Calum is a current Doctoral Candidate within the School of Justice at QUT. He holds a research scholarship to investigate the sentencing of people with an intellectual disability in the Australian criminal justice system. Between 25%-30% of people in prison have borderline intellectual disability and 10% have mild intellectual disability, contrasted with only 6.5% of Australians with a disability reporting their primary form of disability as intellectual or developmental. Despite this, there is a lack of targeted research and understanding of the involvement of people with an intellectual disability in the criminal justice system, particularly with regard to sentencing and the factors informing judicial decision-making in such cases. Using a mixed method approach, Calum will conduct systematic documentary analysis of sentencing remarks transcripts from Australian jurisdictions and interview judicial officers to address the lack of understanding of the sentencing of people with an intellectual disability and identify opportunities for justice reinvestment to reduce overrepresentation. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Justice (Criminology and Policing) and Behavioural Science (Psychology) from QUT, First Class Honours in Justice from QUT and is also a member of QUT’s Centre for Justice.
Centre Supervisor: Deanna Grant-Smith