BEN WADHAM & JAMES CONNOR (2015) “THE DARK SIDE OF DEFENCE: ORGANISATIONAL DEVIANCE AND THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE, TASA CONFERENCE

The Australian Defence Force has recently undergone its most comprehensive cultural appraisal and reform since the Federation. The cultural reviews were instigated by the Skype incident, a sex scandal that rocked the ADF and drew negative scrutiny from the Minister for Defence and civil society more generally. This paper outlines a developing methodology for understanding military misconduct as a catalyst for organisational reform. Since 1970 over 30 reviews and reports have been produced around scandals or negative incidents involving groups of military men. This paper outlines a sociology of scandal drawing on the dark side of organisation literature to establish a basis for military criminology and the study of military misconduct.