Dr John Gilmour

Tab 01 · Profile

Profile

Social psychologist and evidence-based policing researcher. A Research Fellow in the University of Queensland's School of Social Science and formerly Principal Research Officer in the Queensland Police Service's Intelligence Directorate, his work evaluates policing responses to youth crime, sexual violence, and domestic and family violence. He received the Queensland Police Service Excellence in Research on Improving Law Enforcement for Women Award in 2021.

John's work sits at the intersection of psychology, criminology and policing practice. At the University of Queensland he provides research and statistical support for criminology studies run with the Queensland Police Service to improve policing and crime-prevention outcomes — police training evaluations, reviews of policing initiatives aimed at young people, and domestic and family violence reviews. Within the QPS Intelligence Directorate he designed and supervised evidence-based policing projects and acted in higher roles including Research Manager (Operational Research) and Director. He has lectured in research methods, statistics and cognitive psychology at the University of Southern Queensland, and has run his own statistical and research consultancy since 2018.

He holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of Southern Queensland and a first-class Honours degree in psychology. His published research spans experimental criminology, policing, cybercrime prevention and cyberpsychology, and he is co-author of the books Statistics for Research Students and Social Media and Technology Across the Lifespan. He serves as a Review Editor on the editorial board of Frontiers in Psychology and is a member of the Australia & New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology.

Tab 02 · Areas of expertise

Areas of expertise

• Evidence-based policing Designed and supervised evidence-based policing projects in the Queensland Police Service's Intelligence Directorate, providing complex statistical support to operational and training evaluations.
• Research & programme evaluation Highly specialised in police training evaluation and programme and course evaluations, from randomised controlled trials to process evaluations of policing operations.
• Statistics & research methodology Provides statistical and research-methodology support to clients including research students, non-governmental organisations, private clinics and university institutes; co-author of an open-access statistics textbook for research students.
• Youth crime & diversion Researches policing, legal and youth-justice responses to youth crime, including the effects of diversionary versus punitive police actions on young persons and reoffending.
• Sexual & domestic violence research Evaluated the impact of victim-centric, trauma-informed training on sexual violence case outcomes and contributed to domestic and family violence reviews, including work on the attrition of sexual offence cases.

Tab 03 · Service record

Service record

• 2024 – present Research Fellow, University of Queensland (School of Social Science) Project support for research evaluating effective responses to community and interpersonal violence, focused on policing responses to youth crime, sexual violence, and domestic and family violence.
• 2023 – 2024 Principal Research Officer, Queensland Police Service (Intelligence Directorate) Designed and supervised evidence-based policing projects, provided complex statistical support to operational and training evaluations, and acted in higher roles including Research Manager (Operational Research) and Director, Intelligence Directorate.
• 2020 – 2023 Research Fellow, University of Queensland (School of Social Science) Research and statistical support for criminology studies in association with the Queensland Police Service, including police training evaluations, reviews of policing initiatives aimed at young persons, and domestic and family violence reviews.
• 2018 – 2023 Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland (School of Psychology and Counselling) Planned and delivered specialised research methods, statistics and cognitive psychology course content to undergraduate and Honours research students.
• 2018 – present Statistical and Research Consultant (sole trader) Statistical and research-methodology support for clients including Higher Degree by Research students, non-governmental organisations, private clinics and university institutes.