Book Reviews: Crime, Desire and Law’s Unconscious: Law, Literature and Culture
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663915575630d |
| Author | Alexa Dodge |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Social & Legal Studies 24(2)
criminal justice system’, as in order to be the dominant legal system the Anglo-
Australian law must subordinate other legal systems including indigenous laws (p.
192). Instead, Anthony calls for a reimagining of justice processes. Following Cunneen
(2011: 314–315), Anthony concludes that a discussion about sovereignty, power and
authority needs to take place so that there can be a ‘common understanding of how Indi-
genous laws and practices [may] offset the universalising endeavour of non-Indigenous
institutions’ (p. 209). Such a conversation, she argues, may help to provide the founda-
tion for a legal pluralist order and transform the justice process in Australia so that indi-
genous community justice mechanisms can take a central role. Anthony’s deep and
detailed analysis of sentencing cases involving indigenous people over a long period
of Australian history enables us to see patterns emerge. Her book makes an important
contribution to understanding how the representations of indigenous difference by
judges in sentencing cases may help to maintain the dominant legal order and to continue
the subjugation of indigenous people.
HEATHER DOUGLAS
University of Queensland, Australia
References
Bond C and Jeffries S (2012) Indigeneity and the likelihood of imprisonment in Queensland’s
adult and children’s courts. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 19(2): 169–183.
Cunneen C (2011) Indigeneity, sovereignty and the law: Challenging the processes of criminalisa-
tion. The South Atlantic Quarterly 110(2): 309–327.
Douglas H and Finnane M (2012) Indigenous Crime and Settler Law: White Sovereignty After
Empire. London: Palgrave.
Garland D (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kercher B (1998) Recognition of indigenous legal autonomy in nineteenth century New South
Wales. Indigenous Law Bulletin 4(13): 7–9.
Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (2011) Overcoming indigen-
ous disadvantage. Report, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Weatherburn D (2014) Arresting Incarceration: Pathways out of Indigenous Imprisonment.
Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
DAVID GURNHAM, Crime, Desire and Law’s Unconscious: Law, Literature and Culture. Abingdon,
Oxon: Routledge, 2014, pp. 148, ISBN 9780415516600, £80 (hbk).
In Crime, Desire and Law’s Unconscious: Law, Literature and Culture, David Gurnham
approaches the controversial topic of legal, political and cultural reactions to deviant
forms of sexual desire. In this context, Gurnham discusses a wide variety of divisive
topics,...
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