Ben Scott

Thesis: Queering police legitimacy theories : Perceptions of police legitimacy among LGBTQ+ Australians

Biography

Ben Scott is a PhD candidate in criminology at the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre. He commenced his PhD at Monash in 2024, after completing his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Bachelor of Laws (Honours). In 2025, Ben was awarded the Francine V McNiff PhD Scholarship.

Ben has a research background in family violence and policing, approaching both of these fields from a queer perspective. Ben’s research has interrogated the impacts of heteronormative assumptions in these areas of criminology.

In 2023, Ben was awarded the Monash Student Association Faculty of Arts Teaching Excellence Award. As of 2025, he holds positions as an Assistant Lecturer at Monash University, and as the Centre Manager at the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre.

Thesis summary

Ben’s PhD explores how LGBTQIA+ Australians view the police.

This project seeks to make practical and theoretical contributions to the field of police legitimacy research. Practically, this project will offer insights into the relationship between queer Australians and the police. Theoretically, the project will examine whether current police legitimacy theories are well-placed to explain perceptions of legitimacy in a queer context.

Supervisors: Dr Naomi Pfitzner,  Dr Kathryn Benier.