Consideration of the media's representations of women who kill highlights dominant discourses in the framing of public responses to criminal acts of a particular kind, which in turn shapes legal responses to such acts. Generally, women who commit murder are, in some way, portrayed as an...

In this paper, through the lawyers' lens, we identify some of the problems associated with pursuing workplace bullying actions in Australia. Although a new national anti-bullying regime commenced on 1 January 2014, it is still early days. However, it is already clear that the new regime is no...

We first identified that in recent sexual misconduct matters, female teachers received lighter sentences than their male counterparts. Could this be a reflection of community attitudes that minimize the criminality of a female teacher having sexual relations with a male student who is under the...

Differences have been found in elements of rape and in its impact on the victim based on her relationship to the offender. This paper examines these by looking at the differences in responses to and by the survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and in their willingness to disclose or report the...

The relationship of crime and minority groups within society is examined. Issues discussed include the stresses of migration and adaptation; the involvement of migrants in organised crime; ethnic crime rates; the alleged prevalence of wife battering and its non reporting; migrants and the police;...

Easteal provides a brief profile of the sociodemographic and sentence background of women in prison. She highlights the issues affecting female inmates such as the perpetuation of the three rules of dysfunctional families within the prisons and explains how the gendered needs of women inmates...

Easteal describes the extra pressure women from a non English speaking background may face when they find themselves imprisoned. These women experience difficulties with the prison culture which may cause shock and distress; language difficulties; an inability to adapt to food offered in prison;...

Confronting myths about rape is an essential component of rape prevention, and integral to changing attitudes about gender, power and misogyny. Easteal therefore challenges erroneous views of what rape is, who rapes, why men rape, and the impact of rape on the victim. She describes how these...

Over the last twenty years there has been a succession of reforms to sexual assault laws in all Australian jurisdictions. The chapters in this book examine how effective the reforms have been in challenging the traditional norms of the legal system. They discuss: the common law offence of rape;...

Easteal examines the relationship between ethnicity and migration and juvenile crime. She considers why immigrant youth might be more at risk of engaging in criminal activities and whether this is the case. Particular issues that are relevant to immigrant youth and their interaction with the...