School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemMoral reform organisations in Australian: a political response to the sexual revolution( 1997)The 1960s and 1970s were a period of profound social change in Australia and throughout the Western world. One of the most obvious manifestations of cultural upheaval was the so-called 'sexual revolution', whereby several formerly tabooed behaviours including abortion, homosexual practices and the sale of pornography were publicly debated and progressively legalised. Governments which had previously supported traditional Christian standards of sexual morality suddenly seemed powerless to prevent the changes, and even encouraged some of them by actions such as the liberalisation of divorce and censorship laws. The denominational churches were deeply divided over many of these developments and failed to mount an effective campaign against them. Many conservative Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, were deeply disturbed by the advent of the 'permissive society', and banded together in voluntary organisations independent of ecclesiastical control in an attempt to save what was left of the old 'Christian' social order, to alter public attitudes and to reverse the legal changes which had already occurred. Among the better-known groups are the Australian Festival of Light, the Society to Outlaw Pornography and the Right to Life Association. Guided by outspoken leaders such as Fred Nile and Margaret Tighe, these bodies participate actively in politics and their opinions are frequently sought by the media on a wide range of public issues, from prostitution to in vitro fertilisation. Moral reform organisations of this kind have existed in Britain since the seventeenth century and in America since the early 1800s, but were comparative rarities in Australia until 25 years ago. While they have made little tangible impact on the increasingly secularised culture of this country - owing to their limited resource base and the sheer immensity of their actual target (namely, modernisation) - they are able to exert a degree of leverage in certain political contexts e.g. when parliaments are debating the abortion issue. Also, despite their distaste for major aspects of the modern world, many groups employ the language and technology of modernity in ways designed to enhance their prospects of success.
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ItemHow the NCA conceptualises organized crime( 1997)The National Crime Authority (NCA) was established to both investigate and disrupt organized criminal activity. Within the NCA, a Strategic Intelligence Unit (SIU) has been established to undertake assessments of the criminal environment and assist in prioritising areas of work for the Authority. However, there has been an enduring debate in both academic and law enforcement fields about the most appropriate conceptualisation of organized crime. The present thesis has investigated the ways in which personnel within the NCA conceptualise organized crime and apply those conceptualisations to management and investigative tasks. In particular, the definition of organized crime and the associated conceptualisation of that crime developed by the SIU has been compared with the perspectives of a range of other Authority personnel emerging from a series of 21 in-depth interviews. Analysis of the interviews reveal that while the SIU's conceptualisation of organized crime is close to that of the academic community, operational and management personnel adopt conceptualisations which arise from the specific work environments in which they operate. The thesis concludes that the needs of strategic planning, management of complex inter-agency investigations, and operational prioritisation will be better met by closer communication and co-operation between the operational and strategic areas of the Authority.