https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7196 2026-06-09T18:23:46Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7368 Jeopardising Justice for What? Keeping Sentence Indications in Victoria Flynn, Asher In 2004, the Office of the Victorian Attorney General released the Justice Statement Part I, which outlined a ten-year plan to modernise Victoria’s criminal justice system. A key initiative emerging from this idealistic reform agenda involved a sentence indication scheme for indictable offences, on the basis that it would increase clearance rates; thus in theory, benefiting all parties. In line with the recommendations of a report compiled by the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council (VSAC) in 2007, a pilot sentence indication trial commenced in the County and Supreme Courts, with the sunset clause that it be evaluated after two years and either fully integrated into legislation or abolished (Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic) ss 208–9, s 384). In February 2010, the VSAC released its evaluative report recommending the scheme be maintained in its current form. This paper critically analyses some potential flaws in the arguments of the VSAC report, with a particular focus on the ineffectiveness of the scheme, and its potential to result in unjust outcomes. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7373 Felon Fights: Masculinity, Spectacle and Suffering Tomsen, Stephen Felony Fights is a website and set of DVDs depicting ‘no rules’ combat between male former convicts and a range of opponents. In these, the spectacle of violence serves to obscure the profoundly unequal relations of power that shape their production and viewing appeal. In Felony Fights, embodied marginality and poverty are presented as evidence of the animal brutality and the carceral character of the fighters. This resonates with populist explanations for criminality and male violence, and the punitive sentiments that are linked to law and order thinking about the failure of the penal system to adequately punish and inflict suffering on dangerous criminals. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7375 Discourse of ‘Dysfunction’: Sentencing Narratives and the Construction of Indigenous Offending Jeffries, Samantha; Bond, Christine Using a narrative analysis of judges sentencing remarks in South Australian higher courts, we explore whether broader discourses ‘dysfunction’ ‘disorganisation’, ‘deprivation’ and ‘pathology’ impact understandings of Indigenous offending and subsequent constructions of Indigenous defendants in the sentencing process. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7376 The Integration of Victim Lawyers into the Adversarial Criminal Trial Kirchengast, Tyrone Various common law jurisdictions now allow for the representation of the victim in court in order to further integrate the victim into the criminal justice system. In certain common law jurisdictions, victim lawyers may now represent the interests of the victim during various parts of the criminal trial process, including pre-trial hearings and during sentencing. Such reforms have proven controversial and debate abounds as to the extent such lawyers may jeopardise the state’s control of the prosecution process or otherwise jeopardise a defendant’s right to a fair trial. While it is commonly agreed that various parts of the criminal trial process, including applications for bail, may significantly impact upon the victim and their family, the extent to which the victim ought to contribute to decision-making processes or contest substantive principles of law remains uncertain. This paper examines the extent to which victim lawyers may be usefully integrated into common law proceedings through a comparative analysis of the rise of victim lawyers in the United States and England. Possibilities for the integration of victim lawyers in Australia will be considered in the critical context of the ambit of the adversarial trial and the rights of the accused to a fair trial process. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7363 Organised Crime: A Chaotic Notion Beesley, Julie Borrowed theories and principles from the physical sciences have enabled social scientists and criminologists to analyse well-worn theories and data from a new perspective. One such theory is chaos theory, a subset of the family of complexity theory, and an emerging perspective in postmodern criminology. Chaos theory is the science of non-linear and dynamic systems that appear random due to their complex behaviour, but in essence are deterministic and sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). Chaos theory is best applied to systems that operate at local and global level, and that display signs of both order and disorder. Organised crime may be described as such a system. This paper explores the notion and attempts to analyse organised crime from a new perspective. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7384 ANZCCC Proceedings 2010 Table of Contents Sydney Institute of Criminology ANZCCC: The Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2010, Proceedings Table of Contents 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7372 Organised Abuse and Testimonial Legitimacy Salter, Michael This paper will discuss the relationship between sexual abuse, invalidation and testimonial legitimacy with a particular focus on organised abuse. Using qualitative data drawn from a study of adult survivors of organised abuse, the paper emphasises how strategies of invalidation, disbelief and minimisation are embedded in children’s experiences of organised abuse as well as in the response of others to organised abuse throughout their lifespan. This analysis troubles the distinction between everyday and legalistic notions of credibility and emphasises instead how the denial of testimonial legitimacy to children and women in a range of contexts is underpinned by relations of power that compound the gendered risks and harms of sexual abuse. The findings of this study suggest that the denial of testimonial legitimacy is a serious barrier to the wellbeing and safety of victims of sexual abuse, such as those disclosing organised abuse, whose life histories render them particularly vulnerable to strategies of invalidation. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7369 Offences against the (Moral) Person: HIV Transmission Offences in Australia Houlihan, Annette HIV transmission remains a focus of criminal prosecutions in Australia, with many of these cases appearing before Victorian courts. This paper will specifically explore the Victorian prosecution of Michael Neal, who was sentenced to 18 years gaol in 2009 for HIV-related offences. This was the first Victorian prosecution that used intentional and attempt provisions. Neal was portrayed as an evil, vindictive criminal in television and newspaper reports. His monstrous culpability was compounded by the subtext of bisexuality and hedonism, but also his implied transcendence from heteronormativity to homodeviance. His sexuality was located within various esoteric, depraved and rapacious imaginations, such as sadomasochism, gay orgies and conversion parties. He became a simulacrum of the ‘grim reaper’ of early Australian AIDS campaigns whereby he signified an indeterminate HIV risk for multiple unknown innocents. He was both risky and culpable. This paper will explore the construction of his risky criminal identity within the socio-legal imagination of HIV transmission criminality. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7377 Refugee Women’s Experiences of Violence and Resilience: Early Explorations Pulvirenti, Mariastella; Mason, Gail Refugee experiences of violence are well known and may include violence in the country of origin, in refugee camps, countries of detention and, especially for women and children, in their own families before and after resettlement. The resilience of former refugees to violence has been noted in recent times by a range of agencies. Across Australia, a number of initiatives are in place to deal with experiences of violence in these communities, including policing programs, settlement support services, community support groups and torture and trauma survival services. This paper will report on the preliminary findings of a qualitative project investigating the relationship between refugee women, violence and resilience in the context of resettlement. Focusing on interviews with service providers, the paper will explore how resilience is understood within, and may impact on, service provision. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7370 ‘Damaged Goods’: Riskiness and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Young People’s Interactions with Police Dwyer, Angela For some time now, research has suggested lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people are ‘at-risk’ of victimisation and legally ‘risky’. Relatively few studies have examined how ‘risk factor’ research influences the everyday lives of LGBT young people. This paper reports how the experiences of police by 35 LGBT young people in Brisbane, Queensland reflected discourses about LGBT riskiness and how danger informed their interactions with police in public spaces. The participants specifically note how looking at-risk or looking risky affected their experiences of policing. The paper will conclude with recommendations for improved future policing practice. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7378 Tweeting the News: Criminal Justice Agencies and their Use of Social Networking Sites McGovern, Alyce In recent times we have seen an increase in the willingness of criminal justice agencies to engage with new media technologies and social networking sites, not only as a tool for the investigation of criminal activity, but also as a new way of communicating with the public. Sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are experiencing a growth in their use as communication tools for criminal justice agencies. What is interesting, however, is that different criminal justice agencies are employing these sites in very diverse ways and with distinctive agendas. This paper aims to explore some of the ways in which local and international criminal justice agencies are engaging with new media technologies and social networking sites. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7361 The Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2010 Proceedings: Transitional Justice and Settler States Balint, Jennifer; Evans, Julie Transitional justice has become the dominant international framework for redressing mass harm and historical injustices. However, transitional justice is commonly premised on the notion of a recent point of rupture or change from violence and oppression to a ‘new dawn’, and has therefore been less attuned to accommodating the long-term effects of colonialism. Accordingly, the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples in settler states such as Australia, New Zealand and North America have been considered outside the field. This exploratory paper sketches out some of the perceived benefits of articulating a new conceptual approach, which at once historicises transitional justice and brings the experiences of Indigenous peoples within its purview. Taking an interdisciplinary (criminological, socio-legal and historical) perspective, we consider why notions of transitional justice have not been thought relevant to the circumstances of settler colonialism. We suggest that while the relatively presentist concerns of transitional justice effectively elide the impact of colonialism, its holistic ameliorative framework might nevertheless become relevant to considerations of how just outcomes might be pursued in settler societies. Similarly, in elaborating the significance of colonial pasts per se in shaping contemporary experiences, such interdisciplinary approaches might also help address some of the criticisms emerging in recent literature on transitional justice. We draw here on a larger team-based and cross-sectoral interdisciplinary research project that has been submitted for funding under the Australian Research Council Linkage scheme. It will be the task of the larger project to develop and explore the many issues arising from this discussion, including the need to identify and examine certain conceptual and applied challenges involved in seeking the kind of comprehensive official recognition of past injustices we simply canvass here. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7383 Force Selling: Policing and the Manufacture of Public Confidence? Lee, Murray This paper explores aspects of the ways in which police image work is conducted in NSW. Specifically, it looks at the links between such image work and the project of public confidence building in the police. Based on research interviews with NSW Police public affairs professionals the paper draws out a number of themes articulated by respondents. It also places these themes in a broader context of changing relationships between the police and media. It concludes by suggesting the modern police agencies have little choice but to engage in image work and confidence building but sounds a word of caution about the growing capacity of policing agencies to frame preferred images of crime and policing. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7364 Observations about the History of Critical Criminology in Australia Carrington, Kerry; Hogg, Russell This paper provides some schematic genealogical observations of a rich and varied field of scholarship in Australia loosely badged as critical criminology. Those working in the critical criminology tradition have been centrally concerned with the social construction, variability and contingency of the criminal label and the power effects that flow from state definitions of deviance. The paper selects scholarship being undertaken around four topics—Indigenous criminalisation, feminist concerns about crime, youth crime and the creation of a new class of criminal through border controls—to exemplify the richness and diversity of this current research. We are well aware that it is a somewhat invidious exercise to single out certain bodies of work like this from the broad and diverse inquiries that constitute contemporary critical criminology in Australia. Our selection has been guided in part by the desire to relate salient connections with the historical, geo-spatial, national, political and social context from which critical criminological work in Australia springs. We eschew a certain style of analysis tacitly conducted in terms of the failed or blocked realisation of some general principle (‘full sociality’, social equality, non-patriarchal society) in favour of a wide and open definition of what may count as critical work in criminology. We also consciously refrain from assuming that critical research is qualitative or discursive, and non-critical research quantitative. The paper concludes with some comments about the possibilities for promulgating the criminological imagination. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7362 Domestic Violence: A Research Agenda Bartels, Lorana This paper presents a brief overview of emerging issues in domestic violence research. Specifically, it sets out a research agenda in the context of rural and remote communities; gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) communities; domestic violence amongst the elderly, those with disabilities and in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities; domestic violence and homelessness; the impact on children; and perpetrator programs. This agenda does not purport to be exhaustive; in particular, it focuses on male perpetrators. In addition, the need for more research in relation to family violence in Indigenous communities should not be overlooked (see Bartels 2010). Nonetheless, this paper aims to serve as a point of focus for the criminological community for future research in this context. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7380 Social Networking Sites and Crime: Is Facebook more than just a Place to Procrastinate? Milivojevic, Sanja This paper analyses the most popular social networking website (SNS)2—Facebook—and its engagement with crime. Through media analysis of several Australian and international newspapers and using case studies, the paper investigates the context in which Facebook was recently linked to issues around crime prevention and crime repression. This paper hopes to prompt the debate around a potential role of SNSs in addressing crime, and their impending impact on policy changes. Finally, the paper emphasises the need for such an engagement within a broader context of critical criminology. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7382 Curiosity Killed the M-Cat: an Examination of Illicit Drugs and Media Lancaster, Kari; Hughes, Caitlin; Spicer, Bridget; Matthew-Simmons, Francis; Dillon, Paul Using mainstream media communication theories, this article outlines different mechanisms by which media can impact on public perceptions of drugs and crime. The media can set the agenda and define public interest; frame issues through selection and salience; indirectly shape individual and community attitudes towards risk and norms; and feed into political debate and decision making. We demonstrate how the media can fulfill each of these roles by examining the so-called Miaow Miaow (Mephedrone) legal high ‘epidemic’, as reported in the United Kingdom news media from 2009-2010. In doing so we illustrate that by contributing to hysteria, exerting pressure for policy change and increasing curiosity in drug use, the media can have a potentially powerful impact on demand for drugs and public perceptions of illicit drugs and drugs policy. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7379 ‘This is Africa’: Filmic Negotiations of Crime, Justice and Global Responsibility Duncanson, Kirsty; McMillan, Nesam Film is a significant medium through which Western audiences learn about crime and suffering occurring beyond their national borders. On this basis, this article critically reflects on the ‘knowledge’ of criminal violence in contemporary Africa provided by two recent films, Blood Diamond (2006) and Sometimes in April (2005). We argue that the films offer notably divergent understandings of the nature of violent conflict in post-colonial Africa, and of who is capable of bearing the responsibility to address its causes and legacy. While Blood Diamond adopts a conventional colonial narrative in which Africa, through the example of Sierra Leone, is portrayed as a place of disorder ultimately requiring the intervention of the West, Sometimes in April offers an alternative image of a more autonomous African nation, able to actively negotiate the challenges of the post-conflict and post-colonial environment. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7374 Securing Nightlife: Media Representations of Public and Private Policing Wadds, Phillip There is ongoing ambivalence concerning door staff and crowd controllers in the night-time economy (NTE). Expanded private security is often acknowledged as a legitimate solution to the fear people experience in relation to urban night leisure. Yet there is significant official, media and public concern regarding the lack of regulation and governance over an industry still grounded in masculine aggression and with a long history of criminal association. Australian public and media concerns about ‘bouncers’ have grown dramatically in line with the expansion of night leisure, peaking after episodes such as the violent death of former cricketer David Hookes in 2004. This paper draws on the results of a fifteen-year archival search of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and other major Australian newspapers to analyse concerns regarding private security in a society that is increasingly anxious and sensitised to the risks associated with the city after dark. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7367 The Subject in Peril Doyle, Kylie What follows is an introduction to my forthcoming doctoral research regarding the portrayal of the subject and object of fear in road safety public education campaigns. The objective of this particular paper is to situate my doctoral research into current fear of crime theory. The paper aims to examine fear of crime beyond the heuristics of victimhood and asserts that the fearful subject’s perceived consequences of crime are also a significant consideration for the feared subject and their governance and regulation. The paper argues that the fear of crime features in road safety public education campaigns as a technology to discipline an unpredictable subject. The paper raises some significant questions relating to the exercise of this disciplinary power, which will form the basis of my doctoral research. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7366 The Law of the Ruler? Cowdery, Nicholas The title of this article arises out of the misunderstanding that so long as there is a law, so long as the ruler (even a democratic one) has made valid law, then the rule of law operates. The question mark is intended to prompt consideration of whether or not, at least in New South Wales (NSW), the criminal law has truly become the law of the ruler—without proper consideration of the requirements of the just rule of law, the separation of powers in our democratic system of government, the independence of the judiciary and the protection of human rights. I would like to make some observations on those requirements drawn from my own experience. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7381 (Re)Gendering Violence: Men, Masculinities and Violence Seymour, Kate This paper focuses on constructions of violence, in particular the ways in which violence is constructed as a social problem in and through policy discourses. Inspired by an earlier study into the ways in which practitioners, engaged in work with men who are violent towards their female partners, construct and understand violence, this paper highlights the extent to which societal/cultural beliefs regarding gender and violence are embedded at the levels of policy, ‘expert’ knowledge(s), and practices. Illustrating the exercise of (gendered) power through knowledge in shaping Australian government/agency responses and initiatives, it is argued that this has critical implications for the ways in which ‘gender(ed) violence’ is conceptualised, named and addressed. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7371 The Utopian Nightmare: Key Issues about Lesbian Domestic Violence according to Brisbane Domestic Violence Services Hotten, Justine This research documents what Brisbane domestic violence (DV) service providers consider to be key issues about lesbian domestic violence (LDV). Interviews sought to determine if, from service providers’ perspectives, appropriate measures were in place to assist victims and perpetrators of LDV. Results suggest issues specific to LDV complicate DV service provision and responses to this violence could be inadequate. Participants acknowledged DV service providers and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities must work together to address key issues of LDV and appropriate training is required to enable lesbian victims and perpetrators to seek support for abusive relationships. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7365 Made to Order: A Preliminary Review of Crime Risk Assessments in New South Wales, Australia Clancey, Garner In 2001, guidelines were introduced in New South Wales (NSW) to ensure that proposed developments/redevelopments of the built environment reflected key crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) principles. The guidelines state that in certain circumstances a crime risk assessment report is required on the proposed development. To date, these guidelines have not been evaluated, making it impossible to assess their impact and the utility of the associated crime risk assessment reports. Partially to address this gap, a small number (four) of publicly available crime risk assessment reports have been reviewed and key issues highlighted here. In particular, the relevance of some aspects of these reports is questioned, as is the impact of the relationship between the client (i.e. developer) commissioning the report and the ‘independent’ consultant. The small sample of risk assessment reports reviewed here cannot be considered representative of the larger body of such reports. Further research is required to determine the veracity of the findings of this small review. 2011-05-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/7286 The Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2010 Program and Abstracts Institute of Criminology In 2010 the Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference was hosted by the Institute of Criminology, University of Sydney in association with the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydney. The conference in 2010 continued to foster dialogue beyond the traditional boundaries of the discipline of criminology and promote the ground-breaking research of critical criminologists from Australia and New Zealand. Documents included in this entry include the conference program amd abstracts. 2011-05-03T00:00:00Z