Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson is a social anthropologist and Adjunct Research Fellow.

Since 2014, she has been a scholar-practitioner of restorative justice informed programming in the prison system. She has a special interest in the restorative rehabilitation of Indigenous inmates.

Jane has undertaken research on peer workers working with problematic drug users and their families. These service users commonly have complex histories, including homelessness and prison experience.

Her earlier research focused on key issues in the Roman Catholic Church, including gender and sexuality, parish conflict and clergy sex offending. In 2010 she was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship to examine the relationship between State and Church from the viewpoint of a progressive religious movement.

Jane frequently links her scholarly work with community work. This has been acknowledged in her being a nominee for the Bunbury Australia Day Citizen of the Year (2019). The community support service for drug impacted individuals and families (Doors Wide Open), which she Chaired (2017-2021), was a joint winner of the Bunbury Australia Day Community Group of the Year (2019).

She is an original co-founder of Bidi Koorliny Aboriginal Corportion, which is dedicated to delivering restorative services to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. BKAC auspices the Journey Ways program, a dedicated in-prison Aboriginal program, which Jane co-designed (2017) and co-delivers (2018-ongoing).  As secretary of BKAC, she is co-developing a preventative and interventionist service in Collie for individuals and families vulnerable to engagement in the criminal justice system.

Given that we live in uncertain and changing times, Jane recognises the importance of undertaking research directed to understanding and developing innovative practices for the benefit of marginal populations. 

She has a particular interest in researching the evolution of restorative practices and peer navigation. 

She is currently self-funded.

Jane was a farmer for 11 years.

Later, while completing her Ph.D, she was a Director of Catholic Missions. The work fostered her interest in social justice and the common good.

Jane is a qualified Spiritual Director.

Jane is currently working on an preventative / interventionist justice initiative for people vulnerable to engagement in the criminal justice system in a regional town. 

Jane continues to work with Aboriginal facilitators to deliver the Aboriginal restorative rehabilitation program, Journey Ways, in the local prison. Her intention is to reinstate the Anglo-Australian restorative justice program, Restor-y Life (Restore) in the prison system.

Jane frequently publishes articles on Pearls and Irritations: John Menadue's Public Policy Journal:

• Escaping tough-on-crime media trap (Mar 26).
• Punishment politics and the suppression of restorative justice (Feb 26).
• Punishment politics is breaking Western Australia's justice system (Jan 26)
• Making First Nations prisoners visible in Labor politics (Nov 25)
• Dying in Prison (Oct 25)
• Foolhardy Prison Expansion (Sept 25)
• Dead time (Aug 25)
• Homeless shelters are urgently needed (Mar 24)
• We are overdue for a hybrid Aboriginal-Wetern map of juvenile justice (Dec 22)
• Just for women, justice for all (Mar 22)
• The good life: a priest's 10 commandments for the Catholic Church (Jan 21)
• Lessons from progressive Catholics for the Plenary Council (Oct 21)
• Scales of justice tarnished when punishment outweighs restoration (Nov 21).

In our era of change, governments are tending towards producing short-term reactive decision making rather than strategic shaping of institutions. Jane is essentially interested in responsive innovations needed for justice transformation.

Anderson, J. & Carroll, N. (Submitted). Aboriginal yarning circles for men in prison: Opportunities and constraints for social and emotional wellbeing.

Anderson, Jane; Carroll, Narelle; and (also known as Phillip Ugle), Boobaditj (2025). Considering the Need for Congruence in Closing the Gap, Target 10: Reducing High Rates of Adult Aboriginal Incarceration, Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14221/2653-3219.1060

Anderson, J. (accepted). Restorative justice in Western Australia: a critical examination of institutional and bureaucratic constraints. International Encyclopaedia of Restorative Justice.

Anderson, J. 2024. Exploring exemplarity in in-prison restorative rehabilitation to recover normativity. The International Journal of Restorative Justice, 7(1), pp. 65-87. doi: 10.5553/TIJRJ.000159

Anderson, J. 2023. Scoping the potential of a Noongar re-entry peer navigator model. The Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, 4(2). doi: 10.14221/aihjournal.v4n2.3 https://ro.ecu.edu.au/aihjournal/vol4/iss2/3/

Anderson, J. 2022. The case for using culturally relevant values in restorative justice programming for Australian Aboriginal participants. The International Journal of Restorative Justice, 5(2), 192-214. doi: 10.5553/TIJRJ.000118

Anderson, J. 2021. Peer support workers' conceptions of drug users and the implications for service provision. Anthropology and Medicine, 3.

Anderson, J. 2020. An Australian Aboriginal in-prison restorative justice process: a worldview explanation, The International Journal of Restorative Justice, 3(3), 374-394.

Anderson, J. 2018. Introducing and theorising an in-prison restorative justice programme: the second-generation Sycamore Tree Project, The International Journal of Restorative Justice, 1(2), 210-229.

Anderson, J. 2016. Inovative Catholicism and the Human Condition, New York: Routledge. (Routledge Studies in Religion). Nb: this text is being made available in Open Access in late September, 2021.

Anderson, J. 2016. Socialization processes and clergy offenders, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 25(8), 846-865.

Anderson, J. 2015. Comprehending and rehabilitating Roman Catholic clergy offenders of child sexual abuse, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2(7), 772-795.

Anderson, J. 2015. Innovations in communications technology and the restructuring of the Roman Catholic Church, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 28(3), 255-273.

Anderson, J. 2015. Retorative justice as redress for child sexual abuse, New Community, 13(2), 18-22.

Anderson, J. 2012. Competing identities: Uniformity versus diversity in the Roman Catholic priesthood, The Ashgate Research Companion to Contemporary Religion and Sexuality (pp. 93-106), S.J. Hunt & A.K.T. Yip (eds.). UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Anderson, 2012. Souled out: Power and protest in a Catholic parish. Australia: D Publishing.

Anderson, J. 2008. Romarong: A philanthropist's guide to misery, corruption and beyond in Sierra Leone. Australia: D Publishing.

Anderson, J. 2008. The contest of moralities: Negotiating compulsory celibacy and sexual intimacy in the Roman Catholic Priesthood, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 18(1), 1-17.

Anderson, J. 2005. Deacons: Band-Aid or bounty? The Australasian Catholic Record, 82(2), 178-188.

Anderson, J. 2005. Priests in love: Roman Catholic clergy and their intimate friendships. New York: Continuum.