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Professor

Nicole L. Asquith

(She/they)

Professor of Policing and Emergency Management

Policing and Emergency Management

Orcid identifier0000-0002-2494-3391
  • Professor of Policing and Emergency Management
    Policing and Emergency Management
  • 03 6226 8405 (Work)
  • School of Social Sciences, Policing and Emergency Management, Sandy Bay Campus, TAS

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Expertise

Nicole’s research interests and expertise primarily relate to the experiences of interpersonal violence. Using critical and poststructuralist criminological and sociological theories, Nicole seeks to explore the experience of victimisation, and the strategies required to ameliorate the damage of victimisation. She has developed a theoretically rich and applied model of addressing the vulnerability that arises in police encounters, which has been adopted in various policing organisations in Australia and the UK.

Nicole has over 30 years’ experience advocating on behalf of victims, and investigating the lived experience of violence, including hate motivated, domestic, family and intimate-partner, honour-based, and sexual violence, vilification, and discrimination. Much of this work has been done in collaboration with non-government organisations and support services, as well as policing organisations. Nicole has also undertaken a pilot ethnographic study into the work of rural, remote, and regional policing in Tasmania, which she hopes to expand in the coming years. This work has been critical in the development of her theoretical work on propinquity and policing, which aims to provide a roadmap out of many of the “wicked problems” encountered by police.

Research Themes

Nicole’s research aligns to the University’s research theme of Better Health. In particular, her work focuses on the intersections between law enforcement and public health. Her work on ameliorating the iatrogenic harms of policing, along with devising strategies to support vulnerable people as they traverse the criminal justice system, necessarily requires a transdisciplinary approach that draws on the preventative frameworks of public health.

Collaboration

Nicole is currently collaborating with Australian, UK, and US colleagues across a range of topics. In partnership with Tasmania Police, she has undertaken the first stage of ethnographic research into rural, remote and regional policing in Australia. In conjunction with scholars at nine Australian universities, she will be undertaking a national study of ableism in academia. With colleagues at the UniMelb, RMIT, UTas, and in collaboration with ACON, Nicole has conducted a study into NSW LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of sexual violence. With colleagues at QUT and the University of Houston, she is undertaking a critical discourse analysis of Trump’s campaign speeches to reveal the textual-verbal hostility that underpins his communication. Nicole is also a CI on a longitudinal study into the sexual health and attitudes of Australian prisoners, which is led by colleagues at UNSW. With colleagues at the Western Sydney University, CSU and University of South Australia, Nicole will be expanding the pilot study into attacks against Australian mosques. With colleagues at UTas, ANU, and the University of Rhode Island, she is investigating how neurodiversity impacts on experiences of policing.

Current projects
The harms of hate
Targeted violence against LGBTIQA+ people in Australia
Propinquitous Policing
LGBTQ+ People and Sexual Violence
Scholarship Disabled
Trump’s Mumbles
Sexual Health and Attitudes of Australian Prisoners
Workloads, Roles, and Wellbeing: Mapping the work of Tasmania Police Officers
Vulnerability and Policing
Neurodiversity and Policing
Attacks against Australian Mosques and Muslim Organisations
Cripping Criminology

PROJECTS

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CONSULTANCY/CONTRACT RESEARCH
Improving assessment approaches for deep-water species
CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation1 Jan 2021 - 31 May 2022
People funded by this grant: Krueck N, Burch P, Curin Osorio S
Project Total: $24,000; The project aims to estimate productivity of Orange Roughy stocks and undertake a risk assessment that incorporates the uncertainty in Orange Roughy natural mortality and steepness of the stock recruitment relationship. The project further aims to review the characteristics and discarding practices of species in the Deepwater shark basket (multiple species are assessed as a single complex) Funded by: CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation ($24,000); University of Tasmania.