Public Sociology


Book Description

From the future of work to the nature of our closest relationships, how do we understand the links between our personal troubles and wider public issues in society today? Now into its fourth edition, Public Sociology continues to highlight the relevance of a grounded sociological perspective to Australian social life, as well as encouraging students to apply a sociological gaze to their own lives and the communities in which they live. Public Sociology presents a wide range of topics in a user-friendly and accessible way, introducing key theories and research methods, and exploring core themes, including youth, families and intimate relationships, class and inequality and race and ethnic relations. All chapters have been extensively revised to bring them up to date in a fast-changing social world, reflecting the latest sociological debates in response to changing lifestyles and evolving political landscapes. In addition to updated statistics and research findings, an expanded glossary and the latest citations to the scholarly literature, the text features a completely new chapter on gender and sexualities with expanded discussion of LGBTIQ+. This new edition also explores contemporary issues ranging from the #MeToo movement to marriage equality, fake news and 'alt facts'. This is the essential sociological reference to help students make sense of a complex and challenging world. NEW TO THE FOURTH EDITION: * A new chapter on gender and sexualities and expanded discussion of intersectionality * Exploration of the latest social issues including #MeToo, rising inequality, and the 'post-truth' age * All chapters thoroughly revised and updated with the latest research * Updated book website with extra readings, YouTube clips, and case studies * A new feature, Visual Sociology, helps the reader analyse the power of visual messaging 'With a firm base in the richest traditions of the discipline and with a remarkably approachable format, this book offers an excellent introduction to a wide array of sociology's concerns, making it suitable for all Australian social science undergraduates.' Gary Wickham, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Murdoch University 'A sophisticated yet accessible introduction to social identities, differences and inequalities, and social transformations.' Jo Lindsay, Professor in Sociology, Monash University 'Sweeping and lucid...communicates with ease and simplicity.' Toni Makkai, Emeritus Professor, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University




Politicising and Policing Organised Crime


Book Description

The concept of ‘organised crime’ is constructed and mobilised by a milieu of complex factors and discourses including a politics of law and order, and international insecurity, combined with the vested interests and priorities of scholars, politicians, government officials, and policing authorities. This book challenges existing assumptions and accepted understandings of organised crime, and explores the ways in which it is amplified and reconstructed for political purposes. This book critiques how the constitution of the ‘organised crime problem’ in academic and political discourse provides the conditions necessary for the development of an extensive and international architecture of law, policing, surveillance and intelligence. It examines emerging challenges and future directions including the impact of technology on new problems, and for transnational policing, such as the ease with which the Internet enables crime to be committed across borders, and for electronic communications to be protected with strong encryption hampering interception. No other text presents an integrated and comprehensive study of both the politicisation and policing of organised crime, while questioning the outcomes for society at large. Drawing on international fieldwork and interviews with senior national and supranational policing personnel, this book compares and contrasts various narratives on organised crime. It will be of interest to students and researchers engaged in studies of criminology, criminal justice, organised crime, policing, and law.




Legalizing Cannabis


Book Description

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the world. Over the past couple of decades, several Western jurisdictions have seen reforms in, or changes to, the way cannabis use is being controlled, departing from traditional approaches of criminal prohibition that have dominated cannabis use control regimes for most of the twentieth century. While reform is stalled at the international level, the last decade has seen an acceleration of legislative and regulatory reforms at the local and national levels, with countries no longer willing to bear the human and financial costs of prohibitive policies. Furthermore, legalization models have been implemented in US states, Canada and Uruguay, and are being debated in a number of other countries. These models are providing the world with unique pilot programs from which to study and learn. This book assembles an international who’s who of cannabis scholars who bring together the best available evidence and expertise to address questions such as: How should we evaluate the models of cannabis legalization as they have been implemented in several jurisdictions in the past few years? Which scenarios for future cannabis legalization have been developed elsewhere, and how similar/different are they from the models already implemented? What lessons from the successes and failures experienced with the regulation of other psychoactive substances (such as alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and “legal highs”) can be translated to the effective regulation of cannabis markets? Legalizing Cannabis will appeal to anyone interested in public health policies and drug policy reform and offers relevant insights for stakeholders in any other country where academic, societal or political evaluations of current cannabis policies (and even broader: current drug policies) are a subject of debate.




Addiction Medicine


Book Description

Among Australians use of alcohol and other drugs is almost ubiquitous and results in 13% of total morbidity, but clinicians generally receive limited training in diagnosis and management of substance-use disorders. Written by clinical and academic specialists in their fields, and providing a comprehensive overview of the principles and practice of addiction medicine, this textbook will facilitate such training. The book’s 36 chapters, by 62 specialist contributors, are organised into 5 sections. In Section 1, how substance use can be understood and core principles of management of substance-use disorders are outlined. In Section 2, the clinical and other core skills required for practice are described: clinical assessment, therapeutic relationship, psychological interventions, screening and brief interventions, drug testing and biomarkers of consumption, responsible prescribing, and medico-legal assessment and report-writing. In Section 3, common clinical issues – intoxication and overdose, withdrawal, comorbidities, and pain management and pharmaceutical opioids – are described. Section 4, the largest section, is devoted to consideration of specific substances, legal, illegal, and emerging: tobacco, alcohol, opioids, cannabis, stimulants, hallucinogens, benzodiazepines, and volatile substances. The focus of Section 5 is special populations, adolescents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, injecting-drug users, and others. With new clinical syndromes arising from synthesis of new substances, and with new approaches to treatment being developed, addiction medicine is a rapidly-evolving field. The book is designed to meet the specific needs of a young graduate who is starting a clinical rotation in a drug and alcohol unit. Medical students and junior medical officers will find the book valuable, as will other health professionals who care for people with substance-use problems in drug and alcohol services, nurses, counsellors, and welfare/social workers.




Risk and Hazard Management for Festivals and Events


Book Description

Events of all types are produced every day for all manner of purposes, attracting all sorts of people. To provide a safe and secure setting in which people gather is imperative. Event risk and hazard management must be fully integrated into all event plans and throughout the event management process. Hazard management is the planning process required for the effective management of potential adverse incidents and areas of uncertainty. It involves intensive, detailed planning and cooperation to apply control systems to minimise hazards associated with venues, outdoor sites, work procedures, facilities, equipment and crowds of spectators. It involves planning for emergencies and security, and compliance with legal constraints and requirements. Risk and Hazard Management for Festivals and Events provides students with a comprehensive, fully integrated planning and management mechanism that can be applied to events of all types and size. The Event Safety Management System provides guidelines and processes for proactive methods to identify, assess and control hazardous conditions and practices. The system incorporates design of festival venues and sites, and unites the operational functions of crowd control, communications, security, terrorism prevention processes and emergency response protocols. Explanation of the causes of crowd disasters and studies into crowd behaviour are supported with international case studies. Written in an accessible, practical way, this book is essential reading for all events students and event managers.




Criminal Liability for Serious Traffic Offences


Book Description

The criminal law on serious traffic offenses presents legislators with numerous controversial issues. One such issue is when severe consequences are matched with low moral culpability. How should the law deal with a driver who kills someone because she failed to see the person when looking? Another controversial issue concerns highly culpable behavior that remains without serious consequences. How should the law cope with a driver who nearly kills someone when overtaking recklessly? The traffic context generates many hard cases that call the outermost boundaries of general doctrinal concepts like intent, negligence, or causation into question. This book contains an international collection of essays on criminal liability for serious traffic offenses. With a focus on England/Wales, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain, the book reveals that there are enormous differences in both drafting and interpretation of serious traffic offenses. Additionally, it elaborates on the role of culpability and harm in sentencing, traffic-psychological insights relevant to accident causation, and the concept of conditional intent in relation to extremely dangerous traffic behavior. (Series: Governance & Recht - Vol. 11) [Subject: Criminal Law, Traffic Law, Comparative Law]




I'm Not Racist But ... 40 Years of the Racial Discrimination Act


Book Description

Is Australia a 'racist' country? Why do issues of race and culture seem to ignite public debate so readily? Tim Soutphommasane, Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, reflects on the national experience of racism and the progress that has been made since the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975. As the first federal human rights and discrimination legislation, the Act was a landmark demonstration of Australia's commitment to eliminating racism. Published to coincide with the Act's fortieth anniversary, this book gives a timely and incisive account of the history of racism, the limits of free speech, the dimensions of bigotry and the role of legislation in our society's response to discrimination. With contributions by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Bindi Cole Chocka, Benjamin Law, Alice Pung and Christos Tsiolkas.




Prohibitions


Book Description

This collection of essays examines those areas where the freedom of individual men and women to voluntarily engage in mutually advantageous exchanges is prohibited or restricted by government. The authors critically examine the economic and philosophical rationale for the prohibition of alcohol, the sale of body parts, medicinal drugs, pornography, prostitution, recreational drugs, tobacco and trade in endangered species, among other topics.




The Miombo in Transition


Book Description

Miombo woodlands and their use: overview and key issues. The ecology of miombo woodlands. Population biology of miombo tree. Miombo woodlands in the wider context: macro-economic and inter-sectoral influences. Rural households and miombo woodlands: use, value and management. Trade in woodland products from the miombo region. Managing miombo woodland. Institutional arrangements governing the use and the management of miombo woodlands. Miombo woodlands and rural livelihoods: options and opportunities.




Conflict, Politics and Crime


Book Description

Aboriginal people are grossly over-represented before the courts and in our gaols. Despite numerous inquiries, State and Federal, and the considerable funds spent trying to understand this phenomenon, nothing has changed. Indigenous people continue to be apprehended, sentenced, incarcerated and die in gaols. One part of this depressing and seemingly inexorable process is the behaviour of police. Drawing on research from across Australia, Chris Cunneen focuses on how police and Aboriginal people interact in urban and rural environments. He explores police history and police culture, the nature of Aboriginal offending and the prevalence of over-policing, the use of police discretion, the particular circumstances of Aboriginal youth and Aboriginal women, the experience of community policing and the key police responses to Aboriginal issues. He traces the pressures on both sides of the equation brought by new political demands. In exploring these issues, Conflict, Politics and Crime argues that changing the nature of contemporary relations between Aboriginal people and the police is a key to altering Aboriginal over-representation in the criminal justice system, and a step towards the advancement of human rights.