Open online short course Casing the Joint: Introducing Histories of Australian Crime

Delve beyond true crime podcasts, books and television series

Crime holds a special place in Australian history, having facilitated colonisation, provided its most celebrated anti-hero in Ned Kelly and been used to sell millions of newspapers, books and movie tickets. Drawing upon a rich array of digital history resources, this course offers you a guided tour of the origins of Australian underworlds and of the study of the history of crime and punishment.

This course will allow you to develop deeper understanding of the underworlds you will encounter in podcasts, televisions series and books. You will develop a sense of the processes which occur when someone becomes entangled with the legal system, and you will know where you can go to find out more about an offender and a crime for yourself.

What topics will you cover?

• Introduction to the major trends in the history of crime and punishment in Australia
• Examination of the different ways in which people engage with, and study, crime
• How British law was adapted to New South Wales and other Australian colonies
• The impact of digitisation and online sources on the study of crime

What you'll achieve

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

Meet the instructors

Associate Professor Nancy Cushing

Dr Nancy Cushing is Associate Professor in Australian history in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle.