Associate ProfessorClare Farmer

Associate Professor, Criminology, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Deakin University

- Deputy Chair, Deakin University Appeals Committee

- Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee (DUHREC)

- Stream Leader [Building a Secure and Resilient Nation], Deakin Science and Society Network (SSN)

- Deakin Gender Based Violence Advisory Board

- Australasian Academic Integrity Network, Annual Forum Organising Committee

- Bachelor of Criminology Course Team

- Master of Criminology Course Team

- Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
- Adult Parole Board, Victoria

I am an Associate Professor of Criminology, based at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds Campus.

An accomplished and award-winning researcher and research leader, my interests and expertise focus on procedural justice, discretionary decision-making within/across criminal legal processes, and the development, assessment, and application of criminal legal policy and practice. My research centres and draws from evidence-based insights and evaluations of responses to violent and anti-social behaviours in a range of contexts, and the use and effectiveness of specific policing and criminal legal interventions. Risk mitigation, harm prevention, meaningful restoration, and effective enforcement all feature strongly within my work, as do considerations of trauma - in relation both to the causes of criminal behaviours and as a consequence of criminal legal responses. 

In addition to my outstanding record securing competitive cat 1-4 funding, I lead multi-disciplinary and distributed teams to successfully deliver complex, mixed methodological, and time critical projects. I have led the submission of multiple reports to governments across Australia, and publish my work in high-impact Q1 international journals, with a particular focus on policing, criminology, human rights, violence, and justice.

Evident within my sustained record of high-quality peer-reviewed publications, I prioritise research with impact that is applied, tangible, and visible - discernible within specific policy and criminal-legal practices, across Australia and internationally - rather than focusing on citation reach alone. My work has been utilised within policy outputs published by diverse agencies and organisations in Australia and internationally. Examples include the Parliament of Australia, Australian Law Reform Commission, UK Government, and the German Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. Specific findings have underpinned the development of new legislation, revised policing practices, criminal-legal training, place-based responses to anti-social behaviours. 

I am an acknowledged expert in research integrity and human research ethics, project planning, risk mitigation, and financial management, and have held key Faculty and University leadership positions that centre informed decision-making, due process, and applied excellence in identifying and mitigating academic risk, governance and strategic thinking - at an individual, Faculty, and institutional level. 

Recent Awards

Individual:

In 2025, Faculty award for Excellence in Research Leadership and Mentoring.

In 2024, I won the Faculty Mid-Career Researcher Award for Research Excellence.

In 2021, the Higher Education Academy awarded me a Senior Fellowship (SFHEA), in recognition of my mentoring and leadership of staff development in a teaching and learning context. The Senior Fellowship is awarded to academics with a sustained and successful record leading high quality, effective, and inclusive teaching practices, that advance the teaching and learning practices of others. 

Collective:

In 2025, the Deakin Network Against Gendered Violence, of which I am a member, won the Vice Chancellor's Award for Multidisciplinary Research Collaboration.

Pre-Academic Career

As a first-in-family/first generation undergraduate, I completed Bachelor (Honours) and Masters degrees at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, before working in commercial and government-based consultancy, program director, project and strategic leadership roles for more than 15 years, across England, Europe, and the USA.

Between 2001-2009, I sat as a Magistrate in Cheshire, England, in both adult and youth courts.

In 2008, I completed a second Master's degree in Legal & Criminological Psychology, passing with distinction.

After emigrating to Australia, I commenced my academic career at Deakin University. I completed a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, followed by my criminal-legal focused PhD in 2015, which was conferred without change.

My academic success is rooted in, and supported by, my applied criminal/legal justice experience and expertise, and my demonstrable and sustained leadership capabilities.

External Service

In 2021, in recognition of my acknowledged criminal legal expertise and decision-making capabilities, I was appointed, by the Minister for Corrections, to the Adult Parole Board, in Victoria, Australia – with the appointment re-confirmed in 2024. 

I am also a longstanding voluntary civil justice advocate and have facilitated successful mediation for complainants through civil/administrative tribunals in Victoria, including the Privacy Commission, Fair Work Commission, VCAT, and the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria.

University Service

Deakin Science and Society Network (SSN): Appointed to lead the 'Building a Secure and Resilient Nation' stream, 2026- 2027.

Academic Board: In 2025, I was elected to the Deakin University Academic Board by my colleagues in the Faculty of Arts & Education, for the period 2026-2028.

UAC: Since early 2023, I have led the Deakin University Appeals Committee (UAC), as Deputy Chair. As part of this role, I was co-opted to the University's Academic Board until my selection as a elected member in late 2025.

DUHREC/HEAG: I am a longstanding member of the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee (DUHREC), and I am an acknowledged subject matter expert in research ethics and integrity.

I served as the Chair (2022-2023) and Deputy Chair (2020-2022) of the Faculty of Arts & Education Human Ethics Advisory Group (HEAG). 

Deakin Gender Based Violence Advisory Board [formerly Vice Chancellor's Working Group]: I have been a member since 2022 - advising on critical governance requirements covering university responses to, and prevention of, gender based violence.

Student Misconduct: In 2021, I was appointed as one of three specialists to Chair misconduct hearings relating to sexual harms. Between 2021-2023, I served as the Deputy Chair of the Student Misconduct Committee for the Faculty of Arts & Education. I stepped down from these roles when I became Deputy Chair of the University Appeals Committee.

Academic Integrity/Progress: I was a member of the Faculty Academic Integrity and Progress Committee from 2017 - 2022.

Australasian Academic Integrity Network (AAIN): Building from my Appeals, Integrity, Progress, and Misconduct service roles, I have been member of the AAIN since 2024, and a member of the Forum Organising Committee in 2026.

Academic Mentor: I am a longstanding research and academic mentor - and take great pride in supporting students and colleagues to identify and realise personal and professional development opportunities, define and refine their goals, and successfully advance their careers.

External Awards: National Rowing Champion

I won a gold medal and two silver medals at the Australian Masters Games, having previously rowed and coached eights at the University of Oxford.

I also won the Victorian state championship as a surf boat rower.

Research Group Membership
- Deakin Science and Society Network (SSN)

- Criminology Research Group (C2G), SHSS, Deakin University

- Deakin Trauma Aware Collective (DTAC)

- Deakin Centre for Relationships, Trauma, Addiction and Aggression

- Centre for Law as Protection, Deakin University
- Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA)
- GLEPHA Trauma-Informed Policing Special Interest Group

- Trauma Aware Higher Education Leaders Network (TAHELN)

- Deakin Network Against Gendered Violence (DNAGV)

- Australia & New Zealand Society of Criminology: Policing Thematic Group

- Australia & New Zealand Society of Criminology: Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Thematic Group

- Australia & New Zealand Society of Criminology: Teaching and Learning Thematic Group

- Intergenerational Trauma Aware Geelong (InTag)

- Research Society for the Prevention of Firearms Related Deaths