Research: Crime and Justice Research Network : UNSW Faculty of Law

Members of the Crime and Justice Research Network at UNSW are engaged in a wide range of research relating to criminal justice issues. We highlight some of the major current research below:
Alternative Models for Prosecuting Child Sex Offences in Australia
Dr Anne Cossins (Law) is writing a Discussion Paper on behalf of the National Child Sexual Assault Reform Committee. The Paper constitutes a review of all aspects of the adversarial trial process, its problems and limitations in relation to prosecuting sex offences and proposals and recommendations for reform.
Evaluation of the Tirkandi Inaburra Program
The Social Policy Research Centre is leading a research team in an evaluation of the Tirkandi Inaburra program. The team includes Dr Catherine Spooner, Professor Chris Cunneen, Dr Lisa Jackson Pulver, and Glenn Took (all from UNSW), Dr Elizabeth Moore (Charles Sturt University) and Dr John Howard from the Ted Noffs Foundation. The Tirkandi Inaburra Cultural and Development Centre (Tirkandi Inaburra) is a community-controlled regionally-based residential facility for Aboriginal boys aged between 12 and 15 years who are at risk of contact with the criminal justice system. The evaluation is being commissioned by the NSW Attorney-General’s Department and is expected to be completed in 2008.
Just truth? An empirical study of expert evidence
Dr Gary Edmond (Law) has received an ARC Discovery Projects grant for a four year project on expert evidence. Though a ubiquitous feature of contemporary legal and regulatory practice, expert evidence continues to create administrative and socio‑economic problems. Expert evidence can add to the length, cost and complexity of litigation and has been linked to the failure of tort law, the withdrawal of insurance coverage, legal mistakes and notorious miscarriages of justice. This project will examine how expert knowledge is developed and used in and around legal settings. It will identify means of improving the provision and evaluation of expert advice in order to enhance the social legitimacy of our legal institutions and facilitate commercial innovation and productivity.
People With Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disabilities in the Criminal Justice System
Associate Professor Eileen Baldry (Social Work) and Professor Ian Webster (Public Health) have an ARC Linkage grant to investigate the pathways people with mental disorders and cognitive disabilities take through the criminal justice system. The research will suggest interventions to help prevent involvement in the criminal justice system. Other industry partners include Dr Tony Butler from the Centre for Health Research in Criminal Justice, Simon Eyland from the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services, and Jim Simpson from the New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability.
Policing Migration in Australia: An analysis of onshore migration policing networks
Dr Leanne Weber (Social Science and Policy) has received an ARC Discovery Projects grant to conduct a two year project on migration policing. Coming in the wake of the highly publicized cases of Vivian Solon and Cornelia Rau, the study will provide the first detailed account of enforcement practices in relation to Australian immigration laws. Leanne plans to use a case study approach to determine the structure, dynamics and normative implications of onshore policing networks aimed at detecting and apprehending ‘unlawful non citizens’.
Sex, Race, Bodies and Crime
The project is being conducted by Dr Anne Cossins (Law), Convener of the National Child Sexual Assault Reform Committee. To understand crime as a social practice, it is necessary to understand the meanings associated with different bodies – male, female, black, white. The body matters and what the body does matters. In this statement there are encapsulated two concepts – the social meanings that individuals ascribe to their female, male or transsexual bodies (the sexed body), the social meanings ascribed to what these specifically sexed bodies do (gender) and the social meanings ascribed to different biological characteristics (the raced body). Bodies matter to those who commit crime (for example, male on male violence; men’s sexual assault of women), to those who fear crime (the fear of crime is a fear of the sexed male body or a particular ‘raced’ and sexed male body), and to those who seek to impose a rigid law and order agenda (for example, over-policing of the adolescent male body and the black male body).