4 Apr 2017

Criminologist accuses feminists of trying to stop book sales

10:28 pm on 4 April 2017

A high-profile criminologist believes he is the victim of a smear campaign by "rabid, ISIS-like" members of Canterbury University's feminist society - a claim they reject.

University of Canterbury criminologist and lecturer, Professor Greg Newbold.

Criminologist Greg Newbold Photo: University of Canterbury

The society says Professor Greg Newbold over-reacted, possibly because he was worried about sales of his latest book.

Prof Newbold complained to university management after two "perpetrators" made rude comments about him on Twitter and the club's Facebook page.

One indicated he deserved the same treatment as rape-accused playwright Mervyn Thompson. An Auckland University feminist action group abducted Mr Thompson in 1984, threatened to cut off his penis and left him tied to a tree in a park wearing a sign labelling him a rapist.

Another post, understood to be a tweet, referred to dog faeces.

University management held a meeting with one of the students involved late last year.

Then, last month, someone sneaked into the university bookshop and put critical fliers in copies of his latest book. The fliers read "stop" and said Crime, Law and Justice in New Zealand contained inaccuracies. The culprit was not identified, "but we know where it came from", Prof Newbold said.

The incidents stemmed from a lecture Prof Newbold gave last July. Some students complained he made sexist comments and appeared to be an apologist for rapists. A peer review found he objectified women, but this did not amount to promoting rape culture and, overall, his lecture did not lack academic rigour.

"The majority of FemSoc are stable, decent young people. It was just two of them who led this crusade," Prof Newbold said.

"They are really rabid people. Totally obsessed. Like ISIS," he said.

"It was a very unpleasant time for me. What they tried to do was to stop sales of my book."

Feminist Society (FemSoc) president Kara Kennedy, who acted as a support person for the student and part-time paid tutor at the meeting with university management, said the two posts were "clearly said in a joking way". One was on a private Facebook page and both were removed, she said.

She believed Prof Newbold did not like club members critiquing his research about false rape complaints. Some of his book's citations, including Wikipedia and a 2004 newspaper article from Palmerston North, lacked academic rigour, she said.

"The response to a social media tweet, I would say, was out of proportion," Ms Kennedy said.

Vice Chancellor Rod Carr said he was "aware of the set of circumstances" and that Prof Newbold was "unhappy with the comments made".

People were entitled to their views, and a university was a tolerant institution, but there were "boundaries to that", he said.

Dr Carr said the students involved would have been reminded of the code of conduct.

Prof Newbold said he was satisfied with the university's response and had no issue with FemSoc nor feminism.

"I'm a feminist," he said.

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