Dr Mandeep Dhami

BSc (hons) Psychology, Brunel University , UK , 1995
MA Criminology, University of Leicester , UK , 1996
PhD Psychology, City University , UK , 2001

Senior Lecturer in Criminology

In the past, Dr. Dhami has held academic and/or research positions at the University of Victoria (Canada), University of Maryland (USA), and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Germany).

Dr. Dhami’s research draws conceptual connections between theories in Psychology and issues in Criminology. Her main interests are in judgment and decision making, risk, and criminal justice. She has investigated, for example, judicial, juror, offender, and police decision making, youth risk perception and risk taking, adaptation to imprisonment, and restorative justice. She is currently Principal Investigator on a two-year project entitled ‘The Antecedents and Consequences of Apology in a Restorative Justice Context’ funded by the British Academy. Dr. Dhami will consider supervising graduate students or postdocs who have an interest in any of these areas of research and a background in quantitative methods.

She is on the editorial boards of Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and Judgement and Decision Making. She was on the editorial board of Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy from 2001-2006. Dr. Dhami has edited special issues of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making on ‘Decision Making and the Law’ in 2007, and Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy on ‘Psychological Perspectives on Threats to Democracy’ in 2005. She is currently editing a book entitled Judgment and Decision Making as a Skill: Learning, Development and Evolution that will be published by Cambridge University Press.

PUBLICATIONS BY RESEARCH AREA (copies available upon request)

Judgment and Decision Making

• Mueller-Johnson, K., & Dhami, M. K. (2010). Effects of offenders’ age and health on sentencing decisions. Journal of Social Psychology.
• Dhami, M. K., & Harries, C. (2009). Information search in heuristic decision making. Applied Cognitive Psychology.
• Garcia-Retamero, R., & Dhami, M. K. (2009). Differences between experts and novices in cue estimation in crime. Psicothema, 21, 376-381.
• Garcia-Retamero, R., & Dhami, M. K. (2009). Policías, ladrones y genete corriente: Diferencias entre expertos y noveles en el uso de estrategias para la toma de decisiones. Ciencia Cognitiva: Revista Electónrica de Divulgación, 3, 42-45.
• Garcia-Retamero, R., & Dhami, M. K. (2009). Take-the-best in expert-novice decision strategies for residential burglary. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 163-169.
• Dhami, M. K. (2008). On measuring quantitative interpretations of reasonable doubt. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 14, 353-363.
• Dhami, M. K., & Olsson, H. (2008). Evolution of the interpersonal conflict paradigm. Judgment and Decision Making, 3, 547-569.
• Kamleitner, B., Dhami, M. K. & Mandel, D. R. (2008), Gambling for a discount: Preferring discount per item to discount per purchase? In A. L. McGill & S. Shavitt (Eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 36. Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research.
• Dhami, M. K. (2007). Bail setting decisions. In B. Cutler (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Law and Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Dhami, M. K. (2007). Sentencing decisions. In B. Cutler (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Law and Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Dhami, M. K., Hastie, R., Koehler, J. J., & Wiener, R. L. (2007). Introduction to the special issue: Decision making and the law. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20, 453-454.
• Dhami, M. K. (2006). Legal decision making: Psychological reality meets legal idealism. In B. Brooks, & M. Freeman (Eds.), Law and psychology (pp. 49-76). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dhami, M. K., Mandel, D. R., Loewenstein, G., & Ayton, P. (2006). Prisoners’ positive illusions of their post-release success. Law and Human Behavior, 30, 631-647.
• Piperides, C., Allen, R. J., Dhami, M. K., Flessner, A., Hastie, R., Koehler, J. J., Lempert, R., Schulz, J., & Wagner, G. (2006). Group report: What is the role of heuristics in litigation? In C. Engel & G. Gigerenzer (Eds.), Heuristics and the law. Dahlem Workshop Report 94 (pp. 343-377). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Dhami, M. K. (2005). From discretion to disagreement: Explaining disparities in judges’ pre-trial decisions. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23, 367-386.
• Dhami, M. K., Mandel, D. R., & Souza, K. A. (2005). Escape from reality: Prisoners’ counterfactual thinking about crime, justice and punishment. In: D. R. Mandel, D. J. Hilton, & P. Catellani (Eds.), The psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 165-182). London: Routledge.
• Dhami, M. K. & Wallsten, T. S. (2005). Interpersonal comparison of subjective probabilities. Memory & Cognition, 33, 1057-1068.
• Mandel, D. R., & Dhami, M. K. (2005). Introduction to the special issue, Psychological perspectives on threats to democracy, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 5, 205-207.
• Mandel, D. R. & Dhami, M. K. (2005). “What I did” versus “what I might have done”: Effect of factual and counterfactual thinking on blame, guilt, and shame in prisoners. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41. 627-635.
• Dhami, M. K. (2004). Conditional bail decision making in the magistrates’ court. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 43, 27-46.
• Dhami, M. K., Hertwig, R., & Hoffrage, U. (2004). The role of representative design in an ecological approach to cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 959-988.
• Dhami, M. K. (2003). Psychological models of professional decision-making. Psychological Science, 14, 175-180.
• Dhami, M. K. (2002). Do bail information schemes really affect bail decisions? The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 41, 245-262.
• Karelitz, T. M., Dhami, M. K., Budescu, D. V., & Wallsten, T. S. (2002). Toward a universal translator of verbal probabilities. Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference, 498-502.
• Dhami, M. K., & Ayton, P. (2001). Bailing and jailing the fast and frugal way. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 14, 141-168.
• Dhami, M. K. & Harries, C. (2001). Fast and frugal versus regression models of human judgment. Thinking & Reasoning, 7, 5-27.
• Harries, C. & Dhami, M. K. (2000). On the descriptive validity and prescriptive utility of fast and frugal models. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 753-754.
• Dhami, M. K. (1999). A psychologist on the bench. The Psychologist, 12, 328-329.

Crime, Justice, and Punishment

• Dhami, M. K. (2009). Iraq. In G. R. Newman (Ed.), Crime and punishment around the world. Africa/Middle East Volume. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Dhami, M. K., Mantle, G., & Fox, D. (2009). Restorative justice in prisons. Contemporary Justice Review.
• Dhami, M. K., & Souza, K. A. (2009). Breaking into court. In D. L. Streiner & S. Sidani (Eds.), When research goes off the rails. New York: Guilford Press.
• Dhami, M. K., & Souza, K. A. (2009). Sentencing and its outcomes project: Part one pilot study report. Ministry of Justice Research Series 2/09, London, UK.
• Dhami, M. K. (2008). Youth auto theft: A survey of a general population of Canadian youth. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 50, 187-209.
• Souza, K. A., & Dhami, M. K. (2008). A study of volunteers in community-based restorative justice programs. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 50, 31-57.
• Souza, K.A., & Dhami, M. K. (2008). Organizational aspects of restorative justice. Resolution, 25, 5.
• Dhami, M. K. (2007). White-collar prisoners’ perceptions of audience reaction: Findings from a small-scale interview study. Deviant Behavior, 28, 57-77.
• Dhami, M. K., Ayton, P., & Loewenstein, G. (2007). Adaptation to imprisonment: Indigenous or imported? Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 1085-1100.
• Dhami, M. K. & Joy, P. (2007). Challenges to establishing volunteer run community-based restorative justice programs. Contemporary Justice Review, 10, 9-22.
• Souza, K. A., & Dhami, M. K. (2007). Restorative justice volunteers’ perceptions of effective facilitators. British Journal of Community Justice, 5, 55-61.
• Fox, D., Dhami, M. K., & Mantle, G. (2006). Restorative final warnings: Policy and practice. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 45, 129-140.
• Dhami, M. K. (2005). Prisoner disenfranchisement policy: A threat to democracy? Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Special Issue: Psychological Perspectives on Threats to Democracy, 5, 253-247.
• Mantle, G., Fox, D., & Dhami, M. K. (2005). Restorative justice and three individual theories of crime. Internet Journal of Criminology, 1-36.
• Dhami, M. K. (1995). Helping Asian deportees. Forensic Update, 40, 21.

Youth Issues

• Barnes, G., Mitic, W., Leadbeater, B., & Dhami, M. K. (2009). Risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use and mental health symptoms. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 28, 1-15.
• Dhami, M. K., Mandel, D., & Sothmann, K. (2007). An evaluation of post-adoption services. Children and Youth Services Review, 29, 162-179.
• Dhami, M. K., Hoglund, W., Leadbeater, B., & Boone, E. (2005). Gender-linked risks for peer physical and relational victimization in the context of school level poverty in first-grade. Social Development, 14, 532-549.
• Jansson, M., Russell, T., Mitic, W., & Dhami, M. K. (2005). Ethical issues in a youth population health survey. In: B. Leadbeater, E. Banister, T. Riecken et al. (Eds.), Ethics in community-based research (pp. 59-69). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Leadbeater, B., Dhami, M. K., Hoglund, W., & Dickinson, E. (2004). Prediction and prevention of peer victimization in early elementary school: How does gender matter? In: M. M. Moretti, C. Odgers, & M. Jackson (Eds.), Girls and aggression: Contributing factors and intervention principles (pp. 181-194). New York: Kluwer Publishers.

Dr. Dhami has received several awards and honors for her academic achievements:

• Honorable Mention, Jane Beattie Scientific Recognition Award, European Association for Decision Making, 2009
• Fellow, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), 2007
• Research Fellowship, City University, London, UK, 2002-2004
• First Prize, SPSSI Social Issues Dissertation Award, Division 9 of APA, 2001-2002
• Jane Beattie Scholarship, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, 2000
• Winner, De Finetti Ph.D. Student Prize, European Association for Decision Making, 1999
• Winner, Student Poster Prize, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, 1998
• Hammond-Brunswik New Investigator of the Year Award, Brunswik Society, 1998
• Postgraduate Bursary, British Psychological Society, Cognitive Psychology Section, 1997
• Postgraduate Scholarship, Department of Psychology, City University, London, UK, 1996-2000
• Economic and Social Research Council Scholarship, University of Leicester, UK, 1995-1996
• University Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement, Brunel University, UK, 1995
• Student Research Prize, Department of Psychology, Brunel University, UK, 1993

Over the years, Dr. Dhami’s research has been funded by 11 internal grants and 11 external grants/contracts including from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the British Council, the European Science Foundation, and the Ministry of Justice.

From 2007-2009, Dr. Dhami was co-Investigator on an AHRC grant studying jurors’ interpretations of standards of proof. The findings of this research were presented at the Proof and Evidence conference held in Cambridge in March 2009. From 2005-2008, Dr. Dhami directed a Ministry of Justice and Sentencing Guidelines Council funded research project called ‘Sentencing and its Outcomes.’ A report on this project was published by the Ministry of Justice in 2009. In July 2006, Dr. Dhami convened a workshop on ‘Judgment and Decision Making as a Skill’ funded by the European Science Foundation.

To date, Dr. Dhami has given 64 presentations at conferences, and 40 invited contributions, world-wide. She has several professional affiliations including with the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. She has made many professional contributions including consulting/advising criminal justice agencies, training judges, magistrates and police officers, and reviewing research grants and manuscripts. She was co-organizer of the Annual International Meeting of the Brunswik Society from 2001-2008. Finally, Dr. Dhami has work experience as a psychologist in English prisons and as an outreach worker in restorative justice programs in Canada.

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