The Sydney Institute of Criminology offers Seminar and Conference sponsorship opportunities to organisations.

Private and public organisations are invited to support debate and education and to receive exposure across the criminal justice sector. For details about options and packages click here.

For all information about seminars at the Institute please contact Contact Rachel Miller on 02 9351 0239 or r.miller@usyd.edu.au

Organisations are encouraged to submit information about events currently being organised, so that we may publicise them on this page and in our journal, Current Issues in Criminal Justice. If you would like to be included on our mailing list for seminar information please email your details to us.

Upcoming Seminars

Towards Restorative Justice
The Challenges, Promises &
Processes of a New Paradigm

A conference on language, law and social justice co-presented by
the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association
and the Sydney Institute of Criminology.
7th-9th December 2009,
Sydney Law School, University of Sydney

• Confirmed Keynote Presenters:
  John Braithwaite (ARC Federation Fellow, Australian National University)
• Diana Eades (Honorary Research Fellow, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, University of New England)
• The Hon Peter Gray (Judge, Federal Court of Australia)
• Frances Rock (Cardiff University, School of English communication and Philosophy)
• Julie Stubbs (Professor of Criminology, University of Sydney).

Paper proposals are now being called for. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 14th August 2009. For more information click here. To register or get more information see the conference website.

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Recent Seminars

Distinguished Speakers Program 2009: Dr Jonathan Jackson, London School of Economics

Trust in Justice and the Legitimacy of the Criminal Justice System

17 April 2009 6.00-7.30pm (registration and refreshments from 5.30pm), Sydney Law School, Building F10, Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney

What drives punitive sentiment towards law-breakers? Do public attitudes towards punishment emerge out of instrumental concerns about crime and risk? Or are they related more strongly to expressive concerns about decreasing social cohesion and moral authority ? This paper reports on data from a representative sample survey of Londoners (n = 35,845). Two models of punitive sentiment are considered (cf. Tyler & Boeckmann, 1997; Boeckmann & Tyler, 1997). The first model draws on an instrumental motive: people desire harsh punishment because punishing reduces the likelihood of future harm; it follows that people who have been a victim of crime or are worried about becoming a victim of crime will express more punitive attitudes. The second draws on a relational, value restorative motive: people are punitive because they believe that punishment reasserts the moral cohesion of society that has been threatened by the offender’s act; it follows that people who are concerned about long-term social change, social cohesion and neighbourhood disorder will express more punitive attitudes. The data provide stronger support for the relational model. The paper considers the findings of this result in the context of ongoing criminological debates about penal populism and the punitive turn.

This event is free but registration is essential: To register click here

 

 

Beyond Punishment Series: 'Rehabilitation or Revenge'?

Thursday 26 March, 5.30-7.30pm

Dr Jon Jackson, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Assoc Prof Russell Hogg, University of New England.

Rhonda Booby, Department of Corrective Services.

What is the purpose of punishment? Historically punishment has attempted to achieve a range of outcomes: retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation for example. More recently restorative principles have impacted on a range of criminal justice practices. This seminar considers some contemporary rationalities of punishment as well as public perceptions of punishment.

This seminar is free of charge however registration is essential.
Light refreshments will be provided at the conclusion of this event.

Thursday 26 March, 5.30-7.30pm, Sydney Law School Building F10 Eastern Avenue
University of Sydney

Download Flyer here
To register email Rachel Miller

Gender, Race and Reparations Workshop

Friday 3 April 12.30 – 4.30pm

The Institute of Criminology, Law School, University of Sydney and the ARC Project ‘Legal Responses to Systemic Injuries: Towards a new Paradigm for Compensation’ present a seminar:

 Over the past decades, there have been numerous inquiries and revelations in Australia about the harms suffered by children in institutional care. In 1997, the Human Rights Commission published ‘Bringing Them Home’, reporting on the experiences of the Stolen Generations.  While the Prime Minister delivered an apology in 2008, thus far there has been no redress or reparations process established.  In other countries, bodies such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa have sought to respond to historical harms.  Canada has established a comprehensive program to respond to the treatment of indigenous people in “Indian Residential Schools.” Some Australian states (Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia) have now established (somewhat modest) redress schemes.

The purpose of this workshop is to analyse some of those programs, particularly from the point of view of their capacity to respond effectively to the most disadvantaged members of the community.  

Questions to be addressed include:

• What is the relationship between the traditional criminal and civil justice systems, and redress or reparations schemes?
• Can the traditional criminal or civil systems take adequate account of race and gender?
• Can the tort system ever respond effectively to historic harms?
• Can a redress scheme ever be a ‘healing package’ (as one Canadian scheme has been described)?
• What is the role of ‘reconciliation’?
• What is the role of therapeutic jurisprudence?
• What is the role of restorative justice?
• Is there such a thing as a feminist adjudication process?
• Are these schemes really ‘alternative’ in approach?

Participants in the workshop will include:

Professor Anita Bernstein, Brooklyn Law School

Professor Chris Cunneen, UNSW Law School

Beth Goldblatt, Sydney Law School/ Honorary Senior Research Fellow, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Professor Reg Graycar (convenor), Sydney Law School

Dr Ben Mathews, QUT Law School

Professor Julie Stubbs, Sydney Law School

Jane Wangmann, Sydney Law School/UTS Law School

 

Date: Friday 3 April Time: 12.30 – 4.30pm. Common Room, New Law Building, Building F10, Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney  

To register please contact Rachel Miller at the Institute of Criminology     R.Miller@usyd.edu.au

The Sydney Institute of Criminology, NSW Attorney-General’s Department and CHD Partners presents:

 "Crime Against and the Policing of Emerging Communities"

Wednesday 8 April 2009: 1pm – 4pm

What challenges are presented for law enforcement agencies in policing emerging communities?

What challenges do emerging communities face in learning about new legal regimes and approaches to policing?

What do we know about over-representation of victims and perpetrators from emerging communities?

These are just some of the questions that will be considered at the seminar on 8 April 2009. This seminar will bring researchers and practitioners together to discuss these complex and often controversial issues.

Seminar speakers include:

Dr Garry Coventry (James Cook University, Queensland)

Dr Daren Palmer (Deakin University, Victoria)

Mr Ajang Biar (Chairman of the Community of Southern Sudanese & other marginalised areas)

Mr Thomas Ater (Sudanese Youth Worker, Migrant Resource Centre, Parramatta)

Ms Adol Takpiny (Sudanese Community Liaison Officer, NSW Attorney General's Department)

Paul Glinn (Blacktown Local Area Command, NSW Police Force)

Date: Wednesday 8 April 2009: 1pm – 4pm

Venue:  Assembly Hall, Level 3 (entry level) Sydney University Law School, 173-175 Phillip Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Registration: Please contact Rachel Miller at the Sydney Institute of Criminology to register your interest in this seminar:

R.Miller@usyd.edu.au

 

‘Hearing Voices’: The Incarceration of Women

Professor Phil Scraton - Distinguished Visiting Professor

Based on in-depth primary research with women in prison in the North of Ireland and ahead of publication of The Incarceration of Women (with Linda Moore, Palgrave Macmillan) this talk focuses on key issues regarding women’s imprisonment. These include: prison as an institutional manifestation of women’s powerlessness and vulnerability; prison understood in the context of a ‘continuum of violence’ (Kelly) and a ‘continuum of unsafety’ (Stanko); ‘agency’ and resistance; gender specificity and abolitionism. These theoretical considerations will be explored in the contexts of the day-to-day experiences of women and girl prisoners, their voices and the legacy of conflict in Ireland.

Phil Scraton PhD is Professor of Criminology in the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast where he is Director of the Childhood, Transition and Social Justice Initiative. Widely published, his recent books include: ‘Childhood’ in ‘Crisis’?; Hillsborough: The Truth; Beyond September 11; Power, Conflict and Criminalisation. With Jude McCulloch he is co-editor of The Violence of Incarceration and a special issue of Social Justice on deaths in custody and detention. He is co-author (with Linda Moore) of The Hurt Inside: The Imprisonment of Women and Girls in Northern Ireland and The Prison Within (Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission) and The Incarceration of Women (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming). He is a founder member of INQUEST and Action Prisons.

5.30 - 7.45pm Thursday 12th March 2009 Law School Building F10 Eastern Avenue University of Sydney

Download Flyer here

Online Registration

 

Thinking thief, thinking designer - designing out crime from places and products

The Sydney Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney in conjunction with CHD Partners and SJB Architects present a seminar by:Professor Paul Ekblom, Associate Director, Design Against Crime Research Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

Faculty of Law, 173 Phillip St Sydney
4pm Friday 5th December 2008

Paul Ekblom read psychology and gained his PhD at University College London. As a researcher in the UK Home Office for many years, Paul worked on the full range of crime prevention projects; also horizon-scanning; Design against Crime and developing the professional discipline and knowledge management of crime prevention. Paul has worked internationally with EU Crime Prevention Network, Europol, UN and Council of Europe. He is currently Professor and Co-Director of the University of the Arts London Research Centre on Design Against Crime, based at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Here, he works on design and evaluation of products, places, systems and communications as well as continuing to develop practical conceptual frameworks for general crime prevention.

Masculinities and Crime

Professor Kerry Carrington is Acting Head of the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences at the University of New England. Among her broad research interests are juvenile justice, youth culture and female delinquency, crime and violence in rural Australia, and a range of social policy issues.

Dr Michael Flood is a Research Fellow at La Trobe University, funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth). He conducts research on violence prevention, men and gender, male heterosexuality, fathering, and sexual and reproductive health, and has published on how to engage men in violence prevention, best practice in primary prevention, and factors shaping violence-supportive attitudes.

For decades criminology neglected the relationship between masculinity and crime – why was it that men were responsible for the bulk of officially recorded crimes, and especially violent crimes? There has been an increasing body of criminological literature on masculinities and crime in recent times but there is still significant work to be done in assessing the dimensions of masculinities and crime in a range of settings. This seminar will consider questions of masculinity and violence and will examine the potential for preventing male violence.

 

Recent Seminars in the Beyond Punishment Series:

Beyond Punishment: Measuring Efficiency:

A seminar in the Beyond Punishment Series presented in association with the NSW Department of Corrective Services.

Speakers
Luke Grant MSc Assistant Commissioner, Offender Services and Programs NSW Department of Corrective Services: Luke Grant was appointed Assistant Commissioner, Offender Services and Programs in June 2006 prior to which he was Assistant Commissioner Offender Management. Mr Grant has held a number of positions in the Department in the areas of inmate classification, programs and education and comes from a background in tertiary education. The Assistant Commissioner Offender Services and Programs is responsible for offender services and programs in custody and in the community including Corrective Services Industries and inmate classification and case management.
Dr Don Weatherburn, FASSA Director, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.Dr Don Weatherburn has been Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in Sydney since 1988 and is an Adjunct Professor with the School of Social Science and Policy at the University of New South Wales.
Emeritus Professor David Brown, University of New South Wales: David Brown is Emeritus Professor at the University of NSW, where he taught criminal law, criminal justice, criminology and penology from 1974 to 2008. He has been active in criminal justice movements, issues and debates for over three decades and is a regular media commentator. He has co-authored or co-edited The Prison Struggle (1982); The Judgments of Lionel Murphy (1986); Death in the Hands of the State (1988); Criminal Laws in four editions (1990); (1996); (2001); (2006); Rethinking Law and Order (1998); Prisoners as Citizens (2002); and The New Punitiveness (2005).
Dr. Mindy Sotiri BSW, PhD, Board Member of the Community Restorative Centre (CRC) Dr. Mindy Sotiri BSW, PhD, (UNSW) has worked as a social worker and researcher in the criminal justice system for over ten years. She currently serves on the board of the Community Restorative Centre (CRC) and is a founding member of the Beyond Bars Alliance. Her doctorate completed in 2002 examined the purpose of imprisonment in NSW.

The total number of inmates held in NSW correctional facilities has, like prison populations on a global scale, increased over the past three decades. Amongst other factors increases in recorded crime rates throughout the 1970s and 1980s resulted in an increased global willingness to imprison those deemed a threat.

More recently interest has been shown in measuring the efficiency of correctional programs and how this might reduce rates of offending overall. The current NSW State Plan includes targets of a 10% reduction in reoffending by 2016. This seminar discusses the ways in which measures of success (or failure) in correctional environments are currently, and might best be, assessed.

Wednesday 12 November 2008, 5.30pm – 7.30pm Download Flyer here

This Series engages in critical debate about prisons, community programs and related issus. Co-sponsored by the NSW Department of Corrective Services.

For information on past seminars in the series see the
Beyond Punishment Series page.

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For further information contact Rachel Miller at r.miller@usyd.edu.au or 02 9351 0239.