Dr Peter Ashkar is one of Australia’s leading forensic psychologists. He holds Masters Degrees in Forensic Psychology from the University of New South Wales and Clinical Neuropsychology from Macquarie University, and a PhD in Forensic Psychology (examining the causes and correlates of violent and sexual offending behaviour in serious young offenders) from the University of Sydney. He is one of only a few psychologists in the country to hold endorsement as a Forensic Psychologist and Clinical Neuropsychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). He is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), and a Fellow of the APS College of Forensic Psychologists and APS College of Clinical Neuropsychologists. He is endorsed by AHPRA as a supervising psychologist and he is an approved assessor with the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (NSW).
Dr Ashkar began his career with Corrective Services NSW in 2002 and he moved into private forensic practice while completing his PhD studies in the years that followed. He has many years of experience conducting assessments of criminal offenders, writing reports for the courts and tribunals of NSW and Victoria, and providing expert evidence at the interface of criminal law and psychology. He is also one of Australia’s leading experts in the assessment of psychological injury and he has many years of experience conducting medico-legal assessments for WorkCover and other insurance providers in matters of workplace injury, total and permanent disability, and compensation more generally. He is uniquely qualified and experienced to evaluate symptom exaggeration and malingering in cases of brain injury and psychological injury.
Dr Ashkar’s PhD research is published in peer reviewed international journals and he is the recipient of numerous academic prizes and awards. He received the APS College of Forensic Psychologists Maconochie Prize for his PhD research in 2011. He is a reviewer for the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. He is a contributing author to the APS College of Forensic Psychologists Guidelines for the Assessment of Psychological Injury. He is the Director of the Legal Psychology Group Australia.