Matthew Flinders Professor
College of Business, Government and Law
Mark first joined the Law School in 2000. From 2005 to 2007 he taught criminology at the University of Melbourne. He is Joint Chief Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology and is Research Section Head, Criminology and Criminal Justice, College of Business, Government and Law. Mark's key areas of interest include youth offending, repeat incarceration and rehabilitation, gun violence, Aboriginal social exclusion, and desistance from crime. He has received five successive Australian Research Council (ARC) grants enabling study of these and related issues. From 2004 to 2013, Mark conducted Australia's longest and most in-depth study of repeat incarceation and desistance from crime among a group of young men aged 15 to 29 years. The book based on that research (Young Offenders: Crime, Prison and Struggles for Desistance) won the 2017 Christine M Alder Book Prize. He has also undertaken consultancies for state and local governments in areas ranging across graffiti vandalism, restorative and therapeutic justice, correctional corruption, offender reintegration, mentoring and serious repeat youth offending. He serves on the editorial boards of the International Series on Desistance and Rehabilitation (Routledge) and the International Journal for Crime and Justice. In 2017 he was awarded a four-year ARC grant for the project Reducing Aboriginal Imprisonment: An Offence-Specific Study. The project will examine the relationship between repeat imprisonment and several of the key communties in South Australia and the Northern Territory to which Aboriginal people return following release from custody for assault and/or offences against justice procedures (e.g. for breaches of bail or parole).
2017 Christine M Alder Book Prize, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (for the book Young Offenders: Crime, Prison and Struggles for Desistance)
2006 Dean's commendation for teaching excellence, University of Melbourne
2005 Dean's commendation for teaching excellence, University of Melbourne
2003 Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in PhD (Arts and Humanities), University of Melbourne
Joint Chief Editor, Journal of Criminology
Research Lead, Criminology , College of Business, Government and Law
A selection of past topics taught include: Crime & Justice, Punishment & Society, Advanced Criminology, Violence (Flinders University) as well as From Graffiti to Terrorism, Youth, Crime & Society and Qualitative Research Methods (University of Melbourne)
Mark has engaged with numerous state government departments and non-government organisations for more than a decade. He has given seminars on request for Department for Families and Communities (now Department for Communities and Social Inclusion), Department for Correctional Services, and the Attorney General's Department (Youth Justice). Mark has also delivered papers nationally and internationally on issues pertaining to repeat incarceration, post-release support and desistance from crime. He has been an active member of various government and non-government steering committees including the former Social Inclusion Board, Department of Premier and Cabinet, South Australian Government.