Dr Helen Taylor is a research manager at the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the ANU. She manages and conducts research as part of the Reducing Recidivism Research Collaboration, a partnership between the ACT Government and the CSRM. Dr Taylor also undertakes research on radicalization towards violent extremism, with a particular interest in right wing terrorism and hate crimes. Dr Taylor has extensive experience conducting large-scale systematic reviews relating to radicalisation and terrorism and was the senior research officer on the project, Testing the Reliability, Validity and Equity of Terrorism Risk Assessment Tools funded by the Department of Home Affairs. She also works closely with Dr Emily Corner on externally funded projects examining models of grievance fueled violence and pathways towards violent extremism. She has published on the topics of domestic terrorism and hate crimes; vehicular ramming attacks; resilience among terrorist offenders; mental illness and violent extremism; the experiences of former detainees on re-entry and re-integration to society; family contact with detainees during the COVID-19 pandemic; and legal responses to outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Dr Taylor previously held senior policy positions within the Australian Department of Defence, overseeing multimillion-dollar Defence capability project. Dr Taylor currently runs the CSRM seminar series and previously served as a member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Delegated Ethics Review Committee (DERC) at the ANU in 2019.