Adjunct Staff

John Walker

B.Sc.(Econ)

Profile

John Walker’s career began with developing mathematical models for space research, transportation analysis, and regional development. Research on the impacts of crime on patterns of regional development led to fifteen years with the Australian Institute of Criminology, followed by 25+ years as an independent crime trends analyst.

He developed Leontief-type methods of forecasting trends in crime to assist modelling future demand for criminal justice resources. He recognised the neglected importance of addressing the economics of crime, leading to world-first estimates of the costs of crime, the proceeds of crime and the extent of money laundering. The much-referenced Tinbergen-style “Walker Gravity Model” has become the academically-recognised standard for estimating the likely international flows of laundered money.

He has been described as a lateral-thinking pioneer in the application of data analysis and econometric modelling to criminology, with a talent for “blending dodgy data and heroic assumptions, and turning them into something very useful”!

Teaching

Professor Walker previously has taught and conducted research as:

a Visiting fellow at the Australian National University (1991);
a Visiting fellow at the University of Trento (Italy) (2000);
Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, University of Wollongong (2005-2012);
Distinguished Professor (Postgrad Studies) at the Chinese People’s Public Security University, Beijing (2007).

He has also collaborated extensively with researchers at the Universities of Melbourne, Western Sydney, Utrecht (Netherlands), and the Catholic University of Milan (Italy).

Research

Professor Walker’s career has focused on the analysis of crime and justice data, the development of new data sources (e.g. crime victims’ surveys, financial transactions data) and methodologies for estimating emerging threats and forecasting future trends in demand for policing and justice services. He is particularly fascinated by “new” threats, for which no or little previous research has ever been conducted. In the 1990s, the big, unresearched issue was “the costs of crime”; the focus later turned to the proceeds of serious and organised crime and money laundering, and more recently to cybercrime. Having already made significant contributions to the study of costs and laundering, he is looking forward to opportunities to develop new ways of researching cybercrime.

Professional

As CEO of John Walker Crime Trends Analysis, among Professor Walker’s clients have been the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the IMF, the EU and the World Bank as well as a host of Australian and other countries’ law enforcement and justice agencies.

He is a member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.