Dr Rachael Burgin is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Criminology at Swinburne Law School and Chief Executive Officer of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA). She is a leading scholar and advocate working at the intersection of law reform, policy, and practice to improve responses to sexual, domestic and family violence.

Beginning with her doctoral research at Monash University, which examined how affirmative consent operates in rape trials, Dr Burgin’s scholarship exposes the gap between institutional responses and lived experience. Her work has been influential in shaping national conversations on consent law reform, drawing attention to the limits of legislative change in the absence of practice reform across policing, courts, and support systems.

Extending this work into practice, Dr Burgin led a major study of police responses to sexual violence. This research involved analysis of hundreds of police case files to understand the reasons for the high rate of police attrition of sexual offences, alongside interviews with victim-survivors  about their experiences of police responses. The study made recommendations to strengthen police practice and improve victim-survivor experiences and justice system outcomes. 

She is a leading voice on consent law reform, family violence safety and risk assessment, and feminist approaches to justice, and has led numerous funded projects across these areas. Through her research, policy engagement and advocacy, Dr Burgin works to ensure that victim‑survivors are better supported, believed and protected within legal systems.

Her research is widely published in leading criminology and law journals, and she is a committed advocate for evidence-based, survivor-centred reform to prevent violence against women and improve justice responses.