Homelessness and Contact with the Criminal Justice System: Insights from Specialist Lawyers and Allied Professionals in Australia

Abstract

Lawyers and allied professionals who have experience supporting, advising and representing people experiencing homelessness are uniquely placed to identify problems with the operation of the criminal justice system—from policing to courts to punishment—and to conceive reform options. This article reports the findings of qualitative interviews with lawyers and allied professionals in all Australian states and territories. Participants identified multiple points where decisions about criminal law enforcement fail to take adequate account of the complex factors that underlie ‘offending’ by people experiencing homelessness, producing outcomes that exacerbate disadvantage. They advanced a range of proposals for reform directed at breaking the nexus between homelessness and criminalisation, including re-conception of the role of police, adoption of therapeutic jurisprudence (or ‘solution-focused’) models in criminal courts, and major changes to the use of fines as a criminal punishment.

Revisión de sentencias de personas en situación de sinhogarismo en los tribunales penales españoles (años 2016-2020)

“…Desde que existe un registro, el sinhogarismo ha presentado una tendencia creciente generalizada a nivel global y nacional, especialmente después de la pandemia del COVID-19 (FEANTSA, 2023;INE, 2022;World Economic Forum, 2021). Los datos muestran que el sinhogarismo afecta a una gran cantidad de personas que, desafortunadamente, no solo tiene que lidiar con las dificultades derivadas de la falta de una vivienda, sino también con el sistema penal (Howard League, 2019;McNamara, 2021;Mitchell et al, 2023).…”

Path dependence and jumping tracks: Investigating institutional continuity and change across the Tasmanian convict and pauper systems

“…The framing of criminality and poverty as individual choice leads to deterrence and less eligibility being positioned as appropriate responses. Homelessness is a national issue in Australia with one-in-200 experiencing it at any one time, according to the 2016 census (McNamara et al, 2021). While this homelessness itself is not a crime, homeless persons positioned as disruptive are subject to systems of control that drag them into the expanding criminal justice system (CJS) (Petty, 2017;Young & Petty, 2019).…”

“…While this homelessness itself is not a crime, homeless persons positioned as disruptive are subject to systems of control that drag them into the expanding criminal justice system (CJS) (Petty, 2017;Young & Petty, 2019). For example, in Melbourne it is the visibility of homelessness that is at issue, leading to surveillance and criminalisation (McNamara et al, 2021;Young & Petty, 2019). 7 Even where antiquated laws have been repealed in Australia, they have been replaced by new offences in order to continue controlling the visible homeless (McNamara et al, 2021).…”

“…For example, in Melbourne it is the visibility of homelessness that is at issue, leading to surveillance and criminalisation (McNamara et al., 2021; Young & Petty, 2019). 7 Even where antiquated laws have been repealed in Australia, they have been replaced by new offences in order to continue controlling the visible homeless (McNamara et al., 2021). It is the othering of the targeted population that creates the climate for these formal sanctions to be enacted.…”