Dr Laura Vidal is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences, and Academic Program Director and Liverpool Lead for the Criminology program. Laura's research is multi-disciplinary and draws on her practice experience as a social worker. Laura's work is broadly concerned with the ways systems define and respond to harm, as compared with, the way individuals experience harm and navigate intervention and support. Her work to date has been focused on the contexts of human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices - particularly forced marriage.

As one of Australia’s leading experts in understanding and responding to forced marriage, Laura undertook a prestigious Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship (2016) to develop innovative and best practice solutions to respond to this issue. This project lead to her PhD in Criminology (2023) focused on examining experiences of young women impacted by forced marriage in Australia, which was awarded a Vice-Chancellors Commendation and Faculty of Arts Prize for thesis excellence. This work is drawn on by government and civil society in ongoing law, policy and program responses to forced marriage in Australia, where Laura remains an active contributor to reform. Laura is often sought after to provide commentary to the media in her areas of expertise, for a catalogue of media appearances visit Laura's Flipboard.

Laura comes to academia from a background as a social work practitioner where she spent over 10 years supporting and advocating for women, girls and families experiencing violence. Laura brings this experience to the way she engages in qualitative research: enabling her goal as a researcher to produce empirical evidence which can be readily translated into policy and programmatic outcomes. This experience is also bought into the way she engages in teaching and learning design and student outcomes – privileging lived experience and community perspectives. Laura has developed two subjects within the Bachelor of Criminology at UOW: International Crime and Justice and Victimology, both utilising theory and practice insights and partnerships with community.

Laura maintains membership of the Australian Association of Social Work; and is a member of the Australia New Zealand Society of Criminology and Australian Social Policy Association. She holds a PhD in Criminology (Monash University), Masters in Human Rights Law and Policy (UNSW) and a Bachelor of Social Work (Hons. 1) (UNSW).