TEH Yik Koon received her BA in Law and Sociology, MA in Sociology from University of Kent, Canterbury, and PhD in Sociology (Criminology) from London School of Economics and Political Science. She has served at Universiti Utara Malaysia for over 20 years. Currently she is a professor at the National Defence University of Malaysia teaching courses such as “Non-traditional Security Issues” and “War Crimes, Terrorism and Criminal Behaviour”.
She was a Fulbright Scholar at University of California Los Angeles (2002); participant for the three-week Symposium of East Asia Security organised by US Pacific Command and US State Department (2012); individual expert in Criminology at the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha, Qatar; and Visiting Fellow at Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2015).
Her current focus areas are on crime prevention strategies, fraud and corruption, poverty and marginalised communities. She has led a number of research projects as well as worked with local and international consultants on projects funded locally and internationally. Among these projects are a series of HIV prevention projects with the Ministry of Health and the Malaysian AIDS Council; “National Action Plan for the Empowerment of Single Mothers” with the Malaysian Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, and United Nations Development Program; “HIV/AIDS and Sex Work in Malaysia” with the Federation of Reproductive Health Associations, Malaysia, and United Nations Population Fund; “Gender Identity, and Gender- and Transgender-related Attitudes in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, UK and USA” with University of Hong Kong; ?”Exploring Factors for Future HIV Prevention in Malaysia” with the Public Health Institute (US) and National Institute of Health (US); “An Exploratory Study on the Socio-economic Profile and Issues of Military Families: The Malaysian Army” funded by the Ministry of Higher Education; and studies on the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) and illegal immigrants with the Institute of Public Security of Malaysia, Ministry of Home Affairs.
Her research on transsexuals in Malaysia was published as a book in 2002 as “The Mak Nyahs: Malaysian Male to Female Transsexuals”, which was used as a reference for a few court cases. Her latest book is on “From BMF to 1MDB: A Criminological and Sociological Discussion”, published in 2018.
