Emma Belton

Dr Emma Belton is an Early Career Researcher, with a strong track record of research in radicalisation and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) demonstrated by a number of academic achievements and collaborations with industry partners. She acted as lead project manager on an ARC funded project responsible for the development of the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in Australia (PIRA) dataset, which collects data on terrorist offenders and individuals who have radicalised to extremism. She has received training in the use and application of the Violent Extremist Risk Assessment (VERA-2R) tool by the Dept of Home Affairs and undertaken a validation study of the VERA-2R instrument. She has also worked with various government and law enforcement agencies to conduct evaluations of custody and community-based CVE programs that target convicted terrorists and vulnerable populations at risk of radicalisation. She holds a PhD in Criminology from the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on characteristics of individual radicalisation and violent extremism in Australia and aims to improve understanding of risk factors associated with violent compared to non-violent extremists.