Don Grubin

Don Grubin is Emeritus Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist with Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Trust in England. Originally from the United States, he came to England to study at age 20 and trained at the Institute of Psychiatry and the Maudsley and Broadmoor Hospitals. He serves as Project Director of the Sexual Behaviour Unit in Newcastle and psychiatric advisor to the English National Offender Management Service sex offender programmes. Professor Grubin is CEO of Behavioural Measures UK, where he provides training and supervision to probation and police polygraph examiners. He was awarded an MBE in the King's 2025 Birthday Honours.

Since the early 2000s, Grubin has led the evaluated implementation of polygraph testing of sex offenders on probation and parole. His research has focused on post-conviction sex offender testing (PCSOT), examining both its accuracy and utility in treatment and supervision settings. His 2004 study found that polygraph testing had an impact on the level of seriousness of risk behaviours engaged in by sex offenders. A pilot evaluation found that offenders who took polygraph tests made twice as many disclosures to probation staff. His comprehensive 2005 historical review traced the development of polygraphy and its applications in forensic settings, while his work on functional magnetic resonance imaging explored theoretical underpinnings of polygraph methodology.

Professor Grubin is considered one of the UK's leading forensic psychiatrists and played a lead role in introducing mandatory polygraph testing of high risk paroled sex offenders in England and Wales. He sits on the Ministry of Justice Correctional Services Accreditation Panel and the Home Office Independent Safeguarding Authority. His organization, Behavioural Measures, delivers polygraph training to probation officers in the UK's National Probation Service. His contributions to the field have been internationally recognized, with an h-index of 24 and over 2,700 citations. He has collaborated extensively with Lars Madsen on multiple landmark studies of polygraph efficacy and has worked with international colleagues including Maxim Kamenskov (Russia) and R. Gregg Dwyer and Tim Stephenson (United States).

While Grubin's polygraph research is prominent, his broader forensic psychiatry work encompasses sex offender assessment and treatment, health screening in custody and prisons, fitness to plead, and psychiatric aspects of sexual offending. He helped develop and serves as consultant to the NHS England Medical Management of Sexual Arousal (MMSA) programme. His research extends to topics including mental health in prison populations, delusional beliefs and behavior, risk assessment methodology, and the use of medication in managing problematic sexual behavior. This interdisciplinary approach—bridging psychiatry, psychology, criminal justice, and psychophysiology—has positioned him as a key figure in the controversial but expanding application of polygraph technology to offender management.