Lunchtime presentation: From anti-terrorism legislation to deporting bikies
Dr Synnøve Jahnsen
Please join us for a very timely and informative presentation on the impact of Australian anti-terrorism legislation on Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and the complexities of predictive policing by Dr Synnøve Jahnsen, a Senior Researcher at The Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE).
From anti-terrorist legislation to deporting bikies: Moral issues in Intelligence-led policing
Having inspired movie classics such as the "The Wild One” to the more recent Netflix series “Sons of Anarchy”, the figure of a young rebellious man on a motorbike has evolved from being an American youth culture figure to having an iconic place in the global market of popular consumption. With the expansion of the biker lifestyle and the simultaneous establishment of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCG) beyond US borders, the “biker culture” has also become a target for police- and intelligence units seeking to prevent organized crime by mimicking the language and logic of the “war on terror”. The declaration of “war on bikies” that has informed legislative changes across several Australian states illustrates this. At the same time it provides us with the opportunity to examine the pre-crime logic behind the simultaneous increased use of administrative powers at both state and national levels.
In this lecture Dr Synnøve Jahnsen explores the broad reach of Australian OMCG policies, examining both their intended and unintended consequences in order to discuss some of the moral dilemmas associated with intelligence-led policing. These issues seem particularly salient in a context of increased executive power and the Australian courts inability to openly question intelligence.
About the speaker
Synnøve Jahnsen is a Senior Researcher at NORCE The Norwegian Research Centre and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Justice at the Faculty of Law, QUT. Prior to this she has been a researcher at the department of Criminology, at the University of Oslo, a post doctorate at The Norwegian Police University college and a PhD student at the Centre for Women and Gender Research and department for Sociology at the University of Bergen. She has also been a visiting Fellow at the Border Crossing Observatory, Monash University, Kyoto University and Rutgers University in New Jersey. Dr Jahnsen is a passionate researcher with several international publications covering public policy issues ranging from prostitution, forced labour, crime prevention and police reform.
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