Justice Collaboration 

Monthly Update 

Edition 11, May 2025

Welcome to the 11th edition of our newsletter!

The University of Sydney's Justice Collaboration aims to improve justice outcomes and to ultimately prevent crime.

The University of Sydney has numerous strengths in this area and has a track record of work across disciplines, faculties and research centres directly and indirectly relevant to justice systems and people in conflict with the law. 

In this edition we highlight recent projects and some exciting upcoming events from across the University of Sydney. Read about some of our new affiliates, next week's public event with the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies, and more! 

The University of Sydney’s central campus sits on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and has campuses as well as teaching and research facilities situated on the ancestral lands of the Wangal, Deerubbin, Tharawal, Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri, Gamilaroi, Bundjulong, Wiljali and Gereng Gureng peoples. We pay our respects to elders, past, present, and emerging who have cared and continue to care for Country.

No More Victims

A team of researchers from the Matilda Centre led by Dr Siobhan O'Dean have recently been awarded a Medical Research Future Fund Grant. This grant will provide funding for a new project titled “No more victims: Building healthy relationships and preventing intimate partner violence and sexual violence through a novel, scalable school-based intervention”.

This project aims to address intimate partner and sexual violence among young Australians using the 'OurFutures' web-based prevention model created by the Matilda Centre. The OurFutures Healthy Relationships Program is designed with young people and experts, it uses online cartoon lessons to improve attitudes and help students develop healthy relationship skills. With this funding the team will test the effectiveness of the program through a research trial in 24 secondary schools, the first evaluation of its kind in Australia.

Transforming Australia's outside-school-hours landscape: Beyond the Bell 

A collaboration with the Sydney Policy Lab and the Brain and Mind Centre, "Beyond the Bell" is looking to change Out of School Hours (OOSH) care. The project is led by Professor Ian Hickie, Co-director of the Brain and Mind Centre and Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, Director of the Sydney Policy Lab.

It aims to start a conversation about how outside school hours care can bridge the work-school gulf while addressing disadvantage and improving children's mental and physical wellbeing, educational outcomes, social development, online safety, and skills for the future.

The partnership’s first discussion paper, Beyond the Bell, sets out the challenges facing the overlooked outside school hours care (OSHC) sector, and highlights the host of opportunities awaiting families and governments if support were available for trialing new models of before and after school care and extracurricular activities.

You can read more about the project and read the discussion paper here.

Immigration Detention: No Safe Form for Children 

A first-of-its-kind review into the psychological impact of immigration detention has shown there are no safe forms of detention for children.

The study led by psychologists at the University of Sydney reviewed findings from 21 English-language studies involving 9620 children in eight countries. It reveals alarming levels of mental health issues, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among children held in all forms of immigration detention.

The study showed 42.2 percent of children experienced depression and 32.0 percent displayed symptoms consistent with PTSD.

Senior author Professor Caroline Hunt, Head of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sydney, said: “The data shows any level of detention will put a child’s mental health at risk, with the lengthiest and most restrictive showing serious harms, including high levels of post-traumatic stress, self-harm and suicide attempts.

You can read more about the research here.

Dr Justine Humphry

Dr Justine Humphry SFHEA is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures in the Discipline of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. She is also the Deputy Head of School (Research) of Art, Communication and English.

Justine researches the cultures and politics of digital media and emerging technologies with a focus on the social consequences of mobile, smart and data-driven technologies. Her research addresses digital inequalities, young people and digital media, mediation of home/homelessness and urban datafication.

Justine was the chief investigator of research on homelessness and mobile connectivity for the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (from 2013-14) and for the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (from 2015-16). She co-led the Smart Publics USyd/Glasgow partnership collaboration (from 2019-20). She led the Emerging Online Safety Issues project collaboration funded by the Online Safety Grants Program of the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. Her book Homelessness and Mobile communication – Precariously Connected, brings together research in this area carried out in Australia and the United States over a number of years.

Associate Professor Marietta Martinovic 

Dr Marietta Martinovic OAM is an Associate Professor in Criminology and Justice studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She is internationally recognised criminologist in the field of transformative learning in prisons and development of opportunities for the inclusion of lived criminal justice experience in policy making. She started the first Australian Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program in Australia, and has established, and is leading six prison-based and one community-based Think Tank. Think Tanks are composed of people with lived experience of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), university students, researchers and CJS practitioners. Over the last decade, as a Director of the Advocacy Think Tanks, Dr Martinovic has led 100+ stakeholder consultations, authored 50+ reports and 5 parliamentary inquiries, resulting in unprecedented systemic change mandating government/non-government organisations to include those with lived/living CJ experience in policy-making. Her pioneering work has been recognised nationally and internationally.

Marietta recently joined Dr Jedidiah Evans for a discussion on prison-based education. A summary of both of their work can be found here.

27 May: Insights from the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies 

The Justice Collaboration is excited to host the Co-Directors of the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies (MCYS). Dr Paul Gray (Co-Director) and Dr Deborah Jump (Co-Director) will talk about the work of the MCYS. Established in 2014 (by Professor Hannah Smithson), the MCYS has established itself as an internationally recognised research centre, known for its innovative methodological approaches to working with young people. MCYS has a particular focus on young people in youth justice systems and young people’s mental health. This event is open to the general public. 

Date: Tuesday 27 May 2025

Time: 5:30 - 6:30pm

You can find out more about the event and register here.

3 June: Mabo Day 

Join us for a special Mabo Day 2025 event as we come together to honour the legacy of Eddie Mabo and the landmark Mabo decision, which recognised the land rights of Australia's First Nations peoples. This event is an opportunity to reflect, learn, and celebrate the ongoing journey of reconciliation and justice.

We invite students, staff, local community members, elders, uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, and friends to participate in this meaningful occasion. The event will feature a keynote address from Alick (Zugub) Tipoti and a dynamic dance performance by Alick and his family, titled Dhamuw Koedal, creating a space for both reflection and celebration.

Date: Tuesday 3 June 2025

Time: 10:30am - 12:00pm 

You can find out more about the event and register here.

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