Professor Susan Dennison

Director, Transforming Corrections to Transform Lives Centre
Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University

Susan Dennison is a Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University. She holds a PhD in forensic psychology and focuses on understanding the developmental and life course experiences of people who interact with the criminal justice system. Her goal is to contribute to the prevention of offending and incarceration and the empowerment of people to have safe, dignified and fulfilling lives. Susan is a former ARC Future Fellow, and through successive ARC grants has investigated how childhood adversity, particularly maltreatment and parental incarceration, affects young people’s outcomes. She has published more than 70 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as a co-edited book (Evidence Based Policy and Practice in Youth Justice). She is now Director of the Transforming Corrections to Transform Lives Centre, leading a multi-year, statewide, transformative system of practice to better support mothers who are incarcerated, and their children. Together with her team, they are working to break down intergenerational cycles of disadvantage and incarceration and generate new knowledge for evidence-based programs. Susan is also working to transform whole-of-government policies and systems to reduce the intergenerational transmission of offending and disadvantage and improve access to services and programs in custody and the community for mothers and children.