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The Australian National University

Ms Natasha Tusikov

PhD Scholar
Crime, Policing, Security and Justice
Phone number: 
+61 2 6125 4493
Building: 
Coombs Extension, #8
Room: 
2.07
Qualifications: 
BA (English Literature), Okanagan University College; MA (English Literature), Queen’s University
Biography: 

Natasha has worked as a strategic criminal intelligence analyst and researcher with Canadian law enforcement. As an analyst for Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC), a national network of law enforcement, governmental and non-governmental bodies focusing on organised crime, she wrote intelligence reports on topics including cybercrime, intellectual property rights crime, money laundering, mortgage fraud and securities fraud. As a researcher for both CISC and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, she focused on developing threat and risk assessment techniques for assessing organised crime networks. She has also worked with law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to develop and evaluate techniques to measure the ‘harms’ (negative consequences) resulting from organised crime. Natasha regularly delivered guest lectures on organised crime, criminal/strategic intelligence, and threat/risk methodology to law classes at Carleton University, the Strategic Intelligence Analysis Course at the Canadian Police College, and to the Canadian Privy Council Office’s Entry-Level Intelligence Analysis Course. She has presented at various academic and law enforcement conferences in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Australia. 

Research interests: 

Private policing; Organized crime; Intellectual property rights crime; Illicit markets; Threat/risk methodology

Thesis topic: 
The governance of high-end private security: Examining the private policing of trademark infringement

Scandals over unethical and criminal behaviour in the private security industry have thrust the debate of how to regulate this industry into the spotlight. Current research primarily focuses on uniformed security guards and private military companies (eg, those protecting foreign embassies in Iraq). Left relatively unstudied are private security companies that conduct ‘high-end’ services, such as corporate investigations. Through a focus on private security companies that investigate trademark infringement (counterfeit goods) on behalf of brand owners like Gucci, this dissertation asks: 1) How is this type of private investigation governed; and 2) what factors inhibit (or facilitate) efforts to incorporate this type of policing within regulatory frameworks? The objective of this research is to determine which governance frameworks—public (state led), private (non-state led), or hybrid (some public-private combination)—are most relevant and effective to regulate the private security industry. Analysis will focus upon private security companies in the United Kingdom (London), the United States (Washington and Los Angeles) and Australia (Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne).

Primary supervisor: 
Scholarship: 
Australian Post-Graduate Award

Updated:  14 January, 2013/Responsible Officer:  Regnet Communications and Outreach Officer/Page Contact:  Rhianna Gallagher