Institute of Criminology Press

Conflict of Interest in Policing: Problems, Practices, and Principles
by Cindy Davids

Conflict of interest allegations have become a prominent part of the landscape of political and public sector ethics in Australia and overseas. The arena of policing has not been immune from this problem. This book is based on unique and unfettered access to ten years of internal investigation files held by Victoria Police. Through detailed analysis of actual complaint cases it gives the reader a comprehensive map by which to chart the particular kinds of interests involved, the nature of conflicts with official police duties, and the particular contexts from which conflicts of interest emerge. The book examines conflicts of interest across the private and public realm of the everyday lives of police officers. The author outlines how the problem of conflict of interest is an important aspect of police ethics, arguing that recognition of, and accountability for, conflict of interest may be a significant element in preventing upstream police misconduct and corruption. The book seeks to provide a conceptual and practical understanding of how integrity and trust must be integrated into the profession of policing through processes of active responsibility, rather than more traditional passive obedience to prescriptive rules.

"Dr Davids provides useful and rigorous definitions of the wide range of conflicts of interest that lie in wait to ethically undo the unaware or ignorant police officer in the ordinary course of his or her public duties. She explores in great and useful detail the dimensions of the problem, the different types of cases, and, importantly, how through the complaints system those that are reported are internally investigated and resolved. ... This book will make a significant contribution to the education of future generations of police officers. I commend it to you." - Christine Nixon, APM, Chief Commissioner, Victoria Police

Cindy Davids' research "provides insights into complaints and complaints procedures which are unique in the policing literature. She organises, analyses and theorises her data with skill, drawing conclusions which are of interest not just to policing scholars, but to those more generally concerned with conflicts of interest in the broader fields of ethics and regulation." - Professor David Dixon, Dean, University of New South Wales Law Faculty

Institute of Criminology Series No 26 2008
Recommended Retail Price $49.95
ISBN 9780975196762
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Criminal discovery is the essence of the criminal pre-trial process. Critical stages in the discovery process include police interrogations, committal hearings and pre-trial disclosure regimes. Crucial and controversial issues in this debate are the scope of the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination. These issues in turn have resulted in heated debates between rival stakeholders such as police, prosecutors, defence lawyers and victims’ groups. Instead of viewing the matter as a mere balancing exercise between competing interest groups, the book puts forward a blueprint for the future which is informed by historical, jurisprudential and practical considerations.

Criminal Discovery: From Truth to Proof and Back Again is "creative, provocative and most impressive in its mastery of legal history, theory and common law experience. It puts a persuasive case for substantial reform of one of the most contentious areas of criminal justice over the centuries, an area in which there is usually much more heat than light. He has shone a powerful torch on it, showing a way forward." - Stephen Odgers SC

"This well-researched and equally well-written treatise is bound to command attention and respect in what now seems to be the eternal debate about a right to silence and compulsion to disclose. The book should not just be regarded as informative but also essential reading for those who seek to engage in that debate." - The Honourable Ian Callinan AC, QC, Justice of the High Court of Australia 1998-2007

Institute of Criminology Series No 27 2008
Recommended Retail Price $71.50
ISBN 9780975196779
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Imprisoning Resistance:
Life and Death in an Australian Supermax
by Bree Carlton

RRP $49.95 (incl gst) ISBN 9780975196755

29 October 2007
marks twenty years since the death of five prisoners in a protest and fire in the infamous Jika Jika high-security unit. This book resurrects these events and invites us to learn urgent lessons in our current age of supermax and privatised prisons, detention of asylum seekers and the controversial use of indefinite detention under the banner of a 'war on terror'.

Imprisoning Resistance provides an experiential account of life and death in the controversial Pentridge Prison Jika Jika High-Security Unit in Victoria during the 1980s. One of Australia's first hi-tech supermax prisons, Jika Jika was designed to house and manage the system's 'worst of the worst' prisoners. Several years of deaths in custody, multiple escapes, assaults, murders, prisoner campaigns and protests, hunger strikes and allegations of prison staff brutality escalated in 1987 to a dramatic protest fire that resulted in the deaths of five prisoners. The prison was closed and a series of inquiries were commissioned. Bree Carlton revisits this uncomfortable past and reconstructs events leading up to and surrounding the fire and deaths, while critically analysing official responses to the discreditable episodes, crises and deaths that plagued Jika Jika.

"Carlton's account takes us inside one of Australia's first and most notorious high tech maximum security units, Jika Jika. Meticulous research combined with a keen grasp of narrative gives an intimate and moving account of the human costs of sensory deprivation and isolation as the dynamics of power and resistance spiral inexorably towards a protest fire that killed five men. The struggle for truth and justice contained within provides insight into the official tactics that seek to rationalise inhumane and brutalising conditions as reasonable and necessary. Although Jika Jika was officially declared a 'human zoo' and closed twenty years ago the lessons to be learned from its history remain acutely important today." Associate Professor Jude McCulloch, Monash University

"Bree Carlton provides a vivid and disturbing account of institutionalised violence, intensifying and deteriorating relationships between prisoners and custodial officers, systemic justifications and excuses for deaths in custody, and the ways in which various voices are represented in media and official discourses. It is a profoundly moving piece of work that enables the reader to understand, and to feel, the issues, and to better understand the human dimension of the prison experience." Professor Rob White, University of Tasmania

Institute of Criminology Series No 25 2007