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This article focuses on the infringements system currently operating in the state of Victoria, Australia and, in particular, its impact on disadvantaged groups, such as people suffering homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, mental illness, acquired brain injury, poverty, and domestic violence. The concerns of lawyers working in community legal centres striving to address the needs of people in these disadvantaged groups prompted this qualitative study, which involved in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the infringements system. Participants included those who issue and enforce fines, those who represent vulnerable fine recipients, and the fine recipients themselves. The research sought participants' understanding of the system, its aims, and its outcomes. This article presents an overview of the research findings in relation to the complex Victorian infringements system process, net-widening, proportionality, and the 'special circumstances' process. Our findings suggest that the Victorian infringements system is expedient and efficient when people can promptly pay their fines. However, multiple issues need to be addressed if the system is to be just and fair to people suffering various types of disadvantage. A number of systemic changes and educational initiatives are recommended, along with law reform that addresses the unreasonable and unacceptable impacts on disadvantaged groups in Victoria. Keywords: Infringements, fines, disadvantaged populations, qualitative research, Victoria, Introduction In the state of Victoria, Australia, a minor breach of the law typically results in an infringement notice, commonly referred to as a fine. The prompt payment of a […]

Qu'ont en commun Felix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault, Paul Piche, Richard Seguin, Richard Desjardins? On les a tous, a un moment ou un autre de leur carriere, qualifies de 'chanteurs engages'; [...]

This study seeks to compare the changing nature of family and its importance for human society. Research completed in 1992 and updated for 2003 explores the ways in which French Canadian families in Penetanguishene have adapted to the changing material conditions in the larger North American culture and to their community. The study examines: husband/wife relationships, parents and children, and extended relatives, and finds that although the French Canadian families in Penetanguishene remain fairly intact and functional until 1990, the dramatic changes over the last decade have impacted significantly upon life in this community leading to the emergence of a new family form which scholars of the family would classify as 'situational.', The Study: 1990 Over the last few decades a number of studies have examined the changes to the French Canadian family produced by the forces of industrialization and urbanization. Some [...]

Drive straight up the way and you'll hit Progress Road, then just go till you can't anymore. Progress dead-ends at the prison. --Patricia Williams (1) MANY SCHOLARS ARGUE THAT MODERNITY [...]

David Trafimow is Associate Professor at New Mexico State University. His main area of research is social cognition. Within this broad domain, his more specific interests are in understanding how self-cognition is organized and the interrelationships between self-cognition and presumed determinants of behavior. Krystina A. Finlay is a doctoral candidate in Social Psychology at New Mexico State University. Her research concerns are in behavior prediction, health psychology, and social cognition., David Trafimow (*) Abstract Two studies involving 26 behaviors were performed to test four hypotheses. Between-participants and within-participants analyses of attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral intentions and actual behaviors suggested the [...]

Rares sont les sociologues qui ont etudik les sens. Or, de tous les sens, c'est l'odorat qui a toujours ete et demeure sans doute encore le moins valorise. Dans cette communication, l'auteur examine quelquesuns des rbles de l'odorat dans les interactions sociales, notamment l'importance de l'odorat dans la construction morale du soi et de l'autre dans le cadre des relations entre personnes de classe differente, d'origine ethnique differente et de sexe different. Les equations fondamentales, symboliques plutbt que chimiques, sont les suivantes: celui ou ce qui sent bon est bon et vice versa; et celui ou ce qui est mauvais sent mauvais et vice versa. Dans les relations entre groupes, ces equations servent, d'une part, a legitimer les differences de pouvoir et, d'autre part, a les contester d'une maniere fort intime. Sociologists have rarely researched the senses; and of all the senses, smell has been, and probably still is, the least valued. In this paper we consider some of the roles of smell in social interaction, particularly the significance of smell in the moral construction of the self and the other, in terms of class, ethnic and gender relations. The fundamental equations, symbolic rather than chemical, are that who or what smells good is good, and vice versa; and who or what is bad or evil smells bad, and vice versa. Such equations are utilized in intergroup relations to legitimate power differentials, and also to challenge them, in a most intimate way., ANTHONY SYNNOTT Concordia Uniuerszty* We are all constantly emitting and perceiving odours, smelling and being smelled; and these odours play important roles in virtually every area of social interaction: eating [...]