Journal of Criminology (formerly Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology)

Publisher:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:
2021-08-12
ISBN:
0004-8658

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Performing ignorance of state violence in Aotearoa New Zealand

    In 2019, the New Zealand government established a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care to investigate the abuse and neglect of children, young people and vulnerable adults in Aotearoa/New Zealand between 1950 and 1999. The public hearings, witness statements and interim reports have charted horrific violence by state and faith-based workers including torture, sexual assaults, serious physical violence, and layers of neglect and discrimination. Māori have been especially targeted as victims of abuse and harms. This article considers the multiple layers of ignorance-making from state representatives. It shows how state agencies have navigated Commission hearings through 10 strategies that demonstrate some acknowledgement of their offending and trauma-making while simultaneously minimising their responsibility and resecuring their institutional legitimacy as protectors of the vulnerable and saviours of Te Tiriti (the Treaty of Waitangi), ethics and integrity. This careful performance stands at odds with the ongoing layers of violence and harms in state care.

  • Kids, courts and canines: Evaluating the Justice Facility Dog Program through a therapeutic lens in the Perth Children's Court

    Court environments can be stressful and induce anxiety in victims, witnesses, and other court users. Taking heed from justice facilities in other jurisdictions, the Children's Court of Western Australia introduced Winston, a justice facility dog, at the Perth Children's Court facility to help reduce the stress and anxiety of victims, witnesses, and court users. This article presents survey (n = 55) and interview data (n = 17) from staff and stakeholders who reported positive changes in the court atmosphere, with limited negative impacts on the running of the court. Surveys were also conducted with child victims/survivors (n = 13), caregivers (n = 44), and other court users (including accused young people; n = 23). Children and caregivers’ results indicated significantly reduced stress and anxiety levels associated with attending the Children's Court after interacting with the facility dog. When analysed through a lens of therapeutic jurisprudence, the positive impacts on court-user well-being and limited impact on the court and legal processes solidified the therapeutic principles of the program. The findings of this study highlight that justice systems could implement similar positive therapeutic programs at other courts to reduce negative impacts on people attending and working at the facilities.

  • Approaches for supporting youth dually involved in child protection and youth justice systems: An international policy analysis

    The high representation of children involved across both child protection and youth justice systems remains a pressing concern. Contributing factors include unnecessary police intervention for behavioural difficulties in residential care, and deficient systems integration particularly between child protection and youth justice. Policy reforms in the past 15–20 years have aimed to prevent and address this concern across jurisdictions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The study offers an updated review and analysis of these policies, targeting researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field. Examination of selected available policies identified four main strategies utilised: joint practice protocols, policies aimed at reducing the criminalisation of children in out-of-home care, crossover court lists, and specialised practice models like the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM). There is promising evidence for some approaches, notably the CYPM, however, most suffer from a lack of implementation and outcomes evaluation, insufficient diversity considerations, and minimal inclusion of lived experience in design and implementation. Findings suggest future policy reforms should prioritise the development of whole-of-government strategies, involve children's perspectives, emphasise prevention, restorative and diversionary responses, multi-agency collaboration, ongoing support for implementation, and rigorous evaluation.

  • Book Review: Literacy in the lives of working-class adults in Australia: Dominant versus local voices by Stephen Black
  • Parolee concentration, parolee embeddedness, and the reciprocal relationship with crime rates: A longitudinal study of neighbourhoods and re-entry

    Drawing on recent scholarship on mass incarceration and prisoner re-entry, this study examines the reciprocal relationship between returning parolees and neighbourhood crime rates in five large cities in Texas. Besides the more common approach of counting the number of people on parole in communities (parolee concentration), we propose a novel approach for measuring people on parole by capturing their exposure in the community as parolee embeddedness (i.e., the cumulative number of days that people on parole resided in the neighbourhood). Results show that parolee concentration has a significant positive effect on both violent and property crime, but parolee embeddedness is significantly associated with reductions in violent and property crime. Our findings detect different effects depending on the measurement of people on parole and their community context, illustrating the need to better understand the dynamics of parolee re-entry in the era of mass incarceration.

  • Exploring the roles played by trust and technology in the online investment fraud victimisation process

    This study provides a novel analysis of the roles played by trusting relationships and technology in enabling online investment fraud victimisation. Two hundred self-report victim testimonies collected from online forums were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The themes that emerged described personal factors that may have increased victimisation risks, how victims perceived their relationship with the scammer and the nature of the scam. The findings suggested the applicability of several existing theories of trust building and technology use to understand the phenomenon of online investment fraud victimisation. Trusting relationship creation is seemingly important for building trust in longer-form scams, as well as shorter-form scams, and rich media is used by scammers both to facilitate hyperpersonal relationships and to enhance the legitimacy of both forms of investment fraud. Victims attempted to use technology to protect themselves from scammers, but these strategies fell short owing to a lack of digital literacy or inadequate technical safeguards. Future studies may further analyse the persuasive messaging used to advertise online investment fraud to understand how victims first become aware of a scam. The findings relating to victim self-protection also raised questions regarding the nature of “victimisation” in the context of online investment fraud, suggesting that future research should seek to explore the role played by online guardianship in online investment fraud further.

  • It takes a village: Guarding against sexual abuse in Australian educational settings

    Reporting indicators of child sexual abuse is critical to intervention and prevention. However, guardianship and its mechanisms in educational settings have been empirically neglected. We address this gap by analysing a unique administrative dataset from an Australian jurisdiction that captures alleged improper sexual conduct by school employees against adolescents aged 13–17 years inclusive. We analysed 638 cases reported to an external oversight body in accordance with the New South Wales “reportable conduct” scheme between 2015 and 2019. These cases detailed information about the sources of allegations, including how allegations arose and who brought them forward. Results established school personnel and families as the key reporters and supported young people's potential as capable guardians. Guardianship was highly context-dependent and differed according to event, victim, and perpetrator characteristics. Recommendations for strengthening guardianship in schools are presented, including enabling reporting pathways for students, building contextual awareness through policy dissemination and training, and heeding indirect sources of information like rumours.

  • “Nothing will stop the sluts now”: Analysing women's support for image-based abuse websites on social media

    The abrupt closure of a popular website which hosted image-based abuse in April 2012 triggered a robust social media response. Most posts on Twitter expressed a positive opinion about Is Anyone Up? (IAU) and its “revenge porn” business model. These tweets were not just posted by men, with around one-third of the 2,967 tweets about the website on the day of its closure linked to the profiles of women. This article assesses the 1,030 tweets posted about IAU by identifiably female accounts in the 12 hours after the website shutdown. It assesses the levels of support for image-based abuse among women and compares the nature of this support with responses of Twitter users who are identifiably male, or those whose gender could not be determined. It considers factors such as the impact of online disinhibition on the prevalence of online mockery, especially within pre-existing misogynistic frames observable on social media. It also discusses the perception among women that image-based abuse served as an informal control on sending “nudes” and, on that point, how women were divided as to whether the closure of the site should be treated as a positive or negative development.

  • Practical and ethical challenges in co-producing technology for good in justice settings

    In this article, we reflect critically on the role of digital technology in supporting desistance from crime, and the process and outcomes of co-producing digital resources in that context. Drawing on concepts of social harm, and co-production (or “working-making-doing together”), we consider the risks of digital technology perpetuating coercive aspects of the justice system. We advocate for the conscientious inclusion of people with lived experience of criminalisation in the design, implementation, and evaluation of technology that supports desistance as one way of mitigating such risks. People’s lived experiences can attune them to underlying harms in the design and use of digital tools in the justice system and help safeguard future users of that technology. We also acknowledge the costs, risks, and complexities of this work. For instance, co-production may give permanence to voices and stories of lived experiences with both the power to inspire and promote desistance and the potential to reproduce or reinforce stigma and exclusion. We reflect on such ethical complexities by considering whose needs are served in co-producing technology to support desistance. We conclude by suggesting that the recruitment and promotion of experts by experience within justice organisations can help to create a learning culture where there is a heightened awareness of user experience and potential harms in the design, implementation, and evaluation of justice technology. Please note, this paper provides the authors’ reflections on co-producing technology that supports desistance. It is not intended to set out HMPPS policy on digital rehabilitative services or co-production methods. It is written in conversation with a colleague/interlocutor with lived experience of criminalisation and imprisonment, who remains anonymous here for various reasons and to whom the article is dedicated.

  • The future of prison visits? An autoethnographic perspective on the developments of the digitisation of prison visits during COVID-19

    This article explores the current status, evolution, and envisaged future of prison visits, analysing the shift in paradigm from traditional models to an increasingly digital format that demands specific policy amendments and fosters an empathetic approach towards incarceration. The discourse begins with an in-depth examination of the current prison visitation models, delving into the strengths, weaknesses, and potential of both in-person and video visitations. This exploration uncovers the critical shortcomings of in-person visits, such as limited accessibility due to geographical and logistical constraints, and the rising potential of video visits to bridge these gaps. Simultaneously, we highlight the challenges in implementing video visitation systems, focusing on issues such as equitable access to technology, appropriate surveillance, and privacy regulations. It underscores the need for considering both sides of the coin, i.e., the convenience and feasibility of video visits versus the potential risks to the privacy and dignity of incarcerated people and their families. The article then delves into the policy considerations necessary to ensure a smooth transition to video visitations, exploring regulatory and statutory amendments needed to safeguard incarcerated individuals' rights and ensure a more humane prison system. The analysis uncovers a pressing need for a robust framework that not only respects privacy rights and promotes familial ties but also supports an important goal of prisons – effective rehabilitation of incarcerated people. Proposing an idealised future model for prison visits, the discourse presents a hybrid approach that skilfully combines the strengths of both in-person and video connections. This innovative model reimagines the future of prison visits, suggesting a shift from punitive and impersonal methods to empathetic and relationship-focused practices that align with contemporary understandings of rehabilitation.

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