John L. McMullan is Professor of Sociology and Criminology and a former Department Chairperson and Criminology Graduate Studies Coordinator at Saint Mary's University. Professor McMullan has held previous positions at the University of British Columbia and at Vanier College. He is the author of seven books, five government reports and over fifty academic articles on business crime, historical criminology, criminal organization, criminological theory, law enforcement, social regulation, media, crime and justice, and gambling and social policy. Dr. McMullan is a multiple research award holder and he has served on many university, academic, professional, and government commissions, councils and boards. He is a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia. Professor McMullan has held visiting positions at Cambridge University and The London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom and at Simon Fraser University and Concordia University in Canada.

At present Dr. McMullan is researching the role of public inquiries and corporate disasters and the socio-legal context of new forms of permitted gambling. He just completed a book on the Westray mine disaster entitled News, Truth and Crime: The Westray Disaster and its aftermath, (2005). His most recent research project is on Commercial Advertising, Social Regulation and Adolescent Gambling.