• Professor of Social Work, Monash University

Professor Rosemary Sheehan was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2014 for her significant contribution to child welfare and the law. In 2021 She was elected as a Fellow to the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia in recognition of her research prominence. She is a Member of the Australian Research Council's College of Experts.

Her published research covers a range of areas: child welfare and the law, family violence, mental health, judicial and corrections responses to offenders, with particular reference to women offenders, and social work curricula.

Her most recent books are: Sheehan, R. and Baidawi, S. (2019). Cross-over kids': children and young people in the youth justice and child protection systems. Routledge, UK; Sheehan, R. and Trotter C. (2018) Women's Transitions from Prison: The Post-Release Experience. London: Taylor and Francis.; Sheehan, R. (ed.) (2018) 'Mental Illness in Children', Special edition, Brain Sciences. Basel: MDPI AG; Sheehan, R. and Ogloff, J. (2015) Working within the Forensic Paradigm: Cross-discipline approaches for policy and practice, London: Routledge.

Her studies of Australia's Children's Courts are the first studies of their kind to examine the work of judges in the Children's Court and the factors that influence judicial decision-making in child maltreatment cases. Professor Sheehan has 17 years' experience conducting alternative dispute resolution conferences at the Children's Court, Victoria. She has held memberships of Victoria's Child Death review Committee and Victoria's Women's Corrections Consultative Committee.

Her current research projects include: child protection and legal responses to cumulative harm in children (DHHS, Victoria); the cross-over between youth offending and child protection in children and young people before the Children's Court; establish a mechanism for external review of child protection decision making; reviewing the age of criminal responsibility of children.

Professor Rosemary Sheehan was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2014 for her significant contribution to child welfare and the law.

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