Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Youth Violence

  • RELIGION

    The changing landscape of Catholic social work

    • Denis Fitzgerald
    • 16 February 2018
    5 Comments

    Catholic social service agencies are facing many challenges from a number of the disruptions at play in our postmodern society. These have to be addressed if the agencies are to continue their work with those on the margins, and their indispensable contribution to the mission of the Church.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Society pays a heavy price for jailing children

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 13 December 2017
    3 Comments

    We may feel momentary relief that a dangerous little villain is being dealt with. But the cost of imprisonment is heavy: a malleable child whose path might have changed is stunted in their development and sent to a preparatory school likely to graduate to a lifetime in adult prisons.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    21st century protest from Cairo to Don Dale

    • Marta Skrabacz
    • 04 December 2017
    4 Comments

    There’s no reason to judge the success of a protest by whether it achieved its desired outcome: the adage ‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint’ rings true. Effective change is a matter of increment; it has to happen at every strata of society. Protests bear the brunt of proving success, when the burden for change actually exists with the system they’re opposing.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    My #MeToo dilemma

    • Kate Moriarty
    • 26 October 2017
    5 Comments

    In real life, 'me too' happens in whispered conversations between close friends. I carry these women's secrets inside me like dark polished stones. I marvel that such strong, capable, ordinary people, from loving and functional families, could be survivors of child sexual abuse. None of them has written 'me too' on their status. I checked.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Too many words about same sex marriage

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 24 August 2017
    73 Comments

    Lots of words have already been said and typed about the subject of same sex marriage. Too many, frankly. But it seems that the marriage equality debate will not go away nor be resolved easily, though LGBTI advocates have said that the homophobic anti-same sex marriage campaign will be damaging to the mental health of LGBTI people. Of course, the very idea that civil rights should be put to a public vote is demoralising.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    How much is an Aboriginal youth's life worth?

    • Sandra Norsen
    • 08 August 2017
    13 Comments

    In the wake of the Elijah Doughty verdict I find myself considering the implications for my own family and loved ones. I have followed for some time the extraordinary number of American citizens recklessly killed by police (over 700 so far this year and counting) and I am distraught at the disproportionate number of black people, including minors as young as 14 and 15, represented in these statistics. The prejudice and self-righteous bigotry behind these deaths in unconscionable. But until the Elijah Doughty case, I had not considered that this horrific, racially motivated violence does occur so much closer to home.

    READ MORE
  • ECONOMICS

    Outlawing smoking for the young is a social responsibility

    • Collince Adienge
    • 31 July 2017
    7 Comments

    When limitations are placed on an individual’s liberty some people will call it bureaucracy or tyranny; others will say that they have been denied an opportunity to make decisions. The common sense middle position is typically that freedoms should be protected if they do not infringe on other peoples’ rights. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Rethinking and reconstructing youth justice

    • Terry Laidler
    • 24 March 2017
    12 Comments

    Many of the kids in the juvenile justice system have been abused, come from dysfunctional families or state care, or have untreated behavioural or mental health problems. Warehousing them in punishing idleness and expecting passive compliance, let alone any recovery, is fanciful. I have begun to think about how we could respond to these kids in a holistic way, with a strong emphasis on prevention and diversion. These proposals relate to current the system in Victoria, but generalise easily.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    A pause to reflect in the wake of the youth justice storm

    • Julie Edwards
    • 15 March 2017
    6 Comments

    At present the tornado that has raged in youth justice has abated. Disturbing images from Don Dale led to a royal commission in the Northern Territory. In Melbourne, public fears about gang violence, carjackings, robberies and youth detention centre riots were followed by the placing of many young people in an adult facility and a pledge to build a new prison for young offenders. This pause offers time for reflection on the human reality and needs of children who are involved in the justice system.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    The power of persuasion in confronting fascism

    • Daniel Nicholson
    • 24 February 2017
    9 Comments

    In the footage of one violence protest, I was shocked to see a handful of my homeless clients, draped in Australian flags, engaged in street battles with anti-racists. These young men had experienced alienation, exploitation and poverty - all the things the Left is supposed to fight against. Long, uncomfortable conversations don't make for good social media content, yet if Australia is to stare down the threat of a rising alt-right it won't be done by yelling at right wing fringe groups across a police barricade.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Why I don't support changing the date of Amnesia Day

    • Celeste Liddle
    • 23 January 2017
    27 Comments

    For many years I felt that by changing the date we might come to a more inclusive national celebration. However the past few years of Indigenous activism have left me cynical. The things we were fighting for decades ago are very similar to the things we're still fighting for. Australia has not acknowledged and rectified its history; rather it seems content to reinforce its amnesia. It's therefore unlikely I will be able to stop protesting this celebration, regardless of the day it's held upon.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Christmas blighted by child detention obscenity

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 14 December 2016
    7 Comments

    This year International Migrants Day has called for children to be released from detention. It is appropriate that an event held in the shadow of Christmas should advocate for children. For they lie at the heart of Christmas. The insistence in the Gospel stories on the obligation to respect and nurture children is not exclusive to Christians. It is echoed in the attention to children and concern for their growth into responsible adults shared by other religions and cultures.

    READ MORE