Applied Research in Crime
and Justice Conference 2025
4 & 5 August 2025 | International Convention Centre, Sydney
Keynote sessions
Keynote session 1: Evidence-based strategies to break the incarceration cycle
Jennifer Doleac
Jennifer Doleac works at the intersection between academic research and evidence-based policy making. She currently leads the Criminal Justice program at Arnold Ventures. In this role, Jennifer works with research, programmatic, and advocacy teams to support policy-relevant research, and turn the resulting research insights into effective policy. Jennifer is widely regarded as a leading expert on the economics of crime and criminal justice policy. Jennifer holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and hosts the podcast, Probable Causation, which is about research related to crime and the criminal justice system.
Keynote session 2: What data insights can tell us about Closing the Gap?
Selwyn Button
Selwyn Button is a Commissioner with the Productivity Commission. In this role, he focuses on the evaluation of polices, programs and legislative changes of relevance to Indigenous people (e.g., Closing the Gap). Prior to his appointment at the Commission, Selwyn worked in an extremely diverse array of roles (e.g., Partner at a consulting firm, Assistant Director-General for Indigenous Education in Queensland, primary school teacher and police officer). This experience makes Selwyn uniquely qualified to lead the design, development, implementation and evaluation of some of the most significant undertakings of relevance to Indigenous people across the country.
Edwina Crawford
Edwina Crawford is a proud Barkindji woman from Western NSW and the Director of the Aboriginal Services Unit, where she leads programs supporting Aboriginal court users, including Circle Sentencing, the Walama List, and services for participants in the Drug Court, Coroners Court, and Youth Koori Court. With 27 years in the NSW Government - 17 of those in the justice system - Edwina has worked across Aboriginal Affairs, Ministerial advising, Education, Local Government, and early intervention and prevention. A core focus of her work is strengthening the evidence base for what works to reduce Aboriginal overrepresentation in the justice system, by amplifying Aboriginal voices in research and integrating lived experience into data-driven policy. Her extensive experience enables her to bring diverse justice stakeholders together to drive meaningful, system-wide change.
Keynote session 3: Exploring the intersection between DFV and substance abuse
and the policy responses that can be put into practice
Cathy Humphreys
Cathy Humphreys is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Melbourne, specialising in applied research focused on domestic and family violence (DFV) and child abuse. She has worked on several projects with the Safe & Together Institute using practice-led, action research through facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops and Communities of Practice. With a long-term interest in the intersection of DFV with other complexities such as mental health and substance use and the role of lived experience to inform research, Cathy is a well-published author of over 170 journal articles in the field. She worked at the University of Warwick for 12 years leading a domestic violence and child abuse research centre and is now a founding member of the Melbourne Research Alliance to End Violence Against Women and their Children (MAEVE).
Keynote session 4: Panel discussion on trends in youth crime and implications for practice and policy
Dr Garner Clancey | Jackie Fitzgerald | Anne Hollonds Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner |
Peta MacGillivray Senior Research Fellow | Superintendent Greg Moore Commander | Judge Nell Skinner President |
Judge Nell Skinner was appointed as the President of the Children’s Court of New South Wales and a Judge of the District Court in November 2021. Before being appointed as a Magistrate in 2009, her Honour worked as a Managing Solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service, at Legal Aid and at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. President Skinner was admitted to the legal profession in 2000 after graduating from the Australian National University in Arts and Law.
Peta MacGillivray is a Kalkutungu and South Sea Islander lawyer and researcher based in the Division of Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement at UNSW. Peta is a Senior Research Fellow in the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership between UNSW and the Dharriwaa Elders Group. Peta has worked as a researcher on a range of criminology, legal services and community development projects in NSW and across Australia and her former area of legal practice and current research specialisation is the legal needs of children and young people, particularly those experiencing social and economic disadvantage. Peta is passionate about Indigenous children and young people’s participation in community development work in the practice of self-determination.
Anne Hollonds is Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner, a role based at the Australian Human Rights Commission. The National Children’s Commissioner monitors policy and legislation to ensure that the human rights of children are protected and promoted, and provides advice to government. Formerly Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, for 23 years Anne was Chief Executive of government and non-government organisations focused on research, policy and practice in child and family wellbeing. As a psychologist Anne has worked extensively in frontline practice, including in child protection; domestic, family and sexual violence; mental health; child and family counselling; parenting education; and family law counselling. Anne currently contributes to numerous expert advisory groups and boards. Her report ‘Help Way Earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing’ was tabled in the Australian Parliament in August 2024.
Superintendent Greg Moore is the current Commander for the NSW Incident and Emergency Management Command. From 2019 - 2022, Superintendent Moore assumed the position of Commander of the South Coast Police District for the NSW Police Force – a position he moved into after spending six years in Bourke as Commander of the Central North Police District. During his time in Bourke, Commander Moore played a critical role in turning around crime statistics through an innovative community-led model, the Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project, where Indigenous leaders partnered with police and government and non-government organisations and service providers to develop long-term strategies that address social disadvantage and break the cycle of recidivism. Commander Moore has previously been honoured by the Queen with an Australian Police Medal for his dedicated service to the NSW Police for more than 32 years.
Jackie Fitzgerald is the Executive Director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Jackie has worked in the field of criminology for more than twenty years. In recent years her work has focussed on government priorities to reducing domestic violence and reoffending, the increasing NSW prison population, the intractable issue of Aboriginal over-representation, improving external access to criminal justice data and the importance of collaborative responses to youth crime that address the complex needs of young people.
Chair: Dr Garner Clancey is an Associate Professor in Criminology, joining the University of Sydney Law School in 2011. Prior to this, Garner worked in criminal justice agencies (including Juvenile Justice NSW and the NSW Police Force) between 1992-2002 and worked as a crime prevention consultant between 2002-2010. Garner’s work focuses on the intersection between research, policy and practice and he is currently working to develop a whole-of-university approach to justice and crime issues.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work, rest, and play, and extend that respect to the Traditional Owners of the land which you are on. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.