Dioso-Villa, Rachel

Dr. Rachel Dioso-Villa is a socio-legal scholar, criminologist, and visual artist whose interdisciplinary work examines justice, identity, and systemic failure through both research and creative practice. As a Senior Lecturer at Griffith University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a member of the Griffith Criminology Institute and Creative Arts Research Institute, her research focuses on wrongful convictions, forensic science, and the evidentiary processes that shape legal decision-making. Her work—funded by the Australian Research Council and published in leading academic journals—investigates the systemic factors that contribute to wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice, the evaluation of expert testimony, and the pathways to exoneration. Her artistic practice is grounded in visual methodologies that explore resilience, perception, and the ways institutional structures shape lived experiences. She examines the intersections of law, memory, and identity, using mixed media to create layered narratives that challenge conventional representations of justice. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Australia, receiving recognition in art prizes, including a Highly Commended Award in Watercolour at the 2024 Aspects Art Show and the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award. By integrating criminology with artistic inquiry, she engages with questions of representation, evidence, and the visual dimensions of legal truth-making and personal storytelling.
Area(s) of expertise: wrongful convictions, miscarriages of
justice, forensic evidence, law and society, judicial decision-making