Housing and Homelessness in Australia: The Case of Marginalised Women Leaving Prison in New South Wales (NSW)

Finding safe, secure, and ongoing housing is critical for women leaving prison and is central to rebuilding their lives and supporting desistance. Consistent with global trends, the number of women received into prison in Australia has increased, especially amongst First Nations women. Meanwhile, Australia is experiencing a housing crisis with soaring house prices; long waiting lists for public, social, and community housing; and limited affordable housing stock. This paper explores women’s pathways to prison, focusing on the nexus between women’s incarceration and homelessness. It also critically reviews policy and post-release programs intended to provide throughcare, support, and housing for women exiting prisons, drawing on New South Wales (NSW), Australia as a case example. Finally, it highlights the policy and practice changes required for women to leave prison and be supported to find and maintain a safe and affordable home

Dana Peterson and Vanessa R Panfil (Eds.) (2014). Handbook of LGBT Communities, Crime, and Justice. Springer

Bruno Doering reviews Handbook of LGBT Communities, Crime, and Justice by Dana Peterson and Vanessa Panfil (Editors)

Policing Victims and Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence in Jamaica

Intimate partner violence (IPV) presents various challenges for victims and the police tasked with protecting them and investigating perpetrators. Using a mixed-methods approach, this article highlights some of the main challenges of policing IPV in Jamaica, a small island developing state. We present findings from interviews with police officers and content analysis of key legislation within a broader discussion, incorporating secondary data from national surveys and community focus groups. Collectively, this provides a comprehensive understanding of the challenges of policing IPV. We discuss some of the historical and social factors contributing to IPV in the country and examine how the police balance victim support with the investigation of perpetrators. Additionally, we identify key institutional and legislative barriers, such as inadequate training and legal limitations, which hinder effective policing. Finally, we propose the problem-oriented policing (POP) framework as a potential solution to improve the handling of IPV cases in Jamaica

Social Movements as Triggers of Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma and Memory in Chile

This article explores the role of social movements in transmitting collective memory and trauma produced by the dictatorship across generations in Chile. It argues that, beyond civil society organisations focused on human rights, broader social movements, such as student, feminist, and anti-neoliberal protests, play a crucial role in uncovering and processing the trauma of past state violence. Using qualitative research and combining insights from social movement studies, social psychology, and psychoanalysis, we show how these movements produce spaces and situations where conscious and unconscious trauma originating in state political violence is unveiled, transmitted to the next generation, and in some cases, re-elaborated. The article also highlights the gendered dimension of memory, mainly through the experiences of women survivors of sexual political violence, who fought for official recognition of these crimes as distinct from torture. Social movements facilitate the articulation of these silenced histories, fostering intergenerational dialogue. Ultimately, the study underscores how Chilean society remains shaped by dictatorship-era violence, with social movements playing a vital role in confronting historical silences and shaping collective memory

Racialised and Colonial Constructions of Climate Disaster: News Media Framing of Indigenous Wildfire Evacuations in Western Canada

Environmental disasters disproportionately impact Indigenous peoples worldwide. In Canada, wildfires and flooding increasingly threaten First Nations communities, prompting frequent evacuations to urban areas. Housed for months and sometimes even years in marginal inner-city hotels and temporary housing, evacuees face a range of negative health and social outcomes and are subject to heightened securitization and stereotyping by authorities and local media. This article presents the findings of a qualitative and comparative analysis of media framing of wildfire evacuations in Jasper, Alberta and in Manitoba First Nations communities. Compared to the non-Indigenous community, Indigenous evacuees were framed negatively as a threat to the safety and prosperity of the city. News framing amplified colonial and racialized stereotypes while ignoring the root causes of frequent evacuations. Media framing works in tandem with government policies to perpetuate the slow violence of colonialism and environmental disaster while positioning Indigenous peoples outside the imagined Canadian community

Singular Purpose: Calculating the Degree of Ethno-Religious Over-representation in the US No-Fly List

In January 2023, a partially redacted version of the controversial US No-Fly List was retrieved during a hacking event and made available to journalists and academics. With access to this unique dataset, it is possible to confirm or deny longstanding critiques of whether the No-Fly List features a discriminatory over-representation of certain ethno-religious groups, namely those of Islamic faith and Middle Eastern heritage. As the partially redacted list does not contain ethnic or religious data, the author of this article categorised each name by ethno-linguistic and religious origin to create a proxy with which to analyse claims of discrimination. The research outlined in this article finds that individuals of broadly Islamic and Middle Eastern heritage are vastly overrepresented on the List relative to their proportion of the US population, as well as overrepresented relative to their propensity to engage in terrorism. Only in the narrow analysis of lethality of terrorist attacks committed by this group does the No-Fly List demonstrate fair representation

“A Kiss Delivered as a Punch”: Coercively Controlling Tactics in Australian Women’s Same-Gender Intimate Relationships

In 2007, Evan Stark consolidated decades of feminist scholarship and advocacy on intimate partner violence (IPV) into a framework he coined “coercive control” (Stark 2007). Stark’s model was initially heteronormative. He later contended that heteropatriarchy may condition abuse in women’s intimate relationships with other women, but more research was needed to clearly understand how coercive control manifests beyond heterosexuality (Stark and Hester 2019). In this paper, we utilise the voices of 18 Australian same-gender attracted women who experienced IPV in intimate relationships with other women. The participants’ narratives, revealed through this qualitative method, provide insights into perpetrator tactics of coercive control in these relationships. Situating these stratagems within Stark’s framework, we gain a deeper understanding of this, often invisible, manifestation of coercive control. This study is essential and timely because, since Stark (2007) published his book, several countries have criminalised coercive control and some states in Australia have recently followed suit.

Resisting “Manufactured” Vulnerability: Discretionary Policing and Migrant Sex Workers’ Resistance Strategies in Malta

Sex work in Malta operates within a complex legal framework where the act of selling sex is legal, but associated activities are not. Legal ambiguities create a semi-legal space in which sex workers navigate both legal and extralegal risks, often lacking formal protections while being subject to discretionary policing, social stigma, and potential exploitation. Nevertheless, in this same context, workers develop tactical adaptations to mitigate risks, evade enforcement, and maintain economic stability. Drawing on 26 interviews with migrant sex workers in Malta, this article highlights the vulnerabilities of this group as a result of discretional and transactional policing, and the different strategies they employ to resist criminalization. Despite recognizing the resourcefulness of (migrant) sex workers, the authors acknowledge the limited space for resistance available to those engaging in sex work and call for urgent legal and policy reform.El trabajo sexual en Malta opera dentro de un marco legal complejo donde el acto de vender sexo es legal, pero las actividades asociadas no lo son. Las ambigüedades legales crean un espacio semilegal en el que las trabajadoras sexuales se enfrentan a riesgos tanto legales como extralegales, a menudo carentes de protección formal, sujetas a vigilancia policial discrecional, estigma social y posible explotación. Sin embargo, en este mismo contexto, las trabajadoras desarrollan adaptaciones tácticas para mitigar los riesgos, evadir la aplicación de la ley y mantener la estabilidad económica. Basándose en 26 entrevistas con trabajadoras sexuales migrantes en Malta, este artículo arroja luz sobre las vulnerabilidades que enfrentan en Malta como resultado de la vigilancia policial discrecional y transaccional, y enfatiza las diferentes estrategias que implementan para resistir la criminalización. A pesar de reconocer la capacidad de las trabajadoras sexuales migrantes, las autoras reconocen el limitado margen de maniobra disponible para quienes ejercen el trabajo sexual y exigen una reforma legal y política urgente

André R. Giamberardino (2023). Penal Abolitionism and Transformative Justice in Brazil. Routledge

Patrícia Silva and Deise Santos review Penal Abolitionism and Transformative Justice in Brazil by André R. Giamberardino.   Author/s Disclosure Both authors are PhD students in André Giamberardino’s postgraduate programme in Law at the Federal University of Paraná. The book review editors took measures to ensure the accuracy of the statements made in the review so as to avoid any appearance of bias on the part of the authors or influence by Giamberardino.

Exploring the Impacts of Everyday Policing on Police Officers' Psychological, Emotional, and Physical Wellbeing in Fiji

Police work is often fraught with challenging and traumatic experiences, which can be managed well by some officers, while others may be significantly affected and require assistance. Even those who typically cope well may be adversely affected by a specific incident. Incorporating cultural considerations in the Fijian context, this study examines the impacts of everyday policing on officers’ psychological, emotional, and physical wellbeing. An online survey was used to obtain 101 police officers’ perceptions of challenging and stressful incidents, the impacts of such incidents on their wellbeing, and coping strategies used to deal with such incidents. The findings provide examples not only of everyday stressors, but also the traumatic incidents faced by police officers, which generate a range of negative impacts on their wellbeing. The article contributes to Pacific criminology and provides useful insights, with implications for policy and practice, to support and enhance the wellbeing of police officers.