- Investigating the prevalence, nature, and role that stigmas and bias has in LGBT+ homicides and genocides.

2. Investigative Science and Implementing Technology in Crime Scenes- Enhancing techniques for crime scene investigation which improve accuracy, efficiency, and safety of those working in high-risk forensic environments.

As a senior lecturer, she is the programme leader of LJMU's MSc Policing and Criminal Investigations and the module leader on the following graduate modules: "Advanced Investigative Skills", "Forensic and Medicolegal Death Investigations", and "Drugs: Recognition and Identification". She also created and oversees LJMU's policing studies crime scene science area where students and staff have a multidisciplinary learning space to conduct "mock" crime scene exercises and research studies.

She currently supervises PhD projects within criminology, policing studies, forensic science, engineering, and computer science. She is also interested in future PhD supervision/ external examination in the following interdisciplinary topic areas: police narratives in LGBT+ homicide investigations; "queering" forensic science (how forensic protocols, crime scene investigations, and legal interpretations can be adapted for inclusive practices); crime scene learning and improvements in crime scene training; crime scene technologies and advancements in documentation; media and homicide investigations; forensic trends in drug detection; post-mortem identification issues in policing; crime scene reconstruction and victim identity.

Degrees

2016, Cardiff University, United Kingdom, Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology (PhD)
2011, Saint Leo University, United States, Master of Science in Criminal Justice with a Concentration in Forensic Science (M.S.)
2000, University of Tennessee, United States, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice (B.S.)

Academic appointments

External Examiner (UG/ PG Criminal Investigation courses), Canterbury Centre for Policing Research, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2024 - present
Programme Leader (MSc in Policing and Criminal Investigations), Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, 2016 - present
Programme Leader (BSc in Policing and Forensics), Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, 2016 - 2019

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