In recent decades, Australian states and territories have introduced a raft of legislation aimed at stripping those involved in criminal activity of their ill-gotten gains. This contribution reports on a study into proceeds of crime legislation in three Australian jurisdictions: New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland. Based on a document analysis and 40 interviews, we focus on the broader criminological aspects of how and why proceeds of crime legislation was introduced and how the legislation is experienced by those who work with it / are impacted by it. We then discuss the political attractiveness of such legislation in a broader law and order framework, despite its apparent limited success in achieving its stated goals.
article examines the place of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in relation to reform of Western Australian law governing fitness to stand trial, with a particular focus on Indigenous youth with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). This article considers whether and how the Convention might be relied upon to improve outcomes for Indigenous youth with FASD, particularly through its promotion of a social model of disability. We argue that the social model of disability embodied in the Convention can only take us so far, and that many of the aspirations of the Convention regarding disability neutrality may, in fact, be counterproductive for Indigenous youth, rendering culture invisible and denying the colonial underpinnings of the disability in Indigenous communities. The Convention must be read 'in tension' with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and with Indigenous knowledge. We argue that an appropriate response requires decolonising the justice system to break down the barriers that prevent Indigenous young people with FASD from participating on an equal basis. To do so, the role of colonisation in the production of
impairment and disability must be acknowledged, and law reform must facilitate community-owned solutions - placing Indigenous organisations and practices at the centre, rather than the periphery, of intervention.
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