Associate Professor Margaret Camilleri

Position: Associate Professor
Discipline: Criminology and Criminal Justice
Location: Mount Helen Campus, Room H242 
Phone: 5327 6947
Email: m.camilleri@federation.edu.au
ORCID: 0000-0002-8603-6033

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy - University of Ballarat, 2010
Master of Social Science (Social Policy) - RMIT University
Graduate Diploma (Community Development) - RMIT University
Bachelor of Arts (Multicultural Studies) - RMIT University

Teaching

Course(s)

Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Units

  • Policing (CRJUS2474)
  • Victims of Crime (CRJUS2476 and CRJUS3478)
  • Human Rights: Conventions to Practice (CRJUS2400)
  • Crime to Punishment (CRJUS1285)
  • Crime: Theory and Practice (CRJUS1283)
  • Explanations of Crime (CRJUS1287)
  • Comparative Criminal Justice (CRJUS2471)
  • Policing in Practice (CRJUS2474)
  • Australian Courts in an International Context (CRJUS2100)
  • Punishment, Penalty and Rehabilitation (CRJUS2300)
  • Work Integrated Learning (CRJUS2305) and (CRJUS3204)

Biography

During her career, Marg has worked in a range of justice related positions in community and government. Her work including policy development, research, community consultation and program evaluations have been focused on victim/survivors of family violence and sexual assault, young people involved in the justice system, justice responses to people with disabilities and access to justice for people who reside in rural areas. Marg is also interested and trauma informed pedagogy.

Marg has participated in consultations regarding a range of law and procedural reform areas including Sexual Assault, Family Violence and the Financial Assistance Scheme for victims of crime.

Marg’s membership of international, national, State advisory groups and regional partnerships focus on access to justice (defendants and victims), gendered violence, and young people, includes the following:

Awards/Recognition

  • 2024 - Certificate of Achievement Court Services Victoria Disability Advisory Committee
  • 2022 – Public Advocate Award – Funds in Court Human Rights Advisory Committee – Supreme Court of Victoria
  • 2013-2018 - Certificate of Service for 5 years as an Independent Third Person Office of the Public Advocate

Areas of expertise and research interests

My research areas of interest were influenced by my work as an advocate, and in policy and research in a range of justice related positions. Social justice is the overarching theme which brings the various threads of her research areas together. My area of expertise include:

  • Access to justice, namely the experiences of crime victims in the criminal justice system from report, investigation and at court.
    • Police decision making
    • The use and impact of intermediaries
    • Sexual assault and family violence law reform
    • Intersectionality
    • People with disabilities accessing justice
  • Understanding the role of place
    • Rural Criminology exploring the added intersectional dimension of rurality and the experiences of victims of crime, services and police in navigating the shared space and the socio-cultural dynamics of remote, rural and regional communities.
    • Rural and regional responses to sexual assault and family violence – considering police and community responses to victim/survivors.
  • Young people response to and interaction with the justice system as victims or defendants: - Considering the role of structural and systemic response to young people and the ability of various programs to meet the needs of young people and their families to reduce interaction with the criminal justice system.

Supervision

Doctoral students (Current supervisions)

  • Kerrie Bryant – Young peoples’ perspectives on youth justice interventions. Principal Supervisor
  • Juhi Pandya – White Collar Crime – Fraud - Principal Supervisor
  • Annette Pyatt – Survivors economic recovery from family violence. Principal Supervisor
  • Morgan Wise - Victoria Police member perceptions concerning mental health consumers in Western Victoria.Principal Supervisor

Completed Supervisions

  • Jennifer Nicholls - Women's experiences of health care in the prison system in Victoria: do they align with through-care principles and human rights framework? Principal Supervisor
  • Lesley Cooper - The Potential of the Clemente Transformative Learning Approach to Empower Students who Experience Coercive Control in Family Violence - Principal Supervisor
  • Kay Lancefield - Early intervention to reduce young peoples’ contact with the criminal justice system - Principal Supervisor
  • Gerry Skene - Teaching with difference: barriers and enablers for teachers with impairments in professional roles - Associate Supervisor
  • Lauren Irvine - Women’s lived experience of their partner’s referral, to a men’s behaviour change program - Associate Supervisor

Completed Honours Projects

  • Jennifer Martin – ‘Women’s health Care experiences in Victorian Prisons’ – submitted 2018
  • Lesley Cooper - ‘Is there potential for a transformative education approach to contribute to desistance from offending by adolescents’? submitted 2019
  • Peter Hearn – ‘Australian Newspapers’ Portrayal of the Martin Place Siege’ – submitted 2020

Grants

Project: Evaluation - Goldfields Educator’ (GE) Tailored Education for Youth Crime Prevention

Role: Chief Investigator

Value: $29,000

Duration: 2022- 2024

Project: Central Highlands Health Justice Partnership for Youth
Role: Principal Investigator
Value: $260,000
Duration: February 2014 to 2019

Project: To explore the requirements of people with complex communication needs when interacting with the criminal and civil justice system.
Role: Principal Investigator
Value: $57,270
Duration: October 2016 to December 2018

Project: Gateways to social inclusion: enablers and barriers for young people in accessing meaningful recreational activities

Role: Principal Investigator

Value: $11,911

Duration: 2022

Project: Lived Experiences of participants in the MAST program.
Role: Principal Investigator
Value: $11,353
Duration: February 2020 to May 2021

Project: Building health justice for young people in the Central Highlands Region
Role: Principal Investigator
Value: $5,000
Duration: February 2019 to March 2021

Publications

Publications

Ollerenshaw. A & Camilleri. M. (2023) A Health Justice Partnership for young people: Strategies for program promotion of young people and youth workers. Australian Journal of Public Health https://www.publish.csiro.au/py/fulltext/PY22266

Camilleri, M. (2022). Barriers to acceptance of evidence: reports of sexual assault made by adults with cognitive impairment and CCN. Precedence.  Issue 72 October. Australian Lawyers Association

Camilleri. M. (2019). Disabled in Rural Victoria: Exploring the intersection of victimisation, disability and rurality on access to justice. International Journal of Rural Criminology

Ollerenshaw. A & Camilleri. M (April, 2017) Health Justice Partnerships: Initial insights into the delivery of an integrated health and legal service for youth in regional Victoria. Journal of Rural and Remote Health

Books

Camilleri, M, & Harkness, A. (eds) (2023). Australian Courts: Controversies, Challenges and Change. Palgrave. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/australian-courts-marg-camilleri/1142331846

Chapters

Camilleri. M. (2023). Victims with disabilities in rural areas. In R. Hale and A. Harkness (Eds.), Rural victims of crime: Representations, realities and responses. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Rural-Victims-of-Crime-Representations-Realities-and-Responses/Hale-Harkness/p/book/9780367677633

Ellis, S & Camilleri, M. (2023). Prosecutions in the summary jurisdiction. In Camilleri, M, & Harkness, A. (eds). Australian Courts: Controversies, Challenges and Change. Palgrave.

Camilleri, M. (2023). Victims Participatory Rights. In Camilleri, M, & Harkness, A. (eds). Australian Courts: Controversies, Challenges and Change. Palgrave.

Camilleri, M & Harkness, A. (2023). Context and controversies of Australian Courts. In Camilleri, M, & Harkness, A (eds). Australian Courts: Controversies, Challenges and Change. Palgrave.

Camilleri, M & Harkness, A. (2023). Challenging court landscapes and opportunities for change. In Camilleri, M, & Harkness, A (eds). Australian Courts: Controversies, Challenges and Change. Palgrave.

Book chapters forthcoming

Camilleri, M., Hale, R. & Pedersen, C (2025). Teaching at intersections: Cross-disciplinary and    intersectional trauma-informed pedagogies. In Equity, Inclusion and Agency: Theory, Policy and Practice in Education (Eds: Marcelle Cacciattolo & Jenene Burke) Springer

Mulrooney, K., Camilleri., M., Donnermeyer, J. & Harkness, A (2025). Whose Rural? In Global Reflections on Positionality and Place in Rural Access to Justice Scholarship. Hart Publishing, (Eds: Michel Statz and Daniel Newman)

Cooper, L., Nicholls. J. & Camilleri. M. (2025). Transforming for change: the potential of Clemente in prisons as a factor for desistence. In Smith. J & Else, S.

Reference entry

Camilleri, M. (2022). People with disabilities. In A. Harkness, J. R. Peterson, M. Bowden, C. Pedersen & J. F. Donnermeyer (eds.), The encyclopedia of rural crime. Bristol University Press. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-encyclopedia-of-rural-crime

Refereed conference proceedings

Camilleri, M (2008) Enabling Justice – Paper presented at the National Victims of Crime Conference University of Adelaide, 23-24 September 2008

Reports

Bryce. W. & Camilleri. M. (2024) Goldfields Education Project – Evaluation. Berry Street Western Region.

Camilleri. M. (2022). Gateways to social inclusion: enablers and barriers for young people in accessing meaningful recreational activities. Ballarat Youth Crime Prevention Partnership Accountability and Governance Group (PAGG) for the Ballarat Youth Crime Prevention (YCP) Project

Camilleri. M (2020). Lived Experiences of participants in the MAST program. Evaluation report of the Mufti Agency Support Team (MAST), This evaluation was commissioned by the Ballarat Youth Crime Prevention Partnership Accountability and Governance Group (PAGG) for the Ballarat Youth Crime Prevention (YCP) Project.

Camilleri. M & Pedersen (2019) Hear Us: The experience of persons with Complex Communication Needs in Accessing Justice. Federation University

Camilleri. M, Ollerenshaw. A., Corbett. J., Taylor. M and Tania Burrows (2018) Central Highlands Health Justice Partnership: Evaluation Report. Victorian Legal Services Board

Victims Support Agency (2013) Information and support needs of victims and witnesses in the Magistrates' Court of Victoria. Department of Justice Victoria

Sugden N. and Camilleri, M., (2011) Review of the National Coronial Information System, Department of Justice Victoria

Camilleri. M. (2010) 'Disabled Justice: Why reports of sexual assault made by adults with cognitive impairment fail to proceed through the justice system. PhD University of Ballarat

Goodfellow, J & Camilleri, M (2003) Beyond Belief - Beyond Justice: The difficulties for victim/survivors with disabilities when reporting sexual assault and seeking justice, Disability Discrimination Legal Service

Associations

  • World Society of Victimology
  • Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
  • International Society of Rural Criminology