Whatever might be said about its successes and failures, it’s clear that 25
years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Australia has become much less compassionate, more punitive and more
ready to blame individuals for their alleged failings.

Nowhere is this clearer than in our desire for punishment. A harsh criminal
justice system – in particular, more prisons and people behind bars – has
apparently become a hallmark of good government.
This wasn’t always the case. But it just so happened that the royal
commission handed down its findings at a time when the politics of law and
order was rapidly changing.
Reform to intolerance
The 1970s through to the late 1980s was a period of criminal justice reform.
Decriminalisation of certain types of summary offences, such as public
drunkenness and prostitution; a commitment to reducing prison numbers
through the introduction of community service orders and other
non-custodial sentencing options; the development of mental health
services for offenders; specific programs for women prisoners; and
improved conditions for prisoners more generally: these wereBut, by the
late 1980s and early 1990s, changing political conditions were of the
criminal justice system.
This move toward “law and order” responses manifested in:
There was the need for “tougher” penalties, often based on political
expediency and media-fuelled public alarm over particular crimes.
While these administrative, legal and technical changes contributed to
increasing prison numbers, they also reflected a less tolerant and more
punitive approach to crime and punishment.
Put bluntly, the last 25 years have seen a spectacle of punishment most
graphically illustrated in climbing imprisonment rates. And these changes
were directly in opposition to the fundamental findings of the royal
commission, which advocated a reduction in Indigenous imprisonment
rates.
Self-fulfilling practices
Such is the financial cost of our commitment to reducing re-offending, and
significantly contributes to the further marginalisation of those who are
incarcerated.
These increases in imprisonment in Australia have been paralleled in other
countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand and,

more recently, Canada. It is this that has led these countries down the path
of a harsher approach to crime and punishment.
In contrast, European jurisdictions that have more social democratic and
corporatist forms of government have relied less on exclusionary and
punitive approaches to punishment.
But states that experienced a decline in principles and policies reflecting the
welfare state and embraced neoliberal notions had a realignment of values
and approaches that emphasised “deeds over needs”.
Their focus shifted from rehabilitative goals to an emphasis on deterrence
and retribution. Individual responsibility and accountability increasingly
became the core of the way justice systems responded to offenders.
Privatisation of institutions and services; widening social and economic
inequality; and new or renewed insecurities around fear of crime,
terrorism, “illegal” immigrants and racial, religious and ethnic minorities
have all impacted the way their criminal justice systems operate.
Human warehouses
In understanding the use of imprisonment, one of the most important
points to grasp is that a rising imprisonment rate is not directly or simply
related to an increase in crime.
The use of prison is a function of government choices; it reflects
government policy and legislation, as well as judicial decision-making.
Imprisonment rates in Australia are, since increases in imprisonment rates
have continued while crime rates have levelled or fallen in many categories
of crime from 2000. Similar patterns The growth of the law-and-order
agenda has also resulted in far weaker ideological differentiation between
major political parties on criminal justice policy. The most politically
expedient response to crime is the promotion and implementation of the
“toughest” approach.
While conservative political parties may have traditionally appeared to be
“tougher” on crime and punishment, many Australian states and territories,
such as New South Wales.

What’s your zombie apocalypse survival plan?”
The question invites the liveliest discussions of the semester. I teach a
course on social movements in fiction and film at West Virginia University,
where George Romero’s first film, “Night of the Living Dead,” is on the
syllabus. The film was groundbreaking in its use of horror as political
critique. Half a century later, Romero’s films are still in conversation with
racial politics in the United States, and Romero’s recent death calls for
reflection on his legacy as a filmmaker.
Disquieted times

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, an English professor and at George Washington
University, that “Like all monsters, zombies are metaphors for that which
disquiets their generative times.”

Romero shot “Night of the Living Dead” in 1967, when Americans’ attention
was focused on powerful televised images of race riots in cities like Newark
and Detroit, and on the Vietnam War, the likes of which were Romero
reimagined scores of bleeding faces, twisted in rage or vacant from trauma,
as the zombie hoard. He filtered public anger and anxieties through the
hoard, reflecting what many viewed as liberals’ rage and disappointment
over a lack of real social change and others saw as conservatives’ fear over
disruptions in race relations and traditional family structures. This is the
utility of the zombie as a political metaphor – it’s flexible; there is room
enough for all our fears.
In “Night of the Living Dead,” an unlikely cross-section of people are
cornered in a farmhouse by a zombie hoard. They struggle with each other
and against the zombies to survive the night. At the end of the film, black
protagonist Ben Huss is the sole survivor. He emerges from the basement
at daybreak, only to be mistaken for a zombie and shot by an all-white
militia. The militiamen congratulate each other and remark that Huss is
“another one for the fire.” They never realize their terrible error. Perhaps
they are inclined to see Huss as a threat to begin with, because he is black.
At the start of Romero’s next film, “Dawn of the Dead,” in which another
unlikely bunch faces off against zombies in a shopping mall, police
surround a public housing building. One officer remarks on the unfairness
of putting blacks and Hispanics in these “big-ass fancy hotels” and proceeds
to shoot residents indiscriminately, not distinguishing between the living
and the undead.
The officers are shooting to restore the “natural order” in which the dead
stay dead. But their actions also restore the prevailing social order and the
institutions that create and reinforce racial inequality.
Zombie revival
In my class, I connect these scenes of dehumanization to contemporary
racial politics, using them as a springboard for conversations about racially
motivated police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement. These
discussions focus on the zombie as a dehumanized creature.
In returning from the dead, zombies lose their human essence – their
agency, critical reasoning capacities, empathy and language. As Cohen
said, “Zombies are a collective, a swarm. They do not own individualizing
stories. They do not have personalities. They eat. They kill. They shamble.
They suffer and they cause suffering. They are dirty, stinking, and poorly

dressed. They are indifferent to their own decay.” Zombies retain a human
form, but lose their individuality and are dehumanized in their
reanimation.
Minority victims of police shootings are often portrayed in the media as
dangerous, animalistic and even monstrous – meaning they, too, argue
that perceptions of humanity are a critical part of social cognition – the way
we process or think about other people and social settings. When we see
people or groups as less than human, predictable consequences arise.
Romero’s films tune us in to our own potential for dehumanization.
Zombie psychology
relaxes our moral restrictions on doing harm to others and ultimately
facilitates against them. When people see members of a group as an
undifferentiated “hoard,” they’re susceptible to the same error as the
militiamen in “Night of the Living Dead.” When they couple
dehumanization with hatred, resentment or fear, they become like the
resentful police officer in “Dawn of the Dead.” Dehumanization of black
Americans underpins the violence perpetrated against them in Romero’s
films and in America today.
Dehumanization isn’t confined to police violence. shows that
dehumanization of Muslims and Hispanics underlies support for restrictive
immigration policies and a border wall. It also undercuts support for aid to
refugees.

Nightlife precincts in Australian cities have come under intense scrutiny in
recent years following a spate of “one punch” assaults and other incidents.
Places like Sydney’s Kings Cross, Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley and Perth’s
Northbridge have been framed as unsafe and unruly “problem spaces” – the
kind of places that parents warn their teenage children to avoid.

The championing and criticism of nightlife spaces create something of a
paradox. On the one hand, the promotion of vibrant nightlife spaces may be
seen as an invitation to people to revel and consume. It’s thought that
failing to attract enough people to these spaces spells economic disaster for
venue operators and for the city itself.
On the other hand, violence and fear discourage or exclude people from
participating in nightlife. And labelling nightlife precincts as disorderly or
“out of control” stigmatises these spaces and revellers, leading to more
exclusion.
The policy challenge is to establish the right amount and types of regulation
so that nightlife spaces allow for mild transgression in a safe environment.

When security excludes
Part of the response to these issues has been tighter regulation and security
in nightlife spaces. “Lockout laws” were introduced in parts of Sydney,
following the example set in the trials in Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane.
These laws wound back the operating hours of licensed venues in popular
night-time precincts.

Other responses from governments and private operators have included
expanding CCTV surveillance, introducing ID scanners at venue entrances,
increasing police and private security presence, and slowing or suspending
the issuing of new liquor licenses.
These measures are intended to make people safer and to make
them feel safer, to reduce the exclusionary effect of fear. Ironically, these
hyper-visible forms of security can in fact make people These regulatory
interventions are more than just about tackling violence and threatening
behaviour. Ultimately, they are about imposing particular ideas of social
and moral order not only within nightlife spaces but the city more broadly.

Gentrifying the night
Alongside the expansion of hyper-visible security, major public and private
investment has flowed into nightlife precincts and surrounding areas over
the last decade or so.
These developments have Northbridge, which has been gradually
gentrifying. The rapid rise in the number of small boutique bars, high-end
restaurants and apartments is evidence of this.
The gentrification of Northbridge and other nightlife precincts across
metropolitan Australia – whether through new “sophisticated” venues
replacing older downmarket ones, or through displacing nightlife
altogether – is not a recipe for less exclusionary spaces. Rather, these
developments produce a different kind of exclusion due to two factors.
First, certain groups may be priced out of more upmarket venues offering
an “exclusive” or “sophisticated” experience. Second, these venues and the
types of customers they attract can make other individuals and groups feel
out of place. If they don’t fit the written and unwritten admission criteria
they may be denied entry altogether.
Making space for transgression
In reshaping the moral geography of nightlife precincts, securitisation and
gentrification are suppressing one of the fundamental appeals of nightlife –
the opportunity for behaviour that transgresses social, cultural and even
legal codes.

Participating in nightlife spaces in cities has been a way to briefly escape
the often-mundane orderliness of everyday home and work life. Nightlife
spaces have historically been important for minority, subcultural and
countercultural groups – minority ethnic groups, punks, goths, and so on –
to socialise and to express their individual and collective identities.
The increasingly expensive cost and overbearing regulatory regimes
governing nightlife seem designed to attract the “right type” of people and
to make them feel safer.
The risk of all this is that we might be sleepwalking into the creation of
sanitised and yet more homogeneous and exclusionary nightlife spaces.

There has been a rise in global statistical initiatives that measure and rank
countries in terms of various aspects of the human condition. Some of the
more prominent examples include the World Governance, the Global Peace
and the Corruption Perceptions
Each ranks countries according to a series of indicators, or a composite
indicator, and tracks their progress or decline over time.
One of the most recent global indicator projects is the It ranks 142
countries based on a perception survey relating to personal safety and
policing, from a representative sample of 1000 people in each country.
Knowing how secure, or insecure people feel is important because
insecurity affects economic growth and undermines development.
According to the recently released 2018 South Africa ranks high in the
insecurity index – 137 out 142 countries. This means that South Africans
would have expressed high levels of insecurity as well as fear that they were
likely to, or had already, fallen victim to crime.
The ranking suggests that South Africans consider themselves to be more
insecure, and having lower levels of confidence in the police, compared to
people in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central
African Republic (CAR), Libya and Mali. These are all unstable states
affected by violent conflict and high levels of instability.
This is surprising given that South Africa is not in a state of armed conflict
and is relatively stable. The possible reason for such a questionable ranking
is that the survey, like many global perception surveys, doesn’t adequately
account for the extent to which people will provide unreliable information
about sensitive issues. To improve accuracy, surveys like this should factor
in differences in context.
The rankings
The rankings are based on an index score derived from responses to the
following questions:

● In the city or area where you live, do you have confidence in the local police
force?
● Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?
● Within the last 12 months, have you had money or property stolen from you
or another household member?
● Within the past 12 months, have you been assaulted or mugged?
It’s undeniable that South Africa has high levels of insecurity and
interpersonal crime. And, there’s a significant trust deficit between citizens
and the police.
Ranking South Africa below the DRC, Mali and Libya is also questionable
given that the security forces and militias in those countries have been
widely regarded as predatory and highly abusive.
So what’s missing?
Context
Firstly, context is key.
A key shortcoming of using survey data about crime and insecurity to
construct indices and rankings is that people won’t always reply to
questions honestly and accurately.
To improve the accuracy of indices like this, it would be advisable to
develop a quantifiable weighting for the reliability of crime and insecurity
survey data for each country, and then apply the weighting to the overall
index score. For example, in countries with more authoritarian
governments, respondents are likely to under report their levels of trust in
the police and sense of personal insecurity.
Applying a reliability weighting would adjust the overall insecurity index
score to better reflect people’s lived reality. Such a weighting can be
developed by including additional questions in the survey, for example
about how willing respondents are to talk to strangers about sensitive
information, including views about their governments.

Just last week, the significance was given to Akon Guode, a mother who
killed three of her children after driving her car into a lake in Melbourne.
The main reason for the 81⁄2 year sentence reduction was that the trial
judge had not sufficiently taken Guide’s major depression into account.
While the circumstances of this offence were unusual, it is for offenders to
have mental health problems. have shown that almost half of Australian
prison entrants report being affected by a mental disorder. With that in
mind, how are mental health issues taken into account during the criminal
justice process?
Where this happens, the sentencing judge must decide whether to take the
offender’s mental health problems into account. There will be a sentencing
hearing, in which evidence of the offender’s mental health condition will be
presented. The judge must consider this evidence, as well as the relevant
sentencing principles, in reaching a verdict.

1. It may reduce an offender’s “moral culpability” or
   blameworthiness for the offence.
   This will only be the case where there was a link between the mental health
   condition and the offence. For example, the condition may have impaired
   the offender’s ability to think clearly about the offending behaviour. In such
   circumstances, there is less need to denounce the relevant conduct or to
   punish the perpetrator as harshly.
2. A mental impairment may affect the that is imposed or its
   conditions.For example, it may provide a reason for or for requiring an
   offender to get
3. The offender’s mental health condition may make him or her
   an unsuitable vehicle for sending a deterrent message to the
   community.
   One circumstance in which this may be the case is where the offender’s
   condition is likely to attract community
4. The offender’s mental impairment may make it inappropriate
   to send him or her a deterrent message.
   One of these is where the offender has an impaired capacity to learn from
   the court’s statements.
5. An offender’s mental health condition may result in
   punishment weighing more heavily on him or her than it would
   on a person in normal health.
   This provides a reason for reducing the level of punishment.
6. There may be a serious risk that imprisonment would cause a
   deterioration in the offender’s mental health.
   This also provides a basis for imposing a more lenient sanction.
   While not included in the Verdins principles, mental health problems may
   also affect an offender’s perceived prospects for This will often depend on
   whether the relevant condition is considered treatable.
   Each of these principles is mitigating – they point towards a more lenient
   sentence being given. However, it is also possible for a mental health
   condition to point towards the need for a more severe sentence. This will be
   the case where the community is seen to require protection from the
   offender due to that condition. the offender’s condition may be considered
   untreatable, and his or her criminal behaviour unlikely to change as a
   result.
   It will sometimes be the case that an offender’s mental health condition will
   provide reasons for both reducing and increasing an offender’s sentence. In
   such cases, the judge will need to balance all of the conflicting
   considerations and determine the most appropriate sentence.
   The Verdins principles apply to any kind of mental disorder or abnormality,
   and have been used for offenders suffering from schizophrenia, depression
   and bipolar disorder.

All instances of criminal law-making (or promising) deserve scrutiny –
especially if they raise concerns that politicians might be politicising the law
for electoral advantage. However, it would be a mistake to assume this is
the only way criminal laws are made.
We are part of a examining how, when and why criminal laws are made.
What drivers and processes sit behind the moment when an
attorney-general stands up in parliament and introduces a new bill? And
how do we assess what makes a good process?
So far, we’ve found there is a stark difference between the careful
evidence-based, deliberative and consultative processes associated with the
criminal law’s use against some harms – like domestic violence – and the

“urgent” non-consultative law-making with others – like terrorists and
outlaw motorcycle gangs.
Recently in NSW, we saw an interesting variation on the familiar law and
order auction. In the second last parliamentary sitting week for 2018, the
Berejiklian government launched something of a pre-emptive strike ahead
of the state election in March 2019. In the space of three days, the NSW
parliament enacted . Here we highlight some examples illustrating the
diversity of ways criminal laws get made.
introduces a number of reforms aimed at keeping the community safe,
including from the risk of terrorism and other high-risk offenders,
bushfires, child abuse and the supply of drugs causing death.
Here, a diverse range of harms are “knitted” together through a narrative of
community fear, anxiety and need for protection. Despite these common
themes, the changes to the criminal law made by this bill have different
origins.
For example, the introduction of higher penalties for lighting bushfires was
influenced by what’s been happening in other states, and a determination
to “keep up”. As the attorney-general put it: this will “ensure that the New
South Wales penalty is now the equal toughest in the country”.
The same bill also increased penalties for the crime of concealing a child
abuse offence – a crime introduced in June this year following
recommendations of thethat this amendment, just six months later, was
because the government had:
listened to the voices of the more than 13,000 people who signed a petition
calling for tougher maximum penalties for the concealment of child abuse
offences.
He thanked Dolly’s parents who had “worked tirelessly, campaigning and
raising awareness about the potentially devastating effects of bullying and
cyberbullying”.
When many countries are grappling with it is timely to reflect on how the
community figures in these examples: victims whose loss is the catalyst for
change; a collective of persons in need of protection; and law-makers. The
NSW attorney-general some recent criminal law changes as “citizen law
that if individual citizens lobby hard enough and speak to politicians they
can effect change”. He hoped that “in some small way this will restore some

people’s confidence in our democracy and the ability of citizens to effect
change”.

This is very different from the law and order duties of the police. The
principle of minimum force is alien to a soldier. As the chief of South
African National Defence Force General Solly Shoke, recently stated, the
army is trained to “skiet and donner” (“shoot and beat up”), The South
African government appears to have had little choice but to use the military
as the country’s police have been unable to protect citizens against violent
crime. A staggering 43 people were killed in Cape Town Deploying soldiers

may be effective in suppressing violence. Nevertheless, studies show that
using the military in an internal role can exacerbate conflict,
Soldiers are trained to kill
Military training and culture instils in soldiers a particular disposition
which shapes and guides their actions and behaviour. Aggressiveness and
an ability enables soldiers to deal with life-or-death situations and perform
acts that are otherwise considered abhorrent in civilian society.
Nor can the military identity of a soldier – who carries a machine gun
rather than a pistol – be switched off by merely placing them in policing
roles, without some degree of re-socialisation and training. The deployment
of the military, announced by Police Minister Bheki Cele last Thursday,The
soldiers need to receive proper training on police rules and conduct before
they can be deployed. Without this they wouldn’t know how to react when
confronted with heavily armed gang members.
The soldiers will be under the crime fighting operation. But differences in
organisational cultures, procedure and equipment, could prove to be highly
problematic. In addition, unlike the police, the military is typically
unfamiliar with the terrain, street conditions, public attitudes and reactions
of civilians.
Whether or not the deployment succeeds will depend on the conduct of the
military, their methods of coercion and whether they act in an impartial
and professional manner. The rules of engagement need to be very clear to
ensure that they do not use excessive force, or violate the human rights of
citizens.
Parameters must be set to ensure that the use of force is proportional to the
threat posed to contain a situation. Force should only be used when all
other means have failed, and where there is evidence of hostile intent. And,
such use of force should be of limited duration, and only employed as a
protective measure.
Threat of militarisation
The last thing the country can afford is a return to what happened during
the apartheid era, when citizens were at the mercy of the state security
forces, with hardly any There are also wider social ramifications. On the
one hand, failure to intervene by the state may result in citizens forming
their own armed groups that offer them Any increase in vigilantism has the

potential to further escalate violence, as citizens come toOn the other hand,
further calls to deploy the military throughout the country could foster a
culture of militarism. This, in turn, could be linked to broader social
processes of militarisation within society at the economic,On the economic
level, militarisation is associated with the increased spending on defence.
At the political level, the involvement of the army in law and order duties
can result in them being afforded Ideologically, this can an already
established culture of violence as an effective means of achieving objectives.
Where there is a culture of resorting to the use of force to restore peace and
security, it undermines the need to seek other alternatives. Nor does it
address the underlying causes of conflict, which ultimately results in the
military being deployed for prolonged periods, or even permanently, to
prevent the return to violence.

The initial response to the recent deployment of the South African army to
areas of Cape Town hit hard by gang violence evoked relief that peace and
stability would be But this has been replaced with a much more nuanced
view. Some community leaders claim the deployment has fallen well short
of . The “lock-down operation” needed to target and identify the culprits
behind the violence has not occurred.
Despite their limited mandate, the army has just too few soldiers to patrol
the ten suburbs that are home to. Less than 300 soldiers are on the streets
of the Cape Flats, not the 1320. This figure allows for rotation of troops.
Also, the soldiers will be there for less than three months, as the
deployment is authorised The result is that people in the affected areas are
fast realising that This echoes previous cases were soldiers were deployed
to but failed to have a measurable impact.
But, even if more soldiers are requested, the South African National
Defence Force simply doesn’t have the capacity to deploy them. This is
because it is severely overstretched in terms of both personnel and Of the
37 000 in the army, less than half serve in the 14 infantry battalions. One
battalion is tied up in peacekeeping operations and 15 companies are
deployed on the borders (far short of the 22 required). Some military
analysts claim that the army is 8.5 infantry battalions short (roughly 8500
members)
The result is an escalation in personnel expenditure, the retention of people
who are no longer fit for their post profile due to age and health, a high
ratio of general officers to other ranks, and rank inflation making the armed
forces top heavy. Senior ranks are very expensive with extensive salary and
pension costs.

Added to this the military has been unable to reduce the number of people
in the full-time force through rationalisation and Another challenge is the
age profile. In 2003 the defence force introduced the military skills
development programme to rejuvenate the full-time and reserve forces. The
programme was to provide an adequate number of young, fit and healthy
personnel for the full time forces; and to serve as a feeder for the Reserve
Force. This has not happened due to financial restraints and lack of career
planning, leaving the reserves The consequence is an ageing force with
average troop age of 38 years and the Reserve Force age of .
Redesigning the defence force
The other factor affecting the capacity of the military is its force design. The
South African National Defence Force is structured, funded and trained for
its primary, Using the military continuously in internal secondary roles has
stretched it beyond capacity and contributed to its There is a clear
“disconnect between the defence mandate, government expectation and If
the government is serious about providing security for its citizens, it is
crucial to fix the structure and design of the force, which have eroded its
capacity to function optimally. Failure to do so will have dire implications
for the defence force’s ability to carry out its mandate – to protect the
country and its citizens as required by the Constitution.

Their protest actions may make us feel uncomfortable, annoyed or worse.
But it is important that the general public understands the reasoning that
underpins civil disobedience and why this radical strategy is being deployed
this week.
Law-abiding citizens are right to be concerned about others deliberately
breaking the law to advance their social, political or environmental goals.
But many of the most significant social and political advances over the past
century owe much to that relied on this tactic. Think of Gandhi’s
independence movement against British rule in India, the suffragette fight
for the right of women to vote and the US civil rights movement.
These precedents raise the question: might future societal advances also
demand peaceful acts of civil disobedience?
Civil disobedience: the case for and against
the basic theory of democracy is that we vote on who represents us in
government. In this way, democratic societies are said to have created the
institutions and processes needed for their own peaceful improvement.
So critics of civil disobedience argue that people shouldn’t just break the
law because they disagree with it. They say if you do not like a policy or law,
you are free to campaign for change, say citizens do not always owe
political allegiance to laws and policies that are not produced through fair,
robust, and representative democratic processes.
t. This was the view advanced by American writer and philosopher Henry
David Thoreau in his 1849 essay which inspired both Gandhi and Martin
Luther King Jr.

When a law or policy is clearly unfair, a case can be made that there is a
place for civil disobedience. We must accept that even laws produced in a
democracy get it wrong sometimes.
Will Extinction Rebellion fall on the right side of history?
The Extinction Rebellion is promoting civil disobedience because it says
across the world, governments have failed to respond adequately to
the and the steep decline in . It argues that the political system
underpinning this failure must be resisted, even if this causes
inconvenience to the general public.
The movement’s supporters include 250 Australian academics who saying
they feel a “moral duty” to rebel and “defend life itself”.
It could be argued that the activists should wait until governments take
action. But judging by recent history – including a – an adequate, timely
global response to the climate crisis seems In this case, waiting for
government action means being complicit in an unjust system.
Some people will inevitably dismiss Extinction Rebellion protesters as
troublemakers and criminals. But their actions must be assessed against
them. The world’s best climate scientists believe that if global warming is
not kept below the 1.5°C limit, Earth’s natural and human systems will
suffer dire consequences. The legitimacy of Extinction Rebellion’s
disobedience must be weighed against the wrongs that triggered it.
As Extinction Rebellion causes chaos in our cities, we must avoid
superficial, knee jerk reactions. Whatever your views on civil disobedience,
the climate emergency would be far less serious if governments had taken
action decades ago. Further inaction will only lead to more numerous and
active drives driven by the same mixture of love and rage that provoked
Extinction Rebellion.

Geographic, cultural differences
Considering that populations may be widely dispersed among urban areas
and rural, remote and very remote areas, it’s reasonable to consider
whether these geographic and cultural differences impact how people view
the role of punishment in the criminal justice system.

To explore this, we examined data from 2004, 2008, 2011 and 2015, and
compared variations in answers from urban and rural respondents to a
number of questions dealing with attitudes towards crime and punishment.

The first question asked respondents: “What is the BEST way to deal with
young offenders who commit violent crime?” Those from rural
communities favoured punishing violent young offenders significantly more
than those from urban areas:
The second question asked respondents to indicate their agreement or
disagreement with the following statement: “We must crack down on crime,
even if that means that criminals lose their rights.”
While both rural and urban respondents favoured limiting the rights of
offenders in the name of being tougher on crime, support from rural
communities was significantly greater than those from urban areas:
The third question asked respondents: “Do you favour or oppose the death
penalty for people convicted of murder?” On this query, rural support of the
death penalty was significantly greater than it was in urban communities:
Rural communities ‘more punitive’
We then combined these questions and answers into an index in order to
have a more comprehensive measurement of punitive attitudes. This index
clearly showed that, when all measurements were taken together, rural
communities were significantly aligned with the “more punitive” category
and urban communities with the “less punitive.”
The next phase of this study, which is currently underway, will
consider why those who live in rural areas are so much more punitive than
city-dwellers.

Urban-rural divide in Canada
Our study also highlights that attitudes towards crime and how to control it
may be a central component of these political differences.
For example, we found that there is a significant trend towards a decrease
in punitive attitudes in Canada as a whole. But those from urban areas are
driving that reduction, and the gap between rural and urban communities
on questions of crime appears be growing:
This suggests that we should consider how political values inform attitudes
towards crime and punishment, and how these attitudes themselves

contribute to growing political divisions between rural and urban
communities.

The assassination of political figures in South Africa has a long and horrible
history. That the practice has continued since the country became a
democracy is deeply disturbing.
by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime between
2000 and 2017 ranked one province in South Africa – KwaZulu-Natal –
well ahead of the other eight provinces in killings of people in the political
sphere and the taxi industry.
I have conducted on political violence in the province since 1983. My work
has been of a qualitative nature, using information obtained from my own
research networks, interventionist work with the police, and media reports.
My work, among other things, confirms the close links between political
and taxi violence in the province, with taxi hitmen often deployed in
political attacks. It is a cause for great concern that despite the availability
of information about such activities, little progress has been made in
bringing perpetrators to justice.
According to my statistics, around 90 people with some official standing
have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal since 2015. They were either municipal
councillors, political party officials or, in a few cases, senior municipal
officials. Most of the deceased were affiliated to the African National
Congress (ANC), the party that governs both the province and the country.
No transparency
The inter-ministerial task team investigating the political killings started
work on over 100 dockets in mid-2018. Over a year later, the only known
high profile conviction for any of the 90 murders I documented was secured
by KwaZulu-Natal detectives in March 2019 for a 2016 murder.
There may well have been convictions for the murders of less well known
victims in regional courts which have not been reported. But none have
been reported for the many prominent victims during this period.
From my personal experience, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain
information from the South African Police Service about progress in
criminal investigations.
I have also experienced a lack of transparency relating to the structure of
the task team itself, including who commands it.

I have been able to establish that many people have been arrested. Some
have been released without being charged while others have had charges
withdrawn after appearing in court.
.
A number of examples of high profile cases – some of which were included
in the dockets taken by the task team – show how the justice system is
failing to conclude cases. These include:

Evaluating task team performance
These high profile arrests, followed by subsequent withdrawal of charges,
have led to charges by the provincial ANC and the South African
Communist Party of political partisanship In the absence of empirical
evidence to substantiate claims by the minister of police about convictions
secured by this team, the inevitable conclusion is that their deployment is a
waste of scarce criminal justice resources.

As students’ undergraduate careers come to an end, many are realizing that they will not meet
their goal of having a job lined up before graduation. For some, this may represent the very
first time they did not reach an important milestone they had set out to achieve. For those
who will be graduating this spring or summer, the media is brimming with stories about the
current climate for job seekers and many offer advice about driving an effective job search
campaign. Early careerists seeking a first job have a busy, stressful journey ahead.
Cultivating resilience is essential, as students and grads must prepare for both the positive
actions and negative outcomes that they will likely experience. Developing a framework for
resilience is as integral a part of the job-search process as establishing strategies for seeking
out appropriate roles and opportunities, and expanding their network.
Why is this so important? A career search process will inevitably consist of both positives
and negatives. Job-seekers will experience the triumph of identifying opportunities, creating
applications, and generating interest in their background. But they will also have to deal with
never hearing back about an application, being turned down, and not receiving constructive
feedback. And unfortunately, job-seekers should anticipate that this mix is 90/10, meaning
90% of the search will consist of non-productive, disappointing energy zappers.
Create a Personal Job Search Strategy
One must understand this reality while creating an individualized plan to counteract the low
points and build resilience. Here are some tips:
Mix it up
It is absolutely valuable to have a routine or daily discipline built into your job-search
process, as you need structure. But you should also mix it up, as if you are cross-training for a
sport. If yesterday was spent 100% on networking, make today’s focus industry and
company research. Or, if today you completed five job applications, use time tomorrow to
reach out to people on applications submitted a few weeks ago.

Micro-Actions Make Things Manageable
If any step of the job search seems overwhelming, be sure to break things into digestible steps
or micro-actions. Micro-actions build momentum and energy. Perhaps reviewing an entire
network of 500 contacts to pick people to reach out to seems like a daunting task – so cherry
pick five people that you find interesting and get underway. If filling in one more application
feels scream-worthy, start by only setting up a username and password. Take a walk, and then
come back to complete the rest. Just as a student creates a plan of small steps to prepare for
finals, creating outlines and developing study tools before writing an essay or preparing for a
test, job-seekers benefit from using micro-actions to create a more manageable process.
Build your new community
If you’ve returned home after graduation, approach it as if you just moved to a new city.
Create an infrastructure, as you are used to this from your college years, offering support,
discipline and motivation. Find issues that you care about and work to address them. Seek out
opportunities to volunteer, and work to be an active leader in these organizations. Your
involvement builds new skills and broadens your network with local leadership.
Enlist your troops
Actively enlist the support from family and friends as part of this strategy. Ask for help.
Share specific goals and request that family members check in with you regarding positive
tasks: “How many job applications did you complete today?” “Did you see any new
companies that you might be interested in applying to?”
While families can be sympathetic about the negative outcomes that impact a job seeker,
keep their energy focused on the controllable steps to maintain momentum.
The Gift of Support
If you are the family member of a disappointed job-seeker, recognize the reality of search
process dynamics and acknowledge that the 90% negative zone is hard work. The job search
is like training for a marathon – so rather than focusing on the award medal, ask “How many
miles did you log today?” Family members can certainly contribute to positive tasks as well,
such as building networks and assisting with searches for companies and roles.
Parents or grandparents should also consider the gift of professional guidance and support.
Arranging for career counseling or career assessment tools can be hugely beneficial if a loved
one is puzzled about mapping out meaningful career options; or needs help building a
comprehensive strategy, being accountable as well as executing the necessary tasks with
finesse and prowess.

We are now in July, peak internship season. If you are interning this summer, now is a great
time to review your performance and success thus far. If you approach this process the right
way, hopefully you can parlay this internship opportunity into an offer of full-time
employment after college graduation.
To position yourself as a strong, long-term employee and colleague, you should focus on
these four objectives:
Do Good Work
First and foremost, deliver exceptional quality work. Complete projects thoroughly,
accurately, and in a timely manner. Ask questions about the scope and depth of your
deliverables. If you have creative suggestions to improve your output, it is best to check in
with your manager to be sure there is time and interest in you doing that additional work.
After work each day, think about the skills you applied and additional challenges you are
seeking; ask for more work if you have completed your assignments and have time on your

hands. If you find yourself with unavoidable downtime, keep a positive attitude and use this
additional bandwidth to master aspects of software that you don’t get to explore day to day.
Ask if you can shadow someone else to observe and learn about other roles in the company.
Most importantly, ask for constructive feedback along the way; don’t wait until the end of
summer to get a formal review.
Connect with the Team to Build Your Network
It can be easy for an intern to focus solely on their manager’s interests. While your manager
gives the assignments and guides your work, it is important to connect with other colleagues
and peers, especially if there are other interns and/or new grads. Future employees are
evaluated based on their fit within the larger team and culture. Make yourself known to others
in the company by greeting people in the morning and saying goodnight as you leave. Go to
lunch with a variety of colleagues throughout the summer, using that time to meet individuals
in other departments and learn about the company and their specific functions. Have fun and
get to know people. Get involved if the company participates in volunteer work, or hosts a
softball game or other informal team activity. If there aren’t any activities planned, suggest
something; it doesn’t have to be elaborate. Attending a fitness class or going to a new-release
movie are easy after-hours events with little upfront commitment.
Act Like an Owner
While you are at the company, embrace the experience and demonstrate a “WE” attitude –
speak of the work and the company as if it is your family and you are fully invested in its
success. You may only be expected to work for a short period of time, but behave as if you
are in it for the long-term. Pay attention to what is happening in the news and the firm’s
market or industry. Your team should trust and rely on you. If you are fully engaged in what
is happening, you will be more likely to be given meaningful work projects. Simple ways of
doing this are by arriving early and staying late to ensure you are helping the team finish
time-sensitive tasks. Ask questions about the business, the projects underway and any
changes they are working on implementing. Change can be hard to implement; if your
assistance and fresh perspective can help realize an important change, you will be
remembered for your effort when colleagues are making a future hiring decision.

Pave the Way for Others
Write a job description of your internship, or suggest you update one that may exist. Note
daily and longer-term responsibilities. Add a summary of accomplishments; identify
objectives that were met, what outstanding projects are left to complete, what you learned and
what you feel can be improved upon. Not only will this allow projects to be more easily
continued, and make it easier for successors to pick up the work – this will also be a tangible
memory of your final and lasting impression at the internship, helping set you up for potential
future opportunities at the company. Additionally, colleagues who move onto other
opportunities will remember you and may consider reaching out to you regarding positions
that may be appropriate in the future.

Toward the end of the summer, actively express your interest in a full-time role with the
company; don’t assume that they know. You may be asked to complete a round of interviews;
use your detailed job description to summarize your deliverables, and share what you learned
from your colleagues to showcase your commitment to your team. Even if you realize during
your internship that you are not a fit for the company, remember that these colleagues are
now part of your active network. You might work with them in the future and they might
serve as references for you (or you for them), so try to connect with them on LinkedIn. Make
the most of this experience and enjoy it; you will reap the benefits of an internship for years
to come as it marks the beginning of your professional journey.

The start of any new school year is the perfect time to develop yourself in new ways that will
contribute to your future success in life. Preparing for college in a thoughtful way is far more
involved than stocking up on dorm room essentials. As you get ready for your move to
school, take time to create an action plan that will position you for success. By keeping your
academic and extracurricular involvements balanced, you will set the stage for your
professional career after college.
Whether you are a freshman at a new college, or a returning upperclassman, consider tackling
this in phases in order to strategically prepare yourself for the transition to a future
profession.:
Before You Go
First, focus on what you would like to do. Which activities do you want to continue in
college? Explore the listings of clubs and organizations – consider activities you’re familiar
with, and be willing to try new things. It is essential to do this before you go, since the
options can be so varied it can be overwhelming. Large universities, like Michigan or UPenn,
have 1300+ organizations for students; while smaller colleges, like Bowdoin or Bates, have
100+ to choose from. Once you have a sense of what you’d like to do, you must understand
what the process is to join. Is it as simple as signing up or is there a competitive application
process? You might need to submit a resume or complete an essay or application. Create a

list of possibilities to more deeply explore and start any preparation now, before you get busy
on campus.
Returning upperclassmen, should think seriously about pursuing leadership roles in the
organizations you are already committed to. Taking on roles and projects that will develop
both soft skills and hard skills you will need for future work experiences – experience in
web-design, social media, marketing & communications, and budgeting are all extremely
useful – will make you more attractive to employers.
Next, explore the profiles of your professors in your major. Find out where they came from
and learn about the nature of their research work. This will prepare you to recognize them
and have something to talk about besides their syllabus.

On Arrival
Meeting the people in your living group and other peers in your class is usually a fun
whirlwind of activity. Make time to just get to know people and form friendships. Ask people
to join you as you explore some of the organizations you’re interested in; and find out what
groups they are considering joining. Use orientation as an opportunity to get first-hand
exposure to clubs and other organizations, and to work side-by-side with existing members.
Some schools even host service-learning centers, where counselors will match students with
organizations based on talents and interests.
If you are considering joining a living group, such as a Fraternity or Sorority, learn about the
timetable for that selection process, the costs and the steps involved. This can be time
consuming, and may simultaneously impact your ability to participate in and grow into
leadership positions with other clubs.
If you belong to a religious community, explore the options to be engaged with peers at your
campus. Schools have groups like Hillel and the Newman Center, which have local campus
chapters and international membership. Locally hosted groups can be an opportunity to meet
professionals in your new community.
All of these groups offer further opportunity to develop and hone marketable skills.
Furthermore, by getting involved you will have a chance to meet more people who will in
turn form a foundation of the network that you will carry into your professional career.
Check Point – Are You Positioned for Success?
If you still need to choose or change your major, it is very important to make that a priority
once classes are underway. Many majors have prerequisites that need to be fulfilled to keep
you on track, both academically and professionally. Work with your academic advisor to
evaluate options and create an academic roadmap – planning ahead will give you the
flexibility when you’re an upperclassman to take more advanced courses or even study
abroad. Your residence hall advisor is another valuable resource to help you come up with a
plan that will work well for you.

Taking on a leadership role in an organization is another major predictor of success – but it
takes time to grow into these responsibilities. Get involved as a general member early in your
college career so you’re poised to take on leadership opportunities in the future.
Update your resume and LinkedIn Profile to showcase your new skills. Recruiters start their
internship and job recruiting early, and you never know who might be scanning your profile.

College to Career – Building the Bridge
These three phases help ensure that you make the most of school, academically, personally
and professionally. It’s vital to understand that the job marketplace is ever changing, and
students need to begin preparing for the workforce much earlier in their college careers
(especially compared to their parents). After settling in at school, ensure that you pursue
experiences that interest and develop you, and that will ultimately help differentiate you with
employers.
Learn where recent alumni in your program have focused their careers, and look to other
schools and outside resources for further advice – for example, Georgetown has a terrific site
that offers suggestions for “What Can I Do with a Major In…?” Consider the types of
internship experiences that will help you build a portfolio of experiences for the role you seek
longer term. You don’t have to know exactly what you want to do after graduation, but
cultivate some options and focus on developing the types of skills that can make you a
desirable employment candidate.

Fall semester is the time to organize your thinking; not only about your academics, but also
your career plan. Whether you’re a Freshman with the opportunity to thoughtfully approach
college with a career in mind, a Senior who needs to get serious about the job search, or a
student somewhere in between – you can follow these steps to make the most of your college
experience so you can ultimately get hired and launch your career.
Each college year should build toward a successful launch into the work world. At Early
Stage Careers, we work with early careerists to methodically think through their college plan,
taking progressive steps each semester and summer, so they are attractive employment
candidates; ready to launch their careers by the time graduation arrives.
Freshman – Explore and Experience
For younger students, it’s important to start right away – Senior year may be too late to
initially start thinking about a job search. It’s very important to gain foundational experiences
early in college so you are prepared to build on these in tangible ways as you grow older. As
a Freshman, explore every aspect of the school. Examine courses you can take, facilities to
use and what fellow classmates and graduates do. Read the school career outcomes report to
learn where peers have found internships, permanent employment and how many are
pursuing graduate studies. Gather information about your professors – where did they go to
school, what research are they working on – then go talk to them outside of class. Developing
professor relationships now will pay off in the long-run in terms of academics and career
steps. If your school permits underclassmen to attend the Fall Career Fair, go and see who
recruits and for what majors. Attend lectures on a variety of topics, learn about all clubs and
sports, and then pick a few to get involved in.
Don’t wait to start planning for the summer. Consider taking academic or skill building
courses, especially those that offer credentials, and try finding summer employment. A job
does not have to be directly related to your academic field, but should allow you to

demonstrate your responsibility, commitment, and interest in adding value to a team.
Prioritize building skills that employers are seeking.
Sophomore – Differentiate Yourself
As a Sophomore, go beyond your routines and push yourself to do something new. Don’t
limit yourself to the campus activities – look to the surrounding community for volunteer
organizations or companies to intern with during the school year. At this point, you may
have declared a major. Start to plan how you will distinguish yourself in a way that
complements your field of study – this could mean obtaining a minor in another field or
developing hard skills you’ll need for your future job search.
The summer before Junior year you should focus on entering the industry you would ideally
like to join. For example, as a Chemistry major, consider seeking a summer role in a small
chemicals company or lab – you will gain valuable work experience while gauging if the
culture of the industry appeals to you. Additionally, work on cultivating a skill that you can’t
fit into the academic year – you can achieve fluency in a language, improve your presentation
skills, or learn to use a software you don’t have access to at school (or increase your
proficiency level if you have some experience). Consider studying a business concentration
such as project management, which is useful across industries. If you have work or internship
commitments in place, research online programs that can be completed in the evenings.
Junior – Launch Your Career Campaign
Junior year is typically very rigorous academically, as challenging courses in your major will
require disciplined focus. In your clubs and organizations, you should be pursuing leadership
roles or setting the stage to move into those as a Senior.
For your career search, simultaneously focus on seeking a significant summer internship,
while also studying the field of potential longer-term employers. If there are six major
employers you envision working for after graduation, set a goal of obtaining a summer
internship with one of them – this can be a potential bridge to permanent employment.
Research which companies come to campus to do recruiting by looking at the company
website and the schedule published by your school. For target firms not coming to campus,
you will need to do extensive outreach to receive consideration.
As a Junior, prepare deeply for the fall career fairs and information sessions. Research which
firms attend, which ones employ young alumni of your school, and which historically hire
interns in your major. Prioritize the firms you need to speak with. Get dressed to impress and
pace yourself as you visit with each company. Remember to collect business cards from
people you chat with, so that you can follow up shortly after the event by email or by
connecting on LinkedIn, with their permission. Keep track of these connections, as some may
be important people to reach out to in senior year.
Senior – Find Your Future
Entering senior year, plan to spend a portion of each day on your job search. Start now, do
not wait until January. Research and contact companies regarding their graduate openings.

Build a roadmap for your search, leveraging your school’s career outcomes report, your
professors, advisors, the alumni network database and your own personal network (including
your family).
If you learn that a firm traditionally opens its recruitment process at a certain time, track it on
your calendar. Research what types of candidates these employers are hiring for the positions
that interest you – what skills and experiences are they seeking? Be sure your resume and
LinkedIn profile are robust, and that your skills and experiences are aligned with the job
types you are targeting. Familiarize yourself with all types of interviews and practice.
At Early Stage Careers, families often seek job and career search help when senior year
arrives. The first critical questions are straightforward: what are your career goals and what
have you done so far to pursue those goals. If the goals are unclear, or you need direction
shaping them, we can help via our Career Assessment Program. Additionally, we work with
clients to prepare robust resumes and LinkedIn profiles, identify targeted job opportunities,
prepare for interviews, and ultimately help them land the job they want.
All the suggestions made here, year by year, warrant consideration at any time. College is an
investment of your time and resources, so take every advantage of each opportunity. Check in
with us if you could benefit from our support.