Professor John Anderson

Career Summary

Biography

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Newcastle
• Bachelor of Legal Studies, Macquarie University

Fields of Research

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Academic appointment

Professional appointment

Awards

Award

Professional

Recognition

Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.

Book (11 outputs)

Chapter (4 outputs)

Journal article (25 outputs)

Conference (18 outputs)

Media (1 outputs)

Other (5 outputs)

Thesis / Dissertation (3 outputs)

Grants and Funding

Summary

Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.

20221 grants / $2,450

20211 grants / $2,500

20191 grants / $573,894

20181 grants / $8,000

20174 grants / $103,489

20164 grants / $40,694

20122 grants / $10,000

20101 grants / $1,027

20091 grants / $6,003

20082 grants / $2,900

20071 grants / $1,200

20061 grants / $205

20041 grants / $1,729

20032 grants / $2,249

19991 grants / $893

19981 grants / $570

Research Supervision

Current Supervision

Past Supervision

Research Projects

Refugees and Human Rights 2015 -

Research within this project focuses on human rights law issues raised by Australian and global responses to refugees and people seeking asylum. This includes a study on the potential for the collective human right of self-determination to be extrapolated into the refugee context. 

This is a key area of focus for Dr Maguire's column on The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/profiles/amy-maguire-129609/articles

Publications

Maguire AM, Bereicua L, Fleming A, Freeman O, 'Australia, Asylum Seekers and Crimes Against Humanity?', Alternative Law Journal, 40 185-189 (2015) [C1]

Maguire AM, 'Hard line on refugees undermines principled opposition to execution', Politics, Policy, and the chance of change: The Conversation 2015 Yearbook, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 272-275 (2015)

McCarthy S, Maguire AM, Elton A, 'Executive Detention: Still no effective review for detainees', Alternative Law Journal, 41 249-253 (2016) [C1]

Maguire AM, 'Why does international condemnation on human rights mean so little to Australia?', The Conversation Yearbook 2016: 50 standout articles from Australia's Top Thinkers, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 70-74 (2016)

Students

Collaborators

Life Imprisonment Worldwide 2016 -

Initially funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, this research project brought together an interdisciplinary team, led by Professor Dirk van Zyl Smit and Dr Catherine Appleton, to examine for the first time life imprisonment on a global scale. On the basis of the research findings, it continues to challenge practice and to advocate reform of life imprisonment worldwide.

Over the past four years, the researchers have studied the imposition and implementation of life imprisonment around the world in order to be able to understand the different types of life sentences, how many persons are sentenced to life imprisonment, which crimes attract life sentences, how such sentences are implemented, and the conditions under which prisoners serve them.

They have assessed critically the practice of life imprisonment in the light of human rights principles and standards developed by international human rights bodies and national courts. One of the main aims has been to provide clear and principled guidance to policy makers and practitioners on when and how life imprisonment, if it is used as a punishment at all, should be imposed and implemented.

The substantive research conducted by the Life Imprisonment Worldwide Project has been complemented by a campaign to increase its impact. With support from an ESRC Impact Accelerator Award, key findings of the research were published in April 2018 in a joint policy briefing on Life Imprisonment with Penal Reform International.

Associate Professor John Anderson has made a significant contribution to the project through providing the complex Australian data on life imprisonment and as a Visiting Scholar to the project at the University of Nottingham from September to November 2017.

The project has resulted in two major books on life imprisonment with Life Imprisonment: A Global Human Rights Analysis, to be published by Harvard University Press in late 2018.

Newcastle as a Restorative City 2016 -

To transform a city into a restorative city where restorative practices are implemented broadly to restore damaged relationships and manage social and community challenges across all sectors of the city involves a change in attitudes at multiple levels (personal, institutional, city) to support respectful dialogue and a preference for social inclusion and restoration where individual or institutional harm has occurred to individuals in the community. This often goes hand in hand with the development of restorative justice programs and restorative practices implemented in schools and other community organisations. Although other cities, including Canberra, have been pursuing similar goals and present important learning opportunities in relation to their various strategies, it is clear that restorative cities cannot be transplanted. Such cities must be built and grow in the context of their particular demography, citizenry, strengths and challenges.

Newcastle is the seventh largest city in Australia, with a population of over 160,000 people. Although it is experiencing urban renewal, there are questions about whether social and cultural renewal will co-occur with the much-needed economic renewal of the city. There are various ‘restorative-type’ practices occurring in different organisations and sectors of the city but there is limited sharing of experiences and strategies. We will consider the synergies existing and developing in Newcastle to progress the vision of a restorative city together with the inevitable barriers and scepticism associated with such significant social and cultural change. Even in the face of many significant hurdles to be overcome, we are optimistic that the project will gather momentum and incrementally move towards the ultimate vision of a restorative city. 

The research team is comprised of:

1. Dr Nicola Ross – Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Law School. Well respected and high-profile researcher in relation to child protection and issues affecting family cohesion and welfare in Australia and international contexts. She has published widely on the legal constructs of children and their voices in autonomous decision-making.
2. Dr John Anderson – Associate Professor, Newcastle Law School. Leading and experienced criminal law and justice scholar who principally researches and publishes in the areas of sentencing and evidence. His scholarship has an overarching concern with equity and fairness in the criminal justice system. He has effectively collaborated with various scholars and practitioners both in Australia and internationally.

This project has so far resulted in two conference presentations, one peer review journal article and will be hosting an international symposium over two days in June 2018.

Grants

Publications

Anderson JL, Ross N, 'A Restorative City for New South Wales - Could Newcastle be a Model?', Journal of Judicial Administration, 27 74-91 (2018) [C1]

Collaborators

Action on Elder Abuse 2017 -

This project will bring together health and legal service providers in the Newcastle and Hunter regions of New South Wales to design and pilot test an intervention to support elder abuse screening for community-dwelling older adults and the use of referral pathways for timely and effective action to address suspected situations of abuse. The intervention will be piloted with: legal practitioners recruited from law firms and community legal centres; and healthcare providers recruited from a general medical practice and aged care assessment teams (ACATs). Feedback from the pilot will inform the development of a specific screening tool, which will also be designed to identify older adults at risk of abuse so that preventative measures can also be considered as part of an overall action strategy in relation to appropriate referral pathways and support mechanisms.

AIMS:

(1)  To examine legal practitioners’ and healthcare providers’ knowledge and attitudes in relation to screening for and acting on situations of elder abuse; and

(2)  To examine the feasibility and acceptability of an elder abuse screening and interprofessional

workshop intervention delivered through legal practices, a general medical practice and ACATs, including:

(a)   practitioners’ satisfaction with interprofessional, health-legal training on elder abuse screening and action;

(b)  feasibility and acceptability of a brief elder abuse screening tool for legal practitioners and healthcare providers; and

(c)   the use of local and state resources and referral pathways to deal with both ongoing and potential elder abuse situations.

METHODS:

Study design, setting, and participants: A large general medical practice in the Newcastle region has agreed to participate in this project and a minimum of three ACATs within the area health service and approximately ten local legal practitioners will also be recruited to participate. Eligible participants will be agreeable to: participating in a half-day interprofessional training workshop; incorporating a brief elder abuse screening tool into their practice; and completing several short surveys over the course of the project. Participants will include legal practitioners, especially those whose practice focuses on wills, estates and elder law (identified from the NSW Law Society membership records and the Committee on Elder Law, Capacity and Succession); general medical practitioners, nursing professionals, and social workers. The study will have three main steps:

Step 1 - Selection of an elder abuse screening tool: The research team has already undertaken an international-in-scope literature review to identify existing questionnaire tools used to screen for elder abuse among community-dwelling older adults.[i] Such tools ask questions like: “Has anyone tried to force you to sign papers or to use your money against your will?”; “Do you trust most of the people in your family?”; “Have you relied on people for any of the following: bathing, dressing, shopping, banking, or meals?”; “Have you been upset because someone talked to you in a way that made you feel shamed or threatened?” We have also identified and examined ‘legal-health checks’ developed by community legal service providers for use by health practitioners to screen patients for legal concerns.[ii] We have also examined the risk factor assessment checklists available as part of the NSW Elder Abuse Toolkit at the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline and Resource Unit website, which provide useful information to assist in developing standardised questions to allow legal and health professionals to begin a conversation with older adults about existing or potential elder abuse. In consultation with our project advisory committee (described below), we will select a set of screening questions for use in our pilot project. The choice of tool will be guided by strengths and limitations reported in the literature, including a need to balance ease of use with accuracy and comprehensiveness, as well as appropriateness of questions for clients who may have some degree of cognitive impairment. Our aim in this step is to overcome the barrier of what questions to be asked by using the available literature, information and existing tools to develop a short series of questions that represent the best medium for accurate and comprehensive screening of older adults for existing or potential elder abuse.

Step 2 – Interprofessional workshop and resources for participating care providers: In collaboration with the Hunter Dementia Alliance, the Reference Group on Elder Abuse in the Hunter and the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline and Resource Unit (who are also working with Justice Connect), we will deliver interprofessional, health-legal training workshops for the participating, legal practitioners, GP practice and ACATs. The workshop will provide education on elder abuse, how to use the screening tool, and steps to take if situations of potential or suspected abuse are detected. Attendees will be educated on Hunter-specific and state-level resources and referral pathways to support timely intervention and follow-up. These resources include those available through the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline and Resource Unit and a recently established Reference Group on Elder Abuse in the Hunter, which offers an interprofessional case consultation service for practitioners seeking guidance on how to deal with situations of potential elder abuse. The workshop will be registered with professional organisations offering Continuing Professional Development points. We have already planned an interprofessional workshop on capacity assessment scheduled for May 2017.

Step 3 – Pilot testing of the screening tool: The participating legal practices, GP practice and ACATs will incorporate the elder abuse screening questions into their consultations with older clients. Healthcare providers will add these questions to assessments they currently perform with older clients, such as the Medicare Health Assessment for Older Persons (75+). It is estimated that at least 200 older clients will be screened during a six-month pilot testing period.

Project advisory committee: We will establish a project advisory committee that includes members of the Hunter Dementia Alliance, the Reference Group on Elder Abuse in the Hunter, the Hunter Elder Abuse Interagency Collaborative, the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline and Resource Unit and consumer representatives. The Dementia Alliance and the Reference Group include geriatricians, health practitioners employed in ACATs, professional staff of the Newcastle office of Alzheimer’s Australia, and legal practitioners with expertise in elder law. This advisory committee will provide advice throughout the project. 

MEASURES:

We will collect quantitative and qualitative data through voluntary surveys involving practitioners from the legal practices, the GP practice and ACATs. Participants may also be invited to take part in a focus group or follow-up interviews to further explore findings from the surveys. An interview guide or focus group questions will be developed based on the survey results. Ethics approval for all research activities will be sought from the Hunter New England Local Health District and University Ethics Committee as required.

Knowledge and attitudes in relation to screening for and acting on situations of elder abuse: Prior to the workshop, participants will be sent a link to a 10-minute online survey that will ask questions about their knowledge, attitudes and intentions concerning elder abuse (e.g., self-perceived competence in identifying and managing elder abuse situations; interest in and perceived barriers to using a screening tool; knowledge and use of existing state and local resources).

Satisfaction with interprofessional, health-legal training on elder abuse screening and action: At the end of the workshop, participants will be asked to complete a short paper survey with questions on the usefulness of the training and the resources identified, and any recommendations for improvement.

Feasibility and acceptability of a brief elder abuse screening tool: At the end of the six-month pilot testing period, participants will be sent a link to a 15-minute online survey that will seek feedback on the use of the screening tool. Data collected will include: number of clients screened; time taken to ask screening questions; impressions on use of the tool; impact on attitudes and perceived competence in relation to screening; and recommendations for improvement. We will contact participants at months two and four of the pilot testing period for an informal check on the progress of the intervention.

Use of local and state resources and referral pathways to deal with elder abuse situations: The post-intervention survey will also ask about: number of situations where potential and existing abuse was identified during the pilot period; types of abuse situations detected; local and state resources accessed; outcomes, where known (e.g., police involvement; change in accommodation and/or care arrangements for the client; preparation of new legal instruments, such as new enduring power of attorney appointments[iii]); and actual experiences with referral pathways, resources and support.

Dissemination of findings: We will analyse the data and prepare final pilot project findings that will be disseminated to reach a wide range of relevant audiences, including health and legal practitioner groups and community organisations serving older Australians at risk of elder abuse. If the screening tool is found to be good practice then we will publish the availability of the tool for broader use across NSW. We will produce: one or more scholarly articles that contribute to high-quality, peer-reviewed literature on the topic of elder abuse; articles for professional newsletters and online sources to reach health, aged care and legal practitioners; and presentations for conferences and other events.

Grants

Collaborators

News

News • 20 Mar 2019

First-of-its-kind resource aids legal practitioners in identifying elder abuse

As national conversations around the treatment of the elderly continue, academics from the University of Newcastle are supporting legal practitioners to act as another line of defence to better identify and combat elder abuse.

News • 23 Sep 2015

John Anderson's Book Launch: Uniform Evidence in Australia

On Wednesday the 16th of September, legal scholars and practitioners came together for special event to celebrate the publication of Associate Professor John Anderson's new book 'Uniform Evidence in Australia' in collaboration with co-authors Neil Williams SC, Julia Roy and Judith Marychurch.

News • 12 Sep 2014

Where’s the Punchline?

Associate Professor John Anderson talks about "Coward Punch" laws being passed in Victoria

News • 26 Aug 2014

Mandatory sentences can’t deliver justice or stop one-punch killings

Associate Professor John Anderson discusses new "Coward Punch" laws

News • 20 Aug 2014

Anti-semitic attack proves need for racial vilification laws

Newcastle Law School academics Associate Professor John Anderson and Dr Alan Berman discuss racial vilification laws

News • 20 Aug 2014

Will those shown to be corrupt by the ICAC ever go on trial?

Associate Professor John Anderson discusses with ABC News the prospect of corrupt politicians facing jail time

News • 7 Aug 2014

The Media’s Impact on Legal Proceedings

In light of the recent trial of Gerard Baden-Clay, Associate Professor John Anderson addressed how media coverage impacts trial proceedings and outcomes in a radio interview by Matthew Dryden in late July.

Professor John Anderson