Dr J.M. Schell - Leugers

Dr. Schell-Leugers is an AssociateProfessor of Legal Psychology who has been teaching at the Liberal Arts and Sciences Honours College of Maastricht University for over 12 years. Her research focuses on false confessions and their impact on wrongful convictions. She is particularly interested in examining risk factors for innocent suspects in police custody and the gap between science and practice in the field of Legal Psychology.

Together with two colleagues from Leiden University and Marburg University, she co-founded the website Psychologie im Recht (https://psychologieimrecht.de/english/) to promote interdisciplinary communication between psychology and law in an effort to increase the use of legal psychology research findings in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, they also started the European Registry of Exonerations (EUREX) which will be launched in 2023.

She coordinates and teaches topics in Legal Psychology and a project on Wrongful Convictions. At the Centre for European Studies, she coordinates and teaches a course in Forensic Psychology. Furthermore, she supervises undergraduate research projects, Bachelor and Master Theses in the field of Legal Psychology.

Furthermore, she is invested in working toward a healthy work-life balance for academics. She is a member of the University Council and the Taskforce for Sustainable Employability. Since 2020, she has been the Chair of the Research and Education Committee of the University Council.

In January 2022, she became a member of the Maastricht Young Academy (MYA).