About

Read a short biography

I am the youngest of 6 children, the first to go to university in 1980 thanks to the Whitlam Labor Government that made higher education free, and not just for the rich.

I went to Buderim Primary School, and then Maroochydore High School on the Sunshine Coast. I loved surfing. At 18 I swapped the wild surf, for a world of wild ideas,

As a teenager I dreamt that one day ordinary kids like me from the sunshine coast would have their own university. Now they do, and I am delighted to be associated with the University of the Sunshine Coast, as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law and Society.

At 60 I left academia to become an independent research consultant, moving back to coast to be closer to family and friends, with more life balance.

With over 3 decades experience, in government and the tertiary sector, I have extensive expertise in research and evaluation and providing expert evidence for courts and coronial investigations, especially relating to domestic family violence and coercive control matters.

I am a mentor coach for ETHOS working with academics to enhance and develop their careers, as well as a Senior Research Associate for OUTSIDE OPINION, that assists academics to write and submit research grants, mainly for the Australian Research Council

I am the Lead Chief Investigator of two currently held ARC Discovery Grants, one on Preventing Gender Violence; the other on Improving the Policing of Gender Violence.

You can read a short overview about my research into how women’s police stations effectively respond to domestic family violence by clicking here.

Research awards

• In 2016, elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia, for outstanding and distinguished contributions to the social sciences.
• In 2015, named as one of Qld’s top 50 thinkers for ground-breaking research on the criminological impact of mining
• In 2014, awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award (American Society of Criminology ASC, Division of Critical Criminology) for lasting and foundational contributions to the discipline over three decades.
• In 2013, received a Distinguished Scholar Award from the (ASC Division of Women and Crime) for outstanding contributions to the field of women and crime.
• In 2012, won the Allen Austin Bartholomew Award for the best journal article published in the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, titled “The Resource Boom’s Underbelly: The Criminological Impacts of Mining”.
• I am currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast in the School of Law and Society.

International Networks

Over 3 decades I have cultivated a vast international network of scholars, publishers, policy makers and journals and successfully nurtured many early career researchers, especially from Latin America into successful careers. I am competent in reading, writing and speaking conversational Spanish.

I have Presented 32 invited keynotes in the US, Spain, Argentina, China, Mexico, and Australia for influential bodies such as:

• United Nations Commission of the Status of Women NGO sessions, New York, 2019;
• United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, Vienna, 2021 (on-line)
•  Brazilian–Australian Embassy Partnership  Preventing Domestic and Gender-based Violence,  co-hosted by the Specialised Domestic Violence Prosecution Office of Brasilia, the Women’s Observatory at the Brasilia Federal Senate, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, the UN Development Program 2019.
• Keynote to the Latin American Studies of Australasia 2020
• Keynote to the British Society of Criminology 2021
• Invited Presentations about her research on Women’s Police Stations at Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford; the Cambridge University criminology;  The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice all in 2021.

Journal Editing

I am an editorial board member of 11 international journals, 4 published in Spanish.

Journal Editing and Board Memberships

• Founding and Co-Chief editor, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2012-22 (Q1)
• Pacific Rim editor, Critical Criminology, since 2012 (Q1), journal of the American Society of Criminology (ASC)
• International ed. board member, Feminist Criminology, since 2014 (Q2), journal of the ASC
• International ed. board member, Criminology and Criminal Justice, since 2011 (Q1), British Society of Criminology
• Ed. board member, Australia and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, since 2018 (Q1)
• Ed. board member, Delito y Sociedad (Crime and Society), since 2018, journal of the University of Buenos Aries
• Ed. board member, Asian Journal of Criminology, since 2020 (Q1), journal of the Asian Criminological Association
• Ed. board member, Current Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, since 2020, journal of Institute of Criminology, University of Sydney
• Revista de Historia de las Prisiones (History of the Prison) since 2020, Argentina
• Editorial Board, Novum Jus. Revista Especializada en Sociología Política y Jurídica (Colombia)
• Editorial Board Member, Ius Poenale (Faculty of Law-Universitas Lampung, Indonesia)

Board Roles

2020 to 2022 Chair of the Stop Domestic Violence external advisory board, QUT Centre for Justice

2012 to 2019, Vice Chair of the Division of Critical Criminology, American Society of Criminology.

2015- date Senior Counsellor of the Asian Criminological Society.

Research Record

I have presented my research all over the world

Over the last three decades, I have built a reputation as a world leading expert on gender violence and its prevention. I have presented over 30 invited keynotes at international academic conferences in the UK, Bangladesh, US, Spain, Argentina, China, Mexico, and Australia. Last year I was a keynote speaker at the British Society of Criminology.

I also presented my ARC DP team’s research findings on how women’s police stations prevent domestic violence for Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, the Cambridge University criminology, The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the United Nations Women Commission on the Status of Women NGO conference in New York in 2019 and on-line in 2021, as well as to QPS 15 June 2021.

I do research that Benefits Ordinary Australians

Expert Witness for Qld Coroner’s Court

In January 2022 Deputy Coroner Bentley, QLD Coroners Courts, commissioned me to prepare a report on the police investigation into the murder of Doreen Gail Langham  by her ex-partner Gary Matthew Hely. The Coroner provided access to the complete coronial files. I delivered a confidential 40 page report to Coroner after having reconstructed a chronology of the police investigation based on their statements to the QPS Ethical Standards Command, and carefully answering the Coroner’s questions.

• 9 March 2022 I provided witness testimony at the Inquest and was cross-examined by several Barristers for differing parties.
• The Coroner ruled I could provide media interviews based on her report and access to the coronial files
• The Media Impact was substantial, making television news on Channels 9, 7 and 2, Front page Courier mail, plus two page spread pp 8-9 10 March 2022.
• The Coroner Recommended:

“The Qld Government provide funding to trial a multi-disciplinary specialist domestic violence police station for a period of 12 months (preferably in the Logan or Kirwan district which have the highest numbers of DV incidents) and the station includes at least the following:
 
a. Specialist DV police officer/s including a detective to investigate criminal offences;
 
 b. Specialist DV support worker;
 
 c. A child safety officer from Department of Child Safety to assess risk of harm to children of families impacted by DV;
 
d. An employee from Qld Department of Housing to provide advice and assistance on accommodation for victims;
 
e. an employee from Qld Health to assess mental health, drug and alcohol issues and the wellbeing of children;
 
 f. a lawyer to provide legal advice to police and victims.” (Coroner Bentley, May 2022)

Helping Ordinary Australians Challenge Mining Giants Destroying their Communities

From 2008 to 2011, I led an ARC research investigation into the reasons for the higher rates of violence of men in rural Australia. The team found the areas with the highest rates of violence were those at the centre of the mining boom. The shift to fly in fly out (FIFO) workers saw thousands of men flood into these towns, doubling the size of the population overnight, and ramping up rates of alcohol-fuelled violence. The research was central to the recommendations of the Australian Parliament House Inquiry Impact of FIFO Workforces on Rural and Regional Australia.

A Queensland Govt inquiry followed. Her team’s ARC research was a central piece of evidence. The mining industry’s call to extend 100% FIFO operations across Qld Bowen Basin was rejected, and the practice of employing 100% FIFO was banned. Kelly Vea Vea, Counsellor of a Queensland Mining Community from Moranbah, remarked at the time:

“Kerry [Carrington] and her team gave us access to genuinely independent information for the first time. A weapon in our hand to fight with. Communities don’t get many wins in the coalfields. This time, we won.”

Kelly Vea Vea, Counsellor of a Queensland Mining Community from Moranbah

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