Dave McDonald

Dr Dave McDonald commenced his role at the University of Melbourne in 2013 as a Melbourne Early Career Academic Fellow (MECAF). In 2016 he was appointed as an ongoing Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social and Political Sciences.

Prior to this, he was a subject coordinator and assistant lecture across various subjects at the University of Melbourne throughout the course of his doctoral studies, while also holding teaching positions at Monash and La Trobe Universities.Dr McDonald’s research has examined representational and imaginative practices associated with paedophilia and child sex abuse from a critical criminological perspective. His doctoral research, completed in 2012, examined social, cultural and legal representations of paedophilia, the contemporary fascination associated with such offending, and a range of punitive legal responses recently established in response to this.His work has been published in high quality international journals and book volumes, throughout which he has critically interrogated the enactment of post-sentence preventative detention and supervision of serious sex offenders; legislative hate crime provisions and the contested position of paedophilia within this legal category; neoliberal vigilance and its relationship with vigilantism; debates about artwork and the status of so-called sexualised children; and queer theory and its deconstructive potentials in illuminating more complex scenarios in which child sex abuse often occurs. Dr McDonald’s current research is primarily concerned with quasi-legal mechanisms of justice. This work seeks to expand understandings of what such mechanisms may, or may not, offer in the context of enduring criminal legal failures in adequately responding to historical and/or institutional child sex abuse. Through this work he is seeking to propose a broader frame of responsibility and recognisability that may accommodate more nuanced institutional critiques that encompass sites including the family, and normative masculinity more generally. This research expands upon concepts of collective proximity, timeliness, affect, and critically interrogates how responsibility and culpability might be conceived more holistically.Dr McDonald also has research expertise in the areas of policing studies, misconduct, corruption and oversight. He previously worked at the Office of Police Integrity where he was responsible for delivering strategic evaluations and parliamentary reports into Victoria Police systems and processes informed by international best-practice research. Amongst these he managed the OPI’s 2012 inquiry, 'Policing People Who Appear to Have a Mental Illness', which appraised Victoria Police policies and practices against established international best practice measures.He is currently serving a three-year appointment as a member of the Victorian Firearms Consultative Committee, though which he advises State Government on matters related to the availability, use and control of firearms in Victoria, During the first half of 2016 Dr McDonald was a visiting researcher at City University London, where he was based developing research collaborations with European colleagues. More recently he was located in Hong Kong working to develop potential partnerships with local academics and practitioners in the area of police legitimacy and community relations. Current Teaching:Dr McDonald currently teaches the following three subjects:From Graffiti to Terrorism (CRIM10001)Policing (CRIM20003)Global Criminologies (CRIM30002)