Australian Journal of Social Issues最新文献

While there is much research on the topic of child maltreatment more broadly in Australia, a nuanced understanding of intergenerational child maltreatment is needed to improve our responses. Little work has considered all four intergenerational patterns of child maltreatment: cycle maintainers (maltreated parents with maltreated children), cycle breakers (maltreated parents with non-maltreated children), cycle initiators (non-maltreated parents with maltreated children) and a comparison group (non-maltreated parents with non-maltreated children). We use this terminology to maintain consistency with international literature, but acknowledge that these terms minimise the complexity inherent in contact with child protection systems. Research has mainly focused on maintainers, which hinders our ability to appropriately support all families and limits our understanding of individuals breaking the cycle. This paper outlines key knowledge gaps and identifies strategic areas of focus for researchers and policymakers. There is an urgent need for more emphasis on building resilience and strengths, the provision of more integrated and holistic support for families, and consideration of sex differences. We highlight the need for more research on this topic, particularly led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and hope that the recommendations in this paper can be revisited and updated as this important research base grows.

In 2022, a new Federal Labor government introduced an NDIA Act amendment and initiatives that indicate a reorientation to partnership working and integration of co-design principles. “Partnership working” reflects collaborative aspirations where parties commit to trust, shared goals and respect for diverse knowledges and experiences. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) espouses a partnership approach and rights-based values, yet the neoliberal emphasis on individual choice and marketisation within a social insurance model can privilege certain voices and produce adversarial processes and dynamics. Our focus group research with disability leaders, family carers and disability service professionals explored experiences in the NDIS planning phase with a focus on the extent to which partnership principles operated in practice. Our findings suggest embedded paradoxes; time and resources are required to build the trust and relationships central to interpersonal partnerships between individuals, carers and services but are undermined by organisational and structural factors such as workload pressures, administrative burden and adversarial practices produced in a cost containment context. Tensions in partnership working must also negotiate carers' workload and responsibilities with the autonomy of people with disability. We argue that partnership working is difficult to achieve where structural and systemic limitations and assumptions influence everyday practices. Partnership must operate from empowerment and relational, rather than transactional, principles if genuine participatory and inclusive practice is to be achieved.

Corporal punishment (CP) is the most common and socially normative form of violence perpetrated against children and is legal in the home and some other settings in Australia. CP was made a common practice through its introduction by European settlers and Christian missionaries during colonisation. Furthermore, the defence of reasonable chastisement became part of the Australian common law in 1860 and is still used in some jurisdictions. Other jurisdictions have enacted criminal laws that have entrenched the defence in legislation. This article gives a brief historical overview of the origin of CP in the English common law, the defence of reasonable chastisement and how these concepts came to be entrenched in Australian law and culture. Moreover, this contribution examines the recognition of children's rights in international law and the significant global impact this has had in elevating the status of children. Then, this article analyses the current legal framework and the permissiveness of CP in Australian states and territories. Consequently, it is argued that states and territories ought to repeal legislation that permits CP, and all jurisdictions should insert a positive statement into civil laws that CP is no longer acceptable as a disciplinary measure.

In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are much more likely to be arrested, charged with criminal offences and imprisoned than other Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders comprise 49% of young people in detention but only 5.8% of the Australian population aged 10–17. This study investigated changes between 1997 and 2019 in the interaction of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people with the justice system in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. The prevalence of young people being charged with an alleged offence decreased by more than 60% between 1999 and 2001, co-incident with the introduction of the Juvenile Diversion Scheme in August 2000. Thereafter, for non-Aboriginal young people there was a small and temporary increase, but for Aboriginal young people prevalence increased almost back to pre-2000 levels by 2015 before starting to decrease. Aboriginal young people comprised 57% of those charged with any offence in 1997, rising to 88% in 2019. Further investigation is needed to understand the reasons for divergent trends in the prevalence of alleged offending for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people, which may include the role of diversion, differences in the nature of offences and systemic bias and racism.

The National Disability Scheme began implementation in 2013 and in this article we reflect on its first decade. We explore why the National Disability Scheme was introduced and key design elements of the scheme before examining significant areas of debates that have emerged over this period, namely: co-design of the scheme with people with disability; scheme costs; Tier 2 services; administrative burden and its unequal impact on different groups of participants; and market stewardship. We argue that many people accessing the NDIS have seen their lives transformed in a positive sense, but this is not the case for all and there remain some significant challenges with the scheme. The paper concludes by looking ahead and thinking about what might happen next for the NDIS to realise its full potential for all participants.

In Australia assaulting another person is a criminal offence. It occurs when one person strikes another person, applying force of any kind either directly or indirectly, without the person's consent. There is an exception. Children are specifically denied legal protection from intentional assaults when it is rebranded as corporal punishment. Successive governments have failed to act to provide children with the same protection from assault as adults despite repeated calls by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, and the robust body of evidence of the substantial harm it causes (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016). This glaring inconsistency in the law, should cause us to question how far we have evolved in our attitudes and treatment of children. In particular just how deeply ingrained are attitudes and prejudices about children that rationalise or justify acts and omissions that harm them, and fail to protect their rights (Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children, Yale University Press, 2013). This paper will examine past and contemporary attitudes to children and the narrative that helps explains why policy makers and the community tolerate the use of physical force against children, and why a new narrative is needed.

In its most recent report, the Academy of the Social Sciences Australia (ASSA, 2021: 10) identified social inequality as a “grand challenge” for the social sciences, arguing that social scientists have a pivotal role to play in “understanding, addressing and guiding us towards a narrowing of a two-tier society.” Nevertheless, the social sciences continue to be regularly positioned as “soft” and esoteric in relation to the natural sciences, while also sustaining disproportionate funding cuts. In this article, we—a multidisciplinary group of social science researchers forming part of the Inequalities and Social Action Research Cluster based at The University of Queensland (Australia)—draw on the existing literature and our diverse experiences to reflexively consider how academic social scientists might play the active role that ASSA foresees to address social inequalities into the future. This includes by countering the inherent imperialism of the Western academy itself. We explore the roles, barriers and tensions that social scientists face and conclude by offering a framework of key strategies to improve the translational impacts of social science research for addressing social inequalities.