Ken Polk was a leading figure in criminology in Australia over four decades. Born and raised in California, Ken came to the University of Melbourne in 1983 from the University of Oregon where he was Professor of Sociology (a discipline unknown at Melbourne at the time—as Ken often noted). He began his career in the US as a musician, playing trombone, baritone horn and tuba—his reprise on the tuba at the ANZOC conference in Melbourne in 2001 was memorable! It was through the local musicians’ union that he gained a scholarship to San Diego State College and the beginning of his academic career. This was followed by an MA at Northwestern and a PhD from UCLA.
Early in his academic career Ken was given a major role in both policy and evaluation associated with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. This experience had a strong influence on his theoretical perspective which combined a healthy respect for both labelling and radical criminology. This respect increased as he documented the hurdles faced by policies that aimed to implement lessons provided by strain and opportunity theory, the theoretical focus of the initiative. His 1971 book, co-authored with Daniel Knapp entitled Scouting the War on Poverty, detailed the bureaucratic inertia, self-interest and a reluctance to cede authority that hindered progressive outcomes from the projects that comprised the initiative. This first book established his strength as a detailed and dedicated empirical scholar who eschewed simple overarching explanations for both social phenomena and the possibility of progressive change.
Much of Ken’s work in Oregon and in the early years in Australia revolved around understanding youth offending and the marginalisation of young people. This was a passion he shared with Christine Alder, his long-time partner, whose groundbreaking work on young women’s experience in the criminal justice system remains important. In his own work, Ken had a particular focus on the role of education and the ‘sorting’ function of schooling in determining life chances—including paths to delinquency. Ken was firmly of the view that to be effective, schools needed to be public, active and democratic. His review of Art Pearl and Tony Knight’s book The Democratic Classroom (Melbourne Studies in Education 1999, 40(1): 139–42) —as with his work as a whole—reflects a clear and pragmatic optimism in his thinking when setting out policy proposals, even as he was keenly aware of the political and economic hurdles such recommendations posed.
Later, at the University of Melbourne, Ken turned his attention to homicide. It was here that he developed a strong understanding of how male culture lay behind much homicide—work that culminated in his seminal book When Men Kill: Scenarios of Masculine Violence (Cambridge University Press, 1994). As with his previous work, this book is a testament to his grounded empirical approach to criminology. Drawing from Victorian Coroner’s Court files, the book is filled with the vignettes of killing—and in doing so, dispelled the prevalent myth of the time that murder and manslaughter were characterised primarily by ‘stranger danger’. The book highlighted in detail the reality of family violence (necessarily involving intimate relationships), and together with other articles related to the study, the role of male culture in men killing other men—most often those they knew.
This work on homicide allowed Ken to extend his research interest in white collar crime with an investigation of work-related deaths and corporate negligence. In the latter stages of his career, Ken turned his attention to art fraud and antiquities theft—extending his understanding of why so little art fraud reaches the attention of police, despite the complicity of auction houses in the trade of stolen antiquities. He continued this work long into his retirement coming back to the University to present engaging, meticulously researched lectures to new generations of students until ill health made this no longer possible.
Ken was a powerful presence both at the University of Melbourne and in ANZSOC—as President in 1991 and regular conference presenter. He was a strong mentor and supportive colleague, welcoming many to criminology and to the University of Melbourne. He gave informed and constructive advice to colleagues that helped further their career choices, research and publications. He was a strong believer in the independence of academia and of academic research and railed against the corporatisation of universities and a blind adherence to cost-cutting for its own sake. He left an indelible mark on criminology at Melbourne. He will be sorely missed.
Thanks to Ken’s family for sharing the information from their eulogy and the image for this obituary.
We, the members of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC), acknowledge the traditional custodians of Australia and the sovereignty of the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.
ANZSOC would like to acknowledge the ongoing Traditional Custodians of the lands for which our constituents conduct their teaching, learning, and research. We would like to acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and the lands, now called Australia, continue to belong to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Traditional custodians of the lands. ANZSOC would like to pay respects to the Elders who have passed on the legacy of knowledge and culture to the future generations and acknowledge that the future generations hold the hope, the stories and the continued knowledge for current and emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. May this knowledge through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing guide you with wisdom and courage.
ANZSOC also recognises iwi Māori and their unceded right to tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) and their expression of mana motuhaka (self-determination). We acknowledge mātauranga Māori (Māori ways of being and knowing) informs both traditional and contemporary knowledge production and its ability to enhance our collective futures.
The Association acknowledges the consequences and harms that continue to be inflicted by the criminal justice systems of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand on Indigenous peoples in the region and seeks through its activities to address these harms and to work to prevent them from continuing in the future.
