CrimNet

10 November 2023

Policing Australian Popular Music

The Australian Research Council has granted a funding of $411,200 to support this research project led by Institute member, Professor Murray Lee. He has collaborated with Dr. Toby Martin, Professor Jioji Ravulo, and Dr. Alexis Kallio for this project. 

This project will be the first comprehensive study of the relationship between policing and popular music in Australia. An interdisciplinary approach brings together criminology, music, history, social work, cultural, and music education research to investigate the processes by which certain forms of popular music and affiliated communities have been criminalised, and the ways musicians and musical communities have voiced resistance to police and state power. Through innovative interview and arts-practice based methodologies, the project will generate new knowledge on the historic and contemporary relations between state governance and creative cultural expression to inform policy and practice in policing as well as cultural investments.

Institute Deputy Director, Dr Allan McCay was interviewed by Investigative Journalist Andy Park at ABC Radio National. Dr. Allan McCay delved into the importance of safeguarding the integrity mind in response to the increasing neurotechnological advancements.

CPD: Self-represented accused and appellants in the criminal justice system, and a prosecutor’s duty

Presenter: Felicity Evans

Self-represented accused and appellants often add complexity and time to court proceedings. Prosecutors have a unique role in matters involving such persons, as they must balance their duty to the court with their responsibilities to the ODPP. On one hand, the prosecutor must act on behalf of the state and related stakeholders (such as victims, police). On the other, they must help the court to ensure that justice is effected quickly. This seminar will consider issues such as what a self-represented is; the arrangements made for self-represented litigants in the criminal justice system; relevant prosecution guidelines; practical issues concerning self-represented litigants; balancing prosecutorial duties with the duty to assist the court; and case law that bears on such issues. 

This CPD session was recorded on 02 November 2023 and the recording will be released on 23 November 2023.

Dr Carolyn McKay is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School where she teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Digital Criminology. She is the Co-Director, Sydney Institute of Criminology.

Dr. Carolyn McKay is recognised for her research into technologies in justice published in her monograph, ‘The Pixelated Prisoner: Prison video links, court ‘appearance’ and the justice matrix’ (2018) Routledge. Throughout 2021 - 2024, Carolyn is undertaking her ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) 'The Digital Criminal Justice Project: Vulnerability and the Digital Subject', focusing on digitalised justice and digital vulnerability.

Dr. Carolyn McKay serves on the NSW Bar Association's Media Information Law & Technology Committee and Women Lawyers Association of NSW Committee. She has been a Visiting Researcher at Radboud University, the Netherlands 2023, a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford 2019 and for 3 months at the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Spain 2013-14. Carolyn previously consulted on anti-dumping trade disputes and indirect taxation in both Sydney and Tokyo. She also has a visual arts practice and, in 2023, she was the recipient of the Council of Law Deans’ Australian Legal Research Award for non-traditional research output for her Crime Scene Motel Project.

As announced during the ‘Virtual Criminal Trials’ symposium at Maastricht Law School (The Netherlands) in June ’23, Co-Director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology, Dr Carolyn McKay, in collaboration with Dr Lisa Flower (Lund University), Dr Christina Peristeridou (Maastricht University) and Associate Professor Dorris de Vocht (Tilburg University), have launched the International Virtual Criminal Justice Network.

The objective of the Network is to provide an interdisciplinary hub of researchers who are interested in the use of digital means of communication in criminal proceedings. It aims at developing interdisciplinary research, exchanging ideas and bringing together experts from various disciplines such as law, criminology, sociology and psychology. Interested scholars and practitioners are encouraged to visit the website www.virtualcriminaljustice.com where visitors may also find the registration link. If interested in joining the Network, please register to stay informed of activities and events.

The 2023/24 Criminal Law CPD Series, presented by the Sydney Institute of Criminology, is an innovative educational program made up of 8 recorded webinars.

Our series covers a wide range of criminal law topics, including criminal procedure, evidence law, and criminal advocacy. Led by experienced legal professionals, our webinars are designed to help you stay up to date with the latest developments in criminal law and earn your mandatory CPD points.

A new webinar will be released each month from April to November and will include a quiz to test your comprehension of the material being discussed.  

Register now for the full series or individual webinars and enjoy the flexibility of watching at your own pace from any location at any time.  

Information for lawyers and barristers
If this educational activity is relevant to your professional development and practice of the law, then you should claim 1.5 MCLE/CPD points per seminar attended.

Practitioners are advised to check with the CPD governing body in their jurisdiction for the most accurate and up-to-date information. Find out about interstate accreditation.

Cost: Full series (8 x webinars) = $300 
Individual webinar(s) = $50

Non-consensual sexual offence law reform in Western Australia

Substantive Law 

Dr Andrew Dyer -  Available now

The Attorney-General of Western Australia has asked that State’s Law Reform Commission to review Western Australia’s sexual offence laws. In December 2022, the Commission published a Discussion Paper that deals with the law relating to sexual consent and the operation of honest and reasonable mistake of fact in non-consensual sexual offence proceedings. This seminar will consider the various reform options. 

Vulnerable witness advocacy

Practice Management and Business Skills, Ethics and professional responsibility

Philip Hogan -  Available now

This seminar will discuss the definition of a vulnerable witness in the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW) and the provisions in the Act that allow for the use of pre-recorded evidence and provide for other alternative means of giving evidence. The seminar will particularly consider the way a complainant’s evidence is adduced in the Child Sexual Assault Program operating in some NSW courts. There will also be some discussion of Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) provisions that may be relevant to the evidence of a vulnerable witness. Finally, the seminar will cover relevant provisions of the Equality before the Law Bench Book and some findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 

Digital vulnerability: Vulnerable individuals and remote access technologies in justice

Ethics and professional responsibility. Professional skills. Practice Management. 

Dr Carolyn McKay - Available now

This seminar will focus on the use of remote access technologies, such as audiovisual links, when working with vulnerable individuals in the justice system, and the developing concept of ‘digital vulnerability’. The seminar will draw on Dr McKay’s current Australian Research Council (‘ARC’) funded research and examine the multiple layers of vulnerability that individuals may experience while involved in legal matters. It will present preliminary findings from initial fieldwork interviews with lawyers and judicial officers that reveal critical perspectives on the impacts of digitalisation on vulnerable people in the justice system. While the research project and findings centre on the criminal justice system, many of the issues are equally relevant to legal practitioners working with vulnerable people in civil matters. 

Assessing witness credibility: Is it possible to tell whether someone is lying or telling the truth?

Substantive law. Professional skills.

Associate Professor Helen Paterson - Available now

Witness testimony can be extremely influential in legal investigations and trials; however, sometimes witnesses lie. Such deception can be detrimental to due process, and can result in miscarriages of justice. Thus, it is important for legal personnel and factfinders to be able to determine whether someone is lying or telling the truth. This interactive seminar will discuss research investigating behavioural and content indicators of deception. It will help legal practitioners understand the difficulties in discriminating liars from truth-tellers as well as the evidence base for various lie detection techniques. 

Advocacy in the Children's Court: Considerations for criminal matters involving children and young persons

Ethics and professional responsibility. Professional skills.

Judge Ellen Skinner, Shannon Richards and James Clifford - Available now 

The Children’s Court deals with a wide range of cases across New South Wales involving children and young people. In its criminal jurisdiction, matters involve defendants under the age of 18. There are complexities in the legislation as to how certain charges involving children and young persons proceed, including considerations of doli incapax and whether the charges can remain at the summary level or should be dealt with ‘at law’ in a higher court. This presentation will discuss issues around the age of criminal responsibility and the committal process in the Children’s Court. It will help lawyers practising criminal law who appear in the Children’s Court, and provide perspectives from the Bench, prosecution and defence. 

Probative value and admissibility in the criminal trial: Focus and holism

Substantive law

Professor David Hamer - 
Available now 

In determining whether challenged evidence is admissible, the trial judge is often required to assess its probative value. The orthodox view is that this assessment focuses on the strength of connection between the challenged evidence and the fact in issue. However, a distinct strand of High Court jurisprudence, running through the common law and the uniform evidence legislation requires a holistic approach to probative value.

Gratuitous concurrence and the role of the prosecutor: Presenting a fair and firm Crown case in the face of sociolinguistic challenges

Professional skills. Ethics & professional responsibility.

Presenter: Shannon Matchett
Available now

This presentation will give an overview of the prosecutor’s role as a minister of justice, and the ethical framework in which the Crown operates. It will discuss judicial authorities that have developed and considered the phenomenon of gratuitous concurrence.

Self-represented accused and appellants in the criminal justice system, and a prosecutor’s duty

Ethics & professional responsibility. Professional skills.

Presenter: Felicity Evans
Release date: 23 November

This seminar will consider issues such as what a self-represented litigant is; the arrangements made for self-represented litigants in the criminal justice system; relevant prosecution guidelines; practical issues concerning self-represented litigants; balancing prosecutorial duties with the duty to assist the court; and case law that bears on such issues.

Should Deceptive Sex Always Be Rape? Dr Andrew Dyer - Substantive Law

The Role of the Crown Prosecutor in NSW Mr Brett Hatfield Practice - Management and Business Skills, Ethics and professional responsibility

The Reliability and Credibility of Eyewitnesses Associate Professor Helen Paterson - Substantive Law

Ethical Practice for Junior Criminal Law Barristers Ms Talitha Hennessy - Ethics and professional responsibility

Myths, Misconceptions and Mixed Messages: An Early Look at the New Tendency and Coincidence Evidence Provisions Professor David Hamer - Substantive Law

Advocacy in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal Mr John Stratton SC - Professional Skills

The Work of the Mental Health Review Tribunal Judge Paul Lakatos SC - Professional Skills

Current Issues in Criminal Justice (CICJ) provides detailed analysis of national and international issues by a range of outstanding contributors. It includes contemporary comments, with discussion at the cutting edge of the crime and justice debate, as well as reviews of recently released books.

CICJ accepts submissions on a rolling basis.

Editor: Dr Justin Ellis, member of the Sydney Institute of Criminology

You can access current and previous issues of Current Issues in Criminal Justice here.

If you have a book suitable for review by CICJ, please email the books editor, Celine Van Golde at celine.vangolde@sydney.edu.au

Seminar: Human rights, carcerality and Palestinian children; UNSW Centre for Criminology, Law and Justice

13 November 2023 1:00 PM - 2:30 

Earlier this year the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine, Francesca Albanese’s report highlighted how expanding and multilayered forms of confinement in Palestine impacts children acutely. The Report identifies that while in-person confinement is the most prevalent form of deprivation of liberty imposed on Palestinians, physical, bureaucratic and digital architectures generate further restriction spatially and psychologically. An expanded carcerality, made of an array of laws, procedures and technologies of coercive confinement, transforms the occupied Palestinian territory into a constantly surveilled open-air panopticon. This, Albanese finds, generates greater vulnerability of some groups especially children who are treated as equivalent to adults by the law.

Register here. 

Understanding support needs, and barriers to support provision, for victim-survivors of sexual exploitation; Australian Institute of Criminology 

14 November 2023 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (UTC+11)

Sexual exploitation can have significant short- and longer-term impacts on victim-survivors. However, there is currently a lack of research exploring the support needs of victim-survivors who received support in Australia, and barriers to support provision. 

In this webinar, the AIC will present the findings from their study, describing the complex and co-occurring support needs of victim-survivors, as well as the individual-level, interrelationship and systemic barriers to support provision in Australia. Register here. 

Child Sexual Abuse Reduction Research Network; Australian Institute of Criminology 

Monday 4 - Tuesday 5 December 2023

Child sexual abuse is a complex and harmful crime type that requires multi-sector collaboration to address. This workshop will bring together leading researchers and practitioners from around the world to share their research on combatting child sexual abuse, and foster new connections. The workshop will cover a wide range of relevant topics, including understanding offender behaviour patterns and pathways, new investigatory methods and approaches, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the use of offender-based interventions and prevention initiatives, as well as the provision of support to victim-survivors. Register here. 

Legal Education Research Conference 2023; UNSW Law & Justice 

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 9:30 AM - Tue, 21 Nov 2023 5:00 PM

The field of legal education is evolving, and a significant shift has taken place towards more experiential and practical learning approaches. The theme for this year is 'Situated Learning: Climate Change, First Nations Recognition, Generative AI'.

Register here. 

Symposium: Rural Crime, Justice & Disaster: Impacts, Response and Recovery; University of New England, Centre for Rural Criminology & the ISSRC

29 November 2023

This symposium explores the various types of disasters and how they impact rural areas, including pandemics, natural disasters, biosecurity, economic crises, and political turmoil. These events have significant effects on the social, environmental, and economic aspects of rural communities.

The symposium's focus is on the connection between these disasters and crime, with an emphasis on preventing, responding to, and recovering from them.

For more information, see here.  

KWOOP 2023 Parliamentary Breakfast

21 November 2023; 7:15 AM - 9:00 AM

The 8th Annual Keeping Women Out of Prison Parliament House Breakfast will be hosted by The Hon. Kate Rebecca Washington, MP.

The panel of speakers and MC will be announced shortly. 

For more information, see here. 

Legal Words for Interpreters and Bilingual Workers - Criminal Law Words; Legal Aid NSW

20 November 2023; 12:30 PM - 4:00 PM

In this face to face event, an experienced Legal Aid NSW criminal lawyer will explain some common and complex legal terminology in the area of criminal law.

For more information, see here. 

Conference: Behavioral Forensics: Reintegrating Expanding Contours of Criminology and Criminalistics; National Forensic Sciences University

Registration deadline: 25 November 2023 

Conference: 23 January 2024 - 25 January 2024

The conference will cover a wide range of topics related to Criminology & Criminalistics, including but not limited to Criminology and Behavioral Forensics: Transdisciplinary foundations, Contours of Victim Support, Justice and Challenges, Contemporary issues in Criminal Justice System, and Forensic Algorithms in Justice Delivery System. Renowned experts and scholars will deliver keynote speeches, presentations, and workshops, providing valuable opportunities for learning, networking, and collaboration.

For more information, see here. 

Associate Professor/Professor, Criminology and Social Policy; University of Wollongong

Applications close: 28 November 2023

The School of Health and Society is seeking to appoint a highly motivated, energetic academic leader to provide vision and leadership for the Discipline of Criminology and Social Policy within the School of Health and Society. The appointee will be an accomplished scholar, both nationally and internationally, able to locate themselves within domains of focus for the School and the Discipline, while also displaying a strong commitment to inter-disciplinarity. This position provides leadership across research, teaching, and external engagement, thus shaping the future direction of the Discipline.

For more information, see here. 

Grant Opportunities: Australian Government Community Grants hub

Applications close: 9:00 pm, 07 December 2023.

The Attorney-General’s Department is offering 2 new open non-competitive funding opportunities:

National Justice Reinvestment Program – Round 1

The National Justice Reinvestment Program aims to reduce contact with the criminal justice system and incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults and young people through support for place-based and community-led justice reinvestment initiatives across Australia. Find more information here. 

Justice Reinvestment in Central Australia Program – Round 1

This opportunity aims to prevent and reduce contact with the justice system for First Nations adults and young people through place-based, community-led crime prevention initiatives, measures relating to treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, or diversionary measures relating to illegal drug use. Find more information here. 

Call for Papers Proposal: Business Compliance in International Commercial Transactions in Asia Pacific; The University of Sydney Law School 

Proposal Due: Friday 1 December 2023.
Announcement of successful submission: Friday 15 December 2023.
Conference Date: 21 February 2024

Business compliance in international transactions across the Asia-Pacific region holds immense importance for organizations seeking to expand their activities within this dynamic and evolving landscape. Multinational corporations operating in Asia Pacific often confront unique compliance challenges due to the swiftly changing regulatory and geopolitical environment in the region.

The University of Sydney Law School welcome scholars, irrespective of their career stage, to submit paper or panel proposals for presentation at the conference. The event will take place at the Camperdown campus of the University of Sydney Law School in Sydney, Australia, on February 21, 2024 in a hybrid format (in-person or online presentation).

For more information, see here. 

Call for Submissions: UNSW Law Journal 

Deadline for Submissions: 17 November 2023 

The UNSW Law Journal is currently welcoming submissions for the thematic component of Issue 47(2). The topic for this thematic is ‘Developments in Rights, Freedoms and Accountability’. For more information, see here. 

Call for Submissions: 2024 Trauma Informed Policing and Law Enforcement Conference

Deadline for Submissions: 20 November 2023 

Police and associated justice organisations are increasingly looking at becoming trauma-informed. Some jurisdictions globally have also included trauma-informed practice in their operating protocols and a growing body of experience and evidence is being accumulated world-wide, with lessons progressively learned to guide progress in instituting and operationalising trauma-informed and shame-competent practice. 

The conference is being hosted by the centre Deakin University Centre for Drug use, Addictive and Anti-social behaviour Research (CEDAAR) from Deakin University alongside partners Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association Inc (GLEPHA), and University of Tasmania Trauma Informed Policing. 

For more information, see here. 

Call for papers: Journal of Crime and Criminal Behaviour 

Deadline for Submission of Full Papers:  20th January 2024

Journal of Crime and Criminal Behaviour invites papers for the Forthcoming issue of the our journal ‘Journal of Crime and Criminal Behavior- ISSN: 2583-0244 - peer-reviewed journal ‘ Vol. 4  No. 1  (2024) issue of the Journal will be published in March 2024.

Manuscript Submission: Please submit your manuscript by email (put JCCB  in the subject line) in electronic form using M.S. Word by email to: Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Robert D. Hanser, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Crime & Criminal Behavior, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Strauss 216, 700 University Avenue, Monroe, LA 71209, U.S.A. E-mail: editorjccb@gmail.com

For more information, see here. 

“Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory in its effect on children and young people.”

That’s how the Law Enforcement Conduction Commission (LECC) described a police program that aims to target likely offenders before they commit crimes.

A scathing report from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) says NSW Police use of the Suspect Targeting Management Plan (STMP) against young people ‘amounted to agency maladministration’ and ‘could possibly meet the threshold for serious misconduct’. It’s a program that allowed police to make home visits at all hours, and stop and search people in the street. The commission has released its damning final report after a five-year investigation. Read the commission's statement here. 

To read more, see here. 

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has furnished this report to the parliament. This report describes the commission's review of the NSW Police Force Aboriginal Strategic Direction 2018 – 2023.

The report makes 11 recommendations to the NSW Police Force regarding its policing and engagement activities with Aboriginal people.

Would you like to contribute to CrimNet?

Contact us to share your criminal justice events or job opportunities. There is no cost involved. Simply email us with your information.

Copyright © 2022 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
Phone +61 2 9351 2222 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS Number: 00026A

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