Mary Schollum

Guest Author

Mary Schollum, PhD, is a criminologist with more than 30 years of experience in policing and criminal justice, including 17 years with the New Zealand Police in senior civilian roles, and 8 years collectively with the United Kingdom’s National Policing Improvement Agency, College of Policing, and Ministry of Justice.

She has been a self-employed consultant for the last 6 years, and has a master’s degree and PhD from the University of Cambridge, England. Her specialist area is investigative interviewing. Her interest in this subject began when, for the period 1990-93, she was part of a small team that trialled and implemented the videotaping of interviews with suspects across the whole of New Zealand Police. Her later review (Jan 2005-Dec 2006) of the organization’s approach to investigative interviews led to widespread changes in policy, procedures, training, and practice, including acceptance of the PEACE model for use in all interviews with victims, witnesses, and suspects.