Bronwyn Naylor

Reporting violence in the British print media: gendered stories

News reporting of violence reflects neither the ‘reality’ of the occurrence of violence nor the portrayal of violence in official statistics. The analysis of all reports of violence in four national British newspapers over six months illuminates the processes of selection, and the ways in which the news media promulgate and naturalise gender in the daily reporting of violence. This study found significant differences in the nature and intensity of reporting of violence by men and by women. Different explanatory narratives were also employed; womens violence was more likely to be reported as irrational or emotional, with real ‘wickedness’ ascribed in a few high-profile cases, whilst mens violence was more likely to be presented as ‘normal’ or rational.

The 'Bad Mother' in Media and Legal Texts

Mothers who kill or injure their children highlight crucial disjunctions between the status ‘mother’ and the practices and expectations of mothering. Failures of ‘mothering’ reconstruct the meaning of the maternal, while being themselves given meaning by it. Violent mothers may be pathologised and excused, demonised and condemned, but the explanatory narratives that are used draw centrally on notions of the maternal and, more broadly, the feminine. These discourses are reproduced in legal proceedings and sentences, and in the media reports of these proceedings. This paper will analyse the construction of the bad mother in legal proceedings in one prominent recent Victorian case, and in the print media reports of this case.

Criminal Records and Rehabilitation in Australia

Resettlement of former offenders and their ongoing desistance from further offending should be a priority for any community, but in many countries criminal records are increasingly accessed in employment and other decision making The criminal record then becomes an indelible brand, undermining rehabilitation and making reoffending more likely. Common law-based countries such as the UK and Australia demonstrate this phenomenon more clearly than some mainland European countries, and political and cultural factors are clearly relevant. This paper addresses the scope in Australia for rehabilitation processes that might contribute to the desistance process.

Responding to the needs of children of parents arrested in Victoria, Australia. The role of the adult criminal justice system

The prison population in most jurisdictions is escalating. As many prisoners are also parents, more children will inevitably be affected by the experience of having a parent incarcerated. Police and the lower courts are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system and make urgent and vital decisions about arrest, remand and sentencing which have critical consequences for the children of those arrested, remanded and sentenced. To better understand how these children are responded to by this adult system, this paper draws on data collected from a purposive sample (N = 16) of Victorian magistrates, legal representatives and police, as part of a broader ARC funded study. Findings indicate that the consideration of these children by police and magistrates is largely ad hoc and depends on good will and the exercise of discretion. The balancing of justice issues and the interests of children is also complex and currently under-researched and under-informed. The authors argue that until the agencies dealing with adults incorporate child-focused practices, children, who have a primary carer in prison, will continue to be disadvantaged by a system which considers them only as collateral damage in the exercise of justice.

L-Plates, Logbooks and Losing-Out: Regulating for Safety – Or Creating New Criminals?

In Victoria and New South Wales, young learner drivers have been required to have 120 hours supervised driving before taking their provisional license test since July 2007. Queenslanders under 25 have to show that they have completed 100 supervised hours. Most other states require at least 50 hours’ supervised driving. The new requirements are intended to ensure that new drivers are better prepared to drive unsupervised, but it also may be creating a new class of criminals from marginalised communities.

Fair trial or free press: legal responses to media reports of criminal trials

In June 1993 in R v. Taylor the Court of Appeal quashed the murder convictions of two young women on grounds (inter alia) of prejudicial press coverage of the original trial. In October 1993 three police officers charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice following the release of the Birmingham Six had their prosecution stayed. The court accepted the argument that adverse publicity made a fair trial impossible.

Whose Rights? Children, Parents and Discipline

This article outlines the current state of the law on the physical discipline of children and argues the case for legal change in Australia. It also identifies the politics of the ongoing debate and its potent symbolism - claims that physical parental punishment amounts to child abuse and state-sanctioned violence, pitted against claims that parental rights and the privacy of the home will be violated by state regulation of physical punishment.

Protecting human rights In detention: Rights, monitoring and OPCAT

People held in detention are inevitably at risk of abuse. The recent Northern Territory revelations only remind us of this reality. Australia’s failure to ratify the UN OPCAT was highlighted in the recent UN Periodic Review: ratification would require comprehensive independent monitoring of all places of detention. Effective monitoring is vital; at the same time it cannot on its own ensure rights protections, and this article argues that both enforceable rights, and robust monitoring, are essential if Australia is to address rights abuses in detention in Australia.

Do not pass go: the impact of criminal record checks on employment in Australia

What do we know about criminal convictions? A question about criminal record in a job application may affect more people than is realised. Few people are convicted of serious violent offences, but there are many people in the community who have received a criminal conviction at some time in their life. Over half a million people nationally had criminal cases determined in 2003–04, most of which resulted in a finding of guilt.

Criminal record checking and employment: The importance of policy and proximity

Employment is essential to the rehabilitation of offenders, yet employers routinely check criminal records and rely on them to deny offenders employment. To manage these practices many jurisdictions use spent conviction and anti-discrimination schemes; there have also been recent campaigns aimed at ‘banning the box’, requiring that questions about criminal record are deferred to a later point when the person could address them in interview. This article draws on findings from surveys and interviews with human resources personnel about their criminal record checking practices to identify some key concerns of employers and highlight areas for challenging employer practices. The study highlights the influence on employment decisions of external factors – legislation, government policy and industry regulation – and of internal considerations about proximity of the decision maker to the applicant and potential proximity to other staff. The willingness of some employers to engage with applicants opens up the possibilities for people with a criminal record to demonstrate their readiness to desist from offending and to counter stereotypes about offenders. Where there is no scope for, or willingness to attempt, such discretionary engagement, however, it is likely that employers will prioritize a risk-averse approach to employment, pre-emptively excluding potentially productive employees, and putting such ex-offenders at risk of deeper exclusion.