Dr Gabriel T.W. Wong

Gabriel Wong is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the Australian National University and Convenor of the Bachelor of Criminology program at the Centre for Social Policy Research (POLIS). His research spans crime prevention and crime science, online illicit markets, and policy evaluation, with a strong emphasis on quantitative and mixed-methods approaches. He works with administrative, digital platform, and longitudinal data to examine how crime is facilitated online and how policy and regulatory interventions shape offending and enforcement over time. His research also explores cybercrime, illicit drug markets, and alcohol and other drug policy, including the economic evaluation of crime prevention and justice interventions. His work has been published in leading criminology and social policy journals and is frequently conducted in collaboration with government and community partners. His teaching focuses on criminological research methods, cybercrime, and applied policy-oriented criminology. He is particularly interested in helping students develop strong research design skills, critical engagement with data, and an awareness of the ethical and methodological limits of criminological research.

My research focuses on understanding and preventing crime in digital and illicit market environments, with particular emphasis on how offenders adapt to technological and regulatory changes. My current program of work includes:

• The use of cryptocurrencies (e.g., Monero) in money laundering, examining offender strategies and implications for anti-money laundering policy and regulation;
• The monitoring and analysis of illicit drug markets, particularly through longitudinal and platform-based data to understand pricing, demand, and market dynamics;
• The study of criminal knowledge-sharing on darknet forums, including how offenders exchange techniques, scripts, and innovations;
• The behaviour of online perpetrators in response to evolving social media regulations and platform restrictions.

Across these areas, my work integrates quantitative, computational, and qualitative approaches to generate policy-relevant insights for crime prevention, regulatory design, and law enforcement practice