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Research

Staff at the Sydney Institute of Criminology are active researchers and consultants with international reputations and years of experience. The Institute’s current research theme is Criminal Justice in an Age of Uncertainty. This research theme is primarily effected through three research hubs, each with its own convener expert in the specific domain:

  • Fear, risk and insecurity
  • Innovations in justice
  • Defences, mitigation and responsibility

Recent research and scholarship highlights include:

  • Helen Paterson's research investigates how discussion amongst eyewitnesses can change the quantity and quality of their individual memories. Research has consistently shown that misleading information presented through discussion can cause people to incorporate this misinformation into their memories. This effect has become known as 'memory conformity' and it is of particular concern in a forensic setting as any incorrect information that a witness reports can have a huge impact on trials and investigations. Her research focuses on ways to decrease the negative impact of witness discussion on memory through investigating an immediate recall tool for eyewitnesses and investigating Post-incident debriefing. Helen, along with her colleagues Dr Barbara Mullan, Dr Richard Kemp, and Associate Professor Michelle Moulds, has recently acquired ARC Linkage funding to work with WorkCover NSW to determine how to best preserve and record memory of accidents in the workplace using an immediate recall tool. Along with Scientia Professor Richard Bryant and Dr Richard Kemp, Helen has also acquired ARC Linkage funding to work with NSW Fire Brigades to 1) Develop an effective PTSD intervention for emergency service personnel, and 2) Ensure that the new intervention also preserves the integrity of the participants' memories for critical events.
  • Gail Mason, with Leslie Moran from Birkbeck College, was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant of $164,338 for her project Hate Crime Laws and Justice. Gail Mason is also an investigator on a Linkage Project headed by Monash University titled Targeted Crime: policing and social inclusion. $233,000 has been awarded to the team who will partner with Victoria Police to look at the policing of incidents and crimes motivated by bias, prejudice or hatred towards members of particular groups, communities and individuals
  • Rita Shackel is collaborating with the Tilburg Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Civil Law and Conflict Resolution Systems (TISCO) and the International Institute of Victimology Tilburg (INTERVICT) in undertaking comparative research on access to justice. This research focuses on the experiences of victims of crime in Australia adding to the project’s international perspective, which also includes Bulgaria, the United States, the Netherlands and aims to offer lessons from each jurisdiction
  • Pat O’Malley was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant of $255,000 (2010-2012) for his project Risk, Urban Security Networks and Fire Regulation
  • Gail Mason was invited to give the 2009 John Barry Memorial Lecture at the University of Melbourne
  • Mark Findlay along with Jake Lynch of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Melinda Cooper from Sociology was awarded a $50,000 from the Institute of Social Sciences for their project Regulatory responses to global crime (The International Criminal Justices Project)
  • Pat O’Malley had his new book The Currency of Justice: Fines and Damages in Consumer Societies (2009) published by Routledge
  • Murray Lee had his co-edited book (with Stephen Farrall of Sheffield University) Fear of Crime: Critical Voices in an Age of Anxiety (2009) published by Routledge