I am currently a forensic criminologist and am Associate Professor of Criminology in the Faculty of Society and Design at Bond University on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. At Bond I teach Criminal Profiling, Criminal Motivations, Forensic Criminology, Profiling and Crime Analysis, Crime and Deviance, and Applied Crime Analysis.
In addition to teaching at Bond, I am also the Principal of Forensic Analytic, and we offer training and consultation in the areas of profiling and crime analysis, forensic victimology, stalking assessment and management, and other areas of general criminological interest.
I enjoy working in this field because of the vast number of different opportunities it provides me. One day I might be teaching human resources staff how to incorporate victimological assessments into their investigations, and the next I might be teaching military, state, and federal investigators how to use victimology in their investigations. The very next day I might be at a parliamentary inquiry discussing the efficacy of nightclub lockout laws.
And the day after that I might be here teaching an online course!
After school I left the military, and realising I wasn’t a life-long soldier, I thought I would like to join the police. After studying law for this exact goal, I came across a subject base on psychology taught by a social worker and found this much more enjoyable. I then switched track to study psychology, and after this went on to do my postgraduate studies in criminology after a deep and meaningful discussion about my future prospects.
I started studying at Bond and it just so happened at the time they were interested in filling out the criminology offerings. I was asked, and agreed to, put together some course materials for a new criminal profiling subject which was to be the first of its kind in Australia. This was for a self directed study as part of my masters degree, and as it turned out, I slightly misunderstood the directions and compiled virtually the whole course! This worked to my favour though and I was asked to do some tutoring on the subject. Later, I was asked to take over some of the lectures in this subject also and eventually I took over 100% of the context teaching for Criminal Profiling.
I had already started to make a number of professional contacts in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and eventually ran seminars with international guests in the area of profiling and forensic science.
While I saw my teaching as a stepping stone to an industry job, though I had no idea where at that point, I found that I really enjoyed teaching and had a natural flair for it.
This lead to a number of teaching awards including Student Council teacher of the year nominations, faculty teaching of the year nominations (and wins!) and also the University Teacher of the Year.
At this point I was also working as a research assistant and I had managed to pick up some of my own case work. My first case was a false report in stalking, and this was followed by cyber stalking and its terrestrial cousin, sexual assaults, risk and threat management cases, and even what I believe to be a once in a lifetime case, a triple murder.
My new job as an academic taught me that I had better start writing if I wanted to get anywhere and I published my first textbook in 2004 after being challenged by a colleague. From there I was involved in a number of other textbooks and journal publications, also co-editing Forensic Criminology, Applied Crime Analysis, and more recently The Psychology of Crime and Antisocial Behaviour.
Thanks for joining me in this, my first online course! It has been a bit of a wild ride putting it together and I have picked up some new skills along the way.