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Angela Dwyer

University of Tasmania, School of Social Sciences, Faculty Member

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Dr. Angela Dwyer is an Associate Professor in Policing Studies and Emergency Management, School of Social Sciences, at the University of Tasmania. From 2007 to 2015, she worked as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Justice, Faculty of Law, at the Queensland University of Technology. Her current research interests are focused on how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender young people experience policing, and the broader impact of sexuality and gender diversity on criminal justice processes. She is lead editor of Queering Criminology with Matthew Ball and Thomas Crofts, published with Palgrave MacMillan. She has gained competitive research funding (including a Criminology Research Grant) to conduct research projects on: LGBTI young people experience policing; how LGBTI people interact with LGBTI police liaison officers; evaluating youth crime prevention programs; the historical experiences of LGBTI police officers; and the policing experiences of young people with intellectual disabilities. Angela has been a recipient of five Vice Chancellor’s Performance Fund awards, three for excellence in teaching in 2007 and 2008, and two for excellence in research in 2010 and 2012.
Phone: +61 3 6226 2337
Address: School of Social Science
University of Tasmania (Hobart campus)
Private Bag 22
Hobart
Tasmania 7001
Australia

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Kristin Heffernan

State University of New York @ Brockport

University of Cape Town

Elena Neiterman

University of Tasmania

Jennifer Musial

New Jersey City University

Lisa Folkmarson Käll

Stockholm University

The Open University

Clemson University

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Papers by Angela Dwyer

From private to public bodies: Normalising pregnant bodies in Western culture

Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex : a discourse analysis of online public commentary about 'queering' school spaces

Peter Lang Publishing Group eBooks, 2010

Dwyer, Angela E. &amp;lt;http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Dwyer,_Angela.html&amp;gt;... more Dwyer, Angela E. &amp;lt;http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Dwyer,_Angela.html&amp;gt; (2010) Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex : a discourse analysis of online public commentary about &amp;#x27;queering&amp;#x27; school spaces. In Scherer, Burkhard (Ed.) Queering Paradigms. Peter Lang ...

Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee: Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

Faculty of Law, Nov 8, 2012

Support Provided by LGBTI Police Liaison Services: An Analysis of a Survey of LGBTIQ People in Australia

Police Quarterly, Dec 12, 2021

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) police liaison programs were establishe... more Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) police liaison programs were established around Australia from the late 1980s onwards to ameliorate discriminatory relationships between LGBTIQ people and police. With specialized training to better understand LGBTIQ issues, police liaison officers can provide support to LGBTIQ people as victims, offenders, or witnesses. Interestingly, very few LGBTIQ people seek support from these officers, even though many know they exist. This paper reports the results of a survey of a sample of LGBTIQ community members across two Australian states (Queensland and New South Wales) that explored why LGBTIQ people seek support from LGBTI police liaison officers. An online questionnaire asked LGBTIQ people about their perceptions of, and experiences with, police generally, and LGBTI police liaison officers specifically. Similar to past research, our analysis primarily found high levels of awareness of liaison officers, but very few participants accessed them. Further, and concerningly, the participants were generally reluctant to seek them out for support. Key implications of our findings for policy and practice development in police and LGBTIQ community services are discussed.

Queering Police Administration: How Policing Administration Complicates LGBTIQ–Police Relations

Administrative Theory & Praxis, Sep 23, 2019

This article argues administration of police organizations may create barriers and facilitators f... more This article argues administration of police organizations may create barriers and facilitators for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ) and/or questioning those seeking police support. With research to date focused on frontline LGBTIQ-police experiences, we are yet to examine the influence of administration. This article begins this conversation using data from research projects documenting policing experiences of LGBTIQ people in Australia to show how we may need to queer police administrative systems to better support LGBTIQ people. The data discussed demonstrates the need for further research exploring how administration of police organizations can complicate supportive LGBTIQ-police relationships. There is no doubt that relationships between police and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people have been problematic in the past. Historically, police have targeted LGBTIQ people because they represented immoral behaviors criminalized via legislative frameworks, with discrimination and violence from police a common experience (Comstock, 1991). Even gay-and lesbian-identifying police officers report experiencing marginalization and discrimination from other police (Colvin, 2009, 2012a; Jones, 2015). LGBTIQ people now have limited respect for police in the contemporary context based on past interactions, but they can still be subject to significant discrimination and violence from police (Williams & Robinson, 2004) and groups with LGBTIQ communities (such as young people) can be subject to over-policing (Dwyer, 2011; Himmelstein & Bruckner, 2011). Police organizations have responded to negative experiences reported by LGBTIQ-identifying police and LGBTIQ people by working to build better relationships (Tomsen, 2009) through service enhancement initiatives like LGBTI police liaison programs (Dwyer & Ball, 2013) and LGBTI police staff support networks (Duffy, 2016). All these issues color interactions between LGBTIQ people and police organizations as LGBTIQ people attempt to navigate administrative processes.

Unspeakably present: the (un)acknowledgment of diverse sexuality and gender human rights in Australian youth justice systems

Australian journal of human rights, Jul 1, 2014

A number of international human rights frameworks protect the rights of young people in contact w... more A number of international human rights frameworks protect the rights of young people in contact with the criminal justice system in states parties, including Australia. These frameworks inform youth justice policy in Australia's jurisdictions. While the frameworks protect young people's right to non-discrimination on the grounds of 'race', religion and political opinion, the rights of young people to non-discrimination on the grounds of sexuality and gender diversity are not explicitly protected. This is problematic given that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) young people appear over-represented in youth justice systems. This article argues that the exclusion of this group from human rights frameworks has an important flow-on effect: the marginalisation of the right of LGBTIQ young people to non-discrimination in policy and discourse that is informed by international human rights frameworks. After outlining the relevant frameworks, this article examines the evidence about LGBTIQ young people's interactions with youth justice agencies, particularly police. The evidence indicates that the human rights of LGBTIQ young people are frequently breached in these interactions. We conclude by arguing that it is timely to consider how best to protect the human rights of LBGTIQ young people and keep their rights on the agenda.

Queering policing: what is best practice with LGBTQ communities?

Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Jul 3, 2019

This paper explores the notion of best practice policing with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, tran... more This paper explores the notion of best practice policing with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities. Rather than wholeheartedly endorsing this notion, however, this paper is driven by the discussion of questioning moments that emerged from a number of Australian research projects focused on how police interact with LGBTQ people and from other moments of discussion about how we ought to counsel recruits to interact with LGBTQ people in police training. Using a queer, poststructural theoretical framework, and filtered through an ethics of discomfort, the paper works through these questioning moments that I have experienced as a researcher doing work that seeks to define LGBTQ-police relations and to better elaborate best practice. The analysis highlights the slipperiness of the idea of best practice and questions whether or not it is actually feasible and achievable. It also presents as a warning to policing stakeholders of becoming too comfortable with stipulating processes and practices of best practice policing with LGBTQ people into the future.

“You’d Just Cop Flak From Every Other Dickhead Under the Sun”: Navigating the Tensions of (In)visibility and Hypervisibility in LGBTI Police Liaison Programs in Three Australian States

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Jan 29, 2020

This article examines the different ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (... more This article examines the different ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) police liaison officers in three states of Australia conceptualized and problematized the public visibility of LGBTI police liaison services. In a climate where LGBTI police liaison services are a prominent model for building relationships between police and LGBTI people, this article considers, through interview data with LGBTI police liaison officers, these officers’ perceptions of the role that the visibility of these programs played in their success. Specifically, it explores the tensions and difficulties for officers and LGBTI communities resulting from the general invisibility of liaison officers themselves (and, by extension, these programs), as well as the problems that increased visibility of these programs might bring to officers, to LGBTI communities, and to policing work itself. Although enhancing the visibility of liaison services may be an important goal, this research suggests that careful consideration is required regarding how this visibility is produced and maintained, particularly given the concerns that officers reported about the potential risks posed by adopting new forms of visibility, including the risk of hypervisibility. This article questions the conventional view that increased visibility is unproblematic and is the key to the success of such programs.

Disorder or Delight? Towards a New Account of the Fashion Model Body

Fashion Theory, Dec 1, 2004

The body of the fashion model is not always an object of admiration. Extensive criticism has been... more The body of the fashion model is not always an object of admiration. Extensive criticism has been directed at the sordid and sometimes grotesquely unhealthy and inappropriate bodily appearance of the fashion model body. The disorderliness of the model body is particularly conspicuous in research literature that interrogates the fashion model in terms of illness and possible treatment. Such accounts can work out of assumptions about the model body as intrinsically disorderly, even dangerous, imbued with the capacity to 'infect' a healthy population. This paper analyses these research accounts, taking as its particular point of interest the ways in which the model body is constituted as a 'naturally' disorderly entity in need of medical intervention. The paper preempts fresh analyses of the 'influence' of the fashion model body as disciplined, precise analyses that are possible once the discursive opposition between desire and discipline is undone. the either or of disorder and pleasure. What follows then, is an attempt to make a case for drawing on new conceptual tools in order to better account for the embodied 'disciplinary' (Foucault 1977) work of the fashion model in contemporary society. Noxious bodies: models of malady Of all the literatures interrogating the fashion model body it is the literature of disorder that is most conspicuous. Studies evaluate the model body as problematic, even malevolent as a body that produces negative physical and psychological effects for young people (Botta 1999; Fay & Price 1994; Martin & Gentry 1997). This body of literature situates the body of the fashion model in two ways: as a case of disorder and as a cause of disorder. This literature at times moves to panic as researchers 'worry' about how the fashion model body embodies a sordid yet desirable physical figure: Forehead taut as though gripped by a medieval torture instrument. Cavities where her cheeks ought to be. A chin like the blade of a hatchet. Stringy neck and bony arms. Wafer breasts. Not enough belly to digest lunch. Not enough lap to hold a cat. Legs like the shafts of golf clubs (Erwin 1998: 30). An important metaphor is used in this passage. Erwin (1998) highlights how as the model body is 'taut' it is consequently a disorderly body, a body 'gripped' by disorderliness. The central understanding of 'tautness' presented here is that of 'unhealthiness' with the focus being on the negative outcomes that sculpting a 'taut' body has for an individual. It is interesting to note at this point, however, that 'tautness' is also a state of embodiment from which many individuals derive increasing pleasures [2]. Multiple pleasures are produced out of engaging with the rigorous, even punishing bodily discipline involved in exercising, dieting and toning

Policing Visible Sexual/Gender Diversity as a Program of Governance

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Nov 5, 2012

Using interview data on LGBT young people's policing experiences, I argue policing and security w... more Using interview data on LGBT young people's policing experiences, I argue policing and security works as a program of government (Dean 1999; Foucault 1991; Rose 1999) that constrains the visibilities of diverse sexuality and gender in public spaces. While young people narrated police actions as discriminatory, the interactions were complex and multi-faceted with police and security working to subtly constrain the public visibilities of 'queerness'. Same sex affection, for instance, was visibly yet unverifiably (Mason 2002) regulated by police as a method of governing the boundaries of proper gender and sexuality in public. The paper concludes by noting how the visibility of police interactions with LGBT young people demonstrates to the public that public spaces are, and should remain, heterosexual spaces.

Re-imagining youth justice

Persistent high levels of recidivism among young offenders (Luke and Lind 2002; Weatherburn et al... more Persistent high levels of recidivism among young offenders (Luke and Lind 2002; Weatherburn et al. 2012) and the over‐representation of Indigenous young people (Cunneen and White 2011; Snowball 2008; Tauri 2012) have long been features of youth justice in Australia. Other problems – such as the increased rates of young people committing sex offences (Dwyer 2011; O’Brien 2010), increasing numbers of young people criminalised for new offences such as ‘sexting’ (Lee and McGovern 2013), and increasing numbers of young female offenders being drawn into youth justice systems (Carrington 2006; Carrington and Pereira 2009) – have emerged more recently. In this paper, we draw on the concept of ‘imaginary penalities’ (Carlen 2010) to argue these chronic problems are partly informed by ‘imaginary’ understandings of how and why young people (re)offend; reflect ‘imaginary’ understandings of what works to address young people’s (re)offending; and reflect ‘imaginary’ ideals about the primary purposes of the youth justice system. We acknowledge up front that answers to these questions require a great deal of new empirical research. This paper is only a beginning that sets out exactly what such an ambitious project might look like.

Review of 'Speaking Out: Stopping Homophobic and Transphobic Abuse In Queensland

Speaking Out documents the outcomes of the largest ever study to examine homophobic and transphob... more Speaking Out documents the outcomes of the largest ever study to examine homophobic and transphobic abuse and reporting in Queensland, Australia. It reports the results of a quantitative survey on victimisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people and how this victimisation is reported to police. Follow-up qualitative interviews and focus groups were also conducted with LGBTIQ people to examine the impact of this abuse and the reporting to police. This research is timely as we can sometimes assume LGBTIQ victimisation is a historical problem and may be settled by the idea that relations with police are in good shape. This book clearly demonstrates that we have some way to go before we can be assured these issues have been resolved...

Made wrong, excluded, and ignored: Introduction to a special issue on lesbians and the law

Journal of Lesbian Studies, Apr 9, 2019

For some time now, the specific experiences that lesbians have with the law have been considerabl... more For some time now, the specific experiences that lesbians have with the law have been considerably overlooked. This is because there is a focus on how gay males have contact with the law, as gay males are the group whose same-sex intimacies are most often criminalized in legislative frameworks. It is rare for the same-sex intimacies of lesbians to be targeted explicitly in legislative frameworks. This special issue therefore focuses on how lesbians have contact with the law. It features articles focused on what the guest editors conceptualize as how lesbians are being made wrong, being excluded, and being ignored by the law, and each of these are outlined in further detail in this introduction. The articles highlight the relational nexus between lesbians and different frameworks, processes, rules, policies, institutions and applications of law, and the far-reaching impacts this nexus produces in the lives of lesbians around the world.

It’s always a pleasure : exploring productivity and pleasure in a writing group for early career academics

Faculty of Law, 2012

It's always a pleasure: exploring productivity and pleasure in a writing group for early career a... more

Making the Most of Conferences

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 20, 2020

ABSTRACT If you are anything like me, this is a time of year when attending conferences is a fore... more ABSTRACT If you are anything like me, this is a time of year when attending conferences is a foremost concern in one’s mind. This is particularly the case for postgraduate students who will forge vitally important networking links with other academics as well as practitioners from government and industry. There are many decisions to make in relation to these events: what conferences to attend; when should you attend; should they be international or national conferences; how to get around funding issues; and how you can get the most out of the event. In our third instalment of postgraduate issues discussions, I will examine some thoughts and tips on how to make these decisions strategically and smartly, and how to make the most of these important events based on my own experiences.

Submission: Proposed reforms to youth justice in Queensland

Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formattin... more

Training Sessional Academic Staff to Provide Quality Feedback on University Students' Assessment: Lessons From a Faculty of Law Learning and Teaching Project

The journal of continuing higher education, Jan 2, 2017

The literature on university learning and teaching has long demonstrated that feedback on assessm... more The literature on university learning and teaching has long demonstrated that feedback on assessment contributes more profoundly to student achievement and satisfaction than any other element of the student experience. Indeed, commenting on the results of more than 300 meta-analyses on the topic, involving studies on up to 30 million students, Hattie (as cited in Blair, Curtis, Goodwin, and Shields, 2013) claimed that "the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement is feedback" (p. 68). Increasingly, research into the most benefi cial forms of feedback for students suggests that constructive feedback contributes the most to student learning and satisfaction (Bailey, 2009;

Queer Criminology and the Global South: Setting Queer and Southern Criminologies into Dialogue

Springer eBooks, 2018

The growth of ‘Queer Criminology’ in recent years has seen greater attention being paid to the tr... more The growth of ‘Queer Criminology’ in recent years has seen greater attention being paid to the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people by criminal justice agents and institutions. While this work has developed across both the global North (the UK and the USA) and South (Australia), its epistemological, conceptual, and political foundations remain firmly situated in the global North. The more recent emergence of Southern criminology, then, offers important tools with which to reflect on the extent to which Queer criminology mirrors the epistemological and political concerns of the global North, and the implications of this for those in the global South. This chapter begins the task of drawing together these two fields. It first uses critiques drawn from the global South to examine the ways that Queer criminology reflects ‘Northern’ LGBT and Queer frameworks. It then explores the implications of transposing initiatives that may provide positive outcomes for LGBTQ people in the global North, such as community policing, into the global South without fully accounting for key differences in these contexts.

“We’re Not Like These Weird Feather Boa-Covered AIDS-Spreading Monsters”: How LGBT Young People and Service Providers Think Riskiness Informs LGBT Youth–Police Interactions

Critical Criminology, Dec 14, 2013

Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may no... more

Pleasures, Perversities, and Partnerships: The Historical Emergence of LGBT-Police Relationships

Springer eBooks, Dec 4, 2013

Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been... more Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been variously characterized as supportive (McGhee, 2004) and antagonistic (Radford, Betts, & Ostermeyer, 2006). These relationships were, and continue to be, influenced by a range of political, legal, cultural, and social factors. This chapter will examine historical and social science accounts of LGBT-police histories to chart the historical peaks and troughs in these relationships. The discussion demonstrates how, in Western contexts, we oscillate between historical moments of police criminalizing homosexual perversity and contemporary landscapes of partnership between police and LGBT people. However, the chapter challenges the notion that it is possible to trace this as a lineal progression from a painful past to a more productive present. Rather, it focuses on specific moments, marked by pain or pleasure or both, and how these moments emerge and re-emerge in ways that shaped LGBT-police landscapes in potted, uneven ways. The chapter concludes noting how, although certain ideas and police practices may shift towards more progressive notions of partnership policing, we cannot just take away the history that emerged out of mistrust and pain.

From private to public bodies: Normalising pregnant bodies in Western culture

Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex : a discourse analysis of online public commentary about 'queering' school spaces

Peter Lang Publishing Group eBooks, 2010

Dwyer, Angela E. &amp;lt;http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Dwyer,_Angela.html&amp;gt;... more Dwyer, Angela E. &amp;lt;http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Dwyer,_Angela.html&amp;gt; (2010) Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex : a discourse analysis of online public commentary about &amp;#x27;queering&amp;#x27; school spaces. In Scherer, Burkhard (Ed.) Queering Paradigms. Peter Lang ...

Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee: Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

Faculty of Law, Nov 8, 2012

Support Provided by LGBTI Police Liaison Services: An Analysis of a Survey of LGBTIQ People in Australia

Police Quarterly, Dec 12, 2021

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) police liaison programs were establishe... more Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) police liaison programs were established around Australia from the late 1980s onwards to ameliorate discriminatory relationships between LGBTIQ people and police. With specialized training to better understand LGBTIQ issues, police liaison officers can provide support to LGBTIQ people as victims, offenders, or witnesses. Interestingly, very few LGBTIQ people seek support from these officers, even though many know they exist. This paper reports the results of a survey of a sample of LGBTIQ community members across two Australian states (Queensland and New South Wales) that explored why LGBTIQ people seek support from LGBTI police liaison officers. An online questionnaire asked LGBTIQ people about their perceptions of, and experiences with, police generally, and LGBTI police liaison officers specifically. Similar to past research, our analysis primarily found high levels of awareness of liaison officers, but very few participants accessed them. Further, and concerningly, the participants were generally reluctant to seek them out for support. Key implications of our findings for policy and practice development in police and LGBTIQ community services are discussed.

Queering Police Administration: How Policing Administration Complicates LGBTIQ–Police Relations

Administrative Theory & Praxis, Sep 23, 2019

This article argues administration of police organizations may create barriers and facilitators f... more This article argues administration of police organizations may create barriers and facilitators for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ) and/or questioning those seeking police support. With research to date focused on frontline LGBTIQ-police experiences, we are yet to examine the influence of administration. This article begins this conversation using data from research projects documenting policing experiences of LGBTIQ people in Australia to show how we may need to queer police administrative systems to better support LGBTIQ people. The data discussed demonstrates the need for further research exploring how administration of police organizations can complicate supportive LGBTIQ-police relationships. There is no doubt that relationships between police and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people have been problematic in the past. Historically, police have targeted LGBTIQ people because they represented immoral behaviors criminalized via legislative frameworks, with discrimination and violence from police a common experience (Comstock, 1991). Even gay-and lesbian-identifying police officers report experiencing marginalization and discrimination from other police (Colvin, 2009, 2012a; Jones, 2015). LGBTIQ people now have limited respect for police in the contemporary context based on past interactions, but they can still be subject to significant discrimination and violence from police (Williams & Robinson, 2004) and groups with LGBTIQ communities (such as young people) can be subject to over-policing (Dwyer, 2011; Himmelstein & Bruckner, 2011). Police organizations have responded to negative experiences reported by LGBTIQ-identifying police and LGBTIQ people by working to build better relationships (Tomsen, 2009) through service enhancement initiatives like LGBTI police liaison programs (Dwyer & Ball, 2013) and LGBTI police staff support networks (Duffy, 2016). All these issues color interactions between LGBTIQ people and police organizations as LGBTIQ people attempt to navigate administrative processes.

Unspeakably present: the (un)acknowledgment of diverse sexuality and gender human rights in Australian youth justice systems

Australian journal of human rights, Jul 1, 2014

A number of international human rights frameworks protect the rights of young people in contact w... more A number of international human rights frameworks protect the rights of young people in contact with the criminal justice system in states parties, including Australia. These frameworks inform youth justice policy in Australia's jurisdictions. While the frameworks protect young people's right to non-discrimination on the grounds of 'race', religion and political opinion, the rights of young people to non-discrimination on the grounds of sexuality and gender diversity are not explicitly protected. This is problematic given that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) young people appear over-represented in youth justice systems. This article argues that the exclusion of this group from human rights frameworks has an important flow-on effect: the marginalisation of the right of LGBTIQ young people to non-discrimination in policy and discourse that is informed by international human rights frameworks. After outlining the relevant frameworks, this article examines the evidence about LGBTIQ young people's interactions with youth justice agencies, particularly police. The evidence indicates that the human rights of LGBTIQ young people are frequently breached in these interactions. We conclude by arguing that it is timely to consider how best to protect the human rights of LBGTIQ young people and keep their rights on the agenda.

Queering policing: what is best practice with LGBTQ communities?

Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Jul 3, 2019

This paper explores the notion of best practice policing with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, tran... more This paper explores the notion of best practice policing with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities. Rather than wholeheartedly endorsing this notion, however, this paper is driven by the discussion of questioning moments that emerged from a number of Australian research projects focused on how police interact with LGBTQ people and from other moments of discussion about how we ought to counsel recruits to interact with LGBTQ people in police training. Using a queer, poststructural theoretical framework, and filtered through an ethics of discomfort, the paper works through these questioning moments that I have experienced as a researcher doing work that seeks to define LGBTQ-police relations and to better elaborate best practice. The analysis highlights the slipperiness of the idea of best practice and questions whether or not it is actually feasible and achievable. It also presents as a warning to policing stakeholders of becoming too comfortable with stipulating processes and practices of best practice policing with LGBTQ people into the future.

“You’d Just Cop Flak From Every Other Dickhead Under the Sun”: Navigating the Tensions of (In)visibility and Hypervisibility in LGBTI Police Liaison Programs in Three Australian States

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Jan 29, 2020

This article examines the different ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (... more This article examines the different ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) police liaison officers in three states of Australia conceptualized and problematized the public visibility of LGBTI police liaison services. In a climate where LGBTI police liaison services are a prominent model for building relationships between police and LGBTI people, this article considers, through interview data with LGBTI police liaison officers, these officers’ perceptions of the role that the visibility of these programs played in their success. Specifically, it explores the tensions and difficulties for officers and LGBTI communities resulting from the general invisibility of liaison officers themselves (and, by extension, these programs), as well as the problems that increased visibility of these programs might bring to officers, to LGBTI communities, and to policing work itself. Although enhancing the visibility of liaison services may be an important goal, this research suggests that careful consideration is required regarding how this visibility is produced and maintained, particularly given the concerns that officers reported about the potential risks posed by adopting new forms of visibility, including the risk of hypervisibility. This article questions the conventional view that increased visibility is unproblematic and is the key to the success of such programs.

Disorder or Delight? Towards a New Account of the Fashion Model Body

Fashion Theory, Dec 1, 2004

The body of the fashion model is not always an object of admiration. Extensive criticism has been... more The body of the fashion model is not always an object of admiration. Extensive criticism has been directed at the sordid and sometimes grotesquely unhealthy and inappropriate bodily appearance of the fashion model body. The disorderliness of the model body is particularly conspicuous in research literature that interrogates the fashion model in terms of illness and possible treatment. Such accounts can work out of assumptions about the model body as intrinsically disorderly, even dangerous, imbued with the capacity to 'infect' a healthy population. This paper analyses these research accounts, taking as its particular point of interest the ways in which the model body is constituted as a 'naturally' disorderly entity in need of medical intervention. The paper preempts fresh analyses of the 'influence' of the fashion model body as disciplined, precise analyses that are possible once the discursive opposition between desire and discipline is undone. the either or of disorder and pleasure. What follows then, is an attempt to make a case for drawing on new conceptual tools in order to better account for the embodied 'disciplinary' (Foucault 1977) work of the fashion model in contemporary society. Noxious bodies: models of malady Of all the literatures interrogating the fashion model body it is the literature of disorder that is most conspicuous. Studies evaluate the model body as problematic, even malevolent as a body that produces negative physical and psychological effects for young people (Botta 1999; Fay & Price 1994; Martin & Gentry 1997). This body of literature situates the body of the fashion model in two ways: as a case of disorder and as a cause of disorder. This literature at times moves to panic as researchers 'worry' about how the fashion model body embodies a sordid yet desirable physical figure: Forehead taut as though gripped by a medieval torture instrument. Cavities where her cheeks ought to be. A chin like the blade of a hatchet. Stringy neck and bony arms. Wafer breasts. Not enough belly to digest lunch. Not enough lap to hold a cat. Legs like the shafts of golf clubs (Erwin 1998: 30). An important metaphor is used in this passage. Erwin (1998) highlights how as the model body is 'taut' it is consequently a disorderly body, a body 'gripped' by disorderliness. The central understanding of 'tautness' presented here is that of 'unhealthiness' with the focus being on the negative outcomes that sculpting a 'taut' body has for an individual. It is interesting to note at this point, however, that 'tautness' is also a state of embodiment from which many individuals derive increasing pleasures [2]. Multiple pleasures are produced out of engaging with the rigorous, even punishing bodily discipline involved in exercising, dieting and toning

Policing Visible Sexual/Gender Diversity as a Program of Governance

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Nov 5, 2012

Using interview data on LGBT young people's policing experiences, I argue policing and security w... more Using interview data on LGBT young people's policing experiences, I argue policing and security works as a program of government (Dean 1999; Foucault 1991; Rose 1999) that constrains the visibilities of diverse sexuality and gender in public spaces. While young people narrated police actions as discriminatory, the interactions were complex and multi-faceted with police and security working to subtly constrain the public visibilities of 'queerness'. Same sex affection, for instance, was visibly yet unverifiably (Mason 2002) regulated by police as a method of governing the boundaries of proper gender and sexuality in public. The paper concludes by noting how the visibility of police interactions with LGBT young people demonstrates to the public that public spaces are, and should remain, heterosexual spaces.

Re-imagining youth justice

Persistent high levels of recidivism among young offenders (Luke and Lind 2002; Weatherburn et al... more Persistent high levels of recidivism among young offenders (Luke and Lind 2002; Weatherburn et al. 2012) and the over‐representation of Indigenous young people (Cunneen and White 2011; Snowball 2008; Tauri 2012) have long been features of youth justice in Australia. Other problems – such as the increased rates of young people committing sex offences (Dwyer 2011; O’Brien 2010), increasing numbers of young people criminalised for new offences such as ‘sexting’ (Lee and McGovern 2013), and increasing numbers of young female offenders being drawn into youth justice systems (Carrington 2006; Carrington and Pereira 2009) – have emerged more recently. In this paper, we draw on the concept of ‘imaginary penalities’ (Carlen 2010) to argue these chronic problems are partly informed by ‘imaginary’ understandings of how and why young people (re)offend; reflect ‘imaginary’ understandings of what works to address young people’s (re)offending; and reflect ‘imaginary’ ideals about the primary purposes of the youth justice system. We acknowledge up front that answers to these questions require a great deal of new empirical research. This paper is only a beginning that sets out exactly what such an ambitious project might look like.

Review of 'Speaking Out: Stopping Homophobic and Transphobic Abuse In Queensland

Speaking Out documents the outcomes of the largest ever study to examine homophobic and transphob... more Speaking Out documents the outcomes of the largest ever study to examine homophobic and transphobic abuse and reporting in Queensland, Australia. It reports the results of a quantitative survey on victimisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people and how this victimisation is reported to police. Follow-up qualitative interviews and focus groups were also conducted with LGBTIQ people to examine the impact of this abuse and the reporting to police. This research is timely as we can sometimes assume LGBTIQ victimisation is a historical problem and may be settled by the idea that relations with police are in good shape. This book clearly demonstrates that we have some way to go before we can be assured these issues have been resolved...

Made wrong, excluded, and ignored: Introduction to a special issue on lesbians and the law

Journal of Lesbian Studies, Apr 9, 2019

For some time now, the specific experiences that lesbians have with the law have been considerabl... more For some time now, the specific experiences that lesbians have with the law have been considerably overlooked. This is because there is a focus on how gay males have contact with the law, as gay males are the group whose same-sex intimacies are most often criminalized in legislative frameworks. It is rare for the same-sex intimacies of lesbians to be targeted explicitly in legislative frameworks. This special issue therefore focuses on how lesbians have contact with the law. It features articles focused on what the guest editors conceptualize as how lesbians are being made wrong, being excluded, and being ignored by the law, and each of these are outlined in further detail in this introduction. The articles highlight the relational nexus between lesbians and different frameworks, processes, rules, policies, institutions and applications of law, and the far-reaching impacts this nexus produces in the lives of lesbians around the world.

It’s always a pleasure : exploring productivity and pleasure in a writing group for early career academics

Faculty of Law, 2012

It's always a pleasure: exploring productivity and pleasure in a writing group for early career a... more

Making the Most of Conferences

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 20, 2020

ABSTRACT If you are anything like me, this is a time of year when attending conferences is a fore... more ABSTRACT If you are anything like me, this is a time of year when attending conferences is a foremost concern in one’s mind. This is particularly the case for postgraduate students who will forge vitally important networking links with other academics as well as practitioners from government and industry. There are many decisions to make in relation to these events: what conferences to attend; when should you attend; should they be international or national conferences; how to get around funding issues; and how you can get the most out of the event. In our third instalment of postgraduate issues discussions, I will examine some thoughts and tips on how to make these decisions strategically and smartly, and how to make the most of these important events based on my own experiences.

Submission: Proposed reforms to youth justice in Queensland

Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formattin... more

Training Sessional Academic Staff to Provide Quality Feedback on University Students' Assessment: Lessons From a Faculty of Law Learning and Teaching Project

The journal of continuing higher education, Jan 2, 2017

The literature on university learning and teaching has long demonstrated that feedback on assessm... more The literature on university learning and teaching has long demonstrated that feedback on assessment contributes more profoundly to student achievement and satisfaction than any other element of the student experience. Indeed, commenting on the results of more than 300 meta-analyses on the topic, involving studies on up to 30 million students, Hattie (as cited in Blair, Curtis, Goodwin, and Shields, 2013) claimed that "the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement is feedback" (p. 68). Increasingly, research into the most benefi cial forms of feedback for students suggests that constructive feedback contributes the most to student learning and satisfaction (Bailey, 2009;

Queer Criminology and the Global South: Setting Queer and Southern Criminologies into Dialogue

Springer eBooks, 2018

The growth of ‘Queer Criminology’ in recent years has seen greater attention being paid to the tr... more The growth of ‘Queer Criminology’ in recent years has seen greater attention being paid to the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people by criminal justice agents and institutions. While this work has developed across both the global North (the UK and the USA) and South (Australia), its epistemological, conceptual, and political foundations remain firmly situated in the global North. The more recent emergence of Southern criminology, then, offers important tools with which to reflect on the extent to which Queer criminology mirrors the epistemological and political concerns of the global North, and the implications of this for those in the global South. This chapter begins the task of drawing together these two fields. It first uses critiques drawn from the global South to examine the ways that Queer criminology reflects ‘Northern’ LGBT and Queer frameworks. It then explores the implications of transposing initiatives that may provide positive outcomes for LGBTQ people in the global North, such as community policing, into the global South without fully accounting for key differences in these contexts.

“We’re Not Like These Weird Feather Boa-Covered AIDS-Spreading Monsters”: How LGBT Young People and Service Providers Think Riskiness Informs LGBT Youth–Police Interactions

Critical Criminology, Dec 14, 2013

Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may no... more

Pleasures, Perversities, and Partnerships: The Historical Emergence of LGBT-Police Relationships

Springer eBooks, Dec 4, 2013

Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been... more Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been variously characterized as supportive (McGhee, 2004) and antagonistic (Radford, Betts, & Ostermeyer, 2006). These relationships were, and continue to be, influenced by a range of political, legal, cultural, and social factors. This chapter will examine historical and social science accounts of LGBT-police histories to chart the historical peaks and troughs in these relationships. The discussion demonstrates how, in Western contexts, we oscillate between historical moments of police criminalizing homosexual perversity and contemporary landscapes of partnership between police and LGBT people. However, the chapter challenges the notion that it is possible to trace this as a lineal progression from a painful past to a more productive present. Rather, it focuses on specific moments, marked by pain or pleasure or both, and how these moments emerge and re-emerge in ways that shaped LGBT-police landscapes in potted, uneven ways. The chapter concludes noting how, although certain ideas and police practices may shift towards more progressive notions of partnership policing, we cannot just take away the history that emerged out of mistrust and pain.

Case Study: Policing Sexualities

Policing in Context: An introduction to police work in Australia, 2008

Some of the models of policing outlined in this chapter, while certainly useful, have been critic... more Some of the models of policing outlined in this chapter, while certainly useful, have been criticised for 'over-policing' (White & Perrone 2005) diverse social groups, leading to their over-representation in criminal justice processes (Williams & Murphy 1990; Kennison 2002). Researchers argue that police may target these groups as 'deviant' and in need of regulation. One example is the relationship between queer communities and police, a relationship characterised as both supportive (McGhee 2003; Baird 1997), and antagonistic (Burke 1992; Radford, Betts & Ostermeyer 2006; Thompson 1997). A range of political, social and legal factors have informed this, particularly the historical criminalisation of homosexuality (Richardson, Smith & Alexander 1997; Smith 1988). These factors have shaped how queer communities are policed: when homosexuality is criminalised, police constitute the initial point of suspicion, intervention and apprehension of 'offenders' (Williams & Robinson 2004). Two examples of policing sexualities in Australia will be used here to demonstrate the effect that two different models of policing can have on communities in practice: the

Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex: a discourse analysis of online public commentary about ‘queering’ school spaces

Queering Paradigms, 2010

Homophobic hatred: these words summarise online commentary made by people in support of a school ... more Homophobic hatred: these words summarise online commentary made by people in support of a school that banned gay students from taking their same sex partners to a school formal. With the growing popularity of online news sites, it seems appropriate to critically examine how these sites are becoming a new arena in which people can express personal opinions about controversial topics. While commentators equally expressed two dominant viewpoints about the school ban (homophobic hatred and human rights), this paper focuses on homophobic hatred as a discursive position and how the comments work to confirm the legitimacy of the schools' decision. Drawing on the work of Foucault and others, the paper examines how the comments constitute certain types of subjectivity drawing on dominant ideas about what it means to be homophobic. The analysis demonstrates the complex and competing skein of strategies that constitute queering school social spaces as a social problem.

Queer Cops in Queensland: Exploring LGBT Narrative Histories in the Queensland Police Service1

Queering Paradigms II: Interrogating agendas , 2011

Histories of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) police officers are silent histories in a... more Histories of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) police officers are silent histories in an international context. As their sexual practices have been criminalized during various periods in recent history, they typically lived under the cover of silence. While the work of Australian historians (Moore 2001) demonstrates how LGBT people have been wronged by criminal justice processes, contemporary discussion suggests there has been little acknowledgement of discrimination or persecution. As such, even though history evidences “a nationally agreed policy by police forces that homosexuality was a problem to be targeted” (Willett 2008), the experiences of LGBT officers have not been mapped in Australia.
This paper reports on a narrative project recording the experiences of LGBT former and current police officers in the Queensland Police Service (QPS), Australia. We begin by examining the historical and research contexts of LGBT police officers, followed by a discussion of the methodology employed for the project. We then examine key themes emerging from the data about coming out, macho police culture, and the double life syndrome often experienced by LGBT police officers.

Getting lost in the field: the unpredictable nature of fieldwork with young people

Qualitative Criminology: Stories from the field, 2011

In this chapter, we draw on our collective experience conducting qualitative field research with ... more In this chapter, we draw on our collective experience conducting qualitative field research with young people to highlight the unpredictable nature of fieldwork. A key point we make is that while many qualitative methodology textbooks tend to portray field research as seamless and straightforward with rules applying to all field situations, the reality of field research with young people is often is far removed from these ideal portrayals and can leave researchers ‘lost’ in the field.
The problematic nature of fieldwork with young people is made even more difficult by the prevailing assumption they are a social problem to be regulated (France, 2004). This assumption stands in direct contradiction to, and in constant tension with, the idea that young people are already ‘at risk’ of being exploited by researcher adults. The simultaneously ‘vulnerable’ and ‘problematic’ young person therefore requires methodologies that flex and shift according to specific research contexts. Two examples of these contexts will be discussed in this paper. To incorporate the age brackets of young participants in both projects discussed in this chapter, we define ‘young people’ as people aged 10 to 21 years.

Pleasures, perversities, and partnerships: the historical emergence of LGBT-police relationships

The Handbook of LGBT Communities, Crime, and Justice , 2014

Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been... more Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been variously characterized as supportive (McGhee, 2004) and antagonistic (Radford, Betts, & Ostermeyer, 2006). These relationships were, and continue to be, influenced by a range of political, legal, cultural, and social factors. This chapter will examine historical and

Two mums and some babies: queering motherhood

Natal Signs: Cultural Representations of Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting, 2015

This paper offers an analysis of one account of one family. Using a narrative as its basis, it of... more This paper offers an analysis of one account of one family. Using a narrative as its basis, it offers an opportunity to see into the lives, and home, of one family parented by a lesbian couple. This couple has been together for six years and has four children. The family has a mix of ‘foster to adopt’ and birth children between the ages of one and six. One of the women is an academic. The other is a stay at home mother. The family is located in one of Australia’s capital cities and lives in a suburban area, close to schools, parks and shopping centres. The analysis elaborates how this lesbian family challenges heteronormative modes of performing family in ways that outdo discourses of family on their own terms, with a particular focus on how the speaker in the data positions themselves and is positioned in terms of queering discourses of motherhood.

The Past is the Past? The Impossibility of Erasure of Historical LGBTIQ Policing

Queering Criminology , 2015

In this chapter, we ask the question: does the persistence of the past and its memory always work... more In this chapter, we ask the question: does the persistence of the past and its memory always work against progressive LGBTIQ policing? We suggest this policing history demonstrates discursive history in action. We hope to show how the remnant traces of past policing can re-emerge to profoundly shape relations in the present. While this may not appear at first to be an important consideration, we suggest that it may significantly shape the government of LGBTIQ policing in particular. If history is discursive, and continues to shape and reshape how we think about policing in the present, this suggests also why governmental regulation of this policing (in the form of police liaison programs for instance) fails to overcome or wholly ameliorate adverse recollections of the former policing of LGBTIQ people. Here, we first overview some understandings of police-LGBTIQ relationships as presented in research and literature. We then draw from the conceptualisations of history of Foucault and other post-structuralist writers to show how it may be impossible to fully erase the effects of traditional policing. The chapter then considers a case study (the policing of Mardi Gras, Sydney, 2013) and information from a series of qualitative research interviews to demonstrate how traces of past policing may re-emerge in the present in a cycle of discursive reiteration through the thoughts and statements of LGBTIQ people. We conclude noting these discursive traces still circulate and undermine the governmental work of policing organisations in the present.

Queering Criminologies Introduction

Queering Criminology , 2015

In recent times, there has been a move towards an academic articulation of the nexus between quee... more In recent times, there has been a move towards an academic articulation of the nexus between queer and criminology. This move is significant because previously criminology and queer theories/methodologies have been somewhat awkward and perhaps dangerous bedfellows (Ball, forthcoming). This is not to say that criminological research has not engaged with issues around sexuality, gender, and sex diversity. On the contrary, people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ), and with many other fluid categories of sexuality, gender, and sex diversity, have been the subject of many research studies, but these studies have been informed by a 'deficit' model in the past (Groombridge 1999: 540). Early criminological work was steeped in the notion that people who displayed characteristics of homosexuality, for instance, were considered a 'defective sexual species' (Tomsen 1997: 33) and were studied by criminologists and other social scientists in terms of how they might be cured and controlled. Legislative structures

Embodying Youthful Vulnerabilities and Policing Public Spaces

Policing Encounters with Vulnerability , 2017

Vulnerabilities are embodied by young people in ways that make them subject to policing in public... more Vulnerabilities are embodied by young people in ways that make them subject to policing in public spaces. While existing literature tends to suggest that young people come to the attention of police because there is a 'problem' with a young person that needs to be 'fixed' (for example, homelessness), or a 'problem' with a police officer that needs to be 'fixed' (for example, homophobic attitudes), this chapter contends that these relationships are by no means stable because vulnerabilities are always already embodied and shifting in time and space. Using examples from three qualitative research projects around young people, policing, and crime prevention, the chapter argues we need a new way of thinking about youthful vulnerabilities as embodied in ways that make them impossible to pin down, and therefore effectively 'remedy'. The chapter highlights how youthful vulnerabilities might be conceptualised as discursively produced by, and contingent upon, the localised contexts/spaces in which policing and crime prevention happen with young people and the public places that they inhabit.

Queer Criminology and the Global South: Setting Queer and Southern Criminologies into Dialogue

Handbook Criminology and the Global South , 2017

The growth of 'Queer Criminology' in recent years has seen greater attention being paid to the tr... more The growth of 'Queer Criminology' in recent years has seen greater attention being paid to the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people by criminal justice agents and institutions. While this work has developed across both the Global North (the UK and the USA) and South (Australia), its epistemological, conceptual, and political foundations remain firmly situated in the Global North. The more recent emergence of Southern Criminology, then, offers important tools with which to reflect on the extent to which Queer Criminology mirrors the epistemological and political concerns of the Global North, and the implications of this for those in the Global South. This chapter begins the task of drawing together these two fields. It first uses critiques drawn from the Global South to examine the ways that Queer Criminology reflects 'Northern' LGBT and Queer frameworks. It then explores the implications of transposing initiatives that may provide positive outcomes for LGBTQ people in the Global North, such as community policing, into the Global South without fully accounting for key differences in these contexts.

LGBQ People and Social Justice

Routledge Handbook of Social, Economic, and Criminal Justice, 2018

The concept of justice—whether social or criminal—is predicated on the inviolability and universa... more The concept of justice—whether social or criminal—is predicated on the inviolability and universality of human rights, and the UN has operationalized social justice as the human right to ‘…the fair and compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth...’. However, just as with any other of the rights afforded to all humans, the right to social justice first requires recognition. For people of diverse sexualities, recognition has been eschewed for much of the UN’s history, and recognizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) people in human rights discourses remains controversial. Even today, non-normative sexuality is criminalized in some jurisdictions, with those who act on their attractions tortured and subject to extreme violence, including violence from criminal justice actors. To talk of ‘compassionate distribution’ of wealth within this context appears to further silence and misrecognize injustices experienced by sexual minorities in the global South, and in the intersectional margins of the first world. In this chapter, we first outline what we mean by social justice, and then consider how the landscapes of social (in)justice change when we apply a southern gaze. Through the lenses of southern theory and queer criminology, we discuss the complex and at times contradictory intersections between social and criminal justice for LGBQ people by focusing on redistribution and recognition. We then discuss how queer-blind social justice within criminal justice has negatively affected the lives of LGBQ people. We conclude by reflecting on dominant ethics and strategies for pursuing social justice.

Sexualities and Sensitivities: Queer(y)ing the Ethics of Youth Research in the Field

by Jodie Taylor and Angela Dwyer

Youth Cultures and Subcultures: Australian Perspectives, Feb 2015

Reflecting on our own researcher/researched entanglements, in this chapter, we consider some of t... more Reflecting on our own researcher/researched entanglements, in this chapter, we consider some of the ways sexually diverse researchers are situated by administrative authorities when doing research with sexually diverse young people. We examine how the heteronormativity of ethical bureaucracy and the homonormativity operative in the field structure understandings of ‘proper’ field relations, inform the regulation of research as ethical in academic institutions and position queer youth sexualities as a risk to be sensitively managed by a researcher. Combining our disciplinary perspectives (criminology and cultural sociology) and reflecting on our own experiences as queer femme adult women researching queer youth, we then punctuate this discussion by offering situated accounts of doing field work with queer youth. Focusing specifically on instances of identity policing, we discuss the ways in which our queer ‘insider’ credentials have been scrutinised by ethical review processes, which require declaration of one’s personal relationship to the field, and by LGBTIQ youth workers who mediated our access to the field. This paper will conclude with a discussion of how we might imagine a queer approach to field relationships. We argue the importance of an approach that necessarily disrupts the norms of doing youth research and gestures towards a range of ethical literacies if more productive research outcomes are to be made possible in future.

Queer Youth Research/ers: A reflexive account of risk and intimacy in an ethical (mine)field.

by Jodie Taylor and Angela Dwyer

A Critical Youth Studies for the 21st Century, 2015

Combining our distinct disciplinary perspectives, our biographical narratives and our lived and i... more Combining our distinct disciplinary perspectives, our biographical narratives and our lived and intersubjective concepts of queerness, in this chapter, we critically reflect on our experiences as sexually diverse and (sub)culturally distinct female scholars conducting qualitative empirical research with sexual minority youth. Situating reflexivity as Adams and Holman Jones’ (2011, 108) have done: “as both an orientation to research and a writing practice that brings together the method of autoethnography and the paradigm of queer theory … [and their] commitments to uncertain, fluid, and becoming subjectivities”, we deploy this technique in the context of youth research as a means of claiming our story as research, gesturing toward more synergistic ways to think about intimacy and ethical situatedness in the field. Elaborating moments of discomfort and ease, we question the various normativities—institutional, social and (sub)cultural—one must negotiate in order to be seen as ‘proper’ researchers when working with queer young people and the ways that our ‘improperness’ brought us together and enabled our intellectual conversation.

Queering Criminology

by Matthew Ball, Angela Dwyer, and Thomas Crofts

Review of Speaking Out: Stopping Homophobic and Transphobic Abuse in Queensland by A. Berman & S. Robinson

QUT Law and Justice Journal, 2012

Review of Laying Down the Criminal Law: A handbook for youth workers by J. Wight & L. Hoyer

Youth Studies Australia, 2011

Review of Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect by R. White

International Journal of Crime, Justice, and Social Democracy, 2016

Youth gang' is a phrase that strikes fear and trepidation into the hearts of many people in Weste... more Youth gang' is a phrase that strikes fear and trepidation into the hearts of many people in Western countries of the world. This includes Australia where it is bandied around in frenetic discussions in national online and print media. Zero tolerance policing and criminal justice approaches have emerged in various jurisdictions within a climate of heightened fear and insecurity, approaches that further demonise and alienate the young people implicated. This cycle of moral panic about youth gangs, repeated ad nauseam, often damages perceptions about young people generally. The irony is that youthful social groupings we sometimes recognise as gang-related have emerged out of similar circumstances to those above. As Rob White astutely argues in his text Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect: Exploring the Nature of Provocations and Punch-ups, youth gang formations do not reflect the media-perpetuated idea of motivated and organised groups of young people seeking to perpetrate harm on others.

Review of Transgender Cops by Heather Panter

Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 2019

Review of Violence, Prejudice and Sexuality by S. Tomsen

Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 2012

Rethinking Street Culture: Enacting Youthful Defiance: Review of Understanding Street Culture: Poverty, crime, youth, and cool by J. Ilan

Jeunesse, 2017

In Understanding Street Culture, Jonathan Ilan analyzes one of the key areas of future concern fo... more In Understanding Street Culture, Jonathan Ilan analyzes one of the key areas of future concern for young people: how they engage in street culture and the links between street cultural practices and disparate forms of marginality, criminalization, poverty, transgression, and consumerism. Chapter 1 begins with an inquiry into street culture as concept and mode of theorization. The author contends that it is not "a form of 'resistance', but rather a posture of defiance" (21). The precise differences between these terms is not very clear, given that the definitions themselves tend to imply one another (resistance meaning refusal to comply and defiance meaning open resistance and disobedience). In the conclusion, however, Ilan does hint at how thinking about street culture as defiance is a more suitable conceptualization than as resistance, which ought to be "reserved for phenomena more overtly political in nature," suggesting that "street culture generally channels the defiance of exclusion as opposed to practical action towards altering configurations of power" (174). Ilan's analysis does not, however, elucidate precisely how defiance may be less political. Importantly, street culture is reconceptualized "as a spectrum running from stronger to weaker variants that ultimately provides a similar scheme for understanding the world" (23). Chapter 2 moves on to map research dedicated to unpacking street culture, from its very early origins in the youth subcultural theorizations of Albert Cohen, Howard Becker, and Paul Willis between 1950s and 1970s, through to more contemporary cultural criminologies. This at times reads as a "who's-who" of malestream (Bernard) street cultural

Review Essay: Youth in crisis? “Gangs”, territoriality and violence and Juvenile Justice: Youth and Crime in Australia

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 2012

Anyone familiar with the area of youth justice will understand the importance of continuing the d... more Anyone familiar with the area of youth justice will understand the importance of continuing the debate about youth crime and deviancy. Youth crime seems to be a 'problem' existing since time immemorial that continues to garner significant interest from media, social, and political commentators. Commentary often assumes young people engaged in criminal behaviours are inherently criminal/deviant and in need of heavy regulation by police and other governmental authorities (Omaji, 2003). Unreliable statistics, pastoral/authoritarian generalisations about the "nature" of young people, and moralistic sensationalism drive a law and order ethic to target young people with retributive "crackdowns" to correct their wayward conduct (Carrington and Pereira, 2009). Young people who congregate in groups are especially demonised as "gangs". In the rush to expunge youth "gangs" from public spaces, recent preventative policies have expanded the net from criminal behaviours to a range of activities which have been cast more broadly as antisocial behaviours (Muncie, 2009; Squires and Stephen, 2005). Activities we would have in the past classified as leisure pursuits have been re-visioned as criminal in this new regime focused on the eradication of young people in various group formations. All this demonstrates the need for more work that critically reflects on these processes, and this makes the two books under review very important. They unsettle assumptions and misconceptions about young people, crime, and crisis, even though they do this in very different ways.

Review of Violence, Prejudice and Sexuality by S. Tomsen

Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 2011

Submission to the Expert Panel on Religious Freedom

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2018

Submission: Proposed Reforms to Youth Justice in Queensland

Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee, 2013

The proposed reforms to the youth justice system in Queensland are premised on the assumption tha... more The proposed reforms to the youth justice system in Queensland are premised on the assumption that offending by young people is increasing. We noted (Carrington, Dwyer, Hutchinson and Richards 2012, 8) in a recent submission about the boot camps legislation that: Statistics suggest that this concern is not warranted. Certainly studies show that 'rates per 100,000 juveniles in detention in Queensland have been relatively stable compared with the national trend' (Richards 2011) and that rates of detention of child offenders have declined generally in Australia over the last three decades. Youth offending statistics are affected by the diversion options used by the police, as well as by the numbers and levels of policing, and any special strategies such as Operation Colossus in the northern part of the state. 'Community concern' about crime does not always reflect the true rates of crime across Queensland. Policy should be based on valid evidence, not on 'community concern'. With stable numbers of young people being detained in Australia, the research clearly suggests that youth offending is not escalating. Boot Camps Question: Are the Sentenced Youth Boot Camps/Early Intervention Youth Boot Camps good ways to stop the cycle of youth crime and close the revolving door of youth detention? Our position: Against: There is no empirical evidence to suggest boot camps are good for stopping the cycle of youth crime and closing the revolving door of youth detention. Further, we have concerns that the Early Intervention Youth Boot Camp may in fact draw young people into the criminal justice system who would ordinarily not have had any contact with the system. Evidence:-Wilson et al.'s (2005) meta-analysis of 32 robust research studies of militaristic boot camps concluded that 'this common and defining feature of a boot-camp is not effective in reducing post boot-camp offending'.-Wilson and Lipsey's (2000) research has clearly demonstrated that boot camps and wilderness camps are ineffective unless they include a strong therapeutic focus on education, families, and psychological and behavioural change. Question: Are there other ways to stop the cycle of youth crime and detention for young people who are committing serious or repeat crimes and to get young people back on track? Our position: There are better ways to stop the cycle of youth crime and detention for young people who are committing serious or repeat crimes and to get young people back on track. Evidence: Research suggests that diversion is a more effective method of reducing reoffending (Carrington and Pereira 2009; Cunneen and White 2011). There are a number of effective programs which stop the cycle

Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee, 2012

Hobart City Council Draft LGBTQIA Commitment

Hobart City Council, 2021

Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

Queensland Parliament Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee, 2014

Submission to Government: Review of 2021 Census Topics

Australian Bureau of Statistic, 2018

While all responses received will be included in the analysis of this consultation, the ABS inten... more While all responses received will be included in the analysis of this consultation, the ABS intends to make submissions publicly available after the closing date of 30 June 2018 to share views about the data needs of the Australian community. If your submission identifies or names an organisation you have collaborated with, please consider obtaining their consent prior to agreeing for the ABS to publish your submission. Can we publish your submission after the consultation period closes? (see below for details of what each option represents) ☒Yes ☐Yes, but do not publish any parts that are identifiable ☐No After the closing date of 30 June 2018, submissions received will be available on this consultation where your approval has been given.  By selecting Yes: You give permission to publish your responses to the assessment criteria as well as who you are representing and organisation name (if applicable). Contact details, including name, phone number and email address will not be published.  By selecting Yes, but do not publish any parts that are identifiable: You give permission to publish your responses to the assessment criteria only. Who you are representing, organisation (if applicable) and contact details will not be published.  By selecting No: No part of your submission will be published.