The AFL and Attitudes to Women

In the wake of so many scandals and stories about AFL players, the AFL has produced an educational DVD to help players understand that women are people too - even if they don't play footy.

Not everyone is happy. Michael Smith raises some questions in this opinion piece about the portrayal of women in the DVD. Whilst some of those concerns may be valid, the DVD does seem to include just the sort of situations that these young men, and others, find themselves in.

As a Criminal Defence Lawyer I see them all the time. Just because, in Michael Smith's ideal world, these situations are demeaning and stereotypical, does not mean that it is not what actually happens.

The DVD has even attracted international attention, with an article in The Times Online about consent in sexual offences.

Who knows, next the AFL might tell its players, "Just say no to drugs"

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

A couple of sentencing decisions in the news recently have attracted a lot of public attention. Many people are calling for longer sentences in general, and for mandatory minimum sentences. Very few of these people are actually able to articulate why they would be a positive.

At the time of writing, 89% of people responding to the AdelaideNow Poll support mandatory sentences for Aggravated Cause Death by Dangerous Driving cases. The comments on the story in question follow similar themes - a couple are reproduced verbatim here:

"Crime i sgetting worse and worse and yet these criminals are getting such pathetic sentences"

"lock these criminals up for a lengthy term, show them we will not tolerate it anymore, before things get even worse."

Many of them talk about the fact that the victim was a "good" man - and there is absolutely no doubt that he was, but is that something that should play a role in sentencing? Maybe that is a whole topic in itself.

I want the Government to work at reducing crime.

Increased penalties only serve to appease a public baying for blood. They do not reduce crime. The penalty for stealing used to be transportation to Australia, and it did not stop crime - and that is long before Australia was the migration destination of choice for Brits!

I am told Denis Hood is a reasonably intelligent man, and therefore one would assume that he has read all of the research on the topic of "general deterrence." If he has, then the only motive for this must be political.

That's not putting the Family First.