Prof Deon Erasmus is the former Head of the Department of Criminal and Procedural Law at the Faculty of Law, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth. He is currently a professor in the Department and the programme co-ordinator of a LLM Coursework degree in Criminal Justice and manages law enforcement programmes within the Faculty. Prof Erasmus obtained the degrees B Juris (cum laude) LLB (cum laude) from the former University of Port Elizabeth. He was awarded a Doctorate of Law by the University of the Free State in 1999. During his military service he served as a Military Law Officer and joined the Department of Justice where he served as a prosecutor, control prosecutor, regional court prosecutor and state advocate in the High Court. He is an admitted attorney of the High Court and regularly takes on criminal law briefs in the High Court.
He joined Vista University in 1991 and thereafter joined the Faculty of Law at NMU in 2008. He lectures in criminal law, criminal procedure and legal practice. Prof Erasmus delivered 28 papers at national and international conferences and published 23 articles in peer reviewed journals. He teaches yearly at an international summer school on ‘Law, Crime and Psychology’ in Prague, Czech Republic and lectured at the University of Maribor, Slovenia at a summer school on cyber law in 2022. His current research areas include the protection of vulnerable groups in the criminal justice system, anti-corruption measures and the prevention of cybercrime. He also presents training courses to local government institutions pertaining to the prevention of corruption and organized crime. He has recently been appointed as a co-director of the ACCP.