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About

Read a short biography

I am the youngest of 6 siblings, and was 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 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

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:

Journal Editing

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

Journal Editing and Board Memberships

Board Roles

2023 to date Director of Member Services, Executive Fairy Meadow Surf Life Saving Club

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

Over my career I have led 8 Australian Research Grants totalling $1.5 million. Some of these research teams have produced ground-breaking knowledge. Along with my husband Russell Hogg, and colleague Maximo Sozzo from Universidad Nacional de Litorel, Argentina, we were the contemporary architects southern criminology – a project that aims to bridge global divides, democratise criminological concepts, theories and methods and inject the field with innovative ideas and research from the periphery. It builds upon a rich tradition of scholarship from Latin America inspired by the Southern School of Art in early 1900s.

For three decades I have researched gender and violence, am the author of Feminism and Global Justice (2015), and Who Killed Leigh Leigh? (1998), along with another 150 publications.

I am the lead investigator of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project ‘Preventing Gender Violence: Lessons from the Global South’. My team has undertaken a world first study on how Women’s Police Stations in Argentina respond to and prevent gender violence and what Australia can learn to improve its policing response to gender violence. I am also leading a follow up ARC Discovery on Improving the Policing of Gender Violence, to continue this research with an Australian based research team from 2021- 2025. There has been substantial media, community and government interest in this research.

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.

“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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