Karyn McCluskey is a Scottish forensic psychologist who is the chief executive of

Community Justice Scotland Community Justice Scotland () is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, which is responsible for reducing reoffending. It launched in April 2017. It was established by the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, r ...

. She was formerly the director of the

Violence Reduction Unit The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is a Police Scotland initiative established in January 2005 (by Strathclyde Police) which uses a public health approach to target all forms of violent behaviour including street/gang violence, domestic abuse, ...

Early life

She was born in

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

and grew up in the village of Redding near Polmont. She trained as a nurse and by her late teens worked in

Accident and Emergency An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pat ...

. She continued to work in nursing while she studied for a BSc in psychology and then a master's in offender profiling.

Career

McCluskey worked for the

West Mercia Police West Mercia Police (), formerly the West Mercia Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire (including Telford and Wrekin) and Worcestershire in England. The force area cover ...

, before she joined

Strathclyde Police Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, Glasgow City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, ...

as head of intelligence analysis in 2002. In 2004, the McCluskey was asked to put together a report on how to reduce rates of violence in Glasgow. The contents of the report were accepted and this led directly to the

(VRU) being created. In February 2016 she was appointed to the board of the

Scottish Professional Football League The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As well ...

(SPFL) as a non-executive director. In September 2016, she was named chief executive of

, a new national organisation that would come into existence in April 2017.

Awards and honours

In October 2015, McCluskey was bestowed with an honorary degree from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCluskey, Karyn Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Forensic psychologists Scottish nurses Scottish psychologists Scottish women psychologists 21st-century British psychologists People from Falkirk British forensic scientists Women forensic scientists