Photo: Dario Gardiman
UNSW Law & Justice is delighted to welcome Professor Penny Crofts, who will join the Faculty as an ARC Future Fellow, commencing a landmark research project examining corporate accountability for death and serious harm.
Prof. Crofts has been awarded a highly competitive Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship for her project, Death by Corporation: Criminal law, culture and homicidal corporations.
An internationally recognised expert in criminal law, models of culpability and corporate crime, Prof. Crofts is known for her cross-disciplinary research that draws on historical, philosophical, empirical and literary sources to deepen understanding of criminal responsibility and justice. Her scholarship has made significant contributions to debates about blameworthiness, corporate wrongdoing and criminal legal enforcement, while also establishing her as a leading figure in the emerging field of law and horror cultural legalities.
Her Future Fellowship project will analyse the ways corporations cause death, how these deaths are represented in law and culture, and whether corporations can and should be prosecuted for homicide offences.
Using a transdisciplinary approach, the research will critically examine legal and cultural understandings of corporate killings and the barriers that have historically prevented corporations from being held criminally liable for homicide. The project argues that corporations can and should be prosecuted for homicide offences, generating important legal, economic and social benefits through the deterrence of corporate harms.
Prof. Crofts said she was excited to be joining UNSW Law & Justice and building on the many connections made with the Faculty during her tenure as Visiting Professor position over several months in 2023.
"There is a great deal of expertise within the School, Faculty and University in areas that intersect with this research, including critical legal theory, criminal law, criminology, corporate crime, environmental harms and industrial relations,” she says.
"I look forward to working with a community of scholars undertaking transdisciplinary critical legal theoretical analysis at the School of Law, Society and Criminology."
Dean of UNSW Law & Justice, Professor Andrew Lynch, welcomed Prof. Crofts and congratulated her on securing the fellowship.
"Professor Crofts is an outstanding scholar whose research challenges conventional thinking about responsibility, harm and accountability. We are thrilled to welcome her to UNSW Law & Justice and look forward to the impact of her ARC Future Fellowship on scholarship, law reform and public debate."
About ARC Future Fellowships
The ARC Future Fellowships scheme supports outstanding mid-career researchers to undertake high-quality research in areas of national and international importance. The program aims to attract and retain exceptional research talent in Australia, support researchers in establishing world-leading careers, and strengthen the nation's research capability through innovative and impactful projects.
Prof. Crofts' work will be based in the School of Law, Society and Criminology, where it will contribute to a growing body of interdisciplinary research exploring the relationship between law, power, community justice and social change.