Stephen Tomsen | Western Sydney University (original) (raw)

Stephen Tomsen

Professor Stephen Tomsen holds the Foundation Chair of Criminology at Western Sydney University. Previously he was Associate Dean, Research (Education & Arts) at the University of Newcastle, Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney, and he held visiting fellowships in the United Kingdom (Birkbeck, Keele, Westminster), the University of Washington (Seattle), Leiden University and the Netherlands Ministry of Justice (Den Haag). Stephen has a background in sociology, policy studies and criminology and is an acknowledged leader in research on violence, gender/sexuality and urban order.

Stephen was a pioneering figure in the international development of three key areas in contemporary criminology - Nightlife Ethnographies, Queer Criminology, and Crime and Masculinity Studies which all developed as new academic fields in the 1990s and early 2000s. He has delivered dozens of papers at national and international conferences and meetings on these topics. His published output includes eleven books/monographs and dozens of refereed articles and papers. Solo and joint career research earnings exceed $1.2m and most of this has come from competitive external sources (Australian Research Council; Criminology Research Council; Law Foundation of NSW/Law Institute of Victoria; NSW Attorney General’s Crime Prevention Division; NSW Health; National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund).

Professor Tomsen is currently researching the governance and policing of Sydney’s night-time economy as part of national studies of drinking related disorder, a national study of homicide, and he is the solo CI on a current ARC Discovery Project on Violence and Disengagement from Violence among Young Australian Men. Tomsen was a Visiting Professor at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Onati/Basque country) in 2013, and a Visiting Professor in Criminology at the University of Manchester in 2017. He is a member of the editorial boards of the The International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy; Current Issues in Criminal Justice and The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology (to 2013). He is frequently requested to review submissions to local and international journals in social science, criminology and policing and was the invited editor of the key international reader on Masculinity, Crime and Criminal Justice (Ashgate Press, 2008/2017).

In the last decade, he has boosted institutional students enrolments at WSU and overseen the development of a highly successful new Bachelor of Social Science Criminology major (2009), the Bachelor of Criminology (2014), and International Criminology specialisation of the Masters of Social Science (2015). In recent years, he has driven development of a new Masters of International Criminology (commencing 2018). Furthermore, he has supervised the recruitment and consolidation of an eight member Criminology staff cluster and a new HDR Criminology cohort. In 2012 and 2015 he served as a national assessor for ERA 2 and ERA 3 in a series of Australian research codes including Criminology, Sociology, Law and Other Studies in Human Society.

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Papers by Stephen Tomsen

Gendered Violence at International Festivals

Despite frequent media attention highlighting the prevalence of sexual violence at music festival... more Despite frequent media attention highlighting the prevalence of sexual violence at music festivals across the globe, there has been virtually no academic engagement with the topic. This chapter presents key findings from one of the first studies internationally to examine this issue. In doing so, we draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of assemblage, alongside critical realist feminism and science and technology studies frameworks, which understand the social, cultural and material worlds as co-constructing one another in a complex, fluid entanglement. We use this theoretical framing to examine how the particular spatial, cultural and social elements and gendered practices of Australian music festivals align to create contexts in which sexual violence occurs. While sexual violence is pervasive across virtually all social settings, we suggest that the unique features of (or assemblages formed within) festivals require us to examine the particularities of these spaces. In contrast to the view that music festivals are generally liminal or socially transgressive spaces, we argue here that festival spaces and practices often reinforce and perpetuate the dominant norms and social structures that underpin gendered violence more broadly

Despite increasing anecdotal evidence that sexual violence occurs at music festivals, to date no ... more Despite increasing anecdotal evidence that sexual violence occurs at music festivals, to date no research has addressed this issue. This pilot project aimed to establish a research base in this area by investigating patron experiences and perceptions of sexual assault, harassment and safety at music festivals in Australia

Night leisure has long served as a social site for the enactment and reproduction of violence in ... more Night leisure has long served as a social site for the enactment and reproduction of violence in Australia. To a significant, but now shifting, extent this has been implicitly condoned in a situation of official disinterest, lax policing and limited public attention. Existing criminological paradigms of explanation that focus almost exclusively on interactive honour contests (Polk 1999) between men have downplayed the fostering of such violence in state institutional arrangements of public drinking that shore up private profit via promoting high levels of consumption. Equally, popular accounts of conflicts, assaults and even killings as the result of an inherent social pattern of male sexual competition serve to naturalise violence as gendered bedrock. After dark violence has continued to blight public leisure with major social, criminal justice and public health cost. The connection of nightlife and masculine violence has been thrown into even sharper relief

Public health research & practice, Jan 27, 2018

Despite continued health concerns associated with the practice of consuming alcohol mixed with en... more Despite continued health concerns associated with the practice of consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmED), few Australian studies have examined the popularity of this combination or attempted to characterise AmED consumers. The purpose of this paper is to replicate two previously used survey approaches to consolidate a national picture of AmED consumption in Australia. The survey approaches used were: an online survey with a convenience sample of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, residents (n = 1931; 63.7% female; median age 23.0 years); and street intercept surveys in regional and metropolitan entertainment precincts in NSW (n = 1265; 58.2% male; median age 21.0 years). Analyses explored the rates and frequency of AmED use across both samples, and the sociodemographic and substance use predictors of AmED consumption in the past 12 months. More than 90% of participants in both samples reported alcohol consumption in the past 12 months, with approximately 40% of current dri...

The International journal on drug policy, Jan 7, 2017

Research on nightlife and drinking faces many unique challenges, and validity in research is an i... more Research on nightlife and drinking faces many unique challenges, and validity in research is an important concern. A recent publication by Devilly et al. entitled "SmartStart: Results of a large point of entry study into preloading alcohol and associated behaviours" contains definitions and assumptions about prior work that require more careful consideration. Important issues include: using a definition of pre-drinking which is the same as previous work so that valid comparison can be made, reporting of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels that comply with other work, accurate reporting of response rates, and careful consideration of sampling approaches to maximise ethical integrity. Ensuring consistency of definition and accurate representation of previous literature regarding BAC, pre-drinking and energy drink use, is important for supplying the broader community with reliable information on which policy decisions can be made.

Felony Fights is a website and set of DVDs depicting 'no rules' combat between male former convic... more Felony Fights is a website and set of DVDs depicting 'no rules' combat between male former convicts and a range of opponents. In these, the spectacle of violence serves to obscure the profoundly unequal relations of power that shape their production and viewing appeal. In Felony Fights, embodied marginality and poverty are presented as evidence of the animal brutality and the carceral character of the fighters. This resonates with populist explanations for criminality and male violence, and the punitive sentiments that are linked to law and order thinking about the failure of the penal system to adequately punish and inflict suffering on dangerous criminals.

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, 2016

The title Australian Violence prompts the question ‘ís there something distinctive about Australi... more The title Australian Violence prompts the question ‘ís there something distinctive about Australian violence?’

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, 2016

Nearly two decades after the event, the Port Arthur massacre looms so large in the national imagi... more Nearly two decades after the event, the Port Arthur massacre looms so large in the national imagination that it remains still a threshold moment in Australian responses to gun violence. Without even considering the effectiveness of the subsequent statutory controls, including the gun buy-back, the impact of the massacre is notable for the very politics that made possible a national approach to the regulation of firearms. This impact attracts notice precisely because a unified national approach had been on the political agenda since the early 1970s, but impossible to achieve. Indeed a unified national approach was something which had been advocated by Australian police leaders since the 1920s. As an exercise in the capacity of government to develop a highly interventionist program aimed at the prevention of violence the inter-governmental agreement for unified firearm control laws commands attention.

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, 2016

This book Australian Violence brings together the work of a talented generation of sociologists ... more This book Australian Violence brings together the work of a talented generation of sociologists and criminologists who have been transforming our understanding of the issues. Looking back on the benchmark national enquiry of 1990, as the opening chapter of this book does, we can see an important body of data and an innovative policy document. Yet since then, our understanding of violence has become much deeper and more complex. Australian Violence brings together the key lines of research and theory.

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond (Stubbs & Tomsen 2016), 2016

Contemporary perceptions of a violent world When reflecting on the global or national state of vi... more Contemporary perceptions of a violent world When reflecting on the global or national state of violence it is easy to become depressed and dispirited. As I write the world is still reeling from the aftershock of horrifying pictures broadcast on the Internet of the beheading murder by Muslim extremists of a captured American journalist (BBC 2014) and by equally shocking images of a young child holding up the severed head of a soldier slain by other extremists during combat against the Syrian regime of President Assad (Fraser 2014). The child was believed to be the seven year old son of an Australian citizen, Khaled Sharrouf, a 33 year old Sydney based Muslim fighting with other radicals in the Middle East. Sharrouf had earlier been convicted with a number of others of terrorist related activities following Operation Pendennis, the largest counter terrorism investigation ever conducted in the country, which uncovered jihadist cells in both Melbourne and Sydney amassing weapons and bomb making equipment to use in local terrorist attacks (Olding 2014).

Masculinity and Public Drinking Violence A Research Report to NSW Health and NSW Attorney General’s Crime Prevention Division on Violence, Young Male Drinkers and Private Security , 2006

This research on public drinking-related conflict and violence has studied the views and experie... more This research on public drinking-related conflict and violence has studied the views and experience of security officers and young male drinkers in the Newcastle/Hunter areas of New South Wales, Australia. These participants were recruited non-randomly into different focus groups, and information was generated to allow a fuller depth of understanding of drinking violence from a social actor perspective. Results suggest that despite evidence of ongoing “binge drinking” most young men are seriously concerned about their own safety when they are at or near drinking venues and they take measures to avoid trouble and protect themselves during this leisure activity. These drinkers also hold contradictory views about venue security. Material from these focus groups suggests that the link between drinking, violence and masculinity shapes the pattern of many conflicts. This can be understood by both drinkers and security in a way that naturalises male violence, denies personal agency and leads to undue pessimism about measures to create safer drinking environments. The link with masculinity is dynamic and varies according to the different types of individual and collectively generated “masculinities” that predominate in different social contexts, especially those involving various perceptions about social honour and whether or not to respond to public insults.

Profession-state relations are usually analysed from an interventionist perspective in which the ... more Profession-state relations are usually analysed from an interventionist perspective in which the contemporary state acts as a unified and conscious subject, and threatens the autonomy of professionals by regulating and employing them. The recent history of debates and reforms to the legal aid system in Australia suggests there is a far more complex link between professional groups and sectors of the state. The legal profession has entered a phase of extended state engagement which runs parallel to major social changes and political conflict among lawyers. These changes include the rise of a new legal services segment of the profession, with its own ideal model of practice, distinct specialisation and clientele, and a new response to public agency involvement in professional matters. The greater contemporary level of

www.losquaderno.net Early morning – As the city wakes up 32 3a cura di / dossier coordonné par / ... more www.losquaderno.net Early morning – As the city wakes up 32 3a cura di / dossier coordonné par / edited by

... be eroded by volatile media and public interpretations of blame that mirror back on to ... Cr... more ... be eroded by volatile media and public interpretations of blame that mirror back on to ... Criminology Conference Proceedings 2009 Newman C & Persson A 2009 'Fear complacency and the ... Sendziuk P 2003 Learning to Trust: Australian responses to AIDS UNSW Press Sydney. ...

Social Science Research Network, 2013

This chapter examines research evidence to argue that violence directed at gay men, lesbians and ... more This chapter examines research evidence to argue that violence directed at gay men, lesbians and transsexual/transgendered people are not wholly distinct from other forms of male-perpetrated violence. It insists that harassment and violence directed against sexual groups are highly gendered and everyday phenomena and narrow views of homophobic prejudice should be refined in order to appreciate this. Furthermore, these acts are widespread and collective social phenomena built on masculine understandings of a sexual mainstream and subordinate others.

The Emerald Handbook of Feminism, Criminology and Social Change

This chapter provides a critical focus on the relationship between masculinities and widespread f... more This chapter provides a critical focus on the relationship between masculinities and widespread forms of interpersonal violence. The chapter begins by discussing the contribution of second wave feminist criminology in securing disciplinary attention to the study of gender and its relation to crime, and how the growth and maturation of theory and research on specific masculinities and crime followed logically from this feminist work. As part of this development, examination of masculine perpetrated violence initially commenced with Messerschmidt’s (1993) influential account of masculinities and crime in his book of the same name, and was further expanded through a range of historical and contemporary criminological studies on masculinities and interpersonal violence. The authors discuss the origins and history of critical masculinities theory, its relation to social understandings of interpersonal violence, and how these have shaped criminological research interest and findings. Masculinities are linked intricately with struggles for social power that occur between men and women and among different men, but they vary and intersect importantly with other dimensions of inequality. The authors utilise this conception of masculinities to discuss research on various forms of interpersonal violence, from men’s physical and sexual violence against girls and women, attacks on sexual minorities, violence between/among boys and men, and to the ambiguities of gender, sexualities, and violence by girls, women and men.

Current Issues in Criminal Justice

ABSTRACT This book is the first attempt to understand Britain's night-time economy, the v... more ABSTRACT This book is the first attempt to understand Britain's night-time economy, the violence that pervades it, and the bouncers whose job it is to prevent it. Using ethnography, participant observation and extensive interviews with all the main players, this controversial book charts the emergence of the bouncer as one of the most graphic symbols in the iconography of post-industrial Britain.

Gendered Violence at International Festivals

Public health research & practice, Jan 27, 2018

The International journal on drug policy, Jan 7, 2017

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, 2016

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond (Stubbs & Tomsen 2016), 2016

Masculinity and Public Drinking Violence A Research Report to NSW Health and NSW Attorney General’s Crime Prevention Division on Violence, Young Male Drinkers and Private Security , 2006

Social Science Research Network, 2013

The Emerald Handbook of Feminism, Criminology and Social Change

Current Issues in Criminal Justice

In the last decade there has been an increased global criminalisation of sexually transmitted HIV... more In the last decade there has been an increased global criminalisation of sexually transmitted HIV infections. This trend has been reflected in a series of criminal investigations and trials in Australia that concern matters of homosexual and heterosexual contact and scenarios of actual transmission, high risk, or even no chance of infection and physical harm to different complainants. It seems likely that part of the social drive behind these cases is the impact of social movement activity in the sexual arena that has reduced types of stigma and also instilled a greater confidence about victim reporting and assertion of legal rights in a range of matters relating to sexual behaviour and identity. With further criminalisation a cultural gulf about understanding matters of transmission and risk has emerged between safe sex aware communities and police and legal officials and media commentators. In the worst cases, there are homophobic and racist aspects to the understanding and depictions of criminally accused men. Key recent Australian cases and related trials signal the likelihood that the assertion of criminal grievance will be a divisive trend that once again casts the moral distinction between good and bad infected people that activists have contested since the 1980s. The law's individualistic frame of reference for criminalising grievances seems legitimate and appropriate in the worst cases of exploitation and abuse. Nevertheless, it is anathema to the wider goal of community health prevention founded in the collective ethical project of safe sex that was a critical aspect of Australia's success in containment of the HIV epidemic.

This report outlines key findings from an examination of media articles, policy documents and rep... more This report outlines key findings from an examination of media articles, policy documents and reports, and academic literature. The aim of the research leading to this report was to produce preliminary findings concerning the issue of a recently proposed drug consumption
room in south western Sydney, with attention paid to related topics such as stigma, discrimination, and violence against people who use drugs. This was done through a reading of relevant, recent Australian newspaper articles (including local newspapers in Sydney), sourced through the Factiva database, sampled from the past 12 months (to October 2016),
to establish how the issue of a proposed drug consumption room was being discussed in public news media. This also helped to establish some of the key social actors (councils, interest groups, politicians) concerning the consumption room. The information about these social actors was used to search for relevant policy documents that could provide an
indication of the discourses or political interests through which key actors were operating. Finally, the above research was supplemented with a literature search and overview of scholarly research literature that may be on interest regarding the above topics, and used as a basis for future research in this area.

Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, 2016