Neema joined Loughborough University in 2022, following her role as Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2015, where her research explored the roles of morality, empathy, shame, and guilt in violent crime decision-making. She is the Founder and Principal Investigator of SATNAV:Compass (The Compass Project), through which she has designed an innovative moral development programme aimed at fostering prosocial behaviour. The programme has been successfully delivered and evaluated in youth work centres and schools across England and internationally, and is adaptable for use in a wide range of organisations working with young people.
- Principal Investigator of SATNAV:Compass (also known as The Compass Project)
- Co-Principal Investigator of the SATNAV Project
- Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for Analytic Criminology at the Institute of Criminology at The University of Cambridge (led by Professor Kyle Treiber).
- Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (HEA)
- Winner of 2015 Nigel Walker Prize for an outstanding written contribution to Criminology (University of Cambridge)
- Member of British Society of Criminology
- Member of European Society of Criminology
- Member of Darwin College Society
- Member of Editorial Board for the Journal of Criminal Psychology
- Chair of the Cambridgeshire Out of Court Resolutions Youth Panel
- Peer reviews academic journals for European Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Victims and Offenders, Deviant Behavior, The Journal of Interpersonal Violence, International Criminology, and Asian Journal of Criminology.
Neema’s research expertise lies in developmental psychology, with a particular focus on the causes and influencing factors behind rule-breaking and rule-following behaviours. Her work examines the development of moral rules and emotions, and how these shape delinquency and crime.
She is the Founder and Principal Investigator of SATNAV:Compass (The Compass Project), through which she has designed an innovative morality-strengthening programme delivered in partnership with youth charities and schools. Neema’s research outputs explore the role of morality in shaping behaviour in ways that are both applied and impactful. By sharing her findings with academic communities and third sector organisations, she has built an international reputation as a leading expert on morality and crime.
Looking ahead, Neema’s ambition is to conduct rigorous intervention trials to scale up the Compass programme, extending its reach to support hundreds of young people across the UK and internationally.
Earlier in her career, Neema managed the eighth fieldwork wave and research team for the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology. Her doctoral research, completed at Cambridge in 2015, was titled The roles of empathy, shame, and guilt in violence decision-making. This thesis examined how morality influences decisions to engage in crime, combining longitudinal quantitative data with qualitative interviews exploring persistent offenders’ real-life violent events.
Neema leads and contributes towards BSc and MSc modules that cover variety of topics such as crime prevention strategies and evaluation, violence, youth crime causation and prevention, psychology and the law, dissertations, and research ethics.
Neema has been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2017 upon receiving her PG Cert in Higher Education. Her teaching has been recognised for its quality, inclusivity, and effectiveness.
Neema is committed to pedagogical innovation and to aligning her teaching with the benchmarks and guidance of the Criminology QAA. Students particularly value her integration of interactive technologies, which she uses in every teaching session to enhance engagement. Her learning resources are organised, comprehensive, and inclusive, designed to complement wider course materials and to support diverse student needs. She adapts her teaching in response to student feedback, listening actively to requests, addressing concerns, and offering multiple strategies to promote student success, organisation, and wellbeing.
Neema developed new modules for the MSc Criminology programme, including Psychology and Law. In 2024, she created the innovative BSc Introduction to the Criminal Justice System module. Prior to this, Neema played a role as Programme Leader in shaping three undergraduate programmes at Anglia Ruskin University, introducing new topic areas and embedding emerging learning technologies.
Neema’s teaching also places a strong emphasis on employability. She integrates information on potential career pathways within module content, highlighting relevant roles across the Criminal Justice System. Beyond the classroom, Neema mentors undergraduate and postgraduate students to build their professional skills and enhance career development—for example, through her supervision of several Loughborough University Talent Match Undergraduate Research Interns.
Neema supervises PhDs relating to all forms of violence, youth and adolescent development, moral and emotional factors that influence crime decision-making, and other topics within psychological criminology.
Current Doctoral Students
- Aditya Ranjan (October 2024-current)
- Megan Huggett (October 2024-current)
- Eleanor Li (October 2023 - current)
- Ellie Buxton (January 2023 - current)
Past (completed or transferred) Doctoral Students
- Anna Wehren, 'Exploring LGBT+ Perpetrator’s Experiences and Perspectives of Coercive Control'
- Charlotte Herriott, ‘Is the jury out on sexual history? A mock juror study of sexual history evidence deliberations’
- Dr Jo Durston, ‘Analysing image-based sexual abuse as a collective male behaviour’
Neema is Internal Reviewer for a number of CSSP Doctoral Researchers.
Journal Articles
- Li, E., Willmott, D. & Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2025). Examining the Mental Health Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Intimate Partner Sexual Violence in China: A Brief Review. Mental Health & Social Inclusion, 29(5), 494-505. (ISSN 2042-8308). https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-12-2024-0219
- Trivedi-Bateman, N., Markovska, A., Serdyuk, O., & Bogdanov, R (2024). The role of morality in corruption, theft, and violence in a Ukrainian context. European Journal on Criminological Policy & Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-024-09598-6
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. & Gadd, V. (2024), "The compass project intervention programme: the application of moral theory in different youth contexts", Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 81-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-08-2023-0044
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. & Martingano, A.J (2023). Addressing Challenges to Carrying Out Intervention Programmes with Youth Populations: Successes and Strategies. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 33(4), 1435-1446. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12886
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. & Crook, E., (2022). The optimal application of empathy interventions to reduce antisocial behaviour and crime: A review of the literature. Psychology, Crime, & Law, 28(8), 796-819. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2021.1962870
- Hirtenlehner, H., Trivedi-Bateman, N., Baier, D., & Strohmeier, D., (2021). Does empathy attenuate the criminogenic effect of low self-control in late life? International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 47(1), 57-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/01924036.2021.1955219
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2021). The combined roles of moral emotion and moral rules in explaining acts of violence using a situational action theory perspective. Journal of interpersonal violence, 36(17-18), 8715-8740. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519852634
Book Chapters
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2025). Psychological and neuroscientific and approaches to understanding the role of morality in rule-breaking decision-making. In (chapter 5): Youth Deviance, Crime, and Justice: The Neuro-Psycho-Criminological Perspective. Eds: Chan, O & Svingen, E. Wiley.
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2024). Innovative and theoretically informed intervention programmes for children who offend: The Compass Project. In: Desistance and Children: Critical Reflections from Theory, Research and Practice. Eds: Wigzell, A., Paterson-Young, C., & Bateman, T. https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/chapter/Innovative_and_theoretically_informed_intervention_programmes_for_children_who_offend_The_Compass_Project/26502490?file=48699244
Forthcoming
- Trivedi-Bateman, N & Hardie, B (forthcoming). The power of knowledge-based child-centred early morality interventions: SATNAV:Compass preventative programme for schools. In: Research handbook on evidence-based youth justice. Ed: Case, S.
Other Publications
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2023). Access Information for The Compass Project Programme Handbook. Loughborough University. Educational resource. https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro.24131649.v1.
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2020). 'Why young people commit crime and how moral education could help – new research'. The Conversation.
- Trivedi-Bateman, N. (2015). The roles of empathy, shame, and guilt in violence decision-making. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.