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While we might like to think that all accents are regarded equally, this is far from the case. Research has found that even in supposedly neutral and objective settings such as court rooms, accents can play a crucial role in defining our understanding of and engagement with a person with significant impacts on the outcome of criminal proceedings. Dr Lara Frumkin is a Senior Lecturer at The Open University’s School of Psychology. She is a chartered psychologist, fellow of the Higher Education Academy, associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and international affiliate of the American Psychological Association. She has previously worked in government and non-profit organisations as well as in academia. After receiving her academic training, Dr Frumkin worked at the American Psychological Association, focusing on policy and informing the public about psychological research and practice. She subsequently worked at the US Department of Justice linking psychology to relevant aspects of justice, national security and crime. A community and social psychologist by background Dr Frumkin’s current research is centred around applying psychological principles to law enforcement and security services. This includes detecting deception, the impact of extralegal factors on case outcome, how lawyers prepare and interact with clients with mental health difficulties, and community responses to terrorism and extremism. More recently, Dr Frumkin has started to look at the role of human interaction on cybersecurity.