12 fingers or one, it’s how you play? Genetic discrimination in the Australian workforce

For quite some time, debate has raged about what the human race can and should do with its knowledge of genetics. We are now nearly 60 years removed from the work of Watson and Crick who determined the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), yet our opinions as how best to employ scientific knowledge of the human genome, remain as diverse and polarised as ever. Human judgment is often shaped and coloured by popular media and culture, so it should come as no surprise that box office movies such as Gattaca (1997) continue to play a role in informing public opinion on genetics. In order to perform well at the box office, movies such as Gattaca take great liberty in sensationalising (and even distorting) the implications that may result from genetic screening and testing. If the public’s opinion on human genetics is strongly derived from the box office and popular media, then it is no wonder that the discourse on human genetics is couched in the polar parlances of future utopias or future dystopias. When legislating in an area like genetic discrimination in the workforce, we must be mindful of not overplaying the causal link between genetic predisposition towards a disability and an employee’s ability to perform the inherent requirements of their job. Genetic information is ultimately about people, it is not about genes. Genetic discrimination is ultimately about actions, it is not about the intrinsic value of genetic information.

Policing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people : a gap in the research literature

This article argues for exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young people’s experiences with police. While research examines how factors such as indigeneity influence young peoples’ experiences with police, how sexuality and/or gender identity mediates these relationships remains largely unexplored. Key bodies of research suggest a need to explore this area further, including: literature documenting links between homophobic violence against LGBT young people and outcomes such as homelessness that fall within the gambit of policing work; research showing reluctance of LGBT communities to report crime to police; international research documenting homophobic police attitudes and Australian research demonstrating arguably homophobic court outcomes; and research outlining increasing police support of LGBT communities. Drawing on these bodies of literature, this article argues that LGBT young people experience policing warrants further research.

Risk and Responsibility in Women's Prisons

I have been invited to discuss Risk and Responsibility in Women’s Prisons, a task which, is slightly intimidating for one such as I, who, having never worked in a prison, have never experienced the risks and responsibilities working in a prison entails. However, this discussion is based on what prisons’ staff have told me, as they have ruminated on the complexities of their jobs in women’s prisons and many of the examples which I will be using are taken from cross-national research which I did in 2000 and 2001 and which set out to analyse the fortunes of some innovatory programmes in relation to women’s prisons in England, Scotland, North America, Australia and Israel (Carlen 2002). The discussion draws in particular on the imaginative way in which the Scottish women’s prison, Cornton Vale, responded to the spate of suicides which it had in the late 1990s and which resulted in far reaching organizational change.

The Punitive Turn in Juvenile Justice: Cultures of Control and Rights of Compliance in Western Europe and the USA

Separate systems of justice for children and young people have always been beset by issues of contradiction and compromise. There is compelling evidence that such ambiguity is currently being `resolved' by a greater governmental resort to neo-conservative punitive and correctional interventions and a neo-liberal responsibilizing mentality in which the protection historically afforded to children is rapidly dissolving. This resurgent authoritarianism appears all the more anachronistic when it is set against the widely held commitment to act within the guidelines established by various children's rights conventions. Of note is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, frequently described as the most ratified human rights convention in the world, but lamentably also the most violated. Based on international research on juvenile custody rates and children's rights compliance in the USA and Western Europe, this article examines why and to what extent `American exceptionalism' might be permeating European nation states.

Climates of Hate: Media and State Inspired Victimisation of Muslims in Canada and Australia since 9/11

This article represents a preliminary comparative exploration of anti-Muslim racism and violence in Australia and Canada, especially since September 11. We contextualise the anti-Muslim vilification and victimisation within parallel – yet still distinct – political climates that bestow permission to hate. That is, negative media portrayals, together with discriminatory rhetoric, policy and practices at the level of the state create an enabling environment that signals the legitimacy of public hostility toward the Muslim communities. We conclude by pointing toward the need for more extensive empirical exploration of the phenomenon in both countries.