Rate My Professor Xanthe Mallett

Associate Professor Xanthe Mallett is a forensic anthropologist and criminologist in the School of Law and Justice at the University of Newcastle. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sheffield in 2008, focusing on the development of an improved method of facial identification from CCTV images, for which she received a joint scholarship from the university and the FBI. She also holds a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in biological anthropology, researching skull measurements and facial adaptations to extreme environments, and a Bachelor of Science in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bradford, emphasizing human evolution and bone analysis.

Mallett began lecturing in Criminology at the University of Newcastle in early 2017, progressing to Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Bachelor of Criminology programs. Prior roles include Senior Lecturer in Forensic Criminology at the University of New England from 2013 to 2017, Lecturer there from 2012 to 2013, and Lecturer in Forensic Human Identification at the University of Dundee from 2008 to 2012, where she worked under Professor Dame Sue Black. She consults for Australian police forces on human identification, provides forensic DNA services for facial composites, and collaborates with projects such as the Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative and Not Guilty: The Sydney Exoneration Project. Her research spans forensic anthropology, human craniofacial biometrics, online child sex abuse hand identification, bias in legal proceedings, miscarriages of justice, human decomposition in Australia, DNA phenotyping, expert witness efficacy, and gender-based bias in criminal justice. Key publications include books Reasonable Doubt (2020), Cold Case Investigations (2019), and Mothers Who Murder (2014); co-edited Advances in Forensic Human Identification (2014); chapters in Disaster Victim Identification (2011); and articles such as 'Using ground penetrating radar and resistivity methods to locate unmarked graves' (2021). Awards include the Faculty of Education and Arts Award for Mid-Career Research Excellence (2017) and a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2025).