By NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team

This report is the most comprehensive data analyses the Domestic Violence Death Review Team has undertaken to date, presenting detailed findings from over two decades of domestic violence homicides in NSW. It provides crucial insights to guide policymakers, service providers and advocates in preventing, responding to, and aiding recovery from domestic violence.

The dataset has continued to grow year-on-year, not only in the number of cases— now over 1,800— but also in relation to the breadth and complexity of the data captured. The analysis in this report identifies a range of key findings and themes to direct the Team’s work as it recommences its in-depth case review analyses over the next reporting period.

Key findings

• Almost one-third of all homicides in NSW occurred in a context of domestic violence.

• While most homicides overall involved the deaths of males, females were far more likely to be killed in a domestic violence-context homicide.

• Approximately 80% of intimate partner violence homicides involved men killing women.

• Men who killed their female intimate partner were almost always the domestic violence abuser in the relationship, while women who killed men were almost always the victim of their partner’s violence.

• Over 25% of people killed in a context of domestic violence were born outside of Australia.

• Almost 19% of people killed in the context of domestic violence identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

• For 90% of children killed there was a history of intimate partner violence between their parents.

• Over 80% of relative/kin domestic violence-context homicide offenders had a history of experiencing mental health issues.

Sydney: Government of New South Wales, 2024.

By Iffat Idris GSDRC, University of Birmingham 28 February 2019

This review presents findings on the prevalence and nature of serious and organized crime1: in Jordan, and efforts to combat this. The extremely limited literature on the topic indicates that Jordan has low levels of serious and organized crime: the main forms are smuggling of goods and drugs, and human trafficking. The influx of large numbers of Syrian refugees has promoted crime within refugee camps, but the impact on crime in Jordan overall appears limited.

The review drew on academic and grey literature, as well as media reports. It found very little literature on the topics covered in the query, and nothing on the links between tribal groups and organized crime or on specific drivers of crime. The dearth in literature is perhaps a reflection of low levels of organized and serious crime in Jordan – though, without data on this, it is impossible to assert this definitively. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2016: 13) highlights the problem of lack of data on serious and organized crime across the Middle East:

• In general, data on drugs, drug use, HIV, people living in closed settings, crime, corruption and terrorism in the region are scarce. Analytical studies on the profile of organized criminal groups involved in illicit trafficking, their modus operandi and the routes used are very limited, as is information on the relationship between organized crime and terrorism. This can be the result of a lack of capacity and/or infrastructure to generate, manage, analyse and report data, or the lack of or poor coordination amongst the relevant institutions.

Key findings of the review are as follows:

• Crime statistics – There is a dearth of crime statistics for Jordan, but available figures point to a rise in crime in recent years, notably murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping. A total of 24,000 crimes were recorded in 2016 (OASC, 2018). 

• Smuggling – Jordan’s long and remote desert borders with neighbouring countries make it susceptible to smuggling of cash, gold, fuel, narcotics, cigarettes and other contraband. Smuggling into Jordan tends to be small-scale, largely fuel and cigarettes. With regard to drugs, Jordan is more a corridor country than a destination point: the main drugs being captagon, heroin, hashish and marijuana. Large quantities of narcotics were seized by the authorities in 2017: increased seizures point to a rise in narcotics smuggling. 

• Money laundering and corruption – Jordan is not considered a hub for money laundering. Corruption is a bigger problem: Jordan ranked 52nd (out of 140 countries) for incidence of corruption (WEF, 2018: 313). Government efforts to contain and prosecute corruption have not been effective. 

• Trafficking – Jordan is a source, transit, and destination country for adults and children subjected to forced labour, domestic servitude, and sex trafficking. Trafficking victims in Jordan are primarily from South and Southeast Asia, East Africa, Egypt, and Syria; refugees from Syria, the Palestinian Territories, and Iraq are especially vulnerable to trafficking. Forced labour victims in Jordan experience withheld or non-payment of wages, confiscation of identity documents, restricted freedom of movement, unsafe living conditions, long hours without rest, isolation, and verbal and physical abuse. Diverse migrant women can be forced into prostitution: those who migrated to Jordan to work in restaurants and nightclubs; Egyptian women married to Jordanian husbands; out-of status domestic workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka who have fled their employers; Iraqi refugee women who have to provide for their families. 

• Crime in Syrian refugee camps – the literature indicates that, while crime is prevalent in Syrian refugee camps, it is not serious in nature: largely smuggling of camp vouchers and goods, though one report notes that the camps’ proximity to border areas of conflict makes them susceptible to smuggling and drug trafficking. While there are reports of a rise in crime in Jordan overall, this is attributed to economic pressures rather than the influx of Syrian refugees into the country. 

• Regional findings – A brief examination of serious and organized crime in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region points to a post-Arab Spring rise in transnational organized crime – facilitated by public disorder, deterioration in capacity of state law enforcement agencies, and economic hardship. Jordan is not explicitly mentioned, but given its geographic location, would likely be a target for such transnational crime networks.

Key findings of the review with regard to efforts to combat serious and organized crime in Jordan are as follows: 

• Agencies - A number of government agencies are involved in combating serious and organized crime, including trafficking. Key among these is the Public Security Directorate (PSD), which includes the Anti-Narcotics Department. The PSD and Ministry of Labour have a joint Anti-Trafficking Unit. 

• Legislation – The Anti-Human Trafficking Law was passed in 2009 but there are shortcomings with regard to meeting international standards in both the legal provisions and, even more, in enforcement. Challenges with the latter include victims being too afraid to file complaints, repatriation of victims, non-availability of evidence, and perpetrators being located out of the jurisdiction/reach of the country or hidden from the police. Jordan's Penal Code criminalizes corruption, including abuse of office, bribery, money laundering and extortion, but again the law is not implemented effectively. 

• Support from international partners – The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the main international development organization supporting the Govt. of Jordan to combat serious and organized crime. Its interventions are often part of wider regional programmes, notably the Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP) which strengthening the capacities of international airports to detect and intercept drugs, other illicit goods and high-risk passengers (including foreign terrorist fighters), and the Container Control Programme (CCP) which helps member states strengthen their border control capacity and detect illicit goods in cargo containers. Interventions by other development partners include an EU project to combat human trafficking (JEMPAS) and the UK Jordan Security Sector Programme, aimed at reducing internal security threats in Jordan. etc.

K4D Helpdesk Report 537. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies.

Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham, 2019. 13p.

By Andrés Cajiao | Paula Tobo | Mariana Botero Restrepo

Just how organized is organized crime? This report on the relationship between migration and organized crime along the Colombia–Panama border explores this recurring question in research on organized crime with the aim of demystifying two underexplored phenomena in Colombia. The first is the Gulf Clan (Spanish: Clan del Golfo), which calls itself the Gaitanist Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, a group that continues to control the region despite being the object of one of the most intensive intelligence and judicial operations in the country’s recent history. While the specifics of how the Clan operates are unknown, this report demonstrates that criminal governance always depends on a complex set of relationships between organized crime, local communities and the state. Violence and the threat of violence are not enough to govern. In fact, one of the main findings of this study is that the influence of organized crime means that irregular migration and the economy that arises around it do not operate through violence. The second phenomenon explored here is migrant smuggling, which is widespread in border areas. The actions taken by states and international organizations have not curbed this highly complex illicit economy. Although irregular migration is stigmatized and presents a serious humanitarian problem in the region, it has been key in reviving the economies of Urabá and the Darién Gap, along the Colombian border, which should play a central role in public policy discussions. Without a better understanding of migratory phenomena and the key players involved, there is little the state can do to guarantee people’s safety or recover territorial control where it has lost it.

Geneva: Global Initiative AGainst Transnational Organized Crime, 2022.

By Iffat Idris

Conflict in eastern Ukraine has been underway since 2014: the February 2014 ouster of pro-Russia President Yanukovych was followed in March by Russian annexation of Crimea, and its support for insurgency in the Donetz Basin (Donbas) – the latter is ongoing. This paper is a rapid literature review of the links between corruption, crime and conflict in eastern Ukraine. While Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea was rooted both in Moscow’s historic claims to the peninsula, as well as moves by Kiev to move closer to the European Union, the ongoing insurgency in the Donetz Basin (Donbas) stems from structural factors such as industrial decline. Russian support for the Donbas insurgents, alongside its failure to recognise the republics that they announced (Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic), suggests that Moscow’s real goal is to put pressure on the Ukrainian government and prevent its integration into Western structures. The paper assesses the impact of the conflict on the economy of Crimea and Donbas. Russia has tried to demonstrate the benefits to Crimea of annexation by pumping vast resources into the region, but this resource injection has been unable to overcome the effects of wide-ranging Western sanctions. Donbas’ economy has been even more badly affected by ongoing conflict, with thousands displaced and an economic blockade imposed by Kiev greatly limiting trade. Here too, Moscow has had to step in with subsidies and humanitarian assistance. The paper also looks at the involvement of organised criminal groups (OCGs) in the conflict, and the impact of the conflict on organised crime in the region. With regard to the former it finds that OCGs played a big role in Russia’s annexation of Crimea, fighting alongside Russian forces (without their insignia) and other volunteers. This highlights the complementary and symbiotic nature of the connection between criminal groups and the Russian state. OCGs in the Donbas region had strong links with the Yanukovych government in Ukraine, ousted in 2014 – hence it is no surprise that these groups were heavily involved in the Donbas insurgency. With regard to how organised crime has been affected by conflict, the paper finds that corruption was a massive problem in Ukraine long before the conflict in the east. Moreover, it involved all levels of the government system and was strongly linked to organised crime. OCGs were especially prevalent in Crimea, while Donbas was even more notorious for criminality. Post-Crimea’s annexation, links between OCGs in Crimea and in Russia became even stronger. Ironically, due to the vast influx of Russian development funds, Crimea represented an opportunity for embezzlement and corruption for Russian and Crimean OCGs. Closer ties were even forged between Russian OCGs and those in Ukraine. Since the conflict in Donbas began – and given the economic blockade, and falling Russian funding support - the region has become heavily dependent on organised crime. The paper also finds that oligarchs, with close ties to organised crime, have benefited hugely from Crimea becoming part of Russia, e.g. seizing property belonging to pro Ukraine business elites. Ties with political elites are equally strong: gangs gain protection from political patronage, in turn giving kickbacks to politicians. One final aspect explored in the paper is transnational crime. It finds that this has risen since the annexation of Crimea and conflict in Donbas, including a rise in smuggling of illicit goods into Europe, and a rise in organised crime in Ukraine. Sevastopol could potentially take over as a smuggling hub from Odesa, while Crimea and Ukraine could become a global money laundering centre. Criminality in Russia has also increased, seen in rises in drug and arms trafficking and criminal cases. The drop in cross-border cooperation to combat crime has contributed to greater criminality. The paper concludes that corruption, crime and conflict are heavily intermeshed in eastern Ukraine, with each reinforcing the other in what appears to be a downward spiral of escalation.

SOC ACE Evidence Review Paper No. 2. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. 2022. 26p/

What’s new? Each year, hundreds of thousands of migrants cross the Darién Gap, a strip of jungle between Central and South America, on their way to the U.S. With little state presence in the area, Colombia’s Gaitanista drug syndicate is overseeing human smuggling rackets while gangs in Panama perpetrate assaults on migrants. Why does it matter? Illicit profits are soaring as the flow of migrants swells, with much of the money going to organised crime. Efforts by Colombia and Pan ama to impede the movement of people or weaken the criminal groups’ hold have so far failed to curb murder, rape and other attacks on migrants. What should be done? The days when the Darién Gap was a meaningful bar rier to mass migration are over. Enhanced law enforcement, redoubled efforts to quell crises in the main countries of departure and reinforced humanitarian assistance in the Darién could form part of regional efforts to manage irregular migration and protect the vulnerable.

Bogota; New York: Latin America Report N°102 | 3 November 2023

International Crisis Group, 2023. 46p.

By Tuesday Reitano

Finding responses to illicit financial flows (IFFs) and preventing the extraction, movement and secretion of wealth from the licit global economy has become a growing policy preoccupation. The scale of IFFs and their continued growth has been linked to damaging consequences for governance and the building of peaceful, inclusive societies that achieve development for their citizens. This paper draws on the body of research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) to demonstrate how and why responses to IFFs are falling short.

This wide-ranging review concludes that:

• The response to IFFs is too focused on the international financial system, and has failed to recognise and integrate the need to also strengthen oversight and integrity in trade flows, which is one of the dominant means by which illicit value is transferred.

• Informal economic activity, and the size and growth of the informal sector in many economies is undermining the efficacy of regulatory and oversight instruments.

• Political will to tackle the problem appears to be lacking – instead, in a number of key states policymaking has been captured to serve the interests of those for whom the offshore financial system and other legal and regulatory loopholes are of significant benefit. Moreover, state actors are both a significant part of the problem, both as a source of IFFs and as a conduit to enabling their continuation.

The implications of such extensive state involvement are profound, ranging from an overly technical approach to the challenge; the capture and distortion of multilateral processes; the failure to link policy to insecurity and violence, and a closing space for civil society manifested in legal, reputational and physical threat. In the absence of political will, and given the way that the traditional avenues for policy and programmatic response have been compromised, the paper concludes by proposing a few ways to strengthen the response, including by building a stronger and more active role for civil society as activists, whistleblowers and sources of oversight and response; promoting financial inclusion and reducing informality, and focusing on the role of non state actors as potential gatekeepers to guard against IFFs.

SOC ACE Research Paper No. 14. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham 2022. 45p.

By Elena Campbell, Todd Fernando, Leigh Gassner, Jess Hill, Zac Seidler, Anne Summers

The purpose of this review was to draw together advice and identify opportunities to strengthen prevention efforts and approaches across all forms of violence against women and children, including a particular focus on homicides. The report provides specific and practical advice to strengthen prevention approaches, and builds on work currently underway in the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

The Rapid Review highlighted a number of areas of priority including:

• responding to children and young people’s experiences of domestic, family and sexual violence

• engaging with men and boys in violence prevention, including meeting them where they are at

• better understanding pathways into perpetration to improve targeting of early intervention initiatives, with the aim of preventing violence from occurring.

The report makes 21 recommendations across 6 key areas of:

• A national emergency – and an ongoing national priority

• The prevention potential

• Prevention through people

• Prevention through responses

• Prevention through systems and industries

• Prevention through learning and data.

Canberra: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia), 2024. 97p.

 By Charles Fain Lehman

Washington, DC, is making headlines for its crime problems. While other cities saw crime retreat in 2023, the District saw a historic spike in murders, as well as a surge in shocking carjackings, many carried out by teenage offenders. These disturbing crimes are compounded by a general decay in public order in the District, with residents complaining of rampant fare-beating, panhandling, and shoplifting. But why has crime risen in the nation’s capital? The debate around the topic focuses on either the leniency of DC’s laws or the degree to which DC has provided for its most disadvantaged citizens. Nobody can even agree, it seems, on the extent to which crime has risen, or which crimes have gone up or down, with commentators cherry-picking statistics that serve their preferred view of things. This report makes several contributions to the debate over crime in the District of Columbia. The first section presents data on crime in the District, identifying three distinct but related crime problems: a long-standing homicide and group-violence problem; adolescent crime, principally involving auto theft and carjacking; and public disorder, including fare evasion and uncontrolled unsheltered homelessness. The second section connects these trends to a systematic decline of activity in many components of DC’s crime-and-disorder control system, including reductions in police staffing and activity, in prosecution, in pretrial detention, in school attendance, in judicial staffing, and in camp clearance. These two sections, the report then argues, are related. The report calls for viewing DC’s problem through the criminal justice system “capacity” lens—the volume of manpower, attention, space, time, and other resources that the system can dedicate to its crime-fighting function. DC has experienced a comprehensive collapse in its capacity over the past four years; remediating it is the best way to get crime under control. In conclusion, this report lays out several proposals for restoring or expanding capacity, including • Federally funding Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) hiring • Expanding professional development opportunities for MPD officers • “Civilianize” certain MPD roles • Concentrate limited policing resources • Building a dedicated federal–District gang-suppression partnership • Encourage the public to fight crime through public nuisance abatement and the ability of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) to deny liquor licenses • Permit the DC attorney general to prosecute cases that the U.S. attorney declines • Give the Senate a time-limited veto over, rather than a confirmation responsibility for, appointments to DC’s courts • Prosecute truants engaged in criminal behavior • Clear camps without apology These steps, this report concludes, should be part of an all-of-government effort to make DC’s criminal-justice system function again—and function better. The report’s Appendix includes model federal legislation for accomplishing these goals through increased funding, expanded prosecutorial authority, and facilitating the nomination and confirmation of DC judges 

New York: The Manhattan Institute, 2024. 39p.

By The Young Women’s Alliance

This report examines young people’s relationships, sex lives and experiences of disrespect and violence. The evidence reveals:

• Statistically significant disparities between young women and men. For women, heightened vulnerability snowballs into disadvantage in other life areas; for men, early sexist views compound in educational and workplace settings, and can manifest in violent behaviour.

• YWA's original psychological risk profile of young men is more highly correlated with GBV perpetration than the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), a validated indicator of likelihood to engage in violent behaviour.1

• A stark reality exists where 90% of interviewed women see sexual violence and/or assault as inevitable in their lifetime (if it had not already occurred); a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if,’ expressing that violence is synonymous with womanhood.

• Significant gender disparities in perceptions of sexuality-related education, with men rating the education they received on sex and consent as significantly better than women, a concerning gap in preparedness prior to formative sexual experiences.

• YWA’s original Gender and Relationship Distress Score, a 12-item measure, indicates that more than 1 in 5 young women (21.8%) experience significant gendered distress in their intimate relationships.

Australia: Young Women's Alliance, 2024. 96p.

By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Jasmine McGowan, Rebecca Stewart

This study privileges the voices of children and young people with lived experience of family violence. It seeks to extend current understandings of how child-specific risk identification, assessment and management practices can best be developed, implemented and embedded across Victoria.

Melbourne, VIC: Monash University, 2023. 52p.

By The Royal Commission Into Violence, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

In this Royal Commission, people with disability, their families and a range of other people shared their dreams and aspirations for an inclusive Australia. These visions were diverse but rested on a common foundation: a future where people with disability live free from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation; human rights are protected; and individuals live with dignity, equality and respect, can take risks, and develop and fulfil their potential. We heard about these dreams and aspirations in Public hearings, including Public hearing 31, ‘Vision for an inclusive Australia’, as well as from submissions, responses to issues papers, private sessions, community engagements and research projects.1 This vision summarises what we learnt from people with disability, their families and supporters about their hopes for the future. Our public hearings, and the information we gathered from other sources, have necessarily focused on violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. But people with disability have also told us about positive changes that have made their lives better, and their confidence that together we can shape a society which recognises, empowers and values disability as part of human diversity. They rightly insist an inclusive society is better for everyone. What follows is a sample of what we have heard from people with disability and their families about their visions for the future, drawing out themes that help us to understand what inclusion is all about. We then explore the foundational significance of a human rights approach to preventing and responding to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Finally, we set out critical aspects of an inclusive society, highlighting the importance of listening to the voices, and recognising the leadership, of people with disability

Australia: The Royal Commission, 2023. 356p.

By Zimmer, Catherine

In Paris, a static video camera keeps watch on a bourgeois home. In Portland, a webcam documents the torture and murder of kidnap victims. And in clandestine intelligence offices around the world, satellite technologies relentlessly pursue the targets of global conspiracies. Such plots represent only a fraction of the surveillance narratives that have become commonplace in recent cinema. Catherine Zimmer examines how technology and ideology have come together in cinematic form to play a functional role in the politics of surveillance. Drawing on the growing field of surveillance studies and the politics of contemporary monitoring practices, she demonstrates that screen narrative has served to organize political, racial, affective, and even material formations around and through surveillance. She considers how popular culture forms are intertwined with the current political landscape in which the imagery of anxiety, suspicion, war, and torture has become part of daily life. From Enemy of the State and The Bourne Series to Saw, Caché, and Zero Dark Thirty, Surveillance Cinema explores in detail the narrative tropes and stylistic practices that characterize contemporary films and television series about surveillance.

New York: NYU Press,  2015. 288p

By Dubber, Markus Dirk

Two phenomena have shaped American criminal law for the past thirty years: the war on crime and the victims' rights movement. As incapacitation has replaced rehabilitation as the dominant ideology of punishment, reflecting a shift from an identification with defendants to an identification with victims, the war on crime has victimized offenders and victims alike. What we need instead, Dubber argues, is a system that adequately recognizes both victims and defendants as persons. Victims in the War on Crime is the first book to provide a critical analysis of the role of victims in the criminal justice system as a whole. It also breaks new ground in focusing not only on the victims of crime but also on those of the war on victimless crime. After first offering an original critique of the American penal system in the age of the crime war, Dubber undertakes an incisive comparative reading of American criminal law and the law of crime victim compensation, culminating in a wide-ranging revision that takes victims seriously, and offenders as well. Dubber here salvages the project of vindicating victims' rights for its own sake, rather than as a weapon in the war against criminals. Uncovering the legitimate core of the victims' rights movement from underneath existing layers of bellicose rhetoric, he demonstrates how victims' rights can help us build a system of American criminal justice after the frenzy of the war on crime has died down.

New York: New York University Press, 2002. 

By Rachel Burgin and Jacqui Tassone

This report presents the findings of a a study that aimed to understand the reasons for the high rate of attrition of reported sexual offences in the Australian Capital Territory. Through analysis of 389 police case reports, interviews with 33 victim-survivors and a review of Australian Federal Police and ACT Policing policy and procedural documents, the review found that not only are sexual offences rarely charged in the ACT, sexual offences are rarely investigated.

Failure to investigate sexual offences was driven by two key factors:

• impact of rape myths on police decision-making

• lack of understanding of the laws relating to sexual offences and the test to charge.

The report makes 17 recommendations to improve responses to sexual offences in the ACT and improve the experiences of victim-survivors in reporting to police. The findings provide insight for police forces across Australia to move towards a trauma-informed approach to policing sexual offences.

Hawthorn, VIC: Swinburne University of Technology, 2024. 129p.

By Laura Hidderley, Marni Manning, Elena Marchetti, Anne Edwards

Public opinion about sentencing is notoriously difficult to assess. In 2017, the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council was asked to do just that in relation to sentencing for child homicide offences. Building on the existing literature on public attitudes to the criminal justice system, this study aimed to explore community views on this issue using a focus group methodology. A group of 103 participants was recruited by a market research company from a mix of urban and rural locations in Queensland. After completing a series of questionnaires, participants were assigned a ‘punitiveness score’ and assessed the seriousness of three separate child homicide vignettes. The study found that participants viewed the sentences as inadequate and not sufficiently reflective of the vulnerability and defencelessness of the child. These findings contributed to the Council’s recommendations to the Attorney-General and have since led to legislative change.

Research Report no. 21.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2021. 58p.

By Christie Franks and Russell G Smith

Identity crime and misuse cost the Australian economy an estimated $3.1b in 2018–19 (Smith & Franks 2020). Protecting individuals’ personal identification information and finding secure ways to verify identities has become an increased priority as the impact of identity crime continues to grow in Australia and worldwide. Biometric technologies for identity verification provide an enhanced security solution, although implementation of biometric systems within Australian society has met with varying degrees of acceptance. Since 2013, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has conducted online surveys to gain a greater understanding of identity crime and misuse in Australia. These surveys have asked about respondents’ experience of identity crime and also their previous use of, and future willingness to use, biometric technologies to safeguard their personal information. This report presents both qualitative and quantitative research findings obtained from a sample of respondents in the most recent surveys concerning their experiences of biometrics and perceptions as to its role in identity security.

Research Report no. 20. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2021. 76p.

By Keenan, Marie and Zinsstag, Estelle

This book examines the degree to which restorative justice can contribute to a more enhanced justice response than that currently offered by criminal legal approaches alone, to victims, offenders, and their communities in cases of sexual crime. Concerned by the high attrition rates for sexual crime and the secondary victimization reported in victim accounts, annual reports from court and prosecutor services, and the empirical literature, the book analyses the extent to which restorative justice can address the justice gap that exists in current justice provision. Building on clinical experience and earlier research on sexual crime the researchers engage with the complex dynamics and traumatic impact of sexual violence as a critical starting point for their research and examine whether restorative justice can be appropriate for this crime too. The book presents extensive new data on restorative justice as applied in sexual violence cases across the globe. It engages with feminist concerns regarding the traumatic impact of sexual violence and the potential for re-traumatization; the power imbalances that characterize these offenses and the potential for re-victimization; the potential for coercion of the victim to participate in the process; the potential for manipulation of restorative justice by the offender; and the potential that restorative justice could lead to the reprivatization of sexual crime and ultimately to its decriminalization. Having examined these topics in detail the book concludes there is an important role for restorative justice as a victim-centred service in addressing the justice gap that exists after sexual crime and offers guidance on how this can be achieved.

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2022. 417p.

Edited by Catherine Baker, Bogdan C. Iacob, Anikó Imre, and James Mark  

Central and Eastern Europe has long been seen in the West as an ‘off-white’ European periphery. Yet its nationalist movements have worked towards a full belonging in a white Europe, or have claimed themselves to be superior defenders of the white West. This volume demonstrates the centrality of white supremacy for over two centuries in the region’s nation-building, social hierarchies, ethnic homogenization, and global interconnections. Such insight applies not only to the newly established states of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century founded at the heights of global colonialism but also to the region’s Communist polities, which publicly professed their rejection of such racial politics. More broadly, we analyze the role that white peripheries play in the maintenance of global racial order – including the question of why the region inspires contemporary radical nationalism around the world. The collection comprises studies of national self-determination, geographic exploration, migration, and diplomacy; of cultural representation in literature, film, the media industries, exhibitions, art, dress, and music; of intellectual and academic discourses; as well as explorations of the many forms of banal nationalism, including everyday artifacts and language. The volume underlines the potential for resistance in the region too by theorizing its marginality and identifying solidarities with racialized minorities and the Global South. Central and Eastern Europe has long been removed from global histories of race. This is an original alternative history that explores and challenges long-held claims about the region’s racial innocence.

Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2024. 375p

By Heike Bauer

"Influential sexologist and activist Magnus Hirschfeld founded Berlin's Institute of Sexual Sciences in 1919 as a home and workplace to study homosexual rights activism and support transgender people. It was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933. This episode in history prompted Heike Bauer to ask, Is violence an intrinsic part of modern queer culture? The Hirschfeld Archives answers this critical question by examining the violence that shaped queer existence in the first part of the twentieth century. Hirschfeld himself escaped the Nazis, and many of his papers and publications survived. Bauer examines his accounts of same-sex life from published and unpublished writings, as well as books, articles, diaries, films, photographs, and other visual materials, to scrutinize how violence--including persecution, death, and suicide--shaped the development of homosexual rights and political activism. The Hirschfeld Archives brings these fragments of queer experience together to reveal many unknown and interesting accounts of LGBTQ life in the early twentieth century, but also to illuminate the fact that homosexual rights politics were haunted from the beginning by racism, colonial brutality, and gender violence". This work examines how death, suicide, and violence shaped modern queer culture, arguing that negative experiences, as much as affirmative subculture formation, influenced the emergence of a collective sense of same-sex identity. Bauer looks for this history of violence in the work and reception of the influential sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), and through Hirschfeld's work examines the form and collective impact of anti-queer violence in the first half of the twentieth century. Hirschfeld's archive (his library at the Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin) was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933, so the archive of Bauer's title is one that she's built from over a hundred published and unpublished books, articles, films, and photographs.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2017. 

By Kevin Curran

Shakespeare’s Legal Ecologies offers the first sustained examination of the relationship between law and selfhood in Shakespeare’s work. Curran argues that law provided Shakespeare with the conceptual resources to imagine selfhood in social and distributed terms, as a product of interpersonal exchange or gathering of various material forces. Curran reveals Shakespeare’s distinctly communitarian vision of personal and political experience, the way he regarded living and acting in the world as materially and socially embedded practices. At the center of the book is Shakespeare’s fascination with questions fundamental to law and philosophy: What are the sources of agency? For whom am I responsible, and how far does responsibility extend? Curran guides readers through Shakespeare’s responses, paying attention to historical and intellectual contexts. The result is a new theory of Shakespeare’s relationship to law and an original account of law’s role in the ethical work of his writings.

Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2017.. 192p,