Police officers, criminologists and forensic scientists from around the world will attend a major conference at Huddersfield University this week with the aim of gaining greater understanding of child killers and how to catch them.

Scandinavian detectives and a leading criminologist from the USA will be among the speakers at the event which is entitled Investigating Child Homicide: An International Symposium.

The event has been convened by Dr Jason Roach, a criminologist at the university, who has worked closely with police forces on a range of projects and who has forged international links.

Child homicide is a key theme of Dr Roach’s work, but he says the subject is surprisingly under-researched. Therefore he decided to launch the conference, which takes place on Wednesday and Thursday.

The 13 speakers include ex-senior West Yorkshire detective Maxwell McLean, who is completing PhD research at the university. His paper is entitled When A Stranger Strikes – lessons from 40 years ago.

Other contributors to the event include Simon Foy, a former commander of the Specialist Crime Directorate for the Metropolitan Police. He will deliver a keynote address titled The investigation of child homicide – why and how is it different.

Overseas visitors include Thomas Skou Roer, of the Danish police, who will describe the process of homicide investigation in his country. Ivar Fahsing, a detective based at the Norwegian Police University will deliver a keynote address entitled The making of an expert homicide detective – a comparison between England and Norway.

And Prof Eric Hickey, who is Dean of the California School of Forensic Sciences at Alliant International University, will deal with the psychosocial analysis of mysopeds – sexual abusers of children – in child homicide.

Dr Dagmar Heinrich, a research fellow at Huddersfield University, will speak on the utility of forensic evidence while Dr Graham Williams, who heads the Huddersfield’s Forensic Genetics Research Group, describes key features of his DNA research.

The symposium will open with a keynote address by Dr Jason Roach himself, dealing with patterns of child homicide in the UK and the implications for investigators.