Paul Bleakley
Biographic Data
| ID | 247817 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Bleakley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Bleakley |
| SIGNATURE | BLEAKLEY P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of New Haven |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2512-4072 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Rules for Thee but Not for Me”: Public Sentiment and Expectations of Privilege in the Criminal Legal System in the Diddy Case
The trial of entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs for racketeering and sex trafficking garnered considerable public attention and, after his acquittal on the most serious charges, attracted much public commentary about the criminal legal system (CLS) in the United States. This article examines 1000 comments spread out over 10 posts on Instagram related to Diddy’s acquittal, to better understand sentiment on these events. The results indicate th…
“It wasn’t a real rape”: Media response to the UK’s first investigated metaverse rape
What’s the harm? Gender and age differences in acceptance of cyberflashing, reporting intentions, and perceived prevalence
Cyberflashing occurs when people use technology to expose others to sexual imagery in a way that is unexpected, unsolicited, and unwanted. This may involve self-exposure (like the sending of ‘nudes’) or sending other types of pornographic material. This research discusses the results of a pilot survey (n=85) which explored how public perceptions on cyberflashing in the United States compared to equivalent in-person acts. Respondents were presente…
Holding back the tides? Applying the Canute paradox to the regulation of cyberdeviance
Despite how ubiquitous it is in daily life, there has been little criminological theory developed which accounts for the unique conditions of cyberspace, and how the online environment informs or shapes deviant behavior. Building on Goldsmith and Brewer’s digital drift theory, this article proposes the Canute paradox, which contends that despite our expectations that online platforms have great power to act against cyberdeviance and choose not to…
Hey There Beautiful’: Online Disinhibition in Comments on OnlyFans Promotional Posts on Instagram and X
Low self-control and the blue wall: Exploring police attitudes on breaking the code of silence
Rough Diamonds: “True Victims” and the Gate-Keeping of Victimization on the Real Housewives
Behind the Screen and Between the Sheets: Exploring Perceptions of Deception in Sexting and In-Person Sexual Interactions
Moderating online child sexual abuse material (CSAM): Does self-regulation work, or is greater state regulation needed
Social media platforms are crucial public forums connecting users around the world through a decentralised cyberspace. These platforms host high volumes of content and, as such, employ content moderators (CMs) to safeguard users against harmful content like child sexual abuse material (CSAM). These roles are critical in the social media landscape however, CMs’ work as “digital first responders” is complicated by legal and systemic debates over wh…
“I Let Him Have It”: Sex, Anti‐Americanism, and Criminal Justice in Wartime Brisbane, 1942–44
With combat in Second World War shifting to the Pacific region after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the Allied General Headquarters was established in Brisbane, Australia, in July 1942. American military personnel in wartime Brisbane were subject to a two‐tier criminal justice system, with the US military claiming extraterritorial jurisdiction over all crimes committed by American troops in Australia. In practical terms, this meant th…
Fighting within the rainbow”: Discourses on internal conflict among LGBTQIA+ college students in cyber spaces
Police responses to cyberstalking during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK
This research aims to explore how police officers responded to cyberstalking during the unprecedented period of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020–April 2021). More specifically, it aims to report the police experience of responding to cases of stalking, including cyberstalking, during this period; to explore officer confidence in identifying cyberstalking and to explore the challenges faced by frontline police. One hundred and two frontline polic…
Lovesick Women”: A Historical Overview of Gendered Conceptualizations of Erotomania, and Their Influence on Responses to Stalking
Stalking is a relatively new crime, with the U.S. state of California becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to develop specific laws about such behaviors in the early 1990s. In turn, the state (including law enforcement) turned to existing research on fixated and obsessed behaviors to develop typologies to better understand this kind of offending, as a means to inform response to stalking. This article focuses on one subtype featured in th…
The Appeal of Abuse: The Public Popularity of Online Image-based Abuse in the Early 2010s
Panic, pizza and mainstreaming the alt-right: A social media analysis of Pizzagate and the rise of the QAnon conspiracy
The conspiracy theory known as 'Pizzagate' gained a cult following on alt-right forums, ultimately prompting one believer to conduct a shooting on the pizzeria identified by online conspiracists. A thematic analysis of 767 tweets referencing Pizzagate selected from five key intervention points in this timeframe reveals several factors influencing Pizzagate's continued appeal over a four-year period. The article examines how an online alt-right co…
Queensland Exceptionalism and the Construction of “Southern Folk Devils” in Twentieth Century Public Rhetoric
The history of Queensland has been characterised by intermittent waves of moral panic wherein targeted subpopulations have been singled‐out as scapegoats for the “social problems” facing the state. These panics have been informed by a collective sense of Queensland exceptionalism that gives rise to the construction of folk devils in times of socio‐cultural crisis. Groups selected for scapegoating in Queensland have been, historically, constructed…
Would your level of disgust change?” Accounting for variant reactions to fatal violence against women on social media
The murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, occurring in similar contexts in London over the course of 2021, prompted renewed public discourse around violence against women and the nature of stranger-perpetrated murder of women in British society. It also provided the opportunity to analyze our responses to such crimes as a community and, in particular, our expectations and assumptions about who is committing fatal violence against women. In t…
The past is prologue: Towards a historico-narrative approach at the intersection of historical criminology and narrative criminology
There is great scope for narrative criminology and historical criminology to come together and, in collaboration, find ways for the practices of each to strengthen the other. Ultimately, both have a shared focus: the stories (past and present) that we use to make sense of crime, and the criminal justice system. This article argues for a historico-narrative approach to criminological research, wherein the research conducted by historical criminolo…
Dreams of a united Left? The SDA’s role in the rise (and fall) of a radical New Left in Queensland
Despite its reputation as a conservative heartland in the twentieth century, the Australian state of Queensland was also home to some of the most radical left-wing activists the country ever produced. Student activists such as Brian Laver and Mitch Thompson were central to the establishment of the Society for Democratic Action (SDA), a radical organisation that helped usher in the New Left in Queensland. This article examines the SDA’s importance…
Accused of an “abominable crime”: Punishing homosexual blackmail threats in London, 1723–1823
Cleansing and corridors: Assessing the state (and future) of police human source management in Australia
Human source management (HSM) is an area of policing that is fraught with ethical and legal risks, and yet until relatively recently has received limited attention in policing literature. This article explores several areas critical to HSM in Australian policing, albeit with global implications. It explores the potential risks of creating arbitrary definitional distinctions in the registration of informants. It also explores the implementation of…
Unconventional Labour: Environmental Justice and Working-class Ecology in the New South Wales Green Bans
The New South Wales union movement embraced the principles of heritage and conservationism in the 1970s through the imposing of “green bans” – a strategy wherein union members refused to work on construction projects that were a threat to the state’s natural or built environment. Led by radicals like Builders Labourers’ Federation leader Jack Mundey, the green bans were seen in several sectors as a departure from the traditional “Old Left” priori…
A new front in the history wars? Responding to Rubenhold’s feminist revision of the Ripper
Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper has drawn the criticism of the community of amateur sleuths dubbed ‘Ripperologists’ for its revisionist perspective, which claims that the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper were not all sex workers. Rubenhold’s victim-centred approach has opened a new front in the history wars, as Ripperologists accuse her of historical denialism in pursuit of a feminist …
Police Politics, Patronage and the 1899 Royal Commission in Queensland
Revisiting the 1899 Royal Commission into the Queensland Police Force (QPF) this article studies the persistence of political patronage in the appointment of public service leaders. In 1895 the Queensland government appointed William Parry-Okeden to replace David Seymour as leader of the QPF. He in turn made Frederic Urquhart head of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). Dissatisfaction with the CIB’s handling of some homicide cases prompted t…
Fish in a Barrel: Police Targeting of Brisbane's Ephemeral Gay Spaces in the Pre-Decriminalization Era
Across history, and particularly in periods of criminalization, the gay community have often been forced to resort to public spaces-"beats"-to clandestinely seek out anonymized sex with partners who share their sexual preference. This article reframes the construction of gay beats as ephemeral spaces that prevails in existing sexuality literature. Instead, it shows that Brisbane's beats were semi-permanent spaces with subcultural meaning to the l…
Tokens to Go Private”: Camgirls, Cybersex and Feminist Entrepreneurship
Panic, pizza and mainstreaming the alt-right: A social media analysis of Pizzagate and the rise of the QAnon conspiracy
The conspiracy theory known as 'Pizzagate' gained a cult following on alt-right forums, ultimately prompting one believer to conduct a shooting on the pizzeria identified by online conspiracists. A thematic analysis of 767 tweets referencing Pizzagate selected from five key intervention points in this timeframe reveals several factors influencing Pizzagate's continued appeal over a four-year period. The article examines how an online alt-right co…
Fish in a Barrel: Police Targeting of Brisbane's Ephemeral Gay Spaces in the Pre-Decriminalization Era
Across history, and particularly in periods of criminalization, the gay community have often been forced to resort to public spaces-"beats"-to clandestinely seek out anonymized sex with partners who share their sexual preference. This article reframes the construction of gay beats as ephemeral spaces that prevails in existing sexuality literature. Instead, it shows that Brisbane's beats were semi-permanent spaces with subcultural meaning to the l…
The Cult of Corruption: Reframing Organizational Frameworks of Police Corruption from a Cultic Perspective
Corruption in policing is a criminological phenomenon that is regularly misconstrued – whether as a case of independently-operating “rotten apples” or as a passive symptom of anomic organizational culture. This article seeks to reframe organized police corruption as an active process of seductive-recruitment, wherein corrupt officers utilized the same strategies as a conventional cult to both recruit and retain members. Using the example from Aus…
Situationism and the recuperation of an ideology in the era of Trump, fake news and post-truth politics
As a variant ideology based on libertarian Marxism, the philosophy of situationism failed to achieve widespread popularity beyond a relatively brief time frame between the late 1950s and early 1970s. Despite this short-lived period of ascendency, the impact of Situationist concepts such as psychogeography, recuperation and the Spectacle have continued to play a role in the ongoing study of how reality is constructed in a system of advanced capita…
Low self-control and the blue wall: Exploring police attitudes on breaking the code of silence
Big Fish, Small Pond: NGO–Corporate Partnerships and Corruption of the Environmental Certification Process in Tasmanian Aquaculture
Days of alt-rage: Using the Weatherman movement to deconstruct the radicalisation of the alt-right
No matter whether they adhere to a left-wing or right-wing political ideology, the evolution of a radical activist group shares a common trajectory. As such, it is possible to explore the rise and fall of a far-left organisation like the Weathermen in order to better understand the development of the alt-right, and to devise strategies to combat extremism in a contemporary context. By examining the role of identity politics in fermenting a radica…
A State of Force
Australian history is littered with examples of situations in which police have engaged in the use of force—in some cases, disproportionate violence—to maintain order and stability. In addition to this effort to control the population and ensure social order, extreme use of force was a key factor in repressing civil dissent and preventing marginalized communities from exercising their voice within the social discourse. Former Queensland Police Co…
Love me or hate me – I don’t care’: Katie Hopkins, Celebrity Big Brother and the destruction of a negative image
This article aims to analyse the appearance of controversial British columnist Katie Hopkins on reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. Katie Hopkins made a name for herself as a public figure as a result of attracting public criticism for her harsh views on a range of topics from obesity to welfare reform. This notoriety led to her 2014 appearance on the British edition of Celebrity Big Brother. During Hopkins' time on the series, crack…
Tokens to Go Private”: Camgirls, Cybersex and Feminist Entrepreneurship
Love me or hate me – I don’t care’: Katie Hopkins, Celebrity Big Brother and the destruction of a negative image
This article aims to analyse the appearance of controversial British columnist Katie Hopkins on reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. Katie Hopkins made a name for herself as a public figure as a result of attracting public criticism for her harsh views on a range of topics from obesity to welfare reform. This notoriety led to her 2014 appearance on the British edition of Celebrity Big Brother. During Hopkins' time on the series, crack…
A State of Force
Australian history is littered with examples of situations in which police have engaged in the use of force—in some cases, disproportionate violence—to maintain order and stability. In addition to this effort to control the population and ensure social order, extreme use of force was a key factor in repressing civil dissent and preventing marginalized communities from exercising their voice within the social discourse. Former Queensland Police Co…
Situationism and the recuperation of an ideology in the era of Trump, fake news and post-truth politics
As a variant ideology based on libertarian Marxism, the philosophy of situationism failed to achieve widespread popularity beyond a relatively brief time frame between the late 1950s and early 1970s. Despite this short-lived period of ascendency, the impact of Situationist concepts such as psychogeography, recuperation and the Spectacle have continued to play a role in the ongoing study of how reality is constructed in a system of advanced capita…
Cleaning up the Dirty Squad: Using the Obscene Publications Act as a Weapon of Social Control
Formed as a result of the introduction of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 , the Obscene Publications Squad – known colloquially as the “Dirty Squad” – controlled a web of corruption and managed the proliferation of pornography in the Central London district of Soho. Although its reputation for corruption was the primary reason for the vice unit's notoriety, their role in applying social control also had a profound impact on London society durin…
Big Fish, Small Pond: NGO–Corporate Partnerships and Corruption of the Environmental Certification Process in Tasmanian Aquaculture
Days of alt-rage: Using the Weatherman movement to deconstruct the radicalisation of the alt-right
No matter whether they adhere to a left-wing or right-wing political ideology, the evolution of a radical activist group shares a common trajectory. As such, it is possible to explore the rise and fall of a far-left organisation like the Weathermen in order to better understand the development of the alt-right, and to devise strategies to combat extremism in a contemporary context. By examining the role of identity politics in fermenting a radica…
Accused of an “abominable crime”: Punishing homosexual blackmail threats in London, 1723–1823
Cleansing and corridors: Assessing the state (and future) of police human source management in Australia
Human source management (HSM) is an area of policing that is fraught with ethical and legal risks, and yet until relatively recently has received limited attention in policing literature. This article explores several areas critical to HSM in Australian policing, albeit with global implications. It explores the potential risks of creating arbitrary definitional distinctions in the registration of informants. It also explores the implementation of…
Unconventional Labour: Environmental Justice and Working-class Ecology in the New South Wales Green Bans
The New South Wales union movement embraced the principles of heritage and conservationism in the 1970s through the imposing of “green bans” – a strategy wherein union members refused to work on construction projects that were a threat to the state’s natural or built environment. Led by radicals like Builders Labourers’ Federation leader Jack Mundey, the green bans were seen in several sectors as a departure from the traditional “Old Left” priori…
A new front in the history wars? Responding to Rubenhold’s feminist revision of the Ripper
Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper has drawn the criticism of the community of amateur sleuths dubbed ‘Ripperologists’ for its revisionist perspective, which claims that the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper were not all sex workers. Rubenhold’s victim-centred approach has opened a new front in the history wars, as Ripperologists accuse her of historical denialism in pursuit of a feminist …
Police Politics, Patronage and the 1899 Royal Commission in Queensland
Revisiting the 1899 Royal Commission into the Queensland Police Force (QPF) this article studies the persistence of political patronage in the appointment of public service leaders. In 1895 the Queensland government appointed William Parry-Okeden to replace David Seymour as leader of the QPF. He in turn made Frederic Urquhart head of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). Dissatisfaction with the CIB’s handling of some homicide cases prompted t…
Fish in a Barrel: Police Targeting of Brisbane's Ephemeral Gay Spaces in the Pre-Decriminalization Era
Across history, and particularly in periods of criminalization, the gay community have often been forced to resort to public spaces-"beats"-to clandestinely seek out anonymized sex with partners who share their sexual preference. This article reframes the construction of gay beats as ephemeral spaces that prevails in existing sexuality literature. Instead, it shows that Brisbane's beats were semi-permanent spaces with subcultural meaning to the l…
The Cult of Corruption: Reframing Organizational Frameworks of Police Corruption from a Cultic Perspective
Corruption in policing is a criminological phenomenon that is regularly misconstrued – whether as a case of independently-operating “rotten apples” or as a passive symptom of anomic organizational culture. This article seeks to reframe organized police corruption as an active process of seductive-recruitment, wherein corrupt officers utilized the same strategies as a conventional cult to both recruit and retain members. Using the example from Aus…
Queensland Exceptionalism and the Construction of “Southern Folk Devils” in Twentieth Century Public Rhetoric
The history of Queensland has been characterised by intermittent waves of moral panic wherein targeted subpopulations have been singled‐out as scapegoats for the “social problems” facing the state. These panics have been informed by a collective sense of Queensland exceptionalism that gives rise to the construction of folk devils in times of socio‐cultural crisis. Groups selected for scapegoating in Queensland have been, historically, constructed…
Would your level of disgust change?” Accounting for variant reactions to fatal violence against women on social media
The murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, occurring in similar contexts in London over the course of 2021, prompted renewed public discourse around violence against women and the nature of stranger-perpetrated murder of women in British society. It also provided the opportunity to analyze our responses to such crimes as a community and, in particular, our expectations and assumptions about who is committing fatal violence against women. In t…
The past is prologue: Towards a historico-narrative approach at the intersection of historical criminology and narrative criminology
There is great scope for narrative criminology and historical criminology to come together and, in collaboration, find ways for the practices of each to strengthen the other. Ultimately, both have a shared focus: the stories (past and present) that we use to make sense of crime, and the criminal justice system. This article argues for a historico-narrative approach to criminological research, wherein the research conducted by historical criminolo…
Dreams of a united Left? The SDA’s role in the rise (and fall) of a radical New Left in Queensland
Despite its reputation as a conservative heartland in the twentieth century, the Australian state of Queensland was also home to some of the most radical left-wing activists the country ever produced. Student activists such as Brian Laver and Mitch Thompson were central to the establishment of the Society for Democratic Action (SDA), a radical organisation that helped usher in the New Left in Queensland. This article examines the SDA’s importance…
Police responses to cyberstalking during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK
This research aims to explore how police officers responded to cyberstalking during the unprecedented period of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020–April 2021). More specifically, it aims to report the police experience of responding to cases of stalking, including cyberstalking, during this period; to explore officer confidence in identifying cyberstalking and to explore the challenges faced by frontline police. One hundred and two frontline polic…
Lovesick Women”: A Historical Overview of Gendered Conceptualizations of Erotomania, and Their Influence on Responses to Stalking
Stalking is a relatively new crime, with the U.S. state of California becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to develop specific laws about such behaviors in the early 1990s. In turn, the state (including law enforcement) turned to existing research on fixated and obsessed behaviors to develop typologies to better understand this kind of offending, as a means to inform response to stalking. This article focuses on one subtype featured in th…
The Appeal of Abuse: The Public Popularity of Online Image-based Abuse in the Early 2010s
Panic, pizza and mainstreaming the alt-right: A social media analysis of Pizzagate and the rise of the QAnon conspiracy
The conspiracy theory known as 'Pizzagate' gained a cult following on alt-right forums, ultimately prompting one believer to conduct a shooting on the pizzeria identified by online conspiracists. A thematic analysis of 767 tweets referencing Pizzagate selected from five key intervention points in this timeframe reveals several factors influencing Pizzagate's continued appeal over a four-year period. The article examines how an online alt-right co…
Moderating online child sexual abuse material (CSAM): Does self-regulation work, or is greater state regulation needed
Social media platforms are crucial public forums connecting users around the world through a decentralised cyberspace. These platforms host high volumes of content and, as such, employ content moderators (CMs) to safeguard users against harmful content like child sexual abuse material (CSAM). These roles are critical in the social media landscape however, CMs’ work as “digital first responders” is complicated by legal and systemic debates over wh…
“I Let Him Have It”: Sex, Anti‐Americanism, and Criminal Justice in Wartime Brisbane, 1942–44
With combat in Second World War shifting to the Pacific region after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the Allied General Headquarters was established in Brisbane, Australia, in July 1942. American military personnel in wartime Brisbane were subject to a two‐tier criminal justice system, with the US military claiming extraterritorial jurisdiction over all crimes committed by American troops in Australia. In practical terms, this meant th…
Fighting within the rainbow”: Discourses on internal conflict among LGBTQIA+ college students in cyber spaces
Political science (23 works) · Law (22 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Law (13 works) · Criminology (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology (8 works)