Meet our PhD students

This research examines cases involving women who have been charged as the offender, in Australia, in crimes related to human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. Specifically, this research focuses on those women who have experienced victimisation in their lives prior to becoming the offender and how the Australian Courts, specifically the Judges on sentencing, acknowledge and understand these experiences. 

This research examines why and how adolescents use the Internet and technology to facilitate inauthentic presentation online. In particular, adolescent experiences of circumventing and accessing online ‘adult-based platforms’ (e.g. a platform which requires users to be of, or above, the age of 18-years-old). This research will seek to understand what steps and techniques are adopted by adolescents in engaging with these platforms, including any digital or social hurdles they may encounter.

Cocaine and heroin are uniquely produced in a handful of countries. Consequently, they are trafficked along a series of distinct trade flows between countries. First, this PhD aims to explore how transnational drug trafficking flows for cocaine and heroin have evolved over time. The second aim is to explore the factors that affect drug trafficking flows. Cross sectional network maps will be constructed for each year between 1998 and 2018, utilising UNODC seizure data. Results will lead to a significant advancement in knowledge in mapping drug trafficking flows, how they have evolved and the factors that affect drug trafficking flows.

This research explores constructs of safety among children, young people and staff at the Adelaide Youth Training Centre (Kurlana Tapa) and how the environment impacts on perceptions of safety.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the Norther Territory describe jealousy/jealousing as a main contributor to social harms and recidivism. Despite this, jealousing is absent from academic literature. This study aims
 to investigate the links between jealousing 
and imprisonment/release. The study will also explore the often-overlooked daily solutions enacted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to resolve social harms. The perspectives
and knowledge of those who experience jealousing are made central through ethnographic fieldwork and adapted Indigenous methodologies. This study argues that by exploring jealousing 
within its socio-cultural and historical contexts, interventions will be better equipped to provide preventative supports.

Through interviews with key informants in Afghanistan and collecting first-hand data, this PhD research investigates the nature of the Taliban's involvement in organized crime and illicit drug trade in Afghanistan. It further inquires how much is the Taliban's income from the illicit drug trade and how the Taliban, with an Islamic ideology, justify use of illicit financial resources to fund their operations.

Nordic Noir is a global crime drama phenomenon with a reputation for being an avenue of socio-cultural critique. This research investigates cross-cultural adaptations of these shows to assess potential shifts in the discourse produced, and implications for the validity of adapted Nordic Noir as an avenue of socio-cultural critique.

This research is investigating the policies that affect the carceral experiences and outcomes of transgender Australians, and whether stigma has an influence on these policies, experiences, or outcomes.

Alcohol and other drug use in regional and rural communities is an under researched topic within criminology. Consequently, little is understood about the effects of stigma and community attitudes in regard to AOD, and the impacts it has on individuals. The aim of the research is to investigate the effects of stigma, how it impacts on individuals accessing services and how communities can help minimise the stigma and increase access to services.

This PhD project is co-funded by Flinders University and Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia, SA Health, and will evaluate the health, crime and system impacts of the South Australian Police Drug Diversion Initiative (PDDI). The PDDI has operated as a joint initiative of SA Health and SA Police since 2001, with the aim to divert offenders for health assessment, brief intervention and/or treatment instead of criminal sanction. This project will provide the first comprehensive evaluation of this program through analysis of 20 years of administrative data and interviews with clients and stakeholders.

This project explores the ongoing ‘genocidal violence’ committed against the Rohingya ethnic population of Myanmar by government forces, in an attempt to bring to light the legal and political factors that allow nation states to continue to carry out serious violations of human rights, with no immediate intervention from international law.

This research examines Australian migration lawmaking since 2000.  The research asks whether Australia is using migration law as a way to express our ‘right to run our own show’ as we fear losing control to multinational companies and international organisations. The research examines what this means for our national values and the rule of law.

This project utilises empirical qualitative research to investigate how disputes related to marriage, divorce and co-parenting are currently resolved or not resolved among the South Sudanese Jieng families in Australia through the family law system. It examines the practice of customary family law among Jieng communities in South Sudan and the changing nature of this practice due to the impact of conflict, the experience of displacement to refugee camps, and of resettlement in Australia.

The thesis examines state responsibility under international law for breaches committed by non-state armed actors in armed conflicts, focusing on the Syrian conflict as a case study. It explores the challenges of attributing violations to states and highlights gaps in the current legal framework regarding state support or control of such actors.

My thesis provides a decolonial critique of ‘prolonged’ refugee encampment in Africa. By foregrounding encampment in Kenya, the thesis demonstrates how the camp, intended as a de facto solution for refugees, has become a permanent institution for the concentration of millions of refugees.

Nowadays, transactions in e-commerce are one of the most important contracts that need to clarify because there are many parties to these contracts that do not know their rights guaranteed by law for them. An e-commerce contract contains obligations either from its parties, a law, or both, which that some of the obligations to a seller or a service provider and some to a consumer. This thesis will argue and highlight obligations that are demand from parties of e-commerce transactions under Saudi Arabian and Islamic law.

This study considers the rights of temporary migrant workers under the legal system of Saudi Arabia. These rights will be assessed from three perspectives. Firstly, the laws and policies applicable to workers under the Saudi labour code. Secondly, the rules applicable under Islamic law. Thirdly, the rights of foreign migrant workers, articulated under international human rights law.