Anna Motz, Donna Freed and Matt Johnson chaired Stephen Law

Forensic psychologist Anna Motz, daughter of a pair of notorious criminals Donna Freed and crime writer and former Metropolitan Police officer Matt Johnson discuss their different perspectives on crime and criminals.

What does it take to become a criminal? What does it take to solve a criminal case? What are the psychological approaches to helping people who committed criminal acts? Can criminals be rehabilitated? The subject of true crime has exploded in popularity in the last decade. Serial killers, such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, have become infamous through documentaries, podcasts and dramatisations. The genre sheds light on the darkest aspects of human behaviour.

Motz is a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She currently works at HMP Bronzefield, providing specialist consultation, assessment and treatment for high-risk women. She has extensive experience of the assessment and treatment of high-risk and complex women in criminal justice settings.

Freed was placed for adoption. After her adoptive mother passed away, she went searching for her origins. What she discovered was a jaw-dropping crime that placed her birth parents at the centre of one of the biggest US police investigations of the 1960s. Her memoir, Duplicity, My Mothers’ Secrets, tells that story.

Johnson served for 25 years as a soldier then as an officer in the Metropolitan Police. His debut novel, Wicked Game, was shortlisted for a Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Award. His first non-fiction work, No Ordinary Day, is an account of espionage, betrayal, terrorism and corruption – the truth behind the 1984 murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher.

Discussions are chaired by Dr Stephen Law, a philosopher and academic, author of bestselling introductions to philosophy for adults and children, editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal Think, and the festival’s major projects director.