Author Archives: Brigid

Research: Study of Women’s Police Stations in Argentina

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Kerry pictured with Superintendent Mabel Christina Rojas, Ministry of Security, Buenos Aries, Argentina (Photo taken by Dr Diego Zysman, a Senior Researcher on the Project)

Professor Kerry Carrington was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant (2018-2020) to study the prevention of gendered violence. As part of that study she will be studying the preventative impact of Women’s Police Stations in Argentina with Partner Investigator – Professor Máximo Sozzo Universidad Nacional de Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina. Buenos Aries – the Capital of Argentina has 138 Women’s Police Stations that employ over 2300 personnel.

Little is known in the English speaking academy about how societies in the global south have approached the prevention of gendered violence. Brazil was the first country in Latin America to establish women’s only police stations in 1985.  Since then, women’s police stations have been established in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay, and more recently in Sierra Leone, India, Ghana, India, Kosovo, Liberia, the Philippines, South Africa and Uganda. A 2011 United Nations Women evaluation found that women only police stations in Latin America enhanced women’s access to justice and their willingness to report, increased the likelihood of conviction, and enlarged access to a range of other services such as counselling, health, legal, financial and social support. Of those surveyed for the evaluation, 77% in Brazil, 77% in Nicaragua, 64% in Ecuador and 57% in Peru felt that women only police stations had reduced violence against women in their countries (Jubb et al 2010).  Women’s only police stations emerged historically at a time of re-democratisation in Latin America. They were designed to enhance women’s confidence in the criminal justice system, encourage reporting, prevent re-victimization, and send a message to the community that gendered violence was no longer tolerated and men who abuse women will be made accountable.

A more recent study of WPS in Brazil used female homicides as a proxy measure for assessing their effectiveness. They compared 2074 municipalities from 2004 to 2009 and found that ‘women’s police stations appear to be highly effective among young women living in metropolitan areas’ . The  homicide rate dropped by 17 per cent for all women, but for women aged 15-24 in metropolitan areas the reduction was 50 per cent (or 5.57 deaths reduction per 100,000) (Perova and Reynolds 2017: 193-194).

Kerry now has all the approvals necessary to conduct the research and will commence in July this year.

You can listen to a broadcast about the research project aired Friday afternoon 27 April 2018 on the Multicultural Show – Community Radio Interview 4EB  by clicking the link below.

http://www.4eb.org.au/node/41839

Event: Defending Truth Internet Freedom Hack

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Crime and Justice Research Centre member Dr Monique Mann is speaking at the ‘Defending Truth Internet Freedom Hack’ to be held this weekend (20-22nd of April) across both Brisbane and Melbourne.

The Internet Freedom Hack is a community event that brings technologists with a passion for digital rights together for a weekend to build things that advance the cause of internet freedom.

Dr Mann will be in conversation with Lauri Love about all the terrible things that governments around the world are doing for internet freedom and privacy, with a focus on the ridiculous #waronmaths in Australia and across the Five Eyes alliance more broadly. They will talk through the options of what we can realistically do about it as scholactivists and hacktivists, and drawing from Love’s recent success fighting extradition and 99 years in a US prison, how to fight back against internet apathy, privacy nihilism and the government.

Lauri Love’s extradition case was one of the cases examined in Dr Mann’s recent co-authored article with Dr Ian Warren and Ms Sally Kennedy on ‘The legal geographies of transnational cyber-prosecutions: Extradition, human rights and forum shifting’ published in the leading international (Q1) journal Global Crime.

See attached QUT media release about the event here

You can register to attend the Internet Freedom Hack and the talks here: https://internetfreedomhack.org/

 

 

Event: Cybercrime and Counter Terrorism Panel

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The QUT Justice Society and Women in Technology proudly presents: A Professional Panel on Cyber Crime and Counter Terrorism

These societies, who are both passionate about the intersection of technology and the justice system, have come together to provide students a unique opportunity – to discover how cyber crime and counter terrorism works within and influences our justice system. This evening is a great opportunity to listen to amazing professionals and their career journeys in the field. It’s also a fantastic way to network with the professionals and other students and possibly open up more opportunities for yourself!

So if you’re trying to figure out what field of justice works well for you or if you know that cyber crime and/or counter terrorism is what you want to work in and want some more information or if you’re just really interested in the area, then come along for a lovely and very informative evening with us!

Date: Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Time: 5:45pm for a 6pm start
Location: Z1064 Gibson Room, Z Block, QUT Gardens Point Campus
Who: Students of all degrees are more than welcome

Catering will be provided. Please purchase your FREE tickets to assist with catering and dietary requirements.

To purchase FREE tickets click here

Welcome Michael Chataway, Lecturer, QUT School of Justice

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CJRC welcomes the appointment of Mr Michael Chataway as Lecturer, QUT School of Justice.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Psychological Science, and a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Hons Class 1 from Griffith University. He has recently completed his PhD Dissertation titled: Fear of Crime in Time and Place: Developing and Testing a New Momentary Model of Victimisation Worry. His research focuses on how young people interpret and perceive crime and disorder within their everyday environments.  In addition to his theoretical contributions to the fear of crime literature, Michael is among a handful of researchers in the world currently using mobile apps to collect context-dependent information on fear of crime and victimisation risk.

Michael’s research has been published in national and international journals including the Journal of Environmental Psychology, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, and the Journal of Applied Geography. His mobile app research and projects with colleagues have been featured by ABC Radio – Gold Coast, The Brisbane Times, and the Gold Coast Bulletin.  Michael’s other research interests include: social geography, social and environmental psychology, attitudinal research, and innovative research methods.  His future work aims to integrate these research interests to develop innovative strategies for reducing fear of crime using dynamic mobile sensors.

We welcome Michael to the School, and look forward to his valuable contribution.

 

Research meets art: CJRC member works with photographer selected for National Photographic Portrait Prize

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Crime and Justice Research Member Dr Monique Mann’s research on facial recognition has inspired Anna Sinclair – a photographer based in Sydney – who has been selected as one of 41 finalists in the prestigious National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018, for her work, ‘The Capability’, which brings attention to the creation of the National Facial Biometric Recognition Capability.

Anna discusses the background to her photograph and the inspiration for it:

“Through this work I am trying to bring attention to the creation of The Capability and the risks it poses to the privacy of every Australian that holds a driver’s licence or a passport. Despite what the Federal and state governments have said, the creation of this system that allows government agencies to identify people from a pool of images made up primarily of law-abiding citizens is extraordinary and I find it concerning how little consideration and weight has been given to the privacy implications of it.

Another important aspect of the work is how the creation of a national system of images, combined with facial recognition technology, significantly changes the function of a digital portrait. Portraits have long been objects that both represent and celebrate the uniqueness of individuals, and allow us to reflect on the human experience. With this technology a digital portrait becomes a simple tool by which government agencies can easily identify a person and obtain their biographical information, without their knowledge or consent.

The inspiration for this work came from my research into the broader national security changes that we have seen in the age of counter terrorism, which is feeding into a longer-term project. As part of that research I was in contact with Dr Monique Mann whose work provided a very useful grounding in the use and development of facial recognition technology in Australia. In August 2017, I also attended the Workshop on the Social Implications of National Security co-convened by Dr Mann where the privacy and social impacts of new surveillance technologies, big data and facial recognition technology were discussed and debated by some of the leading experts in the field. It often seems like there are few people watching and getting concerned with the changes that our governments are introducing in the name of national security, so it was really encouraging to be amongst a group of people that are committed to it.”

The National Photographic Portrait Prize is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra until 17 June 2018. The images of all of the finalists can be viewed here: https://nppp.portrait.gov.au/

Dr Monique Mann has recently published a co-authored book on Biometrics, Crime and Security in the Routledge Law, Science and Society Series and as part of her public policy work on this issue has also recently co-authored a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Review of the Identity-matching Services Bill 2018 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2018 that provides the legislative basis for The Capability.

 

 

CJRC Member gives evidence to Parliamentary Inquiry on law enforcement and new technology

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On Thursday the 29th of March Crime and Justice Research Centre member Dr Monique Mann gave oral evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement Inquiry into new information communication technologies and the challenges facing law enforcement.

This evidence was based on Dr Mann’s published works in online surveillance, extraterritorial online policing including darkweb policing, biometrics including facial recognition and her ongoing research on 3D printed firearms, big data and algorithmic policing.

The opening statement that Dr Mann gave focused on her public policy and advocacy work in defending encryption and can be accessed here, with the full written submission available here.

CJRC Seminar Series: Eddie, Smoke and Mirrors – Adjunct Professor Scott Poynting

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Crime and Justice Research Centre Seminar Series with speaker Adjunct Professor Scott Poynting

Topic: Eddie, Smoke and Mirrors

Date: Thursday 12 April 2018
When: 4.00pm – 5.30pm
Venue: C Block, level 4, room C412,
QUT Gardens Point Campus,
2 George Street, Brisbane

Register: by Friday 6 April 2018
by emailing law.research@qut.edu.au.

Abstract:
This paper draws inspiration from Frank Pearce’s insistence, over forty years ago in his Crimes of the Powerful, that ‘It is not possible to explain … systematic continuous [corrupt] behaviour in terms of the “greed” of a few individuals’ and that anti-corruption prosecutions ‘by condemning an infraction as illegal and abnormal serve ‘to dramatise an imaginary social order’. It presents a case study of corruption investigations and proceedings involving ‘disgraced’ former New South Wales upper house ‘numbers man’ of the Labor party, Eddie Obeid, currently serving a prison sentence for wilful misconduct in public office.
While justice will be seen to be done in this case and the process is clearly justifiable, the crimes of Obeid and his cohort are small change compared to large-scale corporate corruption. The Obeid family is not General Electric or Westinghouse. Why, then, the public theatre? What function does it serve? This paper argues that such charades act out the fantasy that the normal workings of capitalism are uncorrupted, and that abnormal aberrations can be rooted out, to the public benefit. The earlier cartels and anti-competitive price-fixing of monopoly capitalism shown by Pearce to be endemic, are now supplemented by newer corporate criminal opportunities under neo-liberalism. In the focus on the lining of private pockets, our view is averted from the larger damage to public wellbeing of privatisation, contracting out of public resources, and depredation of the environment for short-term private profit.

@CrimeJusticeQUT

Adjunct Professor Scott Poynting
Scott Poynting is an adjunct professor in the School of Justice at QUT. He was founding professor in criminology at the University of Auckland (2013-16) and was previously Professor in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is author of 99 journal articles and scholarly chapters, and co-author or co-editor of a dozen books, the most recent of which is Media, Crime and Racism, just published by Palgrave. He co-edited, with David Whyte, the December 2017 special issue of the International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, on ‘Corruption Downunder’.

Workshop: Coercive Control

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  1.  Kate Fitz-Gibbon
  2. Sandra Walklate
  3. Rachel Neil
  4. Refreshments following Coercive Control
  5. Book Launch – CJRC staff

Last week the Crime and Justice Research Centre and School of Justice hosted a workshop on ‘Coercive Control‘.  The purpose of this workshop was to examine the efficacy of the implementation of recent legislation alongside subjecting this concept to further critical interrogation with a view to examining its potential for other jurisdictions.

The workshop panel discussed the concept of Coercive Control from different points of view and applications, giving the audience a well-rounded perspective on the topic.

Speakers included Kate Fitz-Gibbon, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University, and a member of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Research Program. Her research examines family violence, the law of homicide, youth justice and the impact of criminal law reform across Australian and international jurisdictions.

Rachel Neil is the Principal Solicitor of the Women’s Legal Service (WLS). Rachel is passionate about providing vulnerable women with high quality legal support and working towards a future where all women are free from violence.

Sandra Walklate is Eleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology at the University of Liverpool (U.K.), co-joint Chair of Criminology at Monash University and an Adjunct Professor at the QUT School of Justice. She is currently Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Criminology and in July 2018 becomes president elect of the British Criminology Society. She is internationally recognised for her work on criminal victimisation (including terrorism) and gender and violence.

The event proved very popular with approximately 100 registered.

Following the event there was a celebration of books recently published by Crime and Justice Research Centre members since 2016.

 

 

 

Seminar: Critical skills for critical minds: recognizing evidence manipulation in death investigations

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CJRC member, Dr Claire Ferguson, recently spoke at an Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers seminar at QPS Headquarters on the topic of “Critical skills for critical minds:  recognizing evidence manipulation in death investigations”.  This event was held at Queensland Police Headquarters.

Claire spoke about key critical thinking skills in the context of death investigation examples, including the important Leahy/Arnold double murder case in North Queensland.

Claire used this and other examples to examine offenders and scenes that successfully fooled investigators and how and why the critical thinking process failed.  Common problems such as bias, observer effects, metacognitive errors and logical mistakes were considered and discussed with a view to demonstrating the critical thinking skills required for successful investigations and intelligence gathering.

This event was the largest turnout AIPIO have ever had, with 80 guests in attendance.

 

 

 

Publication: The limits of (digital) constitutionalism: Exploring the privacy-security (im)balance in Australia

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Crime and Justice Research Centre members Dr Monique Mann and Dr Angela Daly, along with Justice PhD Candidate Michael Wilson, and QUT Law Associate Professor Nic Suzor recently published ‘The limits of (digital) constitutionalism: Exploring the privacy-security (im)balance in Australia’ in the International Communication Gazette.

 Abstract

This article explores the challenges of digital constitutionalism in practice through a case study examining how concepts of privacy and security have been framed and contested in Australian cyber security and telecommunications policy-making over the last decade. The Australian Government has formally committed to ‘internet freedom’ norms, including privacy, through membership of the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC). Importantly, however, this commitment is non-binding and designed primarily to guide the development of policy by legislators and the executive government. Through this analysis, we seek to understand if, and how, principles of digital constitutionalism have been incorporated at the national level. Our analysis suggests a fundamental challenge for the project of digital constitutionalism in developing and implementing principles that have practical or legally binding impact on domestic telecommunications and cyber security policy. Australia is the only major Western liberal democracy without comprehensive constitutional human rights or a legislated bill of rights at the federal level; this means that the task of ‘balancing’ what are conceived as competing rights is left only to the legislature. Our analysis shows that despite high-level commitments to privacy as per the Freedom Online Coalition, individual rights are routinely discounted against collective rights to security. We conclude by arguing that, at least in Australia, the domestic conditions limit the practical application and enforcement of digital constitutionalism’s norms.

Keywords

Cyber security, digital constitutionalism, human rights, metadata retention, online surveillance, privacy, security, securitization

You can read the full article here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1748048518757141?journalCode=gazb#articleShareContainer