Olivier Colins

Olivier Colins is a Professor at the Department of Special Needs Education within the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University since 2020. He previously held a senior researcher and assistant professor position at Leiden University Medical Center (2008–2018). His academic journey includes studies in Social Work and Special Needs Education, culminating in a PhD.

• Research Interests: Colins specializes in forensic screening, mental health assessment, and developmental trajectories of conduct problems and psychopathy in juveniles. His work explores risk factors, protective factors, and subtyping models (e.g., DSM-5 Limited Prosocial Emotions specifier) for conduct disorders.
• Grants: Leads two FWO-funded projects—Odysseus Program (2019–2023) and Junior Project (2021–2025)—investigating gender differences in criminal justice-involved youth.
• Collaborations: Works with international teams on cross-cultural validation studies (e.g., Greece, China, Spain) and neuroimaging analyses of amygdala networks in conduct-disordered youth.

Key Publication Trends: Recent articles focus on multi-informant psychopathy models (e.g., STAR, multidimensional constructs), epigenetic markers for aggression, and longitudinal studies linking parenting styles to callous-unemotional traits. His work bridges clinical assessment, developmental neuroscience, and criminology.