Category Archives: Journal articles

Bridget Harris: ANZSOC New Scholar Prize 2019

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Congratulations to QUT C4J member, Dr Bridget Harris, on her recent award of ANZSOC New Scholar Prize for 2019.  The New Scholar Prize is given each year for the best publication in criminology (or a related area) written by a member of the Society who qualifies as an early career researcher.

The article, co-authored with Delanie Woodlock , was published in British Journal of Criminology and  is titled, “Digital Coercive Control: Insights From Two Landmark Domestic Violence Studies”.  The authors present their recent studies on harmful and invasive behaviours enacted through technology.  Bridget applies her research focus of domestic and family violence (DFV) and spatiality, and the unique ‘spaceless’ features of technology-facilitated DFV.

The full article is available through open access and can be found here.

Congratulations to Bridget on a very successful year pioneering and further developing research into this very important area, both in Australia and internationally.  A well deserved award.

 

 

New Publication: Criminologies of the Global South

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‘Criminologies of the Global South’ authored by six scholars from across four continents and six countries, namely:

Kerry Carrington, Bill Dixon, David Fonseca, David Rodríguez Goyes. Jianhong Liu and Diego Zysman, has been published in Critical Criminology (2019) DOI 10.1007/s10612-019-09450-y

Abstract:
This article attempts an ambitious undertaking by scholars collaborating from far flung parts of the globe to redefine the geographic and conceptual limits of critical criminology. We attempt to scope, albeit briefly, the various contributions to criminology (not all of it critical) from Argentina, Asia, Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa. Our aim is not to criticize the significant contributions to critical criminology by scholars from the Global North, but to southernize critical criminology—to extend its gaze and horizons beyond the North Atlantic world. The decolonization, democratization and globalization of knowledge is a profoundly important project in an unequal and divided world where knowledge systems have been dominated by Anglophone countries of the Global North (Ball 2019; Connell 2007). Southernizing fields of knowledge represents an important step in the journey toward cognitive justice as imagined by de Sousa Santos (2014). While we can make only a very small contribution from a selected number of countries from the Global South, it is our hope that others may be inspired to join the journey, fill in the gaps, and bridge global divides.

The article is available as ‘Online First’:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10612-019-09450-y
through Springer Link. If you have difficulty accessing please email Kerry.carrington@qut.edu.au 

Essay-“Ordinary People”-Dr Dean Biron

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School of Justice affiliated academic Dr Dean Biron has published an essay titled “Ordinary People,” which appears in the Autumn 2019 edition of Meanjin Quarterly.

“Ordinary People” is a quasi-memoir piece reflecting upon the author’s experience of dealing with historical sexual abuse investigations while working as a detective in the Queensland Police Service between 1998 and 2004. The essay considers the impediments to justice faced by abuse victims and concludes by suggesting that their extraordinary courage can help provide a paradigm for broader social reform in Australia.

Dean’s previous writing has appeared in such publications as Child Abuse & Neglect, The Journal of Family Violence, Overland, Children Australia, Metro Magazine, Thesis Eleven, Rock Music Studies and Portal: the Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. His contribution to Meanjin’s “What I’m Reading” blog series will appear in April.

Dean is currently teaching in QUT Justice undergraduate subjects ‘Deviance’ and ‘Policing in Context’.  A full copy of the essay can be found here – https://meanjin.com.au/current-edition/

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: ‘A lightbulb moment’: Using the theory of planned behaviour to explore the challenges and opportunities for early engagement of Australian men who use violence in their relationships

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CJRC member, Dr. Michael Flood has recently published an article in Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

 Forsdike, K., Tarzia, L., Flood, M., Vlais, R., and Hegarty, K. “‘A lightbulb moment’: Using the theory of planned behaviour to explore the challenges and opportunities for early engagement of Australian men who use violence in their relationships.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, (2018). DOI: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886260518780778

 Abstract: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common complex social and public health problem. Interventions for IPV male perpetrators are an essential component of an early and effective response. Yet little is known about how to engage men in interventions for help-seeking. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), we explored men’s perceptions of seeking help for an unhealthy relationship and how they could be supported to recognize their behavior and undertake change at an early stage. We recruited 23 men who were currently attending a men’s behavior change program in Australia to take part in focus groups. These were recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. The TPB concepts of behavioral beliefs, perceived control, and subjective norms were found throughout the data. Behavioral beliefs covered four subthemes: self-awareness, self-reflection and agency, the influence of others to change, and needing the right message in the right place. Perceived control was connected to these men’s understandings of what it means to be a man. Subjective norms were rarely raised, but there was some indication that men’s perceptions of societal norms about men as violent influenced a perceived lack of agency to change behavior. Our findings highlight the complexity of, and challenges in, engaging men who may use violence before they reach crisis point and justice intervenes. Despite this, participating men could find acceptable an appropriately developed and easy-to-access intervention that enhances recognition of behaviors and provides links to supports. Health professionals or researchers developing early interventions targeting these men need to take the engagement challenges into account.

 

Publication: (Mis)Understanding the Impact of Online Fraud: Implications for Victim Assistance Schemes

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Crime and Justice Research Centre member Dr Cassandra Cross has published a new article in the journal Victims and Offenders, which argues for reform of victim assistance schemes across Australia.

(Mis)Understanding the Impact of Online Fraud: Implications for Victim Assistance Schemes

Australia provides victims of violent crime access to financial support to assist with recovery, excluding victims of nonviolent offences. The author examines the experiences of online fraud victims, and details how the impacts experienced extend beyond financial losses, to include deterioration in health and well-being, relationship breakdown, homelessness, and unemployment, and in the worst cases, suicidal ideation. Using online fraud as a case study, the author argues eligibility to access victim assistance schemes should consider harms suffered rather than the offence experienced. Consequently, the author advocates a shift in eligibility criteria of victim assistance schemes to facilitate much-needed support to online fraud victims.

The full article can be accessed here.

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

 

 

New Publication – Understanding Romance Fraud: Insights from Domestic Violence Literature

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 Cassandra Cross, Molly Dragiewicz and Kelly Richards have recently had an article published in the British Journal of Criminology. The article is the first to examine romance fraud from within the framework of psychological abuse, as established in domestic violence research.

 Abstract

Romance fraud affects thousands of victims globally, yet few scholars have studied it. The dynamics of relationships between victims and offenders are not well understood, and the effects are rarely discussed. This article adapts the concept of psychological abuse from studies of domestic violence to better understand romance fraud. Using interviews with 21 Australian romance fraud victims, we show how offenders use non-violent tactics to ensure compliance with ongoing demands for money. This article identifies similarities and differences between domestic violence and romance fraud. We argue that thinking through domestic violence and romance fraud together offers potential benefits to both bodies of research.

 The full article can be found here

 

 

Publication: The legal geographies of transnational cyber-prosecutions: Extradition, human rights and forum shifting

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Crime and Justice Research Centre member Dr Monique Mann, along with Deakin University colleagues Dr Ian Warren and Ms Sally Kennedy, recently published ‘The legal geographies of transnational cyber-prosecutions: Extradition, human rights and forum shifting’ in the leading international (Q1) journal Global Crime.

The article describes legal and human rights issues in three cases of transnational online offending involving extradition requests by the United States (US). These cases were selected as all suspects claimed the negative impacts of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) were sufficient to deny extradition on human rights grounds. The authors demonstrate how recent developments in UK and Irish extradition law raise human rights and prosecutorial challenges specific to online offending that are not met by established protections under domestic and internationally sanctioned approaches to extradition, or human rights, law. In these cases, although the allegedly unlawful conduct occurred exclusively online and concurrent jurisdiction enables prosecution at both the source and location of harm, the authors demonstrate why national courts hearing extradition challenges are extremely reluctant to shift the trial forum. They conclude by discussing the implications of the new geographies of online offending for future criminological research and transnational criminal justice.

Keywords: Extradition, computer hacking, legal geography, human rights, autism spectrum disorders, Asperger’s syndrome.

The article can be accessed at this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17440572.2018.1448272?journalCode=fglc20&

Publication: Gender and Age in the Construction of Male Youth in the European Migration “Crisis”

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The following article was recently published by Dr. Helen Berents from QUT School of Justice and member of CJRC, along with colleagues from Monash University and Salvation Army UK.  This article was published in Signs – a leading journal (Q1) for feminist politics.

Abstract:

Displacement is clearly gendered; age also has a strong influence on outcomes and experiences for the displaced, including a significant impact on how they are understood by the public and policy makers. It is important to keep this in mind when considering how children and youth are understood within contexts of conflict and insecurity, how they are affected by these forces, and how they navigate their lives in these contexts, especially in seeking peaceful outcomes. Here we engage with the current so-called European migration crisis as a potential watershed moment in understandings of children and youth as refugees. In particular, we suggest that the public representations of young people in this context can be deeply influenced by stereotypes and assumptions around gender and age that may—intentionally or inadvertently—lead to greater insecurity for people of diverse genders and ages. Likewise, we argue that when considering scholarship, policy, and practice in relation to migration, it is critical to develop and apply a lens that accounts for both gender and age.

A link to the full article can be found here