Each year, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) recognises outstanding contributions to the field through its Christine Alder Award, celebrating an outstanding book which has made a valuable and outstanding contribution to criminology.
At the 2025 ANZSOC Conference, we celebrated the achievements of Associate Professor Katherine McLachlan, who received highly commended for the award.
A long-standing member of ANZSOC, Associate Professor McLachlan’s work has been instrumental in advancing trauma-informed approaches across criminal justice, youth justice, corrections, and victim support.
Her highly commended book brings together years of research, practice, and lived engagement with criminal justice systems, offering a compassionate and evidence-informed framework for understanding trauma and its implications for sentencing, policy, and practice.
We caught up with Associate Professor McLachlan to hear what winning the award means to her.
What does receiving this ANZSOC award mean to you?
As someone who has been a member of ANZSOC since 2005 (but only three years post-PhD), I am very appreciative of this recognition. The work that I do with Flinders Criminology and the Magnolia Project is all about compassion in the justice system. That my book was highly commended is a testament to the commitment of practitioners and academics to recognise the value and importance of trauma-informed ways of working.
Could you briefly describe the work or contribution recognised by this award?
My book was the culmination of three years of full-time PhD study and a year refining it into a book, with each chapter designed to be a standalone resource for people who ask, “What is this trauma-informed malarkey that seems to be everywhere?” After speaking with people who have been criminalised for a decade, in my role as a Parole Board member, I consistently saw that people’s lives were characterised by adversity and poor systemic responses. While my PhD focused on trauma-informed sentencing, my book is broader, based on work done post-PhD with academics and practitioners relating to trauma-informed youth justice (with Professor Andrew Day and Associate Professor Catia Malvaso), reducing prison violence (with Associate Professor Armon Tamatea and Jen Galouzis) and victim support (with Commissioner Sarah Quick and Nicola Trenorden).
What impact do you hope your work will have on communities, policy, or the field?
I believe the concept of trauma-informed criminal justice is a slow-burning issue that will continue to emerge as core to how we think about criminal justice, victim-centric practice, desistance from crime, and community safety. I would love for my book to become a foundational text, like Judith Herman’s work. Recently, I was very excited when Professors Arie Freiberg and Julian Roberts cited my book in their Advanced Introduction to Sentencing. I truly believe that trauma-informed practice is the core to achieving safer communities, effective public policy and promoting safety and compassionate ways of working.
