Ms Gina Horch

Gina has over 22 years of law enforcement experience in Germany and Western Australia. She has dedicated her career to serving the community and survivors of child abuse which was recognised by the Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and was awarded the Western Australian Police Officer of the Year Award in 2017 for her dedication to child abuse investigations in the Pilbara. In 2021, Gina graduated with First Class Honours in Psychology and her thesis focused on ‘Targeted treatment response for children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours: Caregiver and practitioner experiences and perceptions’. Since joining the Australian Centre for Child Protection as a Research Assistant in 2022, Gina applies her research skills across a range of collaborative child protection projects including the development of the ‘National Minimum Practice Standards: Specialist and Community Support Services Responding to Child Sexual Abuse’; a review of the Western Australian ‘Mandatory Reporting Guidelines’; assisting with exploring the ‘Effect of Multi-Disciplinary Team Deliberation on Perceptions of Risk in Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect’; a literature review for the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Centre to support procurement of a medical service to meet the needs of children presenting to the Child Advocacy Centre; and a multi-staged research project ‘Responding to Harmful Sexual Behaviour in Out-of-Home Care settings’.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Arts Psychology (Honours) Edith Cowan University

• Bachelor of Arts Psychology Edith Cowan University