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Dr Paul McGorrery

Criminal Law Researcher, Deakin University

Paul is a criminal lawyer with a combination of experience in litigation, policy and academia. He is admitted to practice law both in Australia and in New York (USA), and has worked as senior legal researcher for the now-retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and a prosecutor at the Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria.

At the moment, Paul is the manager of legal policy and community engagement at the Sentencing Advisory Council in Victoria. The focus of his PhD was the criminalisation of behaviours that cause purely psychological injuries, particularly in the context of family violence.

Paul has published articles on criminal law, family violence, and the effect of emerging technologies. He co-edited the book Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law. He has a particular interest in criminalisation theory, sentencing, and the increasing role of psychology in the criminal courtroom.

Experience

  • 2016–present
    Senior legal policy officer, Sentencing Advisory Council (Vic)
  • 2015–2021
    PhD candidate, Deakin University
  • 2015–2019
    Unit coordinator, Swinburne Online
  • 2012–2017
    Law Mentor, Australian National University
  • 2015–2015
    Senior legal researcher, Constitutional Court of South Africa
  • 2014–2014
    Assistant lecturer, Temple University
  • 2011–2013
    Prosecutor, Office of Public Prosecutions (Vic)
  • 2010–2011
    Lawyer, Comcare

Education

  • 2021 
    Dwakin University (Melbourne, AUS), PhD (criminal law)
  • 2014 
    Temple University (Philadelphia, USA), Master of Laws (LLM)
  • 2010 
    Australian National University (Canberra, AUS), Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (GDLP)
  • 2010 
    Australian Public Service Commission (Canberra, AUS), Diploma of Government (Management)
  • 2009 
    La Trobe University (Melbourne, AUS), Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
  • 2008 
    La Trobe University (Melbourne, AUS), Bachelor of Legal Studies

Publications

  • 2018
    Causing someone else to commit suicide: Incitement or manslaughter?, Alternative Law Journal
  • 2018
    They found my iPhone, Law Institute Journal
  • 2018
    Book review: James C. Oleson's Criminal Genius: A Portrait of High-IQ Offenders, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology
  • 2017
    The philosophy of criminalisation: A review of Duff et al's Criminalisation series, Criminal Law and Philosophy
  • 2017
    Criminalising emotional abuse, intimidation and economic abuse in the context of family violence: The Tasmanian experience, University of Tasmania Law Review
  • 2017
    A fair 'hearing': Earwitness identifications and voice identification parades, International Journal of Evidence and Proof
  • 2017
    A further critique of brain fingerprinting: The possibility of propranolol usage by offenders, Alternative Law Journal
  • 2016
    Judicial recognition of PTSD in crime victims: A review of how much credence Australian courts give to crime-induced PTSD, Journal of Law and Medicine
  • 2016
    "But I was so sure it was him": How Facebook could be making eyewitness identifications unreliable, Internet Law Bulletin
  • 2016
    Criminalising controlling and coercive behaviour: The next step in the prosecution of domestic violence?, Alternative Law Journal
  • 2015
    The limited impact of Facebook and the displacement effect on the admissibility of identification evidence, Criminal Law Journal