Hamid Ullah Azizi

Hamid Azizi is a Research Associate in criminology at the Centre for Social Impact, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University and final year PhD student (with a planned submission date of April 2025).

Hamid has over 15 years of research experience with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – the leading international organisation overseeing monitoring and research into illicit drug markets and trends. He brings specific expertise in both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methodologies. His PhD for example involved nearly 200 qualitative and mixed-method interviews with hard-to-reach-population and covert networks, including active drug traffickers, poppy-growing farmers, village and tribal leaders, law enforcement officials and academics from Afghanistan, as a means to examine the Taliban’s involvement in and profit from the drug trade in Afghanistan and changes in opiate and methamphetamine supply pre and post the Taliban taking control.

Hamid’s research, published through UNODC, has produced evidence that informed policy and intervention strategies within frameworks such as the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Commission on Narcotics Drugs and the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Monitoring Teams. Additionally, his peer-reviewed articles have been published in reputable, high impact outlets, including Global Crime.