At Creepy Bonfire, we love exploring the darkest facets of human nature through the eyes of experts. This month, we had the chance to sit down with Eri Ioannidou, a forensic psychologist (MSc) and personal coach with a fascinating and diverse career. Eri is a renowned expert who has served as an expert witness, teacher, and counselor. With her extensive experience as a practitioner and instructor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, she brings a wealth of knowledge to the field.
Eri shared captivating stories from her work with ex-prisoners, revealed surprising insights about the minds of criminals. Also she debunked common myths about forensic psychology. Join us as we explore her intriguing journey and the profound impact of her work in understanding human behavior.
Meet Eri
We’re truly fascinated by your work in forensic psychology. Can you give us a glimpse into your background? What led you to this field, any memorable cases you’ve worked on, or unique experiences that stand out in your career?
Since I was very young, both crime and the medical profession fascinated me. Of course, at that time I didn’t have any clue about criminology or forensic psychology being scientific fields, let alone career options! The only field I knew existed and I wanted to study was forensic pathology. For various reasons I soon realized -thankfully very early- that it wasn’t for me and my attention was drawn to psychology. Very soon it became obvious that this was for me and I began my studies at the University of Crete. Although I was feeling that my dream was coming true, I later understood that something was missing. That “later” came one morning when I attended the first session of a Criminological psychology course.
From Fascination to Forensic Psychology
That was what we call an “Aha” moment when everything felt like getting in place in me. So I registered for all relevant courses, worked on my thesis with an amazing supervisor and applied for the MSc in Forensic psychology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. That’s where the rest of the pieces got in place. I owe most of what I am as a professional and as a teacher to two very inspiring teachers, whom I had the honor of having as supervisors and mentors at the universities where I studied. I always have them in my mind and my heart when I work and especially when I teach. Later on, I worked with ex-prisoners and I also had the opportunity to work at the Cyber Crime Division of the Hellenic Police.
Forensic psychology is the study of how psychological principles apply to legal issues, including understanding criminal behavior and helping in legal cases.
I now have a private practice, teach at the Hellenic American University, work as an instructor and writer at Supplementary Distance Education Programme (E-Learning) of the Center of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, I am a scientific associate at CSC & head of the Forensic Psychology Lab.
As far as cases and stories from the field are concerned, let’s keep the mystery for now and have something to expect from next time…
Balancing Empathy and Analysis: The Forensic Tightrope
In your field, you’re required to understand the darkest aspects of human behaviour while also keeping the victims’ experiences in mind. How do you manage to maintain this balance between empathy for the victims and the objective analysis of criminals?
Focusing on the task that you have in hand is always helpful in keeping the balance. Of course, the mind always wanders. When you are working on a case and focusing on the offender, at some point you may find yourself thinking about the victim. And vice versa. This is human, inevitable and in fact very helpful because it helps in maintaining the ability to see the bigger picture. But if you only see the bigger picture, then you may lose the details.
Are there specific strategies or mental practices you follow?
So you need to dive in closer again for those details to be revealed. Closer and further, again and again. Checking all the available information and then checking again. Checking with yourself that you haven’t got too “into the case” and taking some distance if needed. This approach also helps us re-consider our affect, objectivity and biases, which we need to do very often for obvious ethical reasons.
Shocking Revelations
In unravelling the psyche of a criminal, what’s the most surprising connection you’ve discovered, an unseen thread that the public wouldn’t expect?
The first answer that came to my mind may not be that fascinating. But it refers to a crime growing in numbers and affecting many people, many more than the statistics show. So, the unseen thread or -more accurately- the unseen threat is that many sexual abusers of minors who lure their victims through the Internet, use much less grooming than we would expect. “Grooming” is the subtle communication strategies that child sexual abusers use to prepare their potential victims to accept sexual contact with minimal resistance.
It involves communication, desensitization and reframing. We would expect an abuser to need many hours and a very subtle communication style in order to convince a victim to meet him/her in person and/or share any private sexual material. And by needing all that, this would mean that it’s more difficult to manage. In reality, due to the fact that a minor in many cases is a “tabula rasa” regarding sexual matters or what is and what isn’t appropriate for someone to say when expressing their sexual interest, they can be victimized much easier than we would think. Various other reasons play a role into this equation. This is why romantic and sexual relationships shouldn’t be a taboo for parents to discuss with their children and these issues should most definitely be part of the curriculum in schools.
Shocking Revelations: The Dark Side of Online Predators
Your work requires close cooperation with law enforcement and medical examiners. Can you share how your expertise casts light on investigations, bridging the gap between psychology and detective work?
This is the part where we need to do some myth busting. We are not what we see in Criminal Minds. Although sometimes we wish we could be! Especially in Greece our role is very limited -if there is even any role- and it doesn’t include what the public may imagine. For example, no freelancer is hired by the police to do profiling or help with an interrogation. If and when any attempt of profiling is being done, it is done by the police.
Most of the work that we do is for the court, in some cases being hired by the court while in others being hired by the accused or the victim / the victim’s family. It usually includes assessments regarding the competency of the accused to stand trial, their criminal responsibility and their overall psychological state and possible psychopathology. We also focus on this last part when we assess victims and their traumatic experiences. Other colleagues specialize in family court. As you may imagine, the role of a forensic psychologist in other countries may include much more.
Busted Myths: What TV Gets Wrong About Forensic Psychology
What is one of the most persistent myths about criminal psychology that you encounter in your work or teaching? How do you address and clarify this misconceptions?
I think that the most common myth is what we discussed above: that we mostly do profiling and that we are the first to be called in a crime scene. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Due to the fact that many people watch crime series, in which facts are mixed with reality, they often believe that what they see is what actually happens in a case.
Professional roles are mixed and everyone does everything, from chasing a suspect or conducting an interrogation to collecting forensic evidence. Because of all that confusion and because I want my students to have a full and true understanding of what forensic psychology is in real life and what kind of work they could do if they followed the field, I include a lot of myth busting both in my classes as well as in seminars open to the general public. Our work is fascinating, but for totally different reasons than the ones that most people imagine!
The Future is Now: AI and the Evolution of Crime Profiling
As a beacon in forensic education, what future trends do you see shaping the world of criminal profiling and forensic psychology? How are you weaving these predictions into your teachings?
We are nowadays much more focused on evidence-based practice than ever before. A clinician’s intuition isn’t enough any more. Profiling is now based more on statistics than the profiler’s personal experience and ideas. A growing body of research focuses on creating and using profiling techniques in forms of crime that we recently begun to study in depth, like cyber crime and terrorism. However, the newer and most interesting developments in forensic psychology are rarely related to profiling, which is only a small part of the field and with dubious methodology.
Advancements regarding the use of AI technology in our field are already part of the scientific discussion and will concern us for years to come. However, in many of my classes I focus more than anything on the students’ way of thinking, attitudes and perceptions regarding crime and being an offender/victim and their skills in empathy. If they are interested in the field in a genuine and healthy way, then all the information is out there for them to find.
True Crime Obsession: How Shows Shape Our Understanding of Justice
In recent years, we’ve witnessed a significant surge in the popularity of true crime shows. Nowadays, true crime shows do more than just tell a story, they often reflect societal fears and fascinations. How do you believe these narratives influence public perception of crime and justice in our society?
As we mentioned before, there are a lot of myths created and/or sustained by crime and true crime shows. I believe that the same happens with many other professions too. I guess that doctors feel the same when people tell them “I saw it in Grey’s Anatomy”! Don’t take me wrong, I love crime shows and I have spent more hours than I should watching them! I enjoy them so much that I actually created a whole course called “Myth busting: Crime and punishment in multimodal media”! But I enjoy them knowing that they are either fictional or they present crime in a voyeuristic and sensualized way that has nothing to do with the brutality of crime in real life.
The Reality Gap: Fiction vs. Real-Life Forensics
A disclaimer in the beginning of each episode may help, although I have serious doubts about the number of people that would notice it. More professionals talking to the media about their work in simple terms may help the public. We also need to keep in mind that it’s not all the creators’ fault when the public watches a fictional series and believe that everything they see is a real depiction of what happens in reality. It seems that there is an innate difficulty in people accepting that watching a series can’t make you a guru on a subject. But life-long studying and training can provide you with the tools needed to become a good professional. Having said all that, sometimes shows deviate from reality for no apparent reason. Using more professionals with a consulting role in the creation of a show would be a good first step.
Breaking Into the Field: Tips and Tricks for Aspiring Forensic Psychologists
What advice would you give to students aspiring to enter the field of forensic psychology? What qualities and skills should they cultivate?
I would advise them to study academic material regarding the field, talk with professionals that are already in the field and grasp any opportunity they may have to do an internship or volunteer work in any facility related to what interests them. This is the best way to see if the feeling they imagined having when being there matches the one they will actually have. For example, visiting a prison may seem like a very interesting experience, but when you enter the gate other emotions may come to the surface. Openness, curiosity, empathy and resilience are only some of the qualities that are essential in our line of work.
They should also keep in mind that our everyday work depends on our specialization, not all forensic psychologists do the same kind of work in the same settings. Some like to work in prisons, others do assessments, others do therapy, others do research and the list goes on. For me, having a private practice and working as a counselor mainly with people in the LGBTQI+ community (usually non-related to anything forensic) is what keeps me in balance…for now!
For more information and insights from Eri Ioannidou visit her page. Stay tuned for more discussions and interviews from leading experts in true crime, horror and mysteries in the near future.
And after getting all these interesting and insightful information from Eri, let’s dive into the 5 Most Notorious Crimes Happened in Greece.
