Associate professor Hilde Tubex is the Director of Criminology at the Law School of the University of Western Australia (UWA).

Her areas of expertise are comparative criminology and penal policy, Indigenous peoples and the criminal justice system, criminalised women and parole. Since joining UWA in 2011, she has been involved in several research projects in this field, including an ARC Future Fellowship investigating penal cultures in Australian jurisdictions, an ARC Linkage Project on risk assessment of Aboriginal sex offenders in Australia, a project funded by the Criminology Research Council on building effective throughcare strategies for Indigenous offenders and most recently a project funded by the Indigenous Justice Research Program about Indigenous peoples’ experiences with the criminal justice system and one by the WA Criminal Justice Research Grant Fund on women in prison.

Hilde obtained her PhD in Criminology from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium where she worked for 15 years as a researcher and lecturer. She combined her academic work with policy-related positions, such as expert advisor to the Council of Europe and as an advisor on penal policy to the Belgian Minister of Justice.

After migrating to Australia in 2007, she worked for four years at the Department of Corrective Services in Western Australia as Team Leader Research and Evaluation. She resumed her academic career at UWA in 2011.

UWA Law school ­Director Criminology (2021-current)

UWA Law school Deputy Head of School, Research (2017 – 2019)

- PhD in Criminology, Free University Brussels, 1999
­- MA in Criminology, Free University Brussels, 1991
- ­BA in Social work, HIMW – Antwerp, 1987

ARC Future Fellowship (FT100100627) “International Experiences, Marginal Populations and a Focus on the Overrepresentation of Indigenous People” (2011-2015).

ARC Linkage Grant (LP140100275) “Aboriginal & Non Aboriginal Sex Offenders in Australia – Assessing Risk for Practice & Policy” (2015-2020)(With Frank Morgan, Caroline Spiranovic, Alfred Allan, Stephen Smallbone, Stephen Wong and Anna Ferrante).

Criminology Research Grant (CRG 23/15-16) “Building an Effective Community-Based Throughcare Approach for Aboriginal Offenders in Australia” (2016-2017)(With John Rynne and Harry Blagg).

Criminology Research Grant (CRG 27/16-17) “Pocketing the Proceeds of Crime: The Legislation, Criminological Perspectives and Experiences” (2017-2018)(With Natalie Skead, Sarah Murray and Tamara Tulich).

Indigenous Justice Research Program (P21/397) “Indigenous peoples’ experiences with the criminal justice system: Stories that matter” (2022-2023)(With Lorana Bartels – ANU and Joe Graffam – Deakin University).

WACSAR Criminal Justice Research Grant Fund “Women in Prison Survey” (2023-2024)(With Natalie Gately – ECU).

Indigenous Justice Research Program (P21/397) “Indigenous peoples’ experiences with the criminal justice system: Stories that matter”

While there is a growing body of research and government reports on what is driving the Indigenous overrepresentation in the CLS, the voices of the Indigenous peoples’ involved in the system, about their lived experiences throughout the CLS, is still lacking. This project aims to capture these voices, listen to their stories, and identify current issues. In the methodology we developed, we invite the active participation of service providers, their staff and clients, as research partners. We want to engage with them, through individual and group yarning sessions to document their experiences, from the early stages of contact with police, through the sentencing process, including any non-custodial outcomes, during imprisonment and post-release. The research is undertaken in Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. It includes police practices, court observations, and fieldwork with people with lived experience with the criminal justice system.

LAWS2223: The Criminal Justice System

LAWS3374: Crime, Justice and Penal Policy

LAWS5223: Theories of Justice and Punishment

My fields of expertise are mainly in penal policy and penology (prison research), especially in an international comparative context, and Indigenous people and the criminal justice system.
In a series of research projects I worked on such topics as long-term imprisonment, violence in prisons, sex offenders, female offenders, parole, recidivism and Indigenous overrepresentation.