Researching Queensland’s policing procedures has proved arresting forGriffith’s School of Criminology and Criminal JusticelecturerDr Elise Sargeant.
Five years after graduating with her PhD, Dr Sargeant has been named one of the country’s most outstanding early career researchers by being awarded the prestigiousPaul Bourke Award for Early Career Research (2017) awarded by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).
Her expertise lies in the field of policing includes citizen and officer perceptions of police and policing as well as procedural justice and police legitimacy.
Research impact
Published in top-ranking criminology, sociology and policing journals, Dr Sargeant’s research has received significant scholarly recognition with more than 470 citations. Her work has also been cited in the 2015 final report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing presented to then US President Obama.
“To see my work having an impact in terms of being recognised by academia, the police and other stakeholders is reassuring.
“The aim of my research is to make a difference in policing and public outcomes.
“The award is also an acknowledgement that I am on the right track in my career progression,” Dr Sargeant said.
Graduating from the University of Queensland in 2012, Dr Sargeant moved to Griffith’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2016.
“No doubt, Griffith boasts the country’s biggest criminology school with the largest number of staff and resources while we are recognised internationally as being Australia’s best criminology school.”
Dr Sargeant will receive her award at the Academy of Social Sciences annual dinner in Adelaide in October.
Award history
The Paul Bourke Awards for Early Career Research are named in honour of the Academy’s past president Paul Francis Bourke (1938—1999), a product of the History School at the University of Melbourne who went on to become one of the first Australian historians to obtain American style doctoral training.