Dr Carolyn McKay
People_

Dr Carolyn McKay

BCom LLB (New South Wales) MSA (Sydney) MVA (Sydney) PhD (Sydney)
Senior Research Fellow
CoDirector Sydney Institute of Criminology
Phone
+61 2 8627 5747
Fax
+61 2 9351 0200
Address
F10 - Law School (Camperdown)
The University of Sydney
Details
Dr Carolyn McKay

Dr Carolyn McKay is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School where she teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Digital Criminology. She is CoDirector, Sydney Institute of Criminology, 2021-2024. Carolyn is recognised for her research into technologies in justice published in her monograph, ‘The Pixelated Prisoner: Prison video links, court ‘appearance’ and the justice matrix’(2018) Routledge. Throughout 2021 - 2024, Carolyn is undertaking her ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) 'The Digital Criminal Justice Project: Vulnerability and the Digital Subject', focusing on digitalised justice and digital vulnerability. She is currently drafting a new manuscript 'Digital Vulnerability in Criminal Justice: Vulnerable people and communication technologies' for Palgrave Pivot.Carolyn serves on the NSW Bar Association's Media Information Law & Technology Committee. She has been a Visiting Researcher at Radboud University, Netherlands 2023, a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford 2019 and for 3 months at the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Basque Country, Spain 2013-14. Carolyn previously consulted on anti-dumping trade disputes and indirect taxation in both Sydney and Tokyo. Carolyn also has a visual arts practice and, in 2023, she was the recipient of the Council of Law Deans’ Australian Legal Research Award for non-traditional research output for her ‘Crime Scene Motel Project’.

  • Crime and criminal justice
  • Technologies in justice / digital criminology / digital vulnerability
  • Criminal Law
  • Civil & Criminal Procedure
  • Digital Criminology
  • The Digital Criminal Justice Project: Vulnerability and the Digital Subject (DECRA 2021-2024)
  • Awarded November 2020: https://rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/Report/1b0c8b2e-7bb0-4f2d-8f52-ad207cfbb41d/219
  • https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/news-and-events/news/2020/11/06/sydney-law-school-early-career-researchers-awarded-870k.html
  • https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/11/04/up-and-coming-researchers-awarded--10m.html
  • https://www.digitalcriminaljustice.com/
  • Bar Association of New South Wales (academic member / Media Information Law & Technology Committee)
  • Law Society of New South Wales (associate member)
  • Women Lawyers Association of NSW (committee member)
  • Member, Sydney Institute of Criminology
  • Member, Sydney Environment Institute
  • Member, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
  • Member, International Corrections & Prisons Association
  • Member, Australasian Law Teachers Association
  • Member, Women's Justice Network
  • Member, British Society of Criminology

Awards:

  • Australian Legal Research Awards – Council of Law Deans' award for non-traditional research output for the Crime Scene Motel Project.
  • Curator for 2018 justiceINjustice collaborative project withThe Lock-Up - Museums & Galleries of NSW IMAGinE award
  • 2013 First Prize for Outstanding Presentation – Sydney Law School Postgraduate Conference
  • 2009 selected for '2039: The Dean's List' (SCA) -Verge Gallery, University of Sydney

Scholarships:

  • 2011-14 John O’Brien Memorial Research Scholarship in Criminal Law & Criminology
  • 2014 Cooke, Cooke, Coghlan, Godfrey & Littlejohn top-up scholarship

Publications

Download citations: PDF; RTF; Endnote

In the media

Giles, D. (2024) Government responds to mass Jewish doxxing. The Wire. 2ser.13 February 2024.https://www.thewire.org.au/story/government-responds-to-mass-jewish-doxxing/

Visentin, L. (2024) Doxxers on notice they will face jail time under new laws. Sydney Morning Herald. 18 February 2024.Australia’s doxxing laws put activists on notice (smh.com.au)

Butler, G. (2024) Anthony Albanese wants stronger doxing laws. Experts aren't so sure. SBS News. 13 February 2024.https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/anthony-albanese-wants-harsher-doxing-laws-experts-arent-so-sure/zxwdcyb3u

McKay, C. and Pivaty, A. (2023) Frontiers In Conflict Resolution Conversation Series, Radboud University, Netherlands. https://www.ru.nl/en/research/research-news/frontiers-in-conflict-resolution-conversation-series-episode-3-carolyn-mckay

McKay, C. and Blake, R. (2022). Cross-examination and remote access technologies: a changing calculus? The Journal of the NSW Bar Association BarNews[Autumn] pp.9-10. https://barnews.nswbar.asn.au/autumn-2022-mag/docs/BN_Autumn22.pdf?refresh=1652066094841

McKay, C. (2021). The Digital Criminal Justice Project: Vulnerability and the Digital Subject. British Society of Criminology Vulnerability Network Flash Talks, 13 July 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ULL9XbjS9I

Croll, V. (2021). 'It's a fetish': Why Australians are obsessed by what happens in prison. News.com.au.16 August. https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/its-a-fetish-why-australians-are-obsessed-by-what-happens-in-prison/news-story/1e8ef19354212c3c3ceb0b91ff9575a9

ABC News, (2021).How the case of Sydney businesswoman Melissa Caddick has captivated the public and baffled police by Bellinda Kontominas, Kevin Nguyen and Gavin Cootehttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-02/why-the-melissa-caddick-case-has-captivated-nsw/132037642 March 2021

Gair, K. (2021, Feb 22). Amateur sleuth livestreams Melissa Caddick hearing. The Australian (Online)

Radio New Zealand, Lately Book Club with Karyn Hay, Crime books and the colour green,https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/lately/audio/2018737849/lately-book-club-crime-books-and-the-colour-greenMarch 2020

ABC Radio National, RN Drive, Interview with Jonathan Green, How does electronic monitoring work?https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/how-does-electronic-monitoring-work/111830785 June 2019

The Wire / 2SER Interview with Max Tillman, NSW Prisons Bursting at the Seams,http://thewire.org.au/story/nsw-prisons-bursting-at-the-seams/, 28 May 2019

ABC Radio National, The Law Report with Damien Carrick, ‘Pixelated Prisoners: Having your day in court via audio visual link’, 6 November 2018

ABC Radio National, The People vs with Josh Szeps,The People vs Prisons , 16 September 2018

The Wire / 2SERInterview with Daniel Sleiman,Is Orange the New Black?,5 February 2018

John Stewart, 3 August 2017

ABC Radio, interviewed by Melanie Pearce regarding changes to NSW prison cell size, 11 October 2016.

Video links in court creating distance between prisoners and lawyers > 20 September 2016 ABC (702 Sydney, Broken Hill, Mid North Coast, Central West NSW, South East NSW) Staff Member: Carolyn McKay

ABC (702 Sydney, Broken Hill, Mid North Coast, Central West NSW, South East NSW) interviewed PhD candidate Carolyn McKay from Sydney Law School about her research that found the increased reliance on video links in NSW courts has put prisoners at a distance from their lawyers.

Sydney Morning Herald, ‘'You’re just a face on a screen really’: The huge technology changes in NSW courts’, Rachel Olding, 19 September 2016.

ABC, ‘Court video links feared to reduce prisoners to ‘just a face on the screen’’, Sydney University study finds, Gavin Coote, 19 September 2016.

Business Insider, ‘A love of courtroom video links is creating fairness issues in NSW’, Chris Pash, 19 September 2016.

University of Sydney, ‘Rising use of prison video links limit lawyer-client access’, Luke O’Neill, 19 September 2016.

Sydney Morning Herald, 2SER FM, WA Today, regarding ‘Doing Time’ visual art exhibition hosted by the Sydney Institute of Criminology and Sydney University Union at Verge Gallery, 27 July 2015.

Newcastle Herald, ‘Bodies make their mark’, Mike Scanlon, 18 October 2014 regarding tattoo designs of Hunter Valley convicts.

The Conversation, 'Higher quality court videolinks will improve justice outcomes: study', 3 July 2013. http://theconversation.com/higher-quality-court-videolinks-will-improve-justice-outcomes-study-15453.

Related research articles

next slide
previous slide