Dr Stuart Lipscombe

Stuart has amassed a decade of teaching expertise and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). He has taught on a range of degree programmes throughout his teaching career, including: Psychology, Sociology, Childhood Studies and Criminology.

As part of the Criminology undergraduate degree Stuart has been responsible for the planning, design and implementation of criminological psychology content. He is the Module Leader for three such modules: Principles of Psychology for Criminologists (Level 4), Psychology and Crime (Level 5), and Forensic Psychology (Level 6). He is also Module Leader for the wider Sociology, Law and Politics-based research methods module, Social Science Skills (Level 4). He also supervises Level 6 students’ final year dissertation projects.

Stuart’s academic career began later in life, following a successful career in the private sector. He studied for an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Criminology at University of Suffolk, before being awarded an MSc in Psychology and PhD in Developmental Psychology, both from the University of Essex. His doctoral thesis investigated inhibitory control in young children and is titled ‘How are inhibitory demands created and avoided in developmental
tasks?’. Stuart embarked on a teaching career first with employment as an occasional lecturer, before accepting a permanent position as Lecturer at University of Suffolk in 2013. 

Stuart is actively involved in research, with broad academic interests in the disciplines of Developmental Psychology, and Developmental and Life Course Criminology. He is a PhD supervisor for students at University of Suffolk, and is always keen to consider applications from prospective PhD students interested in either of these areas. In addition, Stuart is an
academic advisor / peer reviewer for an academic book-publishing house.

Stuart’sspecific academic research is focused on inhibitory control (IC) in young children aged 3- to 8-years-old. IC relates to the ability to stop the production of automatic responses. In recent research he has investigated differences between children’s manual and verbal imitative responses, with a particular emphasis on the inhibitory effects of complex and
simple words, and the extent to which word similarity and dissimilarity may impact on imitative responding. Another strand of research Stuart is involved in investigates whether reconceptualization of rule structure and delay may enable young children to overcome their weak IC in developmental tasks. Forthcoming research aims to clarify understanding of children’s apparent ease with resisting verbal imitation.

Recent Publication:

• Simpson, A., Lipscombe, S. & Carroll, D.J. (2022). Why are some inhibitory tasks easy for preschool children when most are difficult? Testing two hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 220: 105431.

In 2015/16 Stuart was researcher and data analyst for the Suffolk and Norfolk Police Demand Audit as part of the Evidence-based Policing Collaboration. The research required the analysis of a large data sets relating to residents’ perceptions of crime, criminal behaviour and personal safety in Suffolk and Norfolk, and the writing and publication of evidence-based research articles. The analyses and reports were utilised by Police services in East Anglia to better understand workload demands placed on police officers across the Eastern region.

Publications as part of this research, include:

• Lipscombe, S. (2015). Suffolk & Norfolk Community Safety Survey (CSS): Interim Report.
• Lipscombe, S. (2015). Suffolk Community Safety Survey (CSS): Interim Report.
• Lipscombe, S. (2015). Norfolk Community Safety Survey (CSS): Interim Report.
• Lipscombe, S. (2016). Community Safety Survey (CSS). Suffolk & Norfolk.
• Lipscombe, S. (2016). Community Safety Survey (CSS): Executive Summary.
• Lipscombe, S. (2016). Community Safety Survey (CSS): Additional Analysis.
• Lipscombe, S. (2016). Community Safety Survey (CSS): Suffolk
• Lipscombe, S. (2016). External Demand on Police Resources: A Quick Scoping Review. 

Stuart is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).