Justice Collaboration 

Monthly Update 

23rd Edition, September 2026

Welcome to the Justice Collaboration’s September update!

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 showcase recent award nominations, new publications, PhD theses from the archives and upcoming events!

New Publication: Governing through ‘Othering’ : Problematising ‘culture’ in the NSW child protection system

A recent article, co-written by Collaboration member Dr Lobna Yassine explores how ‘culture’ is represented in the NSW child protection system, drawing on an analysis of key policy documents. In the Australian child protection system, there is a growing emphasis on ‘culturally safe’ practices to better understand the cultural needs of racialised children and families. Using Carol Bacchi's ‘What's the problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) approach, this article draws attention to how ‘culture’ is institutionalised through policy and how racialised children and families are governed through the population category ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ (‘CALD’). The article finds that ‘culture talk’ is exclusively produced for racialised children and families, and that ‘CALD’ as a population category becomes knowable through policy directives around a set of performative ‘cultural’ tasks. In addition, throughout the policies ‘culture’ is associated with interpersonal experiences of racism rather than institutional racism. It is argued that this problematisation reinforces Otherness and invisibilises institutional Whiteness and racism.

The article, published in Critical Social Policy, can be accessed for free here.

Collaboration Members and Affiliates nominated for awards

Last month, the Moral Emotions Inside project, led by Collaboration Members Dr Jedidiah Evans and Associate Professor Sam Shpall, and Affiliate Dr Sacha Jamieson was a finalist in the Australian Financial Review’s Higher Education Awards Community Engagement category. Moral Emotions Inside is a 12-week course for women in NSW correctional centres combining philosophy and creative writing. A $542,050 grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Projects scheme will support the continued delivery of the initiative and allow for its evaluation. Using participatory action research, Dr Evans and his team will examine how an innovative humanistic education program affects the wellbeing of incarcerated women, generating an evidence base and lived-experience-informed recommendations expected to inform prison reform for women nationally.

Dr Evans has also been announced as a finalist in the Sydney Awards' Unsung Hero category for his work on the University’s Creative Writing in Prisons Program. Dr Evans told The Daily Telegraph’s Evelyn Dowsett that one of the most powerful parts of the University’s Creative Writing in Prisons Program is seeing people discover they are capable artists, writers and music makers when they are given the space to create:  "So many people discover that they are competent artists, writers and music makers when they're put into a prison space”

Finalists in all five Sydney Awards categories are now in the running for the People's Choice Award. You can see the candidates and cast your vote here.

New Publication: Creative expressive therapy in schools to address childhood trauma: a mixed methods study of a whole school trauma-informed approach

A new article co-written by Collaboration Affiliate Dr Lucy Grummitt explores the use of expressive therapy in schools. Schools offer unique opportunities to deliver mental health support for students impacted by trauma. The article explored the implementation and early effectiveness of the KidsXpress School Partnership Program, a school-based partnership that embeds creative-expressive therapists and trauma-informed consultants within primary schools to deliver targeted therapy for students and whole-school capacity-building for staff. Five primary schools in Australia participated. Implementation was assessed via online surveys and interviews from schoolteachers, KidsXpress therapists and trauma-informed consultants. Thematic analysis with a hybrid inductive–deductive approach was used, guided by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Data was collected from students via routine assessments as part of the School Partnership Program. Effectiveness was evaluated via changes in wellbeing scores among students referred for creative-expressive therapy sessions from first to last therapy assessment using the Child Outcome Rating Scale (CORS), as well as quantitative and qualitative data from teachers, therapists and trauma-informed consultants. Feedback from teachers and KidsXpress staff indicated strong perceived student benefits, including enhanced emotional regulation and coping, increased confidence, and greater help-seeking. This was supported by wellbeing scores, which were significantly higher at post-assessment compared to first assessment. Teachers reported increased understanding of trauma-informed practice, classroom strategies, and valuable mentoring from KidsXpress staff. The most frequently cited challenges were insufficient staffing and cultural differences in perceptions of mental health. While participants generally felt that trauma-informed practice had improved since the program's introduction, confidence in sustaining these changes without ongoing support was low. The KidsXpress School Partnership Program is effective in improving student wellbeing following exposure to traumatic experiences and in improving trauma-informed practice at the whole of school level. Nonetheless, implementation barriers exist, and low confidence, early in the partnerships, in the maintenance of trauma-informed practice underscores the need for strategies to embed trauma-informed approaches into school systems to ensure continuity.

The article, published in Frontiers in Health Services, can be accessed here.

New publication: Mental disorders surge among young adults

A new study by the Matilda Centre reveals that mental disorders among young adults have surged in Australia with the proportion of young Australians meeting diagnostic criteria for anxiety, mood or substance disorders increasing from 23.4 percent to 36.2 percent from 2007 to 2022. Severe mental disorders rose even more sharply – increasing from 14.7 percent to 24 percent, with suicidal thoughts more than doubling for Australians aged 16 to 24. Anxiety disorders, including agoraphobia (with or without panic disorder), social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) more than doubled from 12.2 percent to 29.1 percent. Mood disorders, including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and dysthymia – also known as persistent depressive disorder – also more than doubled from 4.9 percent to 13.3 percent.

It is the first study of its kind to perform national comparisons using diagnostic interviews to examine changes in rates of individual disorders among Australian youth over time, mapping estimates of prevalence, patterns and severity. The authors found that the increase in mental disorders was not solely attributable to either greater awareness of mental disorders or the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors found that while rates for most presentations accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were also increasing in the lead up. Co-Lead Author Professor Tim Slade argues that the findings “highlight that the issue extends beyond the idea that young people are simply feeling more stressed. We are seeing higher rates of severe mental disorders that can profoundly disrupt daily functioning and have lasting consequences for wellbeing.”

The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific, can be accessed here.

New Publication: Responding to performance crime: post and boast offences in Australia

A new article, co-authored by Gabriel McGuire, Dr Laura Metcalfe and Collaboration Director Associate Professor Garner Clancey, examines the rapid introduction of post and boast offences in jurisdictions across Australia. Posting and boasting—a form of performance crime involving the recording and dissemination of offending behaviour through social media—has attracted significant media attention in Australia in recent years. The phenomenon has been linked to rising youth crime, victim re-traumatisation, community fear and increasingly dangerous forms of criminal behaviour. In response, Australian jurisdictions have introduced a range of criminal offences targeting the creation and dissemination of offending content. This article examines the emergence of these reforms and evaluates their likely effectiveness. Drawing upon literature on digital deviance, reputation-based offending and performance crime, the authors argue that posting and boasting should not be dismissed as merely a moral panic, notwithstanding the role of media and political actors in shaping public perceptions of youth crime. The authors identify two distinct approaches to criminalisation that have emerged across Australian jurisdictions. They argue that both approaches may face significant limitations. The authors conclude that while some response to performance crime is warranted, criminalisation alone is unlikely to provide a complete solution. Greater attention should be directed towards alternative and complementary responses, including platform regulation, content removal mechanisms, education initiatives and further empirical research.

The article, published in the Current Issues in Criminal Justice can be accessed here.

Student Spotlight: Dr Miniature Malekpour 

Dr Mini Malekpour is a Juris Doctor candidate at Sydney Law School and research assistant at the Justice Collaboration. She holds a PhD in New Media Arts and Technology from the Australian National University and is the author of the forthcoming monograph Frames of Resistance: The Cinematic Language of the Iranian Feminist Film. Mini is also Lived Experience Lead at About Time, Australia's national prison newspaper.

Mini has been selected to speak at the Deakin Middle East Studies Forum 2026 Conference, "The Middle East in Transition". She'll present her paper, which examines how Iranian women have built some of the world's most sophisticated digital resistance networks and why the new UN Cybercrime Convention may put that resistance, and exiles more broadly, at legal risk. This work was recently featured in the Conversation.

She has also been selected to speak at the ANZSOC 2026 Conference. Mini will present her paper "Blurred Words: Censorship, Press Freedom and the Emerging Field of Australian Prison Media”. The paper examines the emerging Australian prison media landscape and the role of lived experience publications such as About Time. 

Many PhD theses developed at the University of Sydney over the years may be of interest to those working in criminal justice. We are going to highlight some of these freely available theses in this and upcoming newsletters. 

A Healing Justice: Therapeutic alliance on the NSW Drug Court - Clara Fritchley (2024)

People with a drug use disorder are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and there is a critical need for effective treatments for this population. The Drug Court is the most prominent, well-established and effective diversion intervention program worldwide for people with a drug use disorder who have offended. Despite this, we have limited understanding of how each component of the Drug Court contributes to both individual outcomes and overall program success and quality. With emerging evidence of the crucial role of psychological therapy in positive Drug Court outcomes, there is a critical need to explore the mechanisms that underpin successful psychological treatment within a Drug Court program so as to optimise treatment processes. Underlying the effectiveness of psychological therapy is the alliance between therapist and client. There is consistent evidence in the broader literature that the strength of therapeutic alliance contributes more to positive treatment outcomes than the specific treatment intervention. However therapeutic alliances that unfold within a legally coerced treatment framework such as the Drug Court face unique constraints. Despite the prominence of the Drug Court globally and the crucial role psychological treatment has been found to play in client outcomes, there has been no investigation of the role of therapeutic alliance in outcomes for those participating in the Drug Court. This thesis addresses this substantial gap in literature through four world-first empirical studies designed to rigorously investigate the role of the therapeutic alliance within the broader context of treating people with drug use disorders and then more specifically within a Drug Court program. A critical realism research paradigm framed this thesis and is used to elucidate the ways in which setting, context and wider social forces impact upon therapeutic relationships.

Clara Fritchley's thesis can be accessed for free here. 

Parent-carers' perspectives on their relationships with complex service systems - Pam Joseph (2017)

Parents of children with high-level support needs, including adult children, commonly interact with service providers across health, disability, education and other systems. In a policy environment that emphasises individual autonomy and the marketisation of service provision, however, parents’ relationships with such systems remain unclear. This qualitative study explored the ways that parents construct their relationships with providers, and their views about their own identities within and outside the formal service systems with which they interact. A theoretical framework of social constructionism, complexity theory, and critical postmodern feminism informed the study design and the interpretation of data. Twenty-seven parents, from metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas across five Australian states, participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews and created concept maps to describe their service system relationships. The data were analysed using a thematic network analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001), from which three key themes emerged. A theme of “boundaries” captured the ways that parents defined their own identities, and those of providers. “Transition” highlighted times of change as particular occasions of challenge and opportunity in the negotiation of parent identities and relationships. The third theme, “enacting power through control and resistance” reflected parents’ understanding of the role of power in their relationships with providers. The findings suggest that a life-course approach contributes to a better understanding of the unique, complex and dynamic relationships between parents and service providers than current service models that reflect the developmental stages of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The global theme of “individual (re)negotiation” sheds light on parents’ constructions of identity and their active participation towards more equitable relationships with providers. The findings of the study have implications for more inclusive, co-relational practices. The thesis discusses the findings’ significance for policy, practice, education and future research.

Pam Joseph’s thesis can be accessed for free here. 

Bridges Inside - Carceral Communion: The Ritual of Sharing Food in Prison

The first session of ‘Bridges Inside: Sharing Space’ is tomorrow Thursday 10 September!

Discussions about prison food typically focus on nutrition, budgets, and standards. However, this Bridges Inside session offers a different perspective, in conversation with members of the About Time Writers' Network (Australia's National prison newspaper). Drawing on personal experience, creative writing, and reflection, this session will explore food as a symbol of memory, identity, connection, and care in custodial settings. Through personal stories and original compositions, the speakers will highlight how individuals interpret food, even in highly regulated environments. From communal to solitary meals, and from recipes from home to prison gardens, buy-ups, and acts of generosity among inmates, food transcends mere sustenance. It becomes the language of community, resilience, and belonging. This discussion, featuring writers with firsthand experience of incarceration, examines how sharing food can embody dignity, resistance, culture, and human connection in places where these things are often hard to maintain.

Details: 

Thursday, 10 September, 2026

Time: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Venue: Rogers Room (N397), John Woolley Building, University of Sydney

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

Rhythm and Blues - sleep disturbance in youth mental health

The Third Human Services Hub event will focus on sleep disturbances and research by two Brain and Mind Centre research staff.

Open to University of Sydney students and staff, this Human Services Hub event will focus on sleep disturbances and showcase research by two Brain and Mind Centre research staff. Sleep issues are common for clients in various human service settings. This seminar will be relevant to students who will work in child protection, mental health, criminal justice, alcohol and other drug, and various other settings.

Speakers:

Dr Min Chong is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Brain and Mind Centre. During her PhD, she focused on technology-enhanced approaches to personalised mental healthcare and how young people engage with digital tools in care. In her current postdoctoral role, her work has expanded to examine the role of circadian rhythms in shaping mental health outcomes. In this talk, Min will reflect on the shifts and turning points in her journey as an early-career researcher.

Dr Jake Crouse is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre. For the last five years, Jake has led a program of clinical research investigating how sleep and circadian rhythms (body clocks) shape the mental health of people living with mood disorders and how they might be targeted to more effectively treat these conditions. In this talk, Jake will speak about the public health and societal impacts of sleep and circadian disturbances and will provide a narrative about his personal journey as a research scientist.

Details: 

Thursday, 23 September, 2026

Time: 12:00 pm–1:00 pm

Venue: Law Lounge, Level 1, Law Annex, Sydney Law School

Registration: Free, but registration is required.

Students and staff can find out more about the event and register here.

Careers in Criminal Justice and Human Services

We invite University of Sydney students and staff to the fourth Human Services Hub event, where a panel of criminal justice and human services practitioners share their journeys.

This careers event will include a panel with three outstanding criminal justice and human services practitioners. They will share stories from their careers, how they got started, what roles opened up to them once they had a 'foot in the door', what advice they would give to make the most of your degree and how to plan for employment.

Speakers include:

Dr Evelyne Tadros is CEO of the Mental Health Coordinating Council and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW. She holds a Doctorate of Health Science and a Master’s in Child and Adolescent Health from the University of Sydney, and serves as a Board Director with St Vincent de Paul Society NSW and the Electricity & Water Ombudsman. Despite the titles, it’s her two teenage boys who reliably keep her grounded.

Sarah Ellis is a justice-sector specialist with a Master’s degree in Criminological Research and a career spanning youth justice, child safeguarding, corrective services, and policing across the UK and Australia. A Winston Churchill Fellow who investigated bullying and harassment in juvenile custody, she is driven by a lifelong commitment to improving outcomes for young people and those navigating the justice system.

Sindy Wang is a data analyst at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Her work focuses on Closing the Gap, domestic violence and youth justice. She graduated with first class honours from the University of Sydney in 2021 and her criminology career began at the Sydney Institute of Criminology.

Collaboration Director Associate Professor Garner Clancey will facilitate this panel discussion.

Details: 

Tuesday 13 October, 2026

Time: 5-6.32pm

Venue: Law Foyer, Level 2, New Law Building (F10)

Registration: Free, but registration is required.

Students and staff can find out more about the event and register here.

6th Australasian Youth Justice Conference 

The Australasian Youth Justice Administrators (AYJA) invite you to participate in the 6th Australasian Youth Justice conference.

Equitable and inclusive outcomes are achieved through understanding and responding to the unique strengths, challenges, and aspirations of diverse communities. This year’s theme recognises place-based, community-driven approaches and solutions to address overrepresentation and diversity in metropolitan, regional, and remote contexts that genuinely reflect lived experiences. This Conference will provide a platform to share what better outcomes look like for young people in the youth justice system, their families/whānau and communities wherever they are and whoever they may be.  

Two main sub-themes of this conference will be leading practice through culture and connection and weaving the voices of young people into evidence-informed practice.

Dates: 30th September - 2nd October 2026
Location: Murrundi - Murray River, SA.

You can register for the conference here.

ANZOC Conference 2026: Justice reimagined: Bold ideas, real impact.

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) 2026 Conference will be held in Adelaide, Kaurna Land, on 1-3 December 2026, hosted by Flinders University.

Held in South Australia for only the third time, the ANZSOC 2026 theme Justice Reimagined: Bold Ideas, Real Impact is designed to inspire new ways of looking at crime and justice.

ANZSOC 2026 will also feature pre-conference workshops on 30th November for 1) post-graduates; 2) industry policy makers and practitioners; and include a range of social events. The conference will be held by the beach in beautiful Glenelg.

Dates: 1 - 3 December 2026
Location: Stamford Grand Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, SA

Early Bird Registration is now open. You can find out more about the conference and register here.

Copyright © 2026

The University of Sydney 

Please add justice.law@sydney.edu.au to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future.

Cricos Code 00026A  TEQSA PRV12057
Disclaimer | Privacy statement |