Professor Stephen Tomsen
IF fights involving young people outside Sydney hotels every weekend come to an end, you can thank Stephen Tomsen.
The professor of criminology at University of Western Sydney and adjunct professor David Gadd, from the University of Manchester, are doing a study called ‘‘Violence and disengagement from violence in young men’s lives’’.
Professor Tomsen recently obtained a $140,000 funding from the Australian Research Council for a three-year study.
The Stable Research Team are helping him to interview young people aged from 16 to 25 from Blacktown, the Hills, Holroyd, Parramatta, Penrith, Blue Mountains, Fairfield, Campbelltown and Liverpool.
Each selected person receives about $80 for two hours of their time.
The study will have 10 different focus groups of young men.
They include people of racial/ethnic minorities including Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander backgrounds and young indigenous men.
Each group will have 10 participants.
Professor Tomsen’s areas of expertise include violence and hate crime, cultural criminology, masculinity, sexuality, youth, culture, deviance and transgression, social theory, psychoanalysis and subjectivity, social movements and ethnography.
‘‘We will explore ways young people can avoid violence in dealing with each other and with other people,’’ he said.
‘‘This will make us understand the problems faced by young people across different backgrounds.
‘‘We are very hopeful of finding the cause and solution on what is troubling our young people.’’
Those interested in taking part in the study can contact him at s.tomsen@uws.edu.au.