PUBLIC LECTURE: �Ethnic minorities and crime in Australia: Moral Panic or Meaningful Policy Responses"

Abstract: Concern about crime and fear of crime appear to be one of the characteristics of the age, not just in Australia but also in all western societies. The supposed links between immigrant minorities and criminal behaviour is a recurring theme in Australian immigration history. Post September 11 and the Bali and London bombings, concern about (some) immigrants as terrorists, the extreme form of crime, has cemented the image of immigrants as perpetrators of crime in public and private discourses. Professor Collins draws on a range of primary and secondary sources on immigrant crime (original fieldwork conducted in Sydney; national criminological data; national and international literature; and a critical evaluation of Australian media discourses) to make the case that there is a moral panic about immigrant crime in Australia. This moral panic is fed by sensationalist media discourses - often inflamed by opportunistic politicians from all sides of the spectrum - that lead, intentionally or not, away from the important issue of the criminality of immigrants individuals - in multicultural society criminals come from all cultural backgrounds - to the criminality of specific immigrant cultures. Professor Collins argues that this moral panic over-exaggerates the extent of immigrant crime and ignores the important fact that immigrants are also victims of crime in Australia, particularly hate crimes post 9/11 These developments threaten the social cohesion of Australian cosmopolitan society. Moreover, since the moral panic about immigrant or ethnic crime emphasises the cultural basis of crime it systematically leads us away from important policy responses to immigrant crime that are linked to immigrant socio-economic disadvantage, employment, education and community development in metropolitan areas where immigrant minority communities concentrate.

Biographical note: Jock Collins is a Professor of Economics at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) where he has taught since 1977. Holding a Ph D from Wollongong University and a B. Ec (hons) and M. Ec. from Sydney University, Jock has been writing on issues related to Australian immigration, multiculturalism and racism and the Australian labour market since 1973. He is the author of Migrant Hands in a Distant Land: Australia's Post-war Immigration (Pluto Press, Sydney 1988, 1991) and co-author of A Shop Full of Dreams: Ethnic Small Business in Australia (Pluto Press, Sydney 1995), Cosmopolitan Sydney: Explore the world in one city (Pluto Press, Sydney 1998), Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime: Youth, Ethnicity and Crime (with Greg Nobel, Scott Poynting and Paul Tabar, Pluto Press, Sydney); Cosmopolitan Melbourne: Explore the world in one city (Big Box, Sydney 2001) and Bin Laden in the Suburbs: the criminalisation of the Arabic Other (with Greg Nobel, Scott Poynting and Paul Tabar, Federation Press, Sydney, 2004). He is also co-editor (with Scott Poynting) of The Other Sydney: Communities, Identities and Inequalities in Western Sydney (Common Ground Publishing, Melbourne, 2000).He has over 50 publications in international and national journals and books.

He has held research grants from the Australian Research Council, the Canadian Government, the Dutch Government, the Australian National Training Authority and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. His latest research project funded by the Australian Research Council looks at " Cosmopolitan Heritage in a Multicultural Society: Ethnic Communities and the Built Environment in Australian Cities and Regional and Rural Areas", with The National Trust of Australia (WA) and National Trust of NSW among the industry partners. Jock Collins has held consultancies with the NSW Department of Treasury, the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia. He has been a Visiting Fellow at universities in the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. In the first half of 2002 he was Willy Brandt Guest Professor in International Migration and Ethnic Relations at the University of Malmo, Sweden. Jock Collins regularly comments on immigration and multiculturalism issues in the media. His publications have been translated into French, Japanese, Italian and Arabic.

ALL WELCOME. NO RESERVATION REQUIRED.