‘This is Africa’: Filmic Negotiations of Crime, Justice and Global Responsibility

Film is a significant medium through which Western audiences learn about crime and suffering occurring beyond their national borders. On this basis, this article critically reflects on the ‘knowledge’ of criminal violence in contemporary Africa provided by two recent films, Blood Diamond (2006) and Sometimes in April (2005). We argue that the films offer notably divergent understandings of the nature of violent conflict in post-colonial Africa, and of who is capable of bearing the responsibility to address its causes and legacy. While Blood Diamond adopts a conventional colonial narrative in which Africa, through the example of Sierra Leone, is portrayed as a place of disorder ultimately requiring the intervention of the West, Sometimes in April offers an alternative image of a more autonomous African nation, able to actively negotiate the challenges of the post-conflict and post-colonial environment.Sydney Institute of Criminology; School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydne

‘This is Africa’: Filmic Negotiations of Crime, Justice and Global Responsibility

Film is a significant medium through which Western audiences learn about crime and suffering occurring beyond their national borders. On this basis, this article critically reflects on the ‘knowledge’ of criminal violence in contemporary Africa provided by two recent films, Blood Diamond (2006) and Sometimes in April (2005). We argue that the films offer notably divergent understandings of the nature of violent conflict in post-colonial Africa, and of who is capable of bearing the responsibility to address its causes and legacy. While Blood Diamond adopts a conventional colonial narrative in which Africa, through the example of Sierra Leone, is portrayed as a place of disorder ultimately requiring the intervention of the West, Sometimes in April offers an alternative image of a more autonomous African nation, able to actively negotiate the challenges of the post-conflict and post-colonial environment.Sydney Institute of Criminology; School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydne

Community beliefs and misconceptions about male sexual assault

Misconceptions about male sexual assault have a substantial impact on under-reporting. This resource sheet identifies research and data that dispel four of these misconceptions. Abstract: In recent years there has been an increase in community awareness of male sexual assault. However, there are a number of beliefs, misconceptions and assumptions about men, masculinity, sexuality and sexual assault that present barriers to male victim/survivors disclosing their experiences, gaining recognition, receiving support and accessing criminal justice. While some of these assumptions intersect with some of those associated with female sexual assault, others are distinctly different and have different implications for the male victim/survivor. For example, although the 2005 Analysis of Police Investigations into Sexual Assault showed higher levels of community belief in reports of male sexual assault and lower rates of complaint withdrawal with a slightly higher proportional rate of charges being laid (in comparison to female reports of sexual assault), recent data shows that the rate of actual reporting to the police is dramatically lower in males than in females. Of the sexual assaults reported to police in 2006, only 27% were perpetrated against men. The literature suggests that the misconceptions about male sexual assault have a substantial impact on under-reporting

Narrative, Theatre, and the Disruptive Potential of Jury Directions in Rape Trials

Abstract Over the past 30 years, the Australian state of Victoria has made numerous reforms to a set of jury directions purporting to address concerns that rape trials do not adequately respond to the reality of sexual offending in the community. Building on work identifying the predominant narratives mobilised in rape trials, in this article we consider whether the way in which a jury consumes information during a trial explains why the jury directions, positioned and utilised as they are, appear to have been inadequate to the task of enabling juries to re-imagine evidence through alternative narrative frameworks.Keywords Rape Sexual violence Juries Jury directions Narrative Interpellation Theatre Courtroom

Reviews of Justice in transition: community restorative justice in Northern Ireland (Anna Eriksson; Uffculme: Willan Publishing, 2009) and Torture, truth and justice: the case of Timor-Leste (Elizabeth Stanley; Abingdon: Routledge, 2009)

[Extract] The process of reviewing these two books inevitably involves bringing to the fore a range of preconceived ideas, conceptions, images and theoretical stances by the reviewer. It is important to acknowledge at the outset that from my point of view there is not enough critical literature on restorative justice and transitional justice. Both these books take a critical reflexive approach to restorative and transitional justice paradigms within the specific settings of Northern Ireland and Timor-Leste. Because of this reflexive stance they provide refreshing and informative reading. They are both situated, contextualised readings of restorative and transitional\ud justice that draw from these particular historical examples to enrich our understanding of the broader dynamics of justice in 'post' conflict societies

Evidence for three genetic loci involved in both anorexia nervosa risk and variation of body mass index

The maintenance of normal body weight is disrupted in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) for prolonged periods of time. Prior to the onset of AN, premorbid body mass index (BMI) spans the entire range from underweight to obese. After recovery, patients have reduced rates of overweight and obesity. As such, loci involved in body weight regulation may also be relevant for AN and vice versa. Our primary analysis comprised a cross-trait analysis of the 1000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the lowest P-values in a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of AN (GCAN) for evidence of association in the largest published GWAMA for BMI (GIANT). Subsequently we performed sex-stratified analyses for these 1000 SNPs. Functional ex vivo studies on four genes ensued. Lastly, a look-up of GWAMA-derived BMI-related loci was performed in the AN GWAMA. We detected significant associations (P-values <5 × 10-5, Bonferroni-corrected P<0.05) for nine SNP alleles at three independent loci. Interestingly, all AN susceptibility alleles were consistently associated with increased BMI. None of the genes (chr. 10: CTBP2, chr. 19: CCNE1, chr. 2: CARF and NBEAL1; the latter is a region with high linkage disequilibrium) nearest to these SNPs has previously been associated with AN or obesity. Sex-stratified analyses revealed that the strongest BMI signal originated predominantly from females (chr. 10 rs1561589; Poverall: 2.47 × 10-06/Pfemales: 3.45 × 10-07/Pmales: 0.043). Functional ex vivo studies in mice revealed reduced hypothalamic expression of Ctbp2 and Nbeal1 after fasting. Hypothalamic expression of Ctbp2 was increased in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice as compared with age-matched lean controls. We observed no evidence for associations for the look-up of BMI-related loci in the AN GWAMA. A cross-trait analysis of AN and BMI loci revealed variants at three chromosomal loci with potential joint impact. The chromosome 10 locus is particularly promising given that the association with obesity was primarily driven by females. In addition, the detected altered hypothalamic expression patterns of Ctbp2 and Nbeal1 as a result of fasting and DIO implicate these genes in weight regulation