If you have ever sat across from someone and felt that the words coming out of their mouth didn't match the way they were holding their body, you already understand why behavioural analysis matters. That gap between what people say and what they show is where the truth usually lives. It is also the reason I am travelling to Prague this March for the Behavioral Analysis Conference 2023.
What the conference is about
The event runs from the 28th to the 30th of March in Prague, across three full days of talks, workshops and networking. The themes sit at the meeting point of psychology and investigation — criminal behaviour, applied behavioural analysis and human development. The keynote speakers are people who actually work in the field, so the sessions lean on current research rather than recycled theory. For anyone drawn to human behaviour, criminal psychology, micro-expressions or body language, it is a rare chance to be in one room with practitioners who do this work daily.
My talk: reading the non-verbals of a prospective molester
I will be speaking on how to identify a prospective molester by reading their non-verbal behaviour. It is an uncomfortable subject, and that is precisely why it needs careful, evidence-led attention rather than fear or guesswork.
Let me be honest about what body language can and cannot do. No single gesture convicts anyone. A person who folds their arms is not automatically dangerous; they may simply be cold or shy. What we look for instead are clusters — several cues appearing together, repeating, and shifting in response to a particular person or situation. Patterns carry meaning. Isolated movements rarely do.
In the context of predatory behaviour, the cues worth watching tend to gather around boundaries and access. There is often a habit of testing limits in small ways — an unnecessary touch, a question that is slightly too personal, a comment dressed as a joke — while closely tracking the other person's reaction. The eyes do a lot of the work here: a longer-than-comfortable gaze, attention that lingers where it should not, a quick check to see who else is watching. Self-soothing gestures can spike when the person feels they are being observed. The mismatch between a warm, helpful voice and a body that keeps angling for proximity is its own kind of signal.
Why I read these cues, and what they really tell us
I want to be very clear, because this is exactly where popular body-language content goes wrong. Reading these signals does not let you label a stranger a predator. What it does is sharpen your instinct for discomfort, so you stop overriding your own gut with politeness. So many people, especially children and young women, are taught to ignore the early prickle of unease because the adult in front of them is being so nice. Learning the non-verbals gives that unease a vocabulary. It tells you when to create distance, ask a direct question, or simply leave.
That is the practical heart of my work. Micro-expressions and body language are not party tricks for catching people in a lie. They are tools for paying closer, kinder, more honest attention — to others, and to your own responses.
Come say hello
If you are at the conference in Prague, do come to the session. I would genuinely love to meet others who care about this field, swap notes, and push the conversation past myths and into something useful. These three days are as much about listening as speaking, and I am looking forward to both.