Each year, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Policing Thematic Group recognises emerging scholars whose research makes an outstanding contribution to policing research.
At the 2025 ANZSOC Conference, we were delighted to celebrate Katie, who received the award in recognition of her innovative and timely research examining anti-police sentiment in Australia.
Drawing on cutting-edge theory and original social media data, Katie’s work offers fresh insights into how public trust, legitimacy, and disengagement from policing are experienced and expressed by citizens. Her research speaks directly to contemporary debates about police–community relations, reform, and public confidence in criminal justice institutions.
We caught up with Katie to reflect on what the award means to her, her research journey, and what’s next as she moves toward the completion of her PhD.
What does receiving this ANZSOC Award mean to you?
I’m extremely grateful to have received the ANZSOC award for best publication in the field of policing by a member of the ANZSOC Policing Thematic Group. Further, I was very honoured by the opportunity to present this research at the ANZSOC 2025 conference at QUT in front of many of the academics who have inspired both my PhD ongoing research. This paper will be submitted as part of my PhD thesis which is due for submission in the coming months. Receiving such positive feedback from the broader policing research community on this paper has provided a much-needed confidence boost as I finish off my thesis, helping to stave off some of the end-of-PhD fatigue.
Can you give us a brief description of the paper?
In this paper we adopted Braithwaite’s motivational posturing theory to explore anti-police sentiment in the Australian community as a form of citizen defiance towards police. We collected social media discourse from Australian city subreddits and conducted a hybrid qualitative analysis to identify Braithwaite’s motivational postures within this discourse and explore the context and citizen experiences which are associated with these postures. Results suggest that most anti-police sentiment is associated with a ‘resistance’ posture, where citizens are seeking change to the practice or policy of police officers or organisations. Some anti-police sentiment was associated with a ‘disengagement’ posture, where citizens no longer recognise the authority of the police, and may avoid police interaction whenever possible. Our novel contribution was the addition of ‘apathy’ as a motivational posture. These citizens do not discount the authority or need for police, but also express disbelief that police reform is likely or even possible. These results highlight that defiance towards police is not always active, and suggests that while some anti-police sentiment may be expressed through protest or conflict with police, other anti-police sentiments may be grounded in a quieter yet profound loss of public hope in police legitimacy.
What’s next?
I am very much looking forward to getting my PhD thesis submitted in the next few months, getting back into teaching some first and second year criminology, and exploring some postdoc opportunities!
