Honours student Daren Fisher awarded intership with Reprieve USA
- Author: Daren Fisher
- Posted: 17th September 2009
My current research for my Honours thesis is on crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). I am investigating how CPTED theory has been used in New South Wales and how it has been incorporated into legislation and into various professional roles. To explore this a bit further I am looking at how CPTED has and can be used in Martin Place in Sydney's CBD.
I applied for the Reprieve Internship because I have always been passionate about social injustice, and it is one of the main reasons why I chose to do Criminology at UNSW. Over the course of my degree I have spent a great deal of time reading about how society deals with crime. While I have always been morally opposed to the death penalty, through studying the effects of the death penalty and the ways that it is imposed I have come to oppose it as a violation of basic human rights.
After a close friend of mine from Criminology did a similar internship over the summer of '08/'09 I have been searching for a way that I might personally contribute to this cause and raise the awareness of the issues that surround the death penalty. After she introduced me to Reprieve and their international internship, I immediately knew that this would be a fantastic way for me to contribute myself to such a worthwhile cause. To me the internship will be a way for me to practically apply the skills that I have developed over my degree to assist in the provision of effective legal representation and humanitarian assistance to those facing the death penalty at the hands of the state.
The prospect of leaving my friends and family behind in Australia for the months that I will be over there has been daunting, but the experiences that I will have while I am overseas and the knowledge that I am making a small difference in an important issue certainly makes the decision easier. I have no doubt though that by observing how the death penalty operates in the US that I will learn many invaluable lessons that will help me to become a better criminologist and human being as well. I am looking forward to the challenge and definitely feel very fortunate to have this opportunity
