MEANJIN BACK ISSUE

Crime and Punishment
Vol 59, no. 4, 1999



The latest Meanjin examines the many ways in which crime, deviance, guilt, punishment, evasion, blame, concealment and exposure seep into the cracks in the Australian psyche.

Catharine Lumby and Kevin McDonald take up issues raised by the case of recently released child-murderer John Lewthwaite. Lumby examines the idea of `moral panic' and the way that media reporting drives, rather than reflects, public opinion, while McDonald concludes that `the emerging preventative modelimages. depersonalises offenders and treats them as a manifestation of a category or a sub-human uncontrolled force', urging us to think more carefully about the uncomfortable proximity of violent crime and escalating rates of imprisonment.

For crime fiction enthusiasts, John Dale discusses his six years researching the 1986 murder of Sydney prostitute and whistle-blower on police corruption Sallie-Anne Huckstepp. We feature extracts from Dale's forthcoming book and from Jennifer Maiden's unpublished novel The Blood Judge, while Sue Turnbull discusses ideas of place through the history of local crime fiction.

Popular fascination with crime is the subject of Maryanne Lynch's filmscript `Pyjama girl', revisiting the infamous murder case of the 40s, Chris McAuliffe's look at Brett Whiteley's paintings of the notorious Rillington Place serial killer John Christie, and Christopher Kelens rereading of Waltzing Matilda in the light of indigenous dispossession.

Also featured is short fiction and poetry from Margaret Bearman, Michael Crane, Barry Dickins, Abbas El-Zein, Michael Farrell, Brian Henry, Emma Lew and others.