Professor Daryl Higgins is Director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies at Australian Catholic University.

His research focuses on public health approaches to protecting children and child-safe organisational strategies.

He is a registered psychologist.

For 30 years, Prof Higgins has been researching child abuse prevalence and impacts, public health approaches to prevention, child protection and out-of-home care systems, family law, family violence, family wellbeing, and past adoption practices.

Throughout his career he has published numerous articles, papers and reports that have made a significant impact on policy related to child maltreatment, both in Australia and internationally.

Before joining ACU, Prof Higgins was the Deputy Director (Research) at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, where he had responsibility for the research program, knowledge translation and exchange functions focusing on issues affecting families in Australia.

Prof Higgins has contributed to over 300 publications (including 85+ peer-review journal articles) and more than 600 presentations and media engagements.

His work has a citation rate of 90% with a significantly high impact on policy development in child maltreatment.

He is one of the Chief Investigators in a National Health and Medical Research Council, Project Grant (APP1158750), 2019-2023 (funded amount: $2,311,217.00) to conduct the first national study of child abuse and neglect in Australia: prevalence, health outcomes, and burden of disease.

The team of international investigators is led by Queensland University of Technology.