In recent years, books like Predictably Irrational, Nudge and Thinking Fast and Slow have catapulted the findings of behavioural science (think cognitive psychology and behavioural economics) into new-found…
- Sessional Lecturer, Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne
In the world of illegal markets and organised crime, money is the prime mover. Legal or not, if someone’s willing to buy, odds are someone else is willing to supply. In the two decades or so since the…
To steal a line, there’s something rotten in the state of Victoria. It has a serious problem with corruption, and may find itself ill-equipped to fight it. This might come as a surprise to Victorians…
We all know how organised crime works, right? Form a shadowy group (think the Japanese Yakuza, the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, the Sinaloa Cartel, an outlaw motorcycle gang - take your pick), preferably one…
When it comes to organised crime and corruption, there are events that inspire TV shows: Bikie Wars and Underbelly, for instance. There are those that attract big headlines: “Customs officers arrested…
When the Productivity Commission reported in 2009 that average chief executive pay tripled from 1993 to 2009, you could have been forgiven for shrugging your shoulders and moving on. What else is new…
A police officer meets someone in a bar, one thing leads to another and within a few weeks a relationship blossoms. The officer then discovers that the person’s brother is a known criminal. Or an officer…
The surprise at the speed of yesterday’s political events in Victoria, culminating in the Premier’s resignation, was neatly encapsulated by investigative journalist Melissa Fyfe on Twitter: “You go for…
Yesterday’s record 585 kg crystal methamphetamine seizure made headlines, but then so do many others. Was this one big enough to deserve special attention? And what effect does a seizure like this have…
According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Australians are now the world’s eighth highest per capita users of cocaine. Cocaine use within the wealthier echelons of society is so unremarkable…
The findings of the Australian Crime Commission’s (ACC) report Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport have come as a shock to many and become an enormous media story. Should we be surprised? Are these just…
The UN has set out its ambition for an international policy on sustainable energy. But is the UN’s lead enough? What will it take to make nations follow? Creating and harnessing incentives to participate…
The use of banned performance enhancing substances and illicit drugs is widespread in Australian sport and sometimes supported by coaches and scientists, according to a new report released by the Australian…
The Federal Government today released the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses Child Sexual Abuse in Australia. The Royal Commission, announced in November last year…
2012 has been a big year for anti-corruption in Australia. High profile cases came before the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Callinan review of Queensland’s Crime…
The terms of reference of the Gillard Government’s Royal Commission into institutional child abuse are yet to be determined. When the commission was announced, the Prime Minister noted that it would need…
Is profiting from the deaths of others wrong? In an interview on This American Life, Joseph Caramadre maintains it’s not. At least, he says, “Not if it’s done morally, ethically, and legally.” This month…
The Holy Roman Empire, 1704: Agnes Catherina Schickin slits the throat of a seven-year-old boy. 1746: Johanna Martauschin smashes the skull of a small child. 1753: Sophia Charlotte Krügerin cuts the throat…
Amid the resurgent popularity of zombies in recent years – think The Walking Dead, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shaun of the Dead and so on – the 2011 publication of Dan Drezner’s Theories of International…
The Australian Greens have proposed the introduction of a National Integrity Commission to provide an anti-corruption body operating at the federal level. Earlier this week, Greens MP Adam Bandt announced…
The Australia21 report on illicit drugs draws much-needed attention to many serious issues, including the major role played by corrupt police in drug distribution networks. The role played by drugs in…
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