In 2011 I received an ARC Future Fellowship for four years to work on the project: “Reducing imprisonment rates in Australia: International experiences, marginal populations and a focus on the over-representation of Indigenous people.” (FT100100627). I published on my FF on topics as comparative criminological research, Indigenous overrepresentation and different penal cultures within Australia.

I received 3 further grants:

- 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).

 

In the period 2007-2011, I worked for the Department of Corrective Services as Team Leader, Research and Evaluation. As Team Leader, I developed the research priorities, coordinated and supervised the work done by the team members or by external consultants and conducted some own research. Another important part the job was to advise the Research an Evaluation Committee that manages and oversees all internal and external DCS related research and evaluations.

Before migrating to Australia in 2007, I had been employed for 15 years as a researcher and, after getting my PhD in criminology, also as a lecturer at the Department of Criminology of the Free University of Brussels. I combined my work at the university with other, external, expert assignments. As a result of my international experience in the area of parole, the management of long-term and life-sentenced prisoners and the treatment of sex offenders, I was appointed as an expert to the Council of Europe (CoE) in these areas. Between 2000 and 2007 worked regularly for the CoE and took part in a number of projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1999 I had been substitute assessor on the Belgian parole board, as an expert on the implementation of sentences, and regularly acted as such. I was a member of a prison supervision board, and later of the Central Inspectorate of Prisons, until I had to leave for reasons of incompatibility with work I was then undertaking for the cabinet as an expert adviser. I was employed for two years (2005-2003) on a part time basis as an adviser on penal policy to the Belgian minister of Justice.

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

ARC Future Fellowship (Project FT100100627): “Reducing imprisonment rates in Australia: International experiences, marginal populations and a focus on the overrepresentation of Indigenous people.”

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).

ARC Linkage Grant (LP140100275) “Aboriginal & Non Aboriginal Sex Offenders in Australia – Assessing Risk for Practice & Policy”

 

Releasing sex offenders from prison into the community is a significant issue in Australia. Where serious offenders represent an unacceptable risk to the community, preventative detention legislation commonly provides for indefinite imprisonment or community supervision. In determining a sex offender’s recidivism risk, courts and parole boards frequently supplement professional judgments with statistically based actuarial assessments. This project aims to reduce the risk of sexual recidivism through assessing the predictive validity of established and alternate risk assessments for Indigenous and non-Indigenous sex offenders. A key outcome will be the identification of culturally appropriate risk assessment tools for Indigenous sex offenders.

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, parole, violence in prisons, sex offenders,the organization and evaluation of welfare and treatment services for prisoners, female offenders, recidivism and Indigenous overrepresentation.

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