Library Resources for Criminology & Justice: News and Events

The stories listed on this bulletin are provided for information purposes only. They are included to reflect current events and community opinion relating to issues studied by students at ACAP University College. They do not reflect the views of ACAP University College.

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Researchers created a chatbot to help teach a university law class – but the AI kept messing up By Armin Alimardani & Emma A. Jane
The Conversation, 30/05/25
Despite the enthusiasm, there is limited research testing how well AI performs in teaching environments, especially within structured university courses.

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Influencer Andrew Tate is charged with a raft of sex crimes. His followers will see him as the victim By Stephanie Westcott
The Conversation, 29/05/25
British prosecutors have this week charged social media influencer Andrew Tate with a string of serious sexual offences, including rape and human trafficking, alleged to have been committed in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2015.

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Youth crime probe finds tough approach will not work
ABC, 29/05/25
The chair of a parliamentary inquiry into youth crime says there are virtually no services available to young people after dark, while the cost of detaining a young offender soars past $1 million. 

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Knife crime is common but difficult to investigate. Robots can help By Paola A. Magni, Alasdair Dempsey, Ian Dadour & Stevie Ziogos
The Conversation, 29/05/25
As common as they are, stabbings are difficult to investigate. Our new study, published this week in WIREs Forensic Science, presents the most comprehensive review to date of the methods used by forensic investigators for the reconstruction of knife crimes. It also highlights the limitations of these methods and introduces mechanical and robotic stabbing machines as a solution.

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Most car-ramming incidents aren’t terrorism – but they’re becoming more common and crowds need better protection By Hossein Parineh
The Conversation, 28/05/25
Hundreds of thousands of Liverpool Football Club fans packed the centre of Liverpool on Monday to celebrate the club’s English Premier League title. Shortly after 6pm local time, a grey Ford Galaxy drove into the crowd, just minutes after the team’s open-top bus had passed through.

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‘No support, no housing, no job’ – the vicious cycle pushing more women into prison By Natalie Gately
The Conversation, 28/05/25
New research based on interviews with 80 female prisoners in Western Australia reveals most of these women were “criminalised” by circumstances outside their control before they became offenders.

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Providing safe smoking kits could reduce harm from meth use – but NZ law won’t allow it By Jai Whelan
The Conversation, 27/05/25
Methamphetamine was recently ranked New Zealand’s second-most harmful drug behind alcohol, and is the country’s most injected drug. Safer smoking kits – including high quality glass pipes, pipe tips and lip balm – would be a useful addition to extend the programme’s harm-reduction efforts to people who smoke methamphetamine. But when it comes to assisting people who smoke methamphetamine, New Zealand offers very little.

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National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022–2023 
AIHW, 27/05/25
Drug use affects individuals, families and the community. Every 3 years, people in Australia are asked about their use and opinions of licit and illicit drugs, including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, e-cigarettes and vapes.
More than 21,000 people across the country took part in the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey, held in 2022 and 2023. This report presents findings from the survey and looks at what has changed over the past 20 years.

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Push for police to be removed from mental health crisis responses By Angelique Donnellan
ABC, 27/05/25
Police are spending an increasing amount of time responding to mental health crisis incidents. There's a push to have police removed from those responses altogether.

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From strip searches to sexual harassment, Australian policing has long been plagued by sexism By Michael Cain
The Conversation, 27/05/25
This month, a woman bravely testified in court she was subjected to a “degrading and humiliating experience akin to sexual assault” at the hands of New South Wales Police. 

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Mexican drug cartels use hundreds of thousands of guns bought from licensed US gun shops – fueling violence in Mexico, drugs in the US and migration at the border By Sean Campbell & Topher McDougal
The Conversation, 26/05/25
Despite the millions of illegal firearms in Mexico, there has been little research done on estimating the number of guns trafficked into the country. Estimates of the annual illegal flow over the years have ranged from 200,000 to nearly 600,000, but few of these figures cite a rigorous methodology to arrive at their conclusions. 

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Australia’s first machete ban is coming to Victoria. Will it work, or is it just another political quick fix? By Samara McPhedran
The Conversation, 26/05/25
Following a shopping centre brawl in Melbourne at the weekend, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced the state will ban the sale of all machetes from Wednesday.

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AI is not your friend By Lauren Smith
Spiked, 26/05/25
Virtual friends, partners and therapists are no solution to the epidemic of loneliness.
 

Victoria Police to shorten training course to boost policing
ABC, 23/05/25
New police recruits in Victoria will spend less time in training in an effort by the state's police force to boost policing numbers to address community safety. 

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Friday essay: ‘the Boy-Girl’, a crime journalist and a Black activist – meet the radical ratbags of 19th-century Melbourne By Lucy Sussex
The Conversation, 23/05/25
“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there,” wrote English author L.P. Hartley in The Go-Between (1953). Modern Melburnians may feel the same. But while they live with an increasing cityscape of skyscrapers, the past is not far away.

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Trump administration bars Harvard University from enrolling foreign students
ABC, 23/05/25
The Trump administration has barred Harvard University from enrolling international students for the 2025-26 academic year. Harvard called the action unlawful and said it was working to provide guidance to students.

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Who are Kneecap and why has a member been charged with terrorism? By Maddy Morwood, Charmayne Allison, & wires
ABC, 22/05/25
British police have charged Liam O'Hanna, a member of the Irish rap group Kneecap, with a terrorism offence for allegedly waving a flag in support of Hezbollah at a concert in London.

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Premier tells UN "I don't answer to you'. Youth justice laws explained
ABC, 22/05/25
The Queensland government has expanded its flagship 'adult crime, adult time' laws, with juvenile offenders subject to harsher penalties for 20 new offences. 

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Playing the crime card: do law and order campaigns win votes in Australia? By Chloe Keel, Kai Lin, & Murray Lee
The Conversation, 22/05/25
Crime and public safety are usually the domain of state politics. But the Coalition tried to elevate them as key issues for voters in the recent federal election.

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Evidence shows AI systems are already too much like humans. Will that be a problem? By Sandra Peter, Jevin West & Kai Riemer
The Conversation, 22/05/25
What if we could design a machine that could read your emotions and intentions, write thoughtful, empathetic, perfectly timed responses — and seemingly know exactly what you need to hear? A machine so seductive, you wouldn’t even realise it’s artificial. What if we already have?

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What’s the obscure Australian online safety standard Elon Musk’s X is trying to dodge in court? An expert explains By Rob Cover
The Conversation, 21/05/25
In its most recent battle with authorities in Australia, X (formerly Twitter) has launched legal action in the Federal Court, seeking an exemption from a new safety standard aimed at preventing the spread of harmful material online.

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Critical measures needed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, say leaders of FATF, INTERPOL and UNODC
UNODC, 19/05/25
Countries need to take critical measures to target the huge illicit profits generated by drug trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and frauds and scams, international organizations urged today, warning that behind every dollar laundered is a victim – a family destroyed, a life lost, a community damaged.
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Disarming Hezbollah is key to Lebanon’s recovery − but the task is complicated by regional shifts, ceasefire violations By Mireille Rebeiz
The Conversation, 15/05/25
Within a span of two weeks from late April to early May 2025, Israel launched two aerial attacks ostensibly targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon: The first, on April 27, struck a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs; the second, an assault in southern Lebanon, left one person dead and eight others injured.

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Human Trafficking for Forced Labour in Supply Chains: What You Need to Know
UNODC, 05/25
Human trafficking for forced labour is on the rise. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, in 2022 forced labour cases made up 42 per cent of all detected human trafficking cases globally, surpassing those related to sexual exploitation. 
 

1 in 3 men report using intimate partner violence. Here’s how we can better protect women – and help men By Anastasia Powell
The Conversation, 03/06/25
One in three men (32%) aged 18 to 57 years report using emotional abuse towards a partner. One in ten (9%) say they have used physical violence.

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Mexico’s cartels use violence against women as a means of social control By Adriana Marin
The Conversation, 03/06/25
Organised crime in Mexico is a system of gendered governance – one that disciplines, controls and sometimes eliminates women to consolidate power.

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Why police released the ethnicity of Liverpool parade crash suspect By John McGarry & Kate Astall
The Conversation, 02/06/25
Within hours of a driver ramming into a crowd at Liverpool’s Premier League victory parade, injuring 65 people, Merseyside Police shared in a press release that they had arrested a suspect. Unusually, the announcement included the race and nationality of the person arrested – a 53-year-old white British man.

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What is populism? By Benjamin Moffitt
The Conversation, 02/06/25
In 2017, in the wake of Brexit and Donald Trump’s first election win, populism was named the “word of the year” by Cambridge University Press.

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Prisoners left with no meals for days inside Victoria's shocking prison system By Hagar Cohen & Rahni Sandler
ABC, 02/06/25
Exclusive data obtained by 7.30 reveals the extent of lockdowns inside the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, and it's leading to a disturbing spike in self-harm.

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Former 'Manson family' member Patricia Krenwinkel, 77, recommended for parole over 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders By Andrew Thorpe
ABC, 01/06/25
Ms Krenwinkel, who was originally sent to death row in 1971 for her role in the 1969 Manson killings, is California's longest-serving female inmate, and was previously recommended for parole in 2022 before Governor Gavin Newsom reversed the decision.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-01/patricia-krenwinkel-charles-manson-follower-parole-board/105363328

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Tracking crime from the cradle: why some people keep breaking the law while most of us never do By Ayda Kuluk
The Conversation, 30/05/25
A major Australian study tracking more than 80,000 Queenslanders from birth to adulthood reveals stark differences between men and women in patterns of criminal behaviour.

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Rise in production and trafficking of synthetic drugs from the Golden Triangle, new report shows
UNODC, 28/05/25
The illicit manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs from the Golden Triangle have grown exponentially, according to a report released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The explosive growth has led to a record amount of methamphetamine seizures in East and Southeast Asia, totaling 236 tons, marking a 24 per cent increase compared to 2023.