CSEL Publications
CSEL undertakes empirical research and aims always to publish it in the highest quality, peer-reviewed scientific journals. This means that each published paper is reviewed by knowledgeable and experienced people in the field, who can make informed judgements about the quality of the work.
What Assumptions about Human Behaviour Underlie Asylum Judgments?
Herlihy, Gleeson & Turner, 2010
This unique study reports a qualitative analysis which shows that assumptions are made by decision makers about asylum seekers' behaviour in their country of origin, in the UK, and in their accounts of their experiences. Questions are raised about which of these assumptions are in line with best available empirical knowledge.
Click here for a link to the paper online.
Refugees' Experiences of Home Office Interviews: A Qualitative Study on the Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information
Bogner, Brewin & Herlihy, 2009
A paper describing the qualitative findings of interviews with people about their Home Office interviews - drawn from the same study that investigated the impact of sexual violence on disclosure (see below).
Click here for a link to the paper online.
Discrepancies in autobiographical memory
Herlihy, Scragg & Turner, 2002
A paper published in the British Medical Journal which shows that when people are interviewed twice, many details of their stories change. Peripheral details of traumatic events are particularly likely to be inconsistent. For those with severe levels of PTSD, the longer the delay between interviews, the more likely the details of stories are to change.
Click here for a link to the paper online.
Should discrepant accounts given by asylum seekers be taken as proof of deceit?
Herlihy & Turner, 2006
A description of our and others? studies of inconsistent memory for traumatic experiences.
This paper describes and expands upon the above study on discrepancies, describing other research which reports similar findings about the unreliability of memory for traumatic experiences.
Click here for a link to the paper online.
Impact of sexual violence on disclosure in Home Office Interviews
Bogner, Herlihy & Brewin, 2007
A study of psychological factors in Home Office immigration interviews.
A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry describing people's experiences of Home Office asylum interviews and relating the difficulty they report disclosing their past histories to their problems with Shame, PTSD and Dissociation. People seeking asylum who not disclose all that happened to them in Home Office interviews are often seen later as making up stories in order to claim asylum, and will have to explain why they did not disclose all their experiences, which often include sexual violence.
Click here for the primary report of the findings of this study.
The Psychology of Seeking Protection
Herlihy & Turner, 2009
A review of the asylum process and relevant psychological literature.
This paper, published in the International Journal of Refugee Law, follows the process of seeking asylum in the UK, from arrival to decision, reviewing some of the relevant psychological literature that could be used to better inform the system at each point.
Click here for a link to the paper online.
Asylum claims and memory of trauma: Sharing our Knowledge
Herlihy & Turner, 2007
This is a position paper, published as an editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry. It suggests that psychiatrists and psychologists have a breadth of knowledge?taking as an example the memory of trauma? which could help to inform the asylum process. We need to investigate how to apply this knowledge and how to make it accessible to decision makers.
Click here for a link to the paper. (You will need to log in to the British Journal of Psychiatry to see this paper).
Other key papers by our Chair of Trustees
Turner, S.W. and ISTSS Executive (2005) ISTSS makes official statement on torture in the modern world. Traumatic Stress Points. Summer 2005.
Turner, S.W. (2004) Emotional Reactions to Torture and Organized State Violence. PTSD Research Quarterly. Spring 2004.
Schnurr, P.P., Kaloupek, D.G., Turner, S.W., Bloom, S. and Kaltman, S. (2004) Another Grand Challenge: Mental Health (Letter). Science 303, 168-169.
Turner, S.W., Bowie, C., Dunn, G., Shapo, L. and Yule, W. (2003) Mental Health of Kosovan Albanian Refugees in the UK. British Journal of Psychiatry.
Van Velsen, C., Gorst-Unsworth, C. and Turner SW. (1996) Working with Survivors of Torture - Demography and Diagnosis. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 9, 181-193
McIvor, R., and Turner, S.W. (1995) Assessment and treatment approaches for survivors of torture. British Journal of Psychiatry. 166, 705-711.
Turner SW (1993). The limitations of the anxiety concept in work with survivors of repressive violence. Torture. Supplementum 1, 19-21.
Summerfield D, Jones L, Gorst-Unsworth C, Hobbs M, Turner S, Harris-Hendricks J and Black D (1993) Psychiatrists condemn Serb leader. British Medical Journal (letter). 307, 329.
Ramsay, R, Gorst-Unsworth,C and Turner, SW. (1993) Psychiatric Morbidity in Survivors of State Organised Violence including Torture: A Retrospective Series. British Journal of Psychiatry. 162, 55-59.
Gorst-Unsworth C, Van Velsen C. and Turner SW. (1993) Prospective study of Survivors of Torture and Organised Violence - Examining the Existential Dilemma. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 181, 263-264.
Turner SW, Landau T, Hinshelwood J and Bamber H. (1989) Torture of Turkish Kurds. (letter presenting original data). Lancet, i, 1319 and subsequent correspondence.
Turner SW (1989) Working with survivors: the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Psychiatric Bulletin. 13, 173-176.
For a full list of publications by Stuart Turner click here
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