Moral strangers or fellow travellers? Contemporary perspectives on offender rehabilitation

This article is a response to the two previous articles in this issue (Polaschek, 2012, and McNeill, 2012), which make up the hot topic debate on offender rehabilitation.     

Assessing desistance in child molesters: a qualitative analysis

The aim of the study was to investigate the process of desistance from sexual crime by comparing two groups of child molesters: One group was deemed to be desisting, while men in the other group were deemed as being still potentially active offenders. Men in the desisting group reported being optimistic for the future, reported an enhanced sense of personal agency and a more internalized locus of control, and identified treatment as being a turning point in their lives. In comparison, men in the active group were found to be more pessimistic and were more likely to blame external events, or situations, for their problems. One of the most striking findings of the research was that the desisting group had found a place within a social group or network, unlike the still potentially active offenders who all described a life of social isolation and alienation.     

Colonia Housing Conditions in Model Subdivisions: A Déjà Vu for Policy Makers

The informal self-help settlements in Texas known as colonias have received considerable attention as a public policy problem at both the state and federal levels. These settlements proliferated throughout the border region since the late 1970s and research has highlighted the extreme poverty, austere levels of infrastructure, exploitative land sale practices, and poor housing conditions that characterized these settlements. However, both scholars and policymakers have overlooked the continued spread of self-help settlements known as “model subdivisions,” which barring the presence of basic water, wastewater, and electricity services, are nearly identical to colonias. We present the results of household surveys conducted with residents in 24 model subdivisions in Hidalgo County, Texas, in June 2014. The results suggest that, unbeknown to legislators, many of the problems that characterized colonias are now being reproduced in hundreds of model subdivisions that have formed since the 1990s, and which now require concerted attention and intervention by policy makers.     

THE ROARING SILENCE: FEMINIST REVISIONS IN THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY LITERATURE

Absent from assessments of feminism's influence on the academy and the disciplines is an evaluation of the impact of feminist thought on policy research. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate feminist scholarship's presence in the core policy and higher education journals. The first section of the paper explains why it is important to consider the influence of feminism on the policy literature. This is followed by a discussion of what is meant by feminism in the context of this paper. The third section presents the methodology used in evaluating the literature. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications     

Meeting local needs? Case study of a communication project in the Pacific Islands

The Internet has become a major source and vehicle for technological transfer and project development during the 1990s. Three Pacific Island countries—Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu—were connected through Pactok, an inexpensive computer‐mediated communication (CMC) system originally developed for non‐government organizations (NGOs) through the Pacific Sustainable Development Networking Project (PSDNP). The PSDNP was established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1993 and funded by the UNDP until December 1996. Content analysis of the Project Document indicated that although the PSDNP aimed to improve access by these countries to scientific and technical information, an important underlying theme was to ensure these Pacific Island countries were connected to the Internet. It also appeared that the agency was keen for organizations in these countries to increase access to international information, with little regard for local and regional sources. Subsequent analysis of Pactok sites early in 1997 showed that the PSDNP had encouraged the project's primary stakeholders—regional organizations and NGOs—to join Pactok. However, international agencies such as the UNDP and other foreign assistance also have access to Pactok and are able to disseminate agency ideologies, objectives and priorities directly to users in Pacific Island countries. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Narrative identity and offender rehabilitation

The rehabilitation of offenders is an evaluative and capability-building process and is concerned with promoting primary goods and managing risk. At the heart of this process is the construction of a more adaptive narrative identity and the acquisition of capabilities to enable offenders to secure important values in their postrelease environments. In this article, the authors examine the idea of narrative identity and its relationship to values and to assessment and treatment.     

Punishing Drug Possession in the Magistrates’ Courts: Time for a Rethink

A lively drug policy debate is going on in the UK, and a central theme emerging is the punishment of drug offenders. The main contributing voices draw attention to the largely futile position of prosecuting offenders through the criminal justice system who are drug addicted and/or who are caught in possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use. This paper adds to this discussion by reporting findings from observations carried out in London Magistrates’ Courts. It notes the relatively high prevalence of small quantity drug possession cases that appeared before the courts over the study days, and questions the value of this type of crime arriving here in the first place. It examines the resultant financial penalties that are most commonly dispensed, and asks whether they can be reasonably justified. It states these are harsh and depriving given the already economically disadvantaged status of most defendants. In addition, case details revealed issues of policing approach involving ‘stop and search’ and the variable application of police discretion. The paper calls for thought to be given to the damage caused to peoples’ lives through pursuing criminalising drug policies, and to the time and economic cost to stretched policing and criminal justice resources. It suggests we learn lessons from other European jurisdictions who assign drug possession for personal use cases, to an arm of the prosecution service where they are processed as ‘out-of-court’, ‘administration offences’.