Margot Avella

Margot is a research assistant and part-time PhD student in Criminology with Psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK. She holds a master’s degree from La Sorbonne in Paris, France, where she graduated with Distinctions. She self-funds her PhD by working as a freelance linguist for various international companies. In 2024, she served as module leader for the Complex Behaviour course at Leeds Beckett University, bringing her research expertise directly into the classroom. In 2025, she started to work as a research assistant on a project tackling Intimate Partner Violence. 

Margot has presented her research at several conferences, both locally in the UK (NOTA, Leeds, 2022; SVRG, Bournemouth, 2024) and internationally (WSV, San Sebastián, Spain, 2022; International Crime Linkage Network, online seminars in 2023 and 2024). Her PhD examines the behaviours of serial sexual offenders, including non-contact sexual offences, rape, sexual assault, and sexual homicide. Her project comprises a systematic review, a descriptive and comparative analysis of offender behaviour, as well as behavioural and linkage analysis of serial sexual offenders.

Passionate about improving the PhD experience for fellow postgraduate research students, Margot organised several academic conferences at Leeds Beckett University. She was trusted by the four co-directors of CeASR and the Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences to plan the events, which were dedicated to postgraduate researchers and provided a supportive environment for networking and practising public speaking skills. Margot is also a member of the SSSH! Research group (Sex, Sexualities and Sexual Harm) and is actively involved in the planning of their Seminar Series, which started in 2025.