Category Archives: News

Formation of a national Engaging Men Alliance

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 Organisations and networks around Australia are involved in work to engage men in building gender equality, across such fields as violence prevention, men’s health, and parenting. CJSDRC Member Associate Professor Michael Flood from the School of Justice was part of a recent meeting in Melbourne intended to bring this work together under a national Engaging Men Alliance. This new body will contribute to policy advocacy, the development of best practice in ‘men’s work’, and community awareness-raising. Dr Flood was invited because of his longstanding research and advocacy work on men, gender, and violence. Organisations and networks represented at the meeting included White Ribbon Australia, Domestic Violence Victoria, Male Champions of Change, No To Violence, Survivors And Mates Support Network (SAMSN), Communicare, and the Department of Social Services. Participants in the meeting affirmed that the Engaging Men Alliance will be attentive to gender inequalities, to intersecting forms of social injustice, and to both privilege and disadvantage in men’s lives.

 

ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme

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Crime Justice and Social Democracy Research Members Drs Erin O’Brien, Helen Berents and Monique Mann have been selected for the ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme at the University of Melbourne. This scheme is fully funded by the Australian Research Council and is a part of Professor Joy Damousi’s ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship. The scheme targets outstanding early career female researchers to complete an intensive mentoring programme with a focus on research leadership and enhancing career progression.

Further information about the scheme can be found here.

Congratulations to Dr Papazian

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Congratulations to School of Justice PhD graduate Dr Natasha Papazian. Her thesis Transgender domestic violence: An analysis of the transgender community and service provision in Queensland examines domestic violence from the perspectives of transgender people and LGBT-friendly service providers. Associate Professor Molly Dragiewicz and Associate Professor Matthew Ball supervised the project.

Read more

Recently published: Technology facilitated coercive control: Domestic violence and the competing roles of digital media platforms

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Molly Dragiewicz, Jean Burgess, Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Michael Salter, Nicolas P. Suzor, Delanie Woodlock & Bridget Harris recently published Technology facilitated coercive control: Domestic violence and the competing roles of digital media platforms. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 609–625. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1447341

This article is part of a special issue of Feminist Media Studies on Online Misogyny, edited by Debbie Ging and Eugenia Siapera. Read more

Publication: Police perceptions of prejudice: how police awareness training influences the capacity of police to assess prejudiced motivated crime

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CJRC member, Dr Toby Miles-Johnson has recently published an article in the journal Policing and Society, Volume 28, Issue 6, August 2018.  This is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

ABSTRACT

Prejudice motivated crime (PMC) is defined as crimes motivated by bias, prejudice or hatred towards members of particular groups, communities and individuals. To understand how police awareness training facilitates or constrains the capacity of police officers to appropriately classify and respond to PMC, data were collected from a population of Police Recruits (PRs) and Protective Service Officers (PSOs) (N = 1609) to ascertain their perceptions of PMC pre- and post-PMC awareness training. These were used in a logistic regression model to identify factors explaining whether PRs and PSOs would identify a vignette/scenario as a PMC. We found PRs and PSOs were more likely to correctly identify a PMC scenario than a control scenario, but only 61% as likely to identify an incident as PMC post-PMC awareness training after accounting for other variables. We argue that awareness training programmes need to be more aligned to the specific needs of policing in diverse societies.

The full article can be found here:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2016.1206099

 

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. The Buenos Aries province 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/41

Recently published: Resistance and backlash to gender equality: An evidence review

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Crime and Justice Research Centre members Associate Professor Michael Flood and Associate Professor Molly Dragiewicz and Deakin University Honorary Professor Bob Pease recently published Resistance and backlash to gender equality: An evidence review Read more

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.