Carrington, Kerry; Walters, Reece --- "Chief Editors' Introduction" [2014] IntJlCrimJustSocDem 1; (2014) 3(1) International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 1

• Chief Editors’ Introduction: Vol 3(1)

---

Chief Editors’ Introduction: Vol 3(1)

Professor Kerry Carrington, Professor Reece Walters

Queensland University of Technology, Australia

The opening article in this edition by distinguished Spanish scholar and socio-legal theorist, Patricia Faraldo-Cabana addresses a large gap in English speaking criminological theory about shifting modes of penality outside Anglophone countries. She investigates the historical development of the fine in Western European criminal systems, and how its use in systems of penality changed in tandem with shifts in socio-legal jurisprudential rationales. The editors are delighted to publish an article of such high calibre which, in making an original contribution to these debates, also translates key historical texts previously unknown to English speaking scholars. Leonidas Cheliotis, winner of the 2013 prestigious Critical Criminologist of the Year Award by the Division on Critical Criminology of the American Society of Criminology, explores how the arts, broadly defined, constitute ‘an alternative lens’ to understanding the place of punishment in public consciousness. This piece also stretches criminological scholarship and theorising to produce a provocative analysis of how arts as a socio-political practice can express inspirational resistance to penal states.

The next two pieces in this edition, authored by long-time leading Australian scholars on the impact of crime and justice of Indigenous communities, explore the troubling relationship between western and Indigenous laws, knowledges, methods and theories. Gillian Cowlishaw takes the Australian Federal Government Intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities as a case study of policies that reduced the ability of Indigenous communities to take responsibility for addressing sexual assault. Using an ethnographic framework that goes beyond the moralising discourses that created this debacle, she explores the relevant social, cultural and historical factors involved and exposes how mainstream institutions need to reconsider their interventionist practices. Chris Cunneen and Simone Rowe’s contribution offers an original and much needed new approach to progress the debate about the colonising effects of criminological and social work knowledges and practices. They argue that both disciplines have been slow to recognise how they subjugate Indigenous knowledges through their theories, methods, and ontological, epistemological and axiological assumptions.

There are several very topical pieces in this volume that address current debates being played out in political and public discourse as we write, but in a reflective way using a range of socio-legal and criminological theories. The first, by David McDonald, examines the alignment of hate crime and vigilantism with paedophilia. It tackles the thorny and contentious issue as to whether or not paedophilia should be excluded from hate crime provisions. The second, by Julia Quilter, critically examines the New South Wales State Government’s recently enacted ‘one-punch laws’, under the Crimes and other Legislation Amendment (Assault and Intoxication) Act 2014 (NSW). She argues that the laws are unlikely to prevent alcohol-fuelled violence, are devoid of principle, and lack coherence in criminal law. The third, by Patrick Shepherdson, Garner Clancey, Murray Lee and Thomas Crofts, uses their important new field research with Community Safety Officers and their role in crime prevention partnership programs. Their findings support international research ‘that central-local partnerships are inhibited by different agendas, responsibilities and power dynamics across different levels of government’. Last, but by no means least, Molly Dragiewicz makes a vital contribution to international debates about domestic violence policy. She argues that domestic violence against women has been addressed within the field of criminology and criminal law, but calls for more ‘criminological attention to family law responses to domestic violence’, and sets out an agenda for more research.

There are several exciting special editions forthcoming. These include: Maximo Sozzo as editor of Punishment and Neoliberalism in Latin America, to be published in English and Spanish; Tanya Wyatt, Nigel South and Piers Bierne, editors of New Horizons in Green Criminology; Hilde Tubex and Anna Eriksson, editors of Contemporary Prison Research; Michael Salter, editor of Organised Sexual Abuse; Scott Poynting, editor of Islamaphobia and Crime; and Asher Flynn and Mark Halsey, editors of Critical Criminology.

We are delighted to report that the journal has had over 36,500 abstract views and 15,000 full PDF downloads since its inception in November 2012. The journal is now included on a number of quality open access journal data bases, including the Excellence in Research (ERA), Australian Research Council (ARC) list of Journals. We are very grateful for the overwhelmingly positive feedback from scholars across the globe who forwarded their comments about the exceptional international reach, quality and impact of this new journal to the ARC ERA consultation process. The editors wish to thank the outstanding work undertaken by Dr Alison McIntosh in the production of the journal as well as the time commitment of members of the International Editorial Board and wider criminological community who review articles, usually within tight time-frames.