Around the world, disadvantaged young people often get involved with risky situations which mistakenly leads them into criminal circles.
In Australia, extended criminal liability, referred collectively as 'joint enterprise,' can convict people for serious crimes – including murder – that they never intended and may not have directly committed.
"If guilty, they are punished as harshly as the actual perpetrator, leading to mandatory sentences of life imprisonment," says Flinders University's 2024 Churchill Fellow Dr Simone Deegan, an SA Young Tall Poppy.
"I have been passionate about addressing injustices under extended criminality since observing my first murder trial under extended joint enterprise in 2005.
"This trial resulted in life sentences for several disadvantaged and marginal teenagers on the fringes of a fight that went "drastically wrong".
"I was so moved by the unfairness of the result, I worked pro bono on the appeal, doing legal research and visiting the prison on weekends," says the Flinders University senior lecturer in the College of Business, Government and Law.
The murder conviction was eventually overturned for a manslaughter conviction "but it shouldn't have ever happened".
Twenty years later, under the Winston Churchill Trust (Australia) Fellowship, youth criminologist and ARC Industry Research Fellow Dr Deegan will travel to the UK and US to see what practitioners, lived experience experts and academics are doing to prevent injustice under extended joint enterprise and "realise criminal justice goals of fairness, equality and better sentencing outcomes".
"This also includes preventive programs, designed to help young men understand risky situations and criminal liability, challenging ideas about masculinity and helping to develop alternatives to aggressive behaviour, like conflict resolution skills," she says.
"Bringing this knowledge back to Australia is critical to building safer and more equitable communities."
The Churchill Fellowship complements Dr Deegan's current Law Foundation SA Joint Enterprise Pilot which investigates the use of extended joint enterprise in South Australia and the extent to which it disproportionately impacts young Australians from working-class, black and ethnic minority communities.
