This article gives voice to Mathilde, Karen and Amalie: Three young women who had intimate images of themselves shared non-consensually online. Their experi- ences help build a framework for categorising digital sexual assault (DSA),... more
This article gives voice to Mathilde, Karen and Amalie: Three young women who had intimate images of themselves shared non-consensually online. Their experi- ences help build a framework for categorising digital sexual assault (DSA), aswell as giving insight into how shame, in cases of DSA, connects to social media affordances. The empirical data was produced during four creative writing work- shops. The participants described their experiences during these workshops and they collectively developed strategies for defying shame. This article analyses their experiences of shame, their shame-defying strategies, and the role that social media played in forming types of aggressors and assault experiences. I present what I call the onlooker as a digitally augmented aggressor and I show how this aggressor inflicts shame through the look, as described by Sartre. This results in a discussion of imaginary, progressive contra-shaming, which is one of the four coping strategies that showed empo...
BACKGROUND In 2013 the Queensland Government introduced criminal association and mandatory sentencing laws for members of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). Forms of "criminal association" or "anti-bikie" laws have been... more
BACKGROUND In 2013 the Queensland Government introduced criminal association and mandatory sentencing laws for members of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). Forms of "criminal association" or "anti-bikie" laws have been introduced in several Australian jurisdictions, and recent High Court decisions upholding their constitutionality will ensure that they remain part of our justice landscape. Generally, the aims of these laws are to declare a specific organisation as "criminal" and impose various legal orders and offences that thwart the consorting of members and address organised crime, such as unexplained wealth regimes. There have been significant criticisms of these styles of association laws both here and internationally. The aim of this research is to show the extent of involvement of OMCGs in the drug trade and associated organised crime activity, and whether anti-association laws are an effective response to this type of organised criminal activity....
The ability to distribute private intimate images across public networks including social media through smart devices or computers has emerged as a serious 21st century concern. Initially, legal systems and operators within criminal... more
The ability to distribute private intimate images across public networks including social media through smart devices or computers has emerged as a serious 21st century concern. Initially, legal systems and operators within criminal justice systems were slow to respond to the reported harms associated with the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (collo-quially referred to as revenge porn). However, increasing recognition of the serious harm and victimisation that may result from this behaviour has led many jurisdictions across the world to create new criminal offences. This article reviews the appropriateness of offences that have been created or proposed with a particular reference to developments in Australia. It takes the most recent proposed offence in Western Australia as an opportunity to review the significant differences in how offences have been defined. In suggesting how new offences might be defined, this article relies on the 'ladder principle' and recommends that there should be a ladder or hierarchy of new offences to respond appropriately to both the seriousness of harm and culpability of the perpetrator.
Discourses on men’s violence against women have long been associated with linguistic avoidance and communicative strategies that obscure the responsibility of male perpetrators. Linguistic avoidance does not only obfuscate the... more
Discourses on men’s violence against women have long been associated with linguistic avoidance and communicative strategies that obscure the responsibility of male perpetrators. Linguistic avoidance does not only obfuscate the responsibility of male perpetrators; such strategies also hide the norms and attitudes that underpin much of men’s violence against women. Such techniques represent a form of misdirection: communicative strategies that draw attention away from the true causes or nature of an issue. To demonstrate misdirection in action, I conduct a feminist critical discourse analysis of Australian parliamentarians’ speech acts during the criminalization of upskirting in Victoria in 2007.
