School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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    The status of women in Islam : a case study of Pakistan
    Rashid, Tahmina. (University of Melbourne, 1999)
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    The status of women in Islam : a case study of Pakistan
    Rashid, Tahmina. (University of Melbourne, 1999)
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    Satanic cults: ritual crime allegations and the false memory syndrome
    Ogden, Edward ( 1993)
    My interest in criminology was inspired by Dennis Challinger who tolerated a student taking ten years to finish the Diploma in Criminology, and Stan Johnson who encouraged broad-mindedness to which I was unaccustomed. Stan challenged my attitudes, beliefs and conclusions. My interest in cults was inspired by Anne Hamilton-Byrne whose "children'" especially Sarah, taught me a great deal. They introduced me to their personal experience of growing up in strange isolation from the world. I received assistance and constructive criticism from the police Task Force investigating the Hamilton-Byrne “Family” especially Detective Sergeant DeMan. I began this task searching to understand “The Family”, its origins and its meaning. The path towards an understanding of cults took me in unexpected directions. I learned about the Satanic allegations and began accumulating material. Initially, some therapists with an interest in this area saw me as a potential ally, but as I began to question there assumptions I was rejected as a disbeliever, on the basis that “anyone who is not with us, must be against us”.
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    Dealing with deviance in contemporary Papua New Guinea societies: the choice of sanctions in village and local court proceedings
    Sikani, Richard Charles ( 1996-05)
    Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a country composed of thousands of tribes, clans, cultures and customs, with well over a hundred languages and totemic groupings spread sparsely across its lands (Bonney 1986: 2) (see Map A). Today the country has a total population of four million people (NSO 1991). Before colonisation, Papua New Guinea’s indigenous settlement patterns and social organisation reflected the fragmented nature of the country’s environment, its isolation from the eastern and western centres of civilisation, and the needs of small-scale subsistence economies. Over thousands of years, Melanesian societies have been too diverse for any particular area or group to typify the country’s culture or to maintain a dominant role within government. Deviance, regulatory mechanisms and methods used by each tribe or cultural group to resolve disputes, varied according to the community’s culture and customs. At the time of colonisation the indigenous people were artificially united in one nation-state. With the introduction of Western social, political, economic and judicial systems, they were forced to live under alien dispute resolution procedures and to accept an imposed Western system of sanctions, which overlaid or supplemented the customary dispute resolution procedures. Since colonisation, a Western legal system of sanctions has been imposed on Papua New Guineans in which the colonialists have overlooked traditional, unwritten customary systems.
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    Impact of DNA profiling on the criminal justice system
    Taupin, Jane Moira ( 1994-08)
    The innovative forensic technique of DNA profiling has been acclaimed as the most important advance in forensic science since fingerprinting. Whilst there is much anecdotal information on the impact of DNA profiling on criminal investigation, prosecution and adjudication, there is little quantitative and control comparison data on the routine use of forensic DNA profiling. This study evaluates the effect of the introduction of DNA profiling in Victoria on a number of key points in the criminal justice system. The overall impact of DNA profiling was low as determined by the percentage of criminal cases which utilise DNA profiling. However, in certain classes of cases its impact was measurable, most notably in sex offences committed by “strangers”. Less than one quarter of sexual offence cases of DNA profiled resulted in a contested trial, suggesting that the focus of DNA profiling on the criminal justice system should swing to the pre-trial phase. DNA profiling was most often used in sexual offence cases and a database comparison of these cases before and after the advent of DNA profiling was examined. Whilst not statistically significant, trends indicated there were more solved cases, more guilty pleas and fewer trials after the introduction of DNA profiling, but more individuals were drawn into the investigatory process. The number of trials of sexual offences in which consent was an issue was slightly greater than previously. The increase in guilty pleas with DNA profiling was only for stranger type crime. Further research is recommended as DNA profiling becomes the cornerstone of biological forensic analysis.
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    Modernity, racism and subjectivity
    Moran, Anthony F. ( 1995-10)
    Racism, understood as the form of ideology and the set of social practices based on explicit and implicit notions of biologically determined human ‘races’, is a modern phenomenon. Other major forms of social cleavage together with the ideologies which contribute to and support them, such as those which relate to class and gender, have had a complex relationship with racism. Nevertheless racism needs to be distinguished analytically from each of these, and given its due as a relatively autonomous system. Viewed from the perspective of the systematic patterning of social life, it has institutional backing and support. In the modern West especially, it has organised, and it continues to help organise, significant areas of social domain. It has a history, which includes the history of ideas and of representations of the Other, and it is closely tied to economic production and relations. Though it may be that racism is generated primarily at the social and economic levels, it is experienced psychologically, and psychology plays a role in its reproduction. Racism, then, needs to be examined not only in terms of its social structural features, but at the same time in terms of the involvement of subjectivity in its processes.
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    An evaluation of the Costigan Royal Commission into the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, 1980-1984, as a political response to organised crime
    Fowler, Peter ( 1990)
    This thesis is an evaluation of the Costigan Royal Commission into the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (1980-1984) as a political response to organised crime. The focus of the study is the extent to which the Costigan Royal Commission was effective in achieving the aims of such an inquiry according to criteria based largely, but not exclusively, on Woodward's framework for the 'success' of Royal commissions. This thesis argues that the Costigan Royal Commission was largely effective as a political response to organised crime for a number of reasons but that a variety of factors impacting on the role of Royal commissions served to restrict its effectiveness as an instrument of reform. A sub-thesis argued here is that a more effective response to organised crime is possible utilising other politically initiated mechanisms (such as a permanent authority on crime and corruption), but that, nonetheless, the Costigan Royal Commission was able to achieve more in relation to serious organised criminal activity than traditional law enforcement agencies were (or are) capable of achieving. The analytical section of the thesis focuses on the extent to which the Costigan Commission's recommendations have been translated into substantive and procedural law reform, in addition to a critical assessment of the political response of commissioning governments made to these recommendations.
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    The Victorian Boy Scout Movement: a case study of adaptation from Edwardian times to today
    Marshall, Sally J. ( 1989)
    This thesis is an enquiry into the world view of the boy scout association and the way that world view has been adjusted in the light of changing values and societal patterns. The boy scout association has been in existence for some eighty years and it has maintained its strength while almost all other comparable movements have had to disband because of falling membership and insufficient interest. The thesis explores how the association, established in Edwardian times and rooted in imperial middle-class values, has managed the process of adaptation. The thesis is also a case study of scouting in Victoria. The enquiry proceeds by examining three chronological periods selected for their historical significance to the movement. The first is the period from scouting’s inception in Victoria in 1908 until the First World War. The second is the decade 1930 to 1940. Finally is the period from 1967 to 1977. This work does not attempt a detailed historical account of the eras, but pauses to provide only a still shot of the movement at these times. The aim has been to be representative rather than exhaustive in the selection of material. When the movement was established, it was imbued with the spirit of imperialism, militarism and masculinity. It is in terms of these three central concepts that the thinking, values and activities of the movement have been observed to determine how they have survived, rearranged themselves or become something new over the years. This preparatory section will provide a brief sketch of scouting’s ideology, looking specifically at the origins of these three principal elements. (From Introduction)
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    Waiting to be heard: a discussion of feminism, criminology and Aboriginal women offenders
    Hunt, Emma ( 1998)
    This thesis evaluates studies which have been carried out with women offenders, and in particular it focuses on the apparent silence in these studies of Aboriginal women offenders about their treatment by the criminal justice system. Aboriginal women are in a significantly disadvantaged position in society compared with non-indigenous women including, in particular, the level of incarceration. However, there has been no direct interviewing with Aboriginal women about their experiences of prosecution and sentencing practice in Australia. It has therefore been very difficult to determine the effect of race on the arrest and sentencing of Aboriginal women. I begin by considering a specific case example. In 1988, an Aboriginal woman, Robyn Kina, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her de-facto husband after a four hour trial in which she was discouraged from giving evidence in her defence. Kina's silence led to a great miscarriage of justice. I argue that Aboriginal women offenders like Kina should be allowed to voice their experiences to assist police and judges in understanding their disadvantage in the criminal justice system. Feminist criminology has been concerned with advancing the research about women and crime, however it has only recently considered many issues concerning black women and crime. I argue that this is possibly because of the emphasis given by the predominantly white women's movement to advancing women's position as a whole, rather than taking account of issues effecting black women. I point out that theorising about gender and race has methodological implications for a white woman researcher who seeks to understand the matrix of oppression which black women experience. Having explored the theoretical debates about race, gender and crime, I turn to empirical studies. Given the paucity of research into Aboriginal women and crime, I examine overseas research. This research is inconsistent about the unequal treatment of black and white offenders. What we do know is that women of colour will have a very different experience of the criminal justice system than white women. They may also have different experiences from each other. This thesis concludes by suggesting that the lack of theoretical and empirical work in Australia results in the continuation of gender and race typifications being imposed on Aboriginal women by the criminal justice system. In trying to speak for all women, feminist criminology is in danger of silencing Aboriginal women unless it seeks out their views and enables them to speak.
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    School closures, alienation and crime: an analysis of the social and economic implications of public secondary school closures in north-west Melbourne
    Aumair, Megan ( 1995)
    Between 1992 and 1993 the Victorian State Government announced the closure or amalgamation of more than 255 publicly funded schools around the state (Parents & Friends, 1993; Marginson, 1994: 47). The Coburg/Preston area, located in the inner north-west of Melbourne, lost four public co-educational secondary colleges in the space of a year. 1135 students were affected (Parents and Friends, 1993). Coburg North Secondary College (here on referred to as Coburg Tech) was one of these schools.