Tracey Booth

Senior Lecturer

B Juris LLB (UNSW) LLM (USYD)

Academic Profile

Tracey joined the Faculty of Law in June 2007 having been previously a senior lecturer in law at the University of Western Sydney. She has also taught at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University. In 2004, Tracey established the Student Pro Bono Australia (PBSA) programme at UWS and continued as director of PBSA until the end of 2006. Tracey remains committed to the ethic of public service and the promotion of a strong pro bono legal culture in Australia. Tracey has researched and published widely in the area of victim participation in sentencing and is currently completing her PhD in this area under the supervision of Professor David Brown at UNSW.

Current Research Activities

PhD: "Victim Participation in Sentencing Homicide Offenders in NSW: a Decivilsing Trend?"

Examining recent decisions of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal with a view to determining the status of victim impact statements from family victims in homicide cases.

Exploring the role of emotion in the sentencing process vis-a-vis the crime victim and the offender.

Recent Publications

Book Chapters

Booth, T with Kerry Carrington, "The Anglo-Speaking Axis" in Walkalte, S, Handbook of Victims and Victimology, Willan, UK, forthcoming August 2007

Refereed Articles

Booth, T, "Student pro bono: Developing a Public Service Ethos in the Contemporary Australian Law School" (2004) 29(6) Alternative Law Journal 280-284

Booth, T, "Altered Perceptions of Conflict in Homicide Matters: The Role of Victim-Offender Conferencing" (2003) 14 (4) Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal 290-298

Booth, T, "Learning Environments, Economic Rationalism and Criminal Law: Towards Quality Teaching and Learning Outcomes", (2001) 3 UTS Law Review 17-39

Booth, T, "Voices after the Killing: Hearing the Stories of Family Victims in New South Wales", (2001) 10 (1) Griffith Law Review 25-41

Booth, T, "The Dead Victim, the Family Victim and Victim Impact Statements in New South Wales", (2000) 11 (3) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 292-307

Further Publications

Booth, T, "Restoring Victims Voices: Victim Impact Statements in the Sentencing Process", (2005) 86 Reform 59-62

Booth, T, "Homicide, family victims and sentencing: continuing the debate about Victim Impact Statements" (2004) 15(3) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 253-257

Booth, T, (2004) "Key Elements to Writing a Good Essay" in Surviving Law School: A Guide to the Study of Law, UWS Law Students' Society

Booth, T, "Delivering Justice to Victims of Crime", (2002) 40 (1) Law Society Journal 64-66

Conference Papers

Booth, T, "Victim Participation in Sentencing Homicide Offenders in NSW: a Decivilising Trend in Criminal Justice?", Disciplines and Punishments: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Crime and Justice at UNSW Kensington, 9-10 July 2007

Booth, T, "Homicide Matters and Victim Impact Evidence: a New Sentencing Paradigm in NSW?" UWS Research Symposium at Parramatta, 7-8 November 2006

Booth, T, "Victims of Crime, Vulnerable Citizens and the Criminal Justice Paradigm", Sentencing: Principles, Perspectives and Possibilities, National Judicial College of Australia, Canberra, 10-12 February 2006

Booth, T and Fitzpatrick, S, "A New Law School: The Challenges of Amalgamation", ALTA, Crossing Boundaries, in Darwin 8-11 July 2004

Booth, T, "Victim Impact Statements and Sentencing of Homicide Offenders", Innovation: Promising Practices for Victims and Witnesses in the Criminal Justice System, National Conference, Canberra, 23-24 October 2003

Booth, T, "Language and Ritual of Sentencing in Homicide Cases: the Increasing Visibility of Family Victims", 2003 Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference in Sydney, 1-3 October 2003

Booth, T, "Justice, politics and family victims: The Humanisation of Sentencing in Homicide Cases" the XIth International Victimology Symposium, Stellenbosch South Africa, 13-18 July 2003: 

Booth, T, "The Aftermath of Homicide: Meeting Needs of the Survivors through Victim-Offender Conferencing in New South Wales", the third annual Conferencing, Circles and other Restorative Practices in Minnesota, 10th August 2002

Booth, T, "Victim's Rights, Emotionalism and Politics: Homicide, Homicide Survivors and Sentencing", the XV World Congress of Sociology (sociology of law research committee) in Brisbane, 8th July 2002

Booth, T, "Hollow Victories and Paper Tigers: An Evaluation of the Impact of Victim Impact Statements from Family Victims to the Sentencing Process in New South Wales" Criminology in the 21st Century: Public Good or Private Interest? 15th Annual Conference Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, 21-23 February 2001

Research Seminars

Booth, T, "Dispute Resolution in the Criminal Justice Context: Through the Lens of the Crime Victim" paper presented to the Meiji/UWS Research Symposium at Parramatta, 3rd November 2006

Booth, T, "Homicide, Victim Impact Evidence and the Conceptualisation of Harm: the Role of Victim Impact Statements in Sentencing Homicide Offenders", presented to the Centre for Sentencing Research, University of Strathclyde, 8th June, 2006

Guest Speaker at an Inter-Agency Forum hosted by Victims of Crime Bureau, Attorney-General Department (NSW), Booth, T, "Victim Impact Statements in Homicide Matters in NSW", December 2003