Money as Punishment: Neoliberal Budgetary Politics and the Fine

ABSTRACT

In August of 2014, a young Indigenous woman, known as Ms. Dhu, died in the lock-up of the South Hedland Police Station after being detained for unpaid fines totalling $3622. Her death drew attention to the fact that fine defaulters – most of whom are Indigenous and female – are once again being imprisoned at astonishing rates in Western Australia, after the practice was more or less discontinued elsewhere. What does the nexus between the fine, incarceration and forced labour tell us about the relationship between money and penality in contemporary neoliberal/neoconservative states? Pointing to the combined influence of the Chicago and Virginia schools of neoliberalism on Australian public policy, I suggest that the recent expansion of monetary sanctions must be understood as a way of transferring the debt burdens of the state downwards, onto those classified as excessive ‘users’ of public services. Not only does the fine blur the boundaries between civil and criminal law, it also harnesses punishment to the fiscal imperatives of an increasingly austere, deficit-averse state.     

The Relative Influence of Appropriation Subcommittees: Institutional Structure and Program Performance

Unlike previous analyses that evaluate the influence of the authorization committees on government agency management, we examine the US congressional appropriation subcommittees to see how their structural characteristics affect the performance of the programs that they fund. Specifically, we look at whether the competition for resources and member workload within subcommittees affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the programs under their purview. As part of the Congressional budget process, appropriation subcommittees are annually allocated new budgets from which they must fund a set of government programs. We find that the level of resources in a subcommittee affects program performance. Greater subcommittee resources are negatively correlated with program performance. We also find that workload matters—programs in subcommittees with fewer issue areas and programs per member are more effective and efficient. A subcommittee's capacity to focus on management problems and issue areas leads to better program performance.     

The Cyberterrorism Threat: Findings from a Survey of Researchers

This article reports on a recent research project exploring academic perspectives on the threat posed by cyberterrorism. The project employed a survey method, which returned 118 responses from researchers working across 24 different countries. The article begins with a brief review of existing literature on this topic, distinguishing between those concerned by an imminent threat of cyberterrorism, and other, more skeptical, views. Following a discussion on method, the article's analysis section then details findings from three research questions: (1) Does cyberterrorism constitute a significant threat? If so, against whom or what?; (2) Has a cyberterrorism attack ever taken place?; and (3) What are the most effective countermeasures against cyberterrorism? Are there significant differences to more traditional forms of anti- or counterterrorism? The article concludes by reflecting on areas of continuity and discontinuity between academic debate on cyberterrorism and on terrorism more broadly.     

Procedural Justice in Family Conflict Resolution and Deviant Peer Group Involvement Among Adolescents: The Mediating Influence of Peer Conflict

The involvement of adolescents with deviant peer groups is one of the strongest proximal correlates to juvenile delinquency and stems from a variety of causes. Past research has linked ineffective parenting with peer variables, including deviant peer group involvement and peer conflict during adolescence. In this study, adolescents’ appraisals of procedural justice within the family (adolescents’ appraisals of how fairly they are treated by parents in the process of resolving family conflict) were examined as one aspect of effective parenting that may relate to deviant peer group involvement in early adolescence. Data from 1660 middle school students (ages 11–14, mean = 12.6) indicated that higher appraisals by adolescents of procedural justice during family conflict resolution were related to lower levels of both peer conflict and deviant peer group involvement. A structural model was tested in which the relationship between adolescents’ appraisals of procedural justice in the family and deviant peer group involvement was partially mediated by measures of peer conflict. This model was found to have adequate fit to the data, indicating that part of the relationship between procedural justice appraisals and deviant peer group involvement can be explained by levels of peer conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed.