Dr Jane Bolitho

Overview

Current research
ARC Linkage Grant, Chief Investigator, 'Restorative Justice for Victims & Serious Offenders' (with Professor Janet Chan). Investigates restorative justice processes following serious criminal offending with adult offenders in prison and short, medium & long term impacts for victims, offenders, their families and communities.

ARC Discovery Grant, Chief Investigator, 'Challenges, Possibilities & Future Directions: A National Assessment of Australia's Children's Courts' (with 16 CI's across Australia). This national study assesses the status of, challenges & potential reform for Australian children's courts across both criminal and child welfare jurisdictions.

Research Areas
Restorative justice, juvenile justice, court based diversion, alternatives to violence, feminist criminology
 

Teaching

Jane teaches across criminology and social science covering core courses concerned with criminological and social theory, social policy and research methods. Subjects include Introduction to Criminology, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminological Theories, Researching Crime and Justice, Policy Analysis Case Studies and the Social Science & Policy Project. She also teaches upper level specialist courses on restorative justice, youth justice, and the psychology of aggression, violence & conflict. Jane is actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning and is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching at UNSW.

Postgraduate Research Supervision
*Women survivors of child sexual assault and the NSW criminal justice system
* The social construction of juvenile crime in Malaysia
* Therapeutic jurisprudence

Publications

Book Chapter

Bolitho, JJ (2005), 'Restorative justice in action', in J Chan (ed.), Reshaping Juvenile Justice: The New South Wales Young Offenders Act 1997, Institute of Criminology Monograph Series, Sydney.

Journal Article

Fishwick, E., Bolitho, J., (forthcoming). Politics led policy and policy led evidence: the Noetic review of juvenile justice in New South Wales. Current Issues in Criminal Justice

Passey, M., Bolitho, J., Flaherty, B., Scantleton, J. (2007). The Magistrates Early Referral Into Treatment (MERIT) Pilot Program: Court Outcomes and Recidivism. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology. Vol. 40 (2), 199-217.

Unpublished Reports

Crime Profile., City of Sydney Local Government Area with CHD Partners

Stock take of Juvenile justice in NSW (1996-2006) Report for the Juvenile Justice Advisory Council of NSW, March 2007.

Conference Papers
Fishwick, E., Bolitho, J., (July 2010) Whatever happened to evidence led policy in NSW?'. Third International Conference, Childhood and Youth in Transition, Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth 6th-8th July 2010 Sheffield, UK.

Bruce, J., Bolitho, J., Bargen,J. & Chan, J. May 2010. Regulating emotion to address the impact of serious crime: Restorative justice at the post-sentencing stage. Non-Adversarial Justice: Implications for the Legal System and Society Conference, Melbourne, 4-7 May 2010

Bolitho, JJ 2005, 'Framing good practice in restorative justice: Principles, demands, and ethical decision making', presented at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, Wellington.

Bolitho, JJ 2005, 'The Magistrates Early Referral into Treatment Program: Challenges in evaluation', presented at the Delivering Crime Prevention: Making the Evidence Work Conference, Sydney, 21-25 November.

Bolitho, JJ 2005, 'Restorative justice in action', presented at the Delivering crime prevention: Making the evidence work Conference, Sydney, 21-22 November.

Bolitho, JJ 2005, 'Creating space for young people, dialogue and decision making: Findings from PhD research', presented at the NSW Attorney General's Department Research Network Conference, August.

Bolitho, JJ 2003, 'Creating space for young people, dialogue and decision making: A perspective on Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales', presented at the Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice Best Practices: An International Perspective, Vancouver, B.C., 1-4 June.

Bolitho, JJ 2003, 'Creating space for young people, dialogue and decision making: A perspective on Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales, Australia', presented at the International Congress of Law and Mental Health Conference, Sydney, 28 September - 3 October.

Bolitho, JJ 2003, 'Real dialogue and decision making--Thinking about Youth Justice Conferencing in NSW, Australia', presented at the Controlling Crime Risks and Responsibilities, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, Sydney, 1-3 October.

Bolitho, JJ 2002, 'Youth Justice Conferencing in NSW: Theory and practice', presented at the Preventing Crime and Doing Justice Conference, Brisbane, 1-3 October.

Bolitho, JJ 2001, 'Critical theory in practice: Youth Justice Conferencing as ideal communicative action?', presented at the Composite: Postgraduate Conference Proceedings, Sydney, 22 September.

Bolitho, JJ 2001, 'Crime and punitive public', presented at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, University of Melbourne, 21-23 February.

Bolitho, JJ 2000, 'The relevance of attribution theory in understanding public opinion and crime', presented at the Risk and Responsibility Postgraduate Law Conference, Sydney, 10-11 November.

Affiliations and Memberships

Jane is a registered Psychologist in NSW and a:
Member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
Member of the Sydney Institute of Criminology
Member of the Australian Sociological Association
Associate Member of the the Australian Psychological Society
Associate Member of the Australasian Market Research Society

Other Information

Research area
Jane's research focuses on two main areas of justice; youth justice and diversionary options for young people involved in the criminal justice system, and restorative justice with a focus on NSW models of conferencing. Her PhD (completed in 2005), 'Creating Space for Young People Dialogue and Decision Making: Youth Justice Conferencing in NSW Australia', examined factors affecting the process of conferencing and conceptions of 'good practice' utilising restorative theory. Previous employment included work at the Crime Prevention Division, NSW Attorney General's Department focusing on research & evaluation of court based diversion programs.

Research Supervision
Jane is interested in supervising postgraduate research across a broad range of social, justice and criminological related topics. Particular interests include restorative justice, young people and youth justice, women & feminism.

Current PhD Students
M. Hudson (jointly supervised with Dr Leanne Weber).
Topic: Women survivors of intra-familial child sexual assault and pathways to justice.

K. Ali.
Topic: Construction of youth crime in Malaysia

Current Masters Students
G.Took (supervised with Professor Chan)
Topic: Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the NSW Drug Court

Honours Students
2010 - E. Whatham, Gender and restorative justice

Honours Completions
2008 - I. Daniel
Topic: Therapeutic jurisprudence and young offenders: A study of the NSW Youth Drug & Alcohol Court

2006 - M. Pohlman
Topic: Poison marked 'drink me': University student attitudes towards drink-spiking and drink spiking prevention.