Rate My Professor Carleen Thompson

Carleen Thompson is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a member of the Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University. She serves as Co-Lead of the Queensland Cross-sector Research Collaboration for Youth Justice. Her research specializations encompass developmental and life-course criminology, risk assessment, adult-onset offending, gender and offending patterns, interpersonal violence, stalking, and female offending trajectories. Thompson's academic interests center on improving criminal justice responses to vulnerable children, young people, and justice-involved populations, including examinations of offending normality in emerging adulthood, child maltreatment links to system contact, mental health service timing for female offenders, and child well-being amid parental incarceration.

Thompson has produced key publications such as 'Offending Trajectories in an Australian Birth Cohort' (Kuluk et al., 2024, Criminal Justice and Behavior), 'A longitudinal birth cohort study of child maltreatment and criminal justice system contact' (Kisely et al., 2024), 'Criminal justice system involvement across adolescence and emerging adulthood' (Thompson, 2025), 'A Conceptual Framework for Child Well-Being in the Context of Parental Incarceration' (Williams et al., 2026, Child Indicators Research), 'A review of arguments for raising the age of criminal responsibility' (Ransley et al., 2024), and 'Are different Risk Factors Associated with Moderate and Severe Stalking Violence' (Thompson et al., 2013, Criminal Justice and Behavior). Career appointments include a Griffith University Postdoctoral Fellowship commencing 1 January 2015. She teaches Developmental Crime Prevention (7023CCJ) and engages in funded research, including Australian Institute of Criminology projects. Thompson contributes to professional activities, policy discussions on youth justice, and cross-sector collaborations influencing criminal justice practice.