Bridget Harris
PLEASE NOTE: I do not regularly update this page. You can see released / public work via my institution website (https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/harrisb3/), which also has contact information. I am always happy to share / discuss work via this channel.
Bridget is an interdisciplinary researcher and has published and presented her work in the areas of:
- domestic, family and sexual violence / gender-based violence
- technology-facilitated violence, advocacy and justice administration in the context of domestic and family violence
access to justice (including in regional, rural and remote areas, and 'postcode justice')
- legal advocacy
- Southern Criminology
She has been invited to advise police and legal bodies on family violence in regional, rural and remote communities (incidents and experiences; informal and formal responses; technology-facilitated violence and advocacy). Her work in these fields was heavily cited in and used to inform recommendations made by the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. Her work on access to justice and rural criminology has informed other government and non-government inquiries as well as policy and practice reforms and recommendations, including in the recent review – The Justice Project – undertaken by the Law Council of Australia (focused on the state of access to justice in the nation).
Bridget competed her PhD thesis (Just Spaces? Community Legal Centres as Places of Law) at Monash University and was the School of Social Sciences candidate nominated for the Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Excellence in a PhD thesis. She received the Bruce Mansfield Award for Outstanding Research in her Honours year, undertaken at Macquarie University (thesis: Chequered Traditions: the Redfern Riots, Race, and the Role of History; exhibition: Chequered Knights? The Anti-police Myth in Australia). In 2016 she received a scholarship to attend the competitive Australian Research Council Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme. As an educator, she has also received staff and student nominated teaching awards.
Recently, Bridget has been awarded two esteemed Criminology Research Council grants. She is currently completing these projects: Spaceless Violence and Advocacy: Technology-facilitated Abuse, Stalking and Service Provision in Australia (with Dr Delanie Woodlock, Women’s Legal Service NSW and Professor Harry Blagg) and Reducing Crime and Incarceration Rates in Aboriginal Communities: The Impact of the ‘Yes I Can’ Adult Literacy Campaign (with Dr Jenny Wise, Associate Professor Bob Boughton, Adjunct Professor Jack Beetson and Dr Nickson). In 2018, with Dr Delanie Woodlock and ASSA fellows Professor Kerry Carrington and Hon. Marcia Neave, she won an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia grant to host a workshop on Technology and Domestic Violence: Experiences, Perpetration and Responses, with leading national academics, advocates and practitioners. Other (Australian Communications Consumer Action Network) funded research includes Domestic Violence and Communication Technology: Victim Experiences of Intrusion, Surveillance, and Identity Theft; Associate Professor Molly Dragiewicz, Dr Bridget Harris, Dr Michael Salter, Dr Delanie Woodlock, Women’s Legal Service Queensland and Women’s Legal Service New South Wales 2018-2019.
Bridget is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Criminology at the University of New England.
Bridget is an interdisciplinary researcher and has published and presented her work in the areas of:
- domestic, family and sexual violence / gender-based violence
- technology-facilitated violence, advocacy and justice administration in the context of domestic and family violence
access to justice (including in regional, rural and remote areas, and 'postcode justice')
- legal advocacy
- Southern Criminology
She has been invited to advise police and legal bodies on family violence in regional, rural and remote communities (incidents and experiences; informal and formal responses; technology-facilitated violence and advocacy). Her work in these fields was heavily cited in and used to inform recommendations made by the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. Her work on access to justice and rural criminology has informed other government and non-government inquiries as well as policy and practice reforms and recommendations, including in the recent review – The Justice Project – undertaken by the Law Council of Australia (focused on the state of access to justice in the nation).
Bridget competed her PhD thesis (Just Spaces? Community Legal Centres as Places of Law) at Monash University and was the School of Social Sciences candidate nominated for the Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Excellence in a PhD thesis. She received the Bruce Mansfield Award for Outstanding Research in her Honours year, undertaken at Macquarie University (thesis: Chequered Traditions: the Redfern Riots, Race, and the Role of History; exhibition: Chequered Knights? The Anti-police Myth in Australia). In 2016 she received a scholarship to attend the competitive Australian Research Council Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme. As an educator, she has also received staff and student nominated teaching awards.
Recently, Bridget has been awarded two esteemed Criminology Research Council grants. She is currently completing these projects: Spaceless Violence and Advocacy: Technology-facilitated Abuse, Stalking and Service Provision in Australia (with Dr Delanie Woodlock, Women’s Legal Service NSW and Professor Harry Blagg) and Reducing Crime and Incarceration Rates in Aboriginal Communities: The Impact of the ‘Yes I Can’ Adult Literacy Campaign (with Dr Jenny Wise, Associate Professor Bob Boughton, Adjunct Professor Jack Beetson and Dr Nickson). In 2018, with Dr Delanie Woodlock and ASSA fellows Professor Kerry Carrington and Hon. Marcia Neave, she won an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia grant to host a workshop on Technology and Domestic Violence: Experiences, Perpetration and Responses, with leading national academics, advocates and practitioners. Other (Australian Communications Consumer Action Network) funded research includes Domestic Violence and Communication Technology: Victim Experiences of Intrusion, Surveillance, and Identity Theft; Associate Professor Molly Dragiewicz, Dr Bridget Harris, Dr Michael Salter, Dr Delanie Woodlock, Women’s Legal Service Queensland and Women’s Legal Service New South Wales 2018-2019.
Bridget is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Criminology at the University of New England.
less
InterestsView All (19)
Uploads
Books and Major Reports by Bridget Harris
criminologists. Although images of idyllic, crime-free areas beyond the cityscape persist, there is scant academic consideration of the realities and variances of crime across regional, rural and remote Australia.
Contributors to Locating Crime explore the nexus between crime and space, examining the complexities that exist in policing, prosecuting and punishing crime in different zones. The various authors draw upon original knowledge and insight and utilise innovative research and an interdisciplinary approach.
The broad theme of Locating Crime is centred on ‘context, place and space’, but several sub-themes emerge too. Contributors grapple with a number of issues: contextualisations of rurality; notions of ‘access to justice’; the importance of building ‘social capital’; the role of history; and of proactively addressing offending rates with crime prevention measures. This original research adds significantly to
criminological understandings of crime in different spaces and offers novel insights of the impact upon victims and communities affected by crime in non-urban environments.
Twelve scholarly chapters are grounded in criminological, legal and socio-legal frameworks and incorporate theoretical and practical knowledge from other fields such as history, sociology, cultural geography, media, cultural studies and Indigenous studies. The contributions from four professional practitioners with expert knowledge of specific facets of criminal justice systems in Australia offer evaluations often absent from scholarly criminological literature. By melding both academic and practitioner discourse into the same work, this book allows a greater appreciation of the nexus
between thought and practice.
Editors: Alistair Harkness, Bridget Harris & David Baker.
Journal Articles by Bridget Harris
Book Chapters by Bridget Harris
In: The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South
Edited by Kerry Carrington, Russell Hogg, John Scott and Máximo Sozzo
Thesis by Bridget Harris
Submissions by Bridget Harris
Exhibition Catalogue by Bridget Harris
Conference Presentations by Bridget Harris
Women and children experiencing family violence encounter significant barriers when seeking assistance and access to justice. Victims / survivors in regional, rural and remote communities face further challenges, which impact both their experiences of and, responses to violence. There is scant knowledge of geographic variances of the criminal justice system, in particular, of differences that exist between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas and how this might affect survivors of family violence. This paper draws on two research projects conducted by the Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice which investigate family violence in regional and rural Victoria.
Methods:
The Centre’s studies have been informed by rich primary data, including court observations; interviews with survivors, family violence support workers, legal actors and magistrates and extensive consultation with government and non-government agencies.
Results
This research enhances understandings of the extent and nature of family violence beyond the cityscape. Importantly, researchers have charted the impacts of gender constructs; geographic and social isolation; expensive private and fragmented public transport networks; challenges with anonymity and privacy; limited crisis accommodation; less access to support, health and legal services; perpetrator firearm ownership and rural police culture. Researchers have also noted the incidence, scale and ‘spaceless’ nature of technology facilitated abuse and stalking which has unique effects on the safety and well-being of survivors in non-metropolitan places. They have charted difficulties with accessing and, failures of justice that must be overcome in future prevention and protection based initiatives.
Conclusions:
Recommendations for future responses to family violence have been developed in collaboration with survivors, practitioners and key stakeholders. The work conducted by the Centre seeks to strengthen support to and safety of survivors; identify best practice models in prevention, policing and prosecution of family violence and locate possibilities for advocacy that can combat ‘postcode justice’ and transcend barriers and borders.
Research reports by Bridget Harris
survivors’ experiences of technology-facilitated abuse; discovered what resources and tactics survivors and practitioners use to deal with technology-facilitated coercive control; and compiled survivor and practitioner recommendations about how to improve responses to this form of abuse. The findings allow us to better understand technology use in the context of domestic violence, the resources currently available, and how to improve responses to this type of abuse. Our findings indicate that domestic violence creates an intimate threat model requiring innovative cybersecurity responses. This exploratory study elicited four key recommendations for future policy and practice.
criminologists. Although images of idyllic, crime-free areas beyond the cityscape persist, there is scant academic consideration of the realities and variances of crime across regional, rural and remote Australia.
Contributors to Locating Crime explore the nexus between crime and space, examining the complexities that exist in policing, prosecuting and punishing crime in different zones. The various authors draw upon original knowledge and insight and utilise innovative research and an interdisciplinary approach.
The broad theme of Locating Crime is centred on ‘context, place and space’, but several sub-themes emerge too. Contributors grapple with a number of issues: contextualisations of rurality; notions of ‘access to justice’; the importance of building ‘social capital’; the role of history; and of proactively addressing offending rates with crime prevention measures. This original research adds significantly to
criminological understandings of crime in different spaces and offers novel insights of the impact upon victims and communities affected by crime in non-urban environments.
Twelve scholarly chapters are grounded in criminological, legal and socio-legal frameworks and incorporate theoretical and practical knowledge from other fields such as history, sociology, cultural geography, media, cultural studies and Indigenous studies. The contributions from four professional practitioners with expert knowledge of specific facets of criminal justice systems in Australia offer evaluations often absent from scholarly criminological literature. By melding both academic and practitioner discourse into the same work, this book allows a greater appreciation of the nexus
between thought and practice.
Editors: Alistair Harkness, Bridget Harris & David Baker.
In: The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South
Edited by Kerry Carrington, Russell Hogg, John Scott and Máximo Sozzo
Women and children experiencing family violence encounter significant barriers when seeking assistance and access to justice. Victims / survivors in regional, rural and remote communities face further challenges, which impact both their experiences of and, responses to violence. There is scant knowledge of geographic variances of the criminal justice system, in particular, of differences that exist between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas and how this might affect survivors of family violence. This paper draws on two research projects conducted by the Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice which investigate family violence in regional and rural Victoria.
Methods:
The Centre’s studies have been informed by rich primary data, including court observations; interviews with survivors, family violence support workers, legal actors and magistrates and extensive consultation with government and non-government agencies.
Results
This research enhances understandings of the extent and nature of family violence beyond the cityscape. Importantly, researchers have charted the impacts of gender constructs; geographic and social isolation; expensive private and fragmented public transport networks; challenges with anonymity and privacy; limited crisis accommodation; less access to support, health and legal services; perpetrator firearm ownership and rural police culture. Researchers have also noted the incidence, scale and ‘spaceless’ nature of technology facilitated abuse and stalking which has unique effects on the safety and well-being of survivors in non-metropolitan places. They have charted difficulties with accessing and, failures of justice that must be overcome in future prevention and protection based initiatives.
Conclusions:
Recommendations for future responses to family violence have been developed in collaboration with survivors, practitioners and key stakeholders. The work conducted by the Centre seeks to strengthen support to and safety of survivors; identify best practice models in prevention, policing and prosecution of family violence and locate possibilities for advocacy that can combat ‘postcode justice’ and transcend barriers and borders.
survivors’ experiences of technology-facilitated abuse; discovered what resources and tactics survivors and practitioners use to deal with technology-facilitated coercive control; and compiled survivor and practitioner recommendations about how to improve responses to this form of abuse. The findings allow us to better understand technology use in the context of domestic violence, the resources currently available, and how to improve responses to this type of abuse. Our findings indicate that domestic violence creates an intimate threat model requiring innovative cybersecurity responses. This exploratory study elicited four key recommendations for future policy and practice.