Noemí Pereda (Barcelona, 1975) obtained her BSc in Psychology at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she also obtained her PhD (Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award) in 2006. She was a visiting researcher in the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, where she understood the importance of building a culture of evidence in violence research. She became an Associate Professor at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she leads the 'Grup de Recerca en Victimització Infantil i Adolescent' (GReVIA). She is a member of the International z-proso Research Network (zIReN) run by the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development. She serves as temporary adviser for the World Health OrganizationâEURTMs Regional Office for Europe for the study of child and adolescent victimization in Spain. She provides in-service training for practitioners on violence against children sponsored by the Spanish and Catalan Governments. 

Research interests

Our research interest focuses on developmental victimology, a field that studies victimization of children and youth, and the consequences for mental health of violent experiences at an early age. A continued interest over these years has been the study of the existence of a âEUR~v indexâEURTM or a general victimology index, in the structure of interpersonal victimization. The v index constitutes an ensemble of factors in which early victimization by caregivers, sexual victimization, and poly-victimization are key influences in future victimization experiences and the development of different problems. We are now focused on one of the most striking consequences of early victimization: the victim-offender overlap. Understanding the correlates that predict that a victim will become a perpetrator will open up new ways to reduce this overlap. Our main goal is to foster an evidence-based approach that is able to help practitioners and public agencies to prevent violence against children.

Keywords

developmental victimology, victim, children, trauma, violence, ptsd