The body in grief: Death investigations, objections to autopsy, and the religious and cultural 'other'

Sudden, violent and otherwise unexplained deaths are investigated in most western jurisdictions through a Coronial or medico-legal process. A crucial element of such an investigation is the legislative requirement to remove the body for autopsy and other medical interventions, processes which can disrupt traditional religious and cultural grieving practices. While recent legislative changes in an increasing number of jurisdictions allow families to raise objections based on religious and cultural grounds, such concerns can be over-ruled, often exacerbating the trauma and grief of families. Based on funded research which interviews a range of Coronial staff in one Australian jurisdiction, this paper explores the disjuncture between medico-legal discourses, which position the body as corpse, and the rise of more ‘therapeutic’ discourses which recognise the family’s wishes to reposition the body as beloved and lamented

Women in prison : where are we going?

Female imprisonment rates have dramatically increased over the last two decades at state, national and international levels. This paper reviews women's imprisonment in Australia and looks at sentence management and programs, highlighting the critical issues which impact daily on female inmates

Aberrance, agency and social constructions of women offenders

Traditionally offending women are framed through essentialist discourses of pathologisation and the family. Hence, good women are constructed as passive, compliant, vulnerable to victimisation, and nurturers. Offending women are constructed within criminal justice processes as disordered, physiologically and psychologically flawed. Censure or sympathy dispensed to women within the system is contingent on a number of key factors: the type of offence, the category of women involved, and the way in which women interact and negotiate the discourses used to construct their aberrance. The focus of this thesis is offending women and how they are socially constructed through legal and penal discourses within the court and the prison. However this thesis rejects the essentialist framework which positions women as passive recipients of an omnipotent patriarchal criminal justice system and thus having no agency. Nor is this thesis about creating a new entity to encompass all offending women. Instead an anti- essentialist approach is adopted that allows the body, power, and women's agency to be theorised. This approach provides a more complex and detailed account of women's aberrance that acknowledges the diverse range of women, their experiences and negotiations of criminal justice processes. The combination of real women's lived experiences and an alternative theoretical framework provides a very different perspective in which to understand female offending

Women Inmates' Accounts of Education in Queensland Corrections

This paper reports on research with women inmates undertaking prison education in twoQueensland correctional facilities: Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre and Helena Jones Community Corrections Centre. This study investigated inmate women's accounts of education using interview data. The research found that women's involvement in prison education identified institutional and cultural limitations concerning women's access to, and participation in, prison education programs. These accounts attested variously to the embeddedness of their educational experiences within these constraints. This work recommends, as a research policy imperative, changes to structural and cultural dimensions of prison education to support women inmates’ educational access and experiences

Risky business: Mapping ethical landscapes and negotiating governance tensions when research female offending

Whilst there is an excellent and growing body of literature around female criminality underpinned by feminist methodologies, the nitty gritty of the methodological journey is nowhere as well detailed as it is in the context of the Higher Degree Research (HDR) thesis. Thus the purpose of this paper is threefold: i) to explore a range of feminist methodologies underpinning 20 Australian HDR theses focussing on female criminality; ii) to identify and map the governance/ethics tensions experienced by these researchers whilst undertaking high risk research in the area of female offending; and iii) to document strategies drawn from negotiations, resolutions and outcomes to a range of gate-keeping issues. By exploring the strategies used by these researchers, this paper aims to: promote discussion on feminist methodologies; highlight pathways that may be created when negotiating the challenging process of accessing data pertinent to this relatively understudied area; contribute to a community of practice; and provide useful insights into what Mason & Stubbs (2010:16) refer to as “the open and honest reflexivity through the research process by describing the assumptions, and hiccups” for future researchers navigating governance landscapes

Inmate women as participants in education in Queensland correctional centres

This paper reports on research with women inmates undertaking prison education in two Queensland correctional facilities: Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre and Helena Jones Community Corrections Centre. Data collection spanned the period of relocation of Brisbane Women’s from Annerley to Wacol, from a traditional lock-and-key establishment to a keyless unit. This study investigated inmate women’s accounts of education using interview data and analysis of policy. While the study drew upon feminist criminology theory and conversation analysis to provide a theoretical dialogue for investigating prison education, this paper investigates more broadly five key themes. They are categorised as a culture of containment and surveillance, types of education, access to education, pedagogical issues and the role of support groups in education. Women’s prisons and their rituals have been constructed by men for men, sometimes with concessions made for women and criminal laws have been drawn with reference to the way that men define women and perpetuate the dependence of women on more powerful male others. The structural and interactional features of oral texts such as interviews were examined to understand the educational experiences of women inmates. The research found that women’s involvement in prison education is framed by a culture of containment and surveillance. In the keyless prison, heightened electronic security reported increases in internal body searches and routinized head counts were found to exacerbate the difficulties women inmates experience in prison education. This work recommends as a research policy imperative a longitudinal case study to investigate women inmates’ educational access and experiences

Cracking the code : a checklist to complement CRAs for first year Justice students

It is well recognised in the literature on first year higher education that there is a need for Universities to provide further support and development in student learning skills and engagement. Assessment and feedback is an area with differing expectations and understandings among academics and students (e.g. AUSSE, CEQ). Consistency and explicitness in academic feedback is fundamental in assisting students in their transition to university education and learning. This poster captures the progress of an 18 month funded by the Faculty of Law Teaching and Learning Grant scheme (QUT). The project sought to develop and trial an assessment checklist/diagnostic tool to accompany Criteria Referenced Assessment sheets for students within the School of Justice, Law Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT).The checklist was trialled across four units in the School of Justice (Law faculty) amongst an estimated cohort of over 600 students undertaking single and dual degrees

Arguing the autopsy: Mutual suspicion, jurisdictional confusion and the socially marginal

Vulnerable and marginalised populations are not only over-represented in the criminal justice system, but also in civil jurisdictions like the coronial system. Moreover, many of the personnel who deal with criminal matters, especially in rural and regional areas, are also those who manage the coronial death investigation. This movement back and forth between civil and criminal jurisdictions is difficult for the both professional personnel and the families, but especially for those families who may also have had dealings with these personnel in the criminal justice system, or who present as suspicious due to larger historical and global issues. While coronial legislation now allows families to raise cultural and religious concerns about the process, particularly to do with the autopsy of their loved one, this also requires them to identify themselves to police at the initial stage of the death investigation. This paper, part of a larger body of work on autopsy decision making, discusses the ways in which this information is gathered by police, how it is communicated through the system, the ways in which families are supported through the process, and the difficulties that ensue

Aberrance, agency and social constructions of women offenders

Traditionally offending women are framed through essentialist discourses of pathologisation and the family. Hence, good women are constructed as passive, compliant. vulnerable to victimisation, and nurturers. Offending women are constructed within criminal justice processes as disordered, physiologically and psychologically flawed. Censure or sympathy dispensed to women within the system is contingent on a number of key factors: the type of offence, the category of women involved, and the way in which women interact and negotiate the discourses used to construct their aberrance. The focus of this thesis is offending women and how they are socially constructed through legal and penal discourses within the court and the prison. However this thesis rejects the essentialist framework which positions women as passive recipients of an omnipotent patriarchal criminal justice system and thus having no agency. Nor is this thesis about creating a new entity to encompass all offending women. Instead an ant-essentialist approach is adopted that allows the body, power, and women's agency to be theorised. This approach provides a more complex and detailed account of women's aberrance that acknowledges the divers range of women, their experiences and negotiations of the criminal justice processes. The combination of real women' lived expediences and an alternative theoretical framework provides a very different perspective in which to understand female offending