Welcome to a new blog series spotlighting the Committee of Management of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC). As the peak professional body for criminologists across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, ANZSOC plays a vital role in shaping the discipline, supporting research, and fostering collaboration between academics, practitioners, and students.
But who are the people behind the scenes driving this mission forward? And how did this Society come to be in the first place?
This series will introduce the members of the Committee of Management—the individuals who volunteer their time, energy, and expertise to guide the Society’s direction. Along the way, we’ll also explore key moments in ANZSOC’s history, beginning with our first post: a look back at the Society’s establishment and its founding aims.
The Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) was established at a meeting of 43 men and 4 women held on 24 October 1967 at the University of Melbourne. Those present came from across Australia and New Zealand, and represented a variety of professions and academic disciplines – including law, medicine, the clergy and criminal justice administration. Sir John Barry, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, chaired the meeting and was elected as the Society’s inaugural President. The Society was originally composed of individuals with a professional interest in crime and justice issues from a medico-legal stance and others working in criminal justice agencies. Over time, this changed with the Society now being predominantly composed of academic scholars and students.
The Society was originally an unincorporated association managed by a small Executive of eight members and five office-bearers. In addition to Barry as President, the Vice Presidents were Kenneth Shatwell from the University of Sydney and Stanley Johnston from the University of Melbourne. David Biles from the Melbourne Criminology Department was Honorary Secretary and David Hundley from the Victorian Prisons Department was Treasurer. The Executive comprised one member from each Australian state as well as John Robson from New Zealand and Ray Whitrod from the Commonwealth Police in Canberra. After the Society’s Journal was created in 1968, its Editor, Victorian Prison Psychiatrist, Dr Allen Bartholomew, was present at Committee meeting until he retired in June 1980.
ANZSOC’s home fluctuated between Melbourne and Sydney in the early decades, largely following the location of the Presidents and Secretaries, although records were maintained at the Melbourne Criminology Department during the pre-digital years under the stewardship of David Biles and Stanley Johnston. During the 1980s, membership of the Executive still had a number of public sector representatives from criminal justice agencies such as the police, courts and prisons, but, over time, the academic representation continued to grow.
It was, however, during Richard Harding’s time as President (1984-1987) when he was also the Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), that a close and enduring relationship between ANZSOC and the AIC flourished. Institute staff such as David Biles, Dennis Challinger, Peter Grabosky and Russell Smith were all members of the ANZSOC Executive at various times including as Secretary and President. When Peter Grabosky became President in 1998 (when he was the AIC’s Director of Research), ANZSOC underwent a number of changes to formalise its administration and extend its operations. This included incorporating the Society in April 2001 under the Victorian Associations Incorporation Act 1981, and changing the Journal’s publisher from Butterworths to Australian Academic Press in 1999 – with John Pratt from Victoria University Wellington as Editor until 2005.
During the 2000s, the AIC provided substantial in-kind support to the Society, including by allowing staff to act in various roles. These included the AICs librarian, John Myrtle, as ANZSOC Secretary, and other senior staff as Presidents. The AIC also generously supported conferences in Canberra (in 2008, and in 2017) and supplied sponsorship, and allowed staff to participate in conference committees and to present papers each year. In 2011, the AIC also entered into an arrangement with ANZSOC to provide a staff member as Secretary on a cost recovery basis – the forerunner of the current Manager’s role – now paid directly from the Society. By this time, the Committee of Management comprised 18 members with dedicated roles having been created for a New Zealand Vice-President, a Postgraduate Early Career Researcher, a Newsletter Editor and Conference Convenor. Apart from AIC representation on the Committee, all other members were university academics at this time.
Over the past 58 years, the Society has developed considerably from its initial membership of 80 in 1967 to over 400 in 2025. The geographical focus has changed from its beginnings in Melbourne, through the 2000s in Canberra to its current base in Brisbane. Committee members have represented all Australian States, Territories, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Pacific regions, beginning with a heavy criminal justice agency focus in the 1960s to the current, almost exclusively University-based representation, of 25 members.
The role of Committee members is to represent the interests of the constituencies they represent – be they geographical locations or different sectors of membership. Office Bearers of the Society have other specific administrative, management and compliance functions. Committee members also bring to their voluntary roles, their own personal and professional backgrounds as criminologists with their differing experience and expertise in research, methodologies, teaching and criminal justice policy development.
Further reading:
Smith, R. G. (ed.) 2021. The Changing Face of Criminology in Australia and New Zealand, Sage Publications.
Smith, R. G. 2017, ‘Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of ANZSOCs Inaugural Meeting’, PacifiCrim: ANZSOC Newsletter, 14(4), 7.
Smith, R. G. 2006, ‘ANZ Society of Criminology: A Snapshot’, ANZSOC Newsletter, 3(1), 2.
We, the members of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC), acknowledge the traditional custodians of Australia and the sovereignty of the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.
ANZSOC would like to acknowledge the ongoing Traditional Custodians of the lands for which our constituents conduct their teaching, learning, and research. We would like to acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and the lands, now called Australia, continue to belong to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Traditional custodians of the lands. ANZSOC would like to pay respects to the Elders who have passed on the legacy of knowledge and culture to the future generations and acknowledge that the future generations hold the hope, the stories and the continued knowledge for current and emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. May this knowledge through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing guide you with wisdom and courage.
ANZSOC also recognises iwi Māori and their unceded right to tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) and their expression of mana motuhaka (self-determination). We acknowledge mātauranga Māori (Māori ways of being and knowing) informs both traditional and contemporary knowledge production and its ability to enhance our collective futures.
The Association acknowledges the consequences and harms that continue to be inflicted by the criminal justice systems of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand on Indigenous peoples in the region and seeks through its activities to address these harms and to work to prevent them from continuing in the future.
