Guardians Ad Litem and Children's Attorneys in Arizona: A Qualitative Examination of the Roles

An ongoing debate exists with little research support concerning the differences in the roles of guardians ad litem (GAL) and children's attorneys (CA) in dependency cases. Through qualitative interviews, this study examined GALs’ and CAs’ perceptions and execution of roles. Both executed their roles similarly and agreed the best interests of the child and the child's wishes are important. Shared goals included child safety, ensuring the child's voice is heard, keeping the family together, and minimizing the distress to the child. Challenges to executing their roles were often systemic, including overwhelmed courts and lack of community resources to serve clients’ needs.     

Narrative roles in criminal action: An integrative framework for differentiating offenders

Purpose. The proposal that offenders’ narratives help to shape criminal action raises the possibility of a finite set of narrative themes for distinguishing offenders. The present paper seeks to articulate narrative themes that may be active within the roles offenders adopt during offending events. Possible themes may be derived from studies of fundamental narratives in literary criticism, notably Frye (1957) . Within personality psychology, McAdams (1993) has also argued for a restricted set of personal narratives in any given culture produced by the dominant dimensions of Potency and Intimacy. Methods. The sub‐set of narratives on which offenders’ draw can be explored through the roles criminals see themselves as playing during offending episodes. Case study interviews were therefore content analysed to illustrate offence roles based in narrative themes and their cognitive, affective, and identity components. Results. These considerations suggest that four thematic narrative roles can be distinguished: Professional, Victim, Tragic Hero, and a Revengeful Mission. Distinct patterns of cognitive distortion, affective, and identity components are proposed within these four narrative roles. Conclusion. The Narrative Offence Roles specified and illustrated in the present paper offer hypotheses for empirical study and the possibility of a new aetiological perspective in criminology.     

Courts and New Democracies: Recent Works

Recent literature on comparative judicial politics reveals a variety of roles that courts adopt in the process of democratization. These include, very rarely, serving as a trigger for democratization and, more commonly, serving as downstream guarantor for departing autocrats or as downstream consolidator of democracy. In light of these roles, this article reviews six relatively recent books: Courts in Latin America, edited by Helmke and Rios‐Figueroa (2011 ); Judges Beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile, by Hilbink (2007 ); Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America, edited by Couso, Huneeus, and Sieder (2011 ); The Legacies of Law: Long‐Run Consequences of Legal Development in South Africa, 1652–2000, by Meierhenrich (2008 ); Judging Russia: Constitutional Court in Russian Politics 1990–2006, by Trochev (2008 ); and New Courts in Asia, edited by Harding and Nicholson (2010 ).     

Parenting coordination – outcome measurement and prediction: Implications for research and practice

This paper presents a formative evaluation study of the parenting coordination pilot program launched in Israel in 2016 at the initiative of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs (At the time the program was launched, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services) and JDC-Ashalim. Data was collected on 131 participating families (262 parents) through self-administered questionnaires filled out by the parents prior to the parenting coordination process (N = 204), telephone interviews with the parents following the process (N = 142), and reports by the parenting coordinators (PCs), submitted online at the conclusion of the process with each participating family (N = 131). Based on the logic model developed as a blueprint for the pilot program, the characteristics and needs of parents in high conflict were identified and desired outcome indicators were accordingly specified; quantitative and qualitative research tools were developed for the study, and the efficacy and outcomes of the parenting coordination pilot program were evaluated. Overall, the findings indicate a significant improvement in the desired outcome indicators. The implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed in the conclusion.     

Complainant emotional expressions and perceived credibility: Exploring the role of perceivers’ facial mimicry and empathy

Purpose

This research investigated the roles of perceivers’ facial mimicry and empathy in the emotional victim effect (EVE) – the finding that complainants tend to appear more credible when exhibiting (vs. not exhibiting) negative emotional displays during their statements. Because facial mimicry plays a key role in empathic responding, it was hypothesized that inhibiting and facilitating perceivers’ mimicry would attenuate and amplify the EVE, respectively.

Methods

Participants (N = 362) in an experiment were instructed to mimic or not to mimic facial expressions (controls received no mimicry instructions) while watching a statement by an emotional or non‐emotional rape complainant. Participants rated the complainant's believability and the extent to which they experienced cognitive and affective empathy.

Results

The perceived believability of the complainant was not affected by complainant emotions, thus failing to replicate the EVE. However, the inhibition of mimicry unexpectedly reduced the perceived believability of the complainant, apparently by decreasing participants’ cognitive empathy.

Conclusions

The current findings suggest that mimicry inhibition may increase scepticism in the context of credibility assessment. This has important implications for decision‐making in legal settings and for research on the process of credibility attribution. Moreover, the failure to replicate the EVE adds to the cumulative evidence on the underlying effect size for the phenomenon.     

PRECOCIOUS ROLE ENTRY AS A MEDIATING FACTOR IN WOMEN'S METHAMPHETAMINE USE: IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE‐COURSE AND PATHWAYS RESEARCH*

Precocious adoption of adult roles and responsibilities at an early age often has been linked to substance abuse and criminal behavior. Yet, much of the existing research suggests that early offending behaviors induce precocious movement into adulthood; less attention has focused on the way in which early adoption of adult roles and responsibilities might itself contribute to the onset of offending. In the following article, we examine the cumulative impact of early transitions into adult roles and responsibilities on the onset of methamphetamine (MA) use. Through inductive analyses of interviews with women methamphetamine users, we identified a range of adult roles and responsibilities that women described as facilitating their initiation into MA use, including family caretaking, motherhood, independent living, and peer and romantic associations with adults. Such findings have theoretical implications for both life‐course perspectives and feminist pathways research. They highlight the importance of attending to the timing and sequencing of experiences as well as highlight the gendered nature of these processes.     

Race-Based Peremptory Challenges: An Empirical Analysis of Litigation from the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2002–2006

This paper examines race-based peremptory challenges. Such challenges occur during the voir dire jury selection process. The process allows both the defense and the prosecution to strike jurors who they believe will not decide cases fairly. However, in the case of Batson v. Kentucky 476 U.S. 79 (1986), the Supreme Court ruled that race could not be used as a factor in eliminating prospective jurors. This paper examines federal litigation for five years in which it was alleged that race was used as a factor in removing a juror. An examination of the cases revealed that most of the cases involved sole male litigants who allege that there were multiple race-based peremptory challenges used in their cases. Moreover, most of the cases that led to the allegations involved violent offenses. Other case characteristics are noted, but of most significance was the finding that most appellants lost their cases. As such, the courts felt that most of the challenges were, in fact, race neutral. The implications of this research are discussed. This study was funded by an undergraduate research grant from Penn State University.     

Disordered personalities at work

Current categorical classification systems of personality disorders (PDs) remain widely used amid growing evidence that argues against the conceptualisation of PDs as independent, discrete entities. Adopting the dimensional perspective of Morey et al. (Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 245–251, 1985), this study compared PD traits across forensic, psychiatric and “normal” senior business manager samples. There was particular interest in the relative representations of elements of PD closely associated with psychopathic PD because of research suggesting that some “psychopaths” operate within mainstream society, and links that have been made between elements of these so-called “successful” psychopaths, and characteristics associated with success in senior business management roles. The dimensional Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Scales for DSM III Personality Disorders (MMPI-PD) were shown to be internally consistent for the “normal” sample. Evidence for the qualitative equivalence of the four PD profiles emerged. The PD profile of the senior business manager sample was found to contain significant elements of PD, particularly those that have been referred to as the “emotional components” of psychopathic PD. The findings provide strong support for the continuous distribution of personality disordered traits.     

Barriers and Bridges for Successful Environmental Technology Transfer

Governmental policy, social factors, individual behavior, and technology play critical roles in improving the environment. The Department of Defense is not immune to these factors as its actions have, and will continue, to impact its operational environments.This research analyzes the technological aspect of improving environmental conditions. Of particular interest, are the barriers encountered when laboratories transfer environmental technology to an end-user, and the bridges used to mitigate these barriers. A case study methodology is utilized analyzing five environmental technology transfers within the U.S. Air Force.Several key barriers and bridges are specific to the transfer of environmental technologies. They include environmental regulatory agency oversight, difficulty in clearly defining the end-user, and the need to demonstrate technologies to potential end-users. However, many barriers and bridges encountered in the environmental technology transfer, are also encountered in the transfer of other technologies. Based on these findings, recommendations are provided for improving the environmental technology transfer process.     

Decaying Mouse Volatiles Perceived by Calliphora vicina Rob.‐Desv.

Volatiles emitted by decaying human remains are in the focus of recent research. The identification of core volatiles in this field is of high importance, because cadaveric volatiles generally show high variation. In this study, the volatile profiles of five mice (Myodes glareolus) were sampled with charcoal filter tubes from their time of death until advanced decay. Eleven compounds were quantitated by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Electroantennographic experiments with female Calliphora vicina antennae led to the identification of dimethyl trisulfide, dimethyl disulfide, nonanal, hexan‐1‐ol, 1‐octen‐3‐ol, 3‐methylbutan‐1‐ol, and heptanal as electrophysiologically active compounds. When these were compared, dimethyl trisulfide (17 ng/μL) and dimethyl disulfide (11 ng/μL) were found to be emitted in higher concentrations. The roles of these compounds and nonanal as core volatiles for cadaver detection or postmortem time determination and their correlation to the stages of decay and the accumulated degree days are discussed.     

Gendered Genocide: The Socially Destructive Process of Genocidal Rape,Killing, and Displacement in Darfur

Accounts of mass atrocities habitually focus on one kind of violence and its archetypal victim, inviting uncritical, ungendered misconceptions: for example, rape only impacts women; genocide is only about dead, battle‐aged men. We approach collective violence as multiple, intersecting forms of victimization, targeted and experienced through differential social identities, and translated throughout communities. Through mixed‐method analyses of Darfuri refugees' testimonies, we show (a) gendered causes and collective effects of selective killing, sexual violence, and anti‐livelihood crimes, (b) how they cause displacement, (c) that they can be genocidal and empirically distinct from nongenocidal forms, (d) how the process of genocidal social destruction can work, and (e) how it does work in Darfur. Darfuris are victimized through gender roles, yielding a gendered meaning‐making process that communicates socially destructive messages through crimes that selectively target other genders. The collective result is displacement and destruction of Darfuris' ways of life: genocide.     

Do race and gender matter in police stress? A preliminary assessment of the interactive effects

The interactive effects of race and gender in a multi-dimensional assessment of police occupational stress were examined in this study. The sample from a large urban police department was divided into four subgroups: White males, African-American males, White females, and African-American females. Comparisons were carried out to assess group differences in three major domains of stress process: stressors, coping mechanisms, and multiple psychological manifestations of stress. Specific attentions were paid to observe any similar or dissimilar interactive effects of race and gender on the stress process. The results showed that dynamic factors such as measures of work environment and coping mechanisms contributed more in explaining police stress than static factors such as race and gender. Additionally, destructive coping and work-family conflict (spillover) were the most stable correlates of police stress across all subgroups included in the analysis. The impacts of negative exposure and camaraderie on police stress were conditional on the subgroup statuses. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.     

The development and pilot testing of a family treatment court best practices assessment: The model standards implementation scale

In 2019, the family treatment court (FTC) best practice standards (the Standards) were published to clarify attributes of FTC programs associated with superior child, parent, and family outcomes. The Standards cover the breadth of FTC operations including program structure and leadership, substance use treatment and complementary services, and behavioral responses to participants. This study aimed to develop an instrument (the Model Standards Implementation Scale; “MSIS”) that stakeholders can use to assess implementation of the Standards by individual FTCs. The MSIS balances usability with scientific validity. Interrater reliability (IRR), internal consistency, and several types of validity were assessed. Results indicated moderate to strong IRR, high internal consistency, mixed known groups validity depending on Standard, and high convergent and divergent validity. Initial findings suggest good validity and usability of the MSIS for evaluating FTC Standards' implementation. Notably, the process of using the tool functioned to educate FTC team members on the Standards. Although implementation of the MSIS is a resource-intensive process, the opportunity to receive constructive feedback proved to be an effective incentive for initial and subsequent participation in the evaluation among FTCs. Future research is needed to examine predictive validity, including association between Standards' implementation and family outcomes in FTCs.     

Functions of Social Representations in Honour Violence: The “Other East” as Responsible

Although extensive research has been carried out in the field of social justice in terms of femicide in defence of family honour around the globe, intersecting aspect of identity as an underlying psychological mechanism to justify the social sources of these killing has not been addressed in much detail. The present study, therefore, examined the role of (a) diverse social representations in femicide, (b) geography and ethnicity in social representations of honour violence, and (c) the functions of these diverse social representations in maintaining social injustice towards women through the promotion of occidentalism in line with the boundaries for a hegemonic notion of western modernisation. Two studies were conducted. The first study includes a content analysis investigating data from 73 respondents living in the western part of Turkey. The present findings showed that there are different social representations of honour killings, such as töre killings and namus killings. These diverse representations were found to reflect the fact that individuals delegitimise töre killings as eastern, outrageous, tribalistic, and related to family honour while legitimising namus killings as personal, valuable, self-aware, and vulnerable, in the context of “westernised” Turkey. The second study comprises an experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: namus killing, töre killing, and control. The results showed that diverse social representations of femicide have psychological functions such that a namus representation gives more legitimacy to femicide than does a töre representation. The consideration of diverse representations in honour killings and their functions has the potential to inform research as well as to build effective prevention policies targeting the reduction in femicides. A focus on the concept of namus and an emphasis on moving the focus of social representations away from responsible backwards, “the other East” and towards namus as one of the leading sources of domestic violence may switch the problem from the perception of victimised eastern women and to a general injustice problem.

     

Assessing the impediments to organizational change: A view of community policing

This article identifies and assesses the impediments to implementing one aspect of community-oriented policing (COP): designated patrol assignments. The research was based on 126 interviews with three different levels of police practitioners (top, middle, and street-level) in three different southwest police departments. While this exploratory study examined several factors that could potentially impede or facilitate change, it was found that individual attitudes towards COP and pressure had the most significant effect on the process of change.     

Police officers’ and Registered Intermediaries’ use of drawing during investigative interviews with vulnerable witnesses

ABSTRACT

Attempts to enhance episodic retrieval focus largely on verbal strategies which do not always address the limited or impaired free recall ability of vulnerable witnesses. Asking a witness to draw while recalling episodic information has long been deemed an effective method of improving communication and cognitive performance. Thus far, research has revealed these effects within laboratory settings but with scarce attention paid to real-life interview practice. In this paper, we explore police officers’ and Registered Intermediaries’ use of drawing during investigative interviews with vulnerable witnesses. A sample of specialist practitioners (n?=?85), comprising of vulnerable witness interviewing police officers (n?=?50) and Registered Intermediaries (n?=?35) completed a self-report questionnaire. As expected, frequent use of drawing was reported by both practitioner groups, and there was a positive correlation between reported use and perceived effectiveness. There were similarities between groups in reported techniques employed when using drawing, but some differences were apparent and these were attributed to the differing functions in police and Registered Intermediary roles. Overall, a consensus between empirical research and practice is evident, but these findings warrant further exploration in order to establish whether such practice is wide-spread.     

Embracing Emotionality: Clothing My “Naked Truths”

There is increasing awareness and recognition that researchers’ emotions will contribute to a richer and deeper understanding of what they are studying. Researchers’ emotions as analytic tools are particularly relevant when working with marginalized or oppressed groups because of the emotional aspect generally associated with human suffering. This paper discusses how adopting a reflexive practice can help researchers embrace and use their emotions as a part of the research process, enabling a more humanistic approach to studying crime and those whose marginalization and oppression are intricately tied to their crime. More specifically, this paper examines my own experiences of doing research with Aboriginal female offenders in a federal prison. I problematize the process of embracing emotionality by reflecting on the paralysis that evolved in my research with these women as I experienced an overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness. I contend that social science in the academic arena, not unlike many other institutions in society, has adopted a method of surveillance thereby instilling a sense of fear and judgment upon those working in academic arenas. After describing my reflexive process throughout this emotional paralysis, I describe my discovery of safe spaces as a way of dealing with my emotions and how engaging in creative analytic practice enabled me to clothe my nakedness and vulnerability as I represented, and ultimately re-created my self in the research process. As part of that evolution, embracing emotionality ultimately enabled me to engage in knowledge building as well as advocacy with and for Aboriginal women in prison.     

Building better crime simulations: systematic replication and the introduction of incremental complexity

Computer simulation models have changed the ways in which researchers are able to observe and study social phenomena such as crime. The ability of researchers to replicate the work of others is fundamental to a cumulative science, yet this rarely occurs in computer simulations. In this paper, we argue that, for computer simulations to be seen as a legitimate methodology in social science, and for new knowledge to be generated, serious consideration needs to be given to how simulations could or should be replicated. We develop the concept of systematic replication, a method for developing simulation experiments that move towards a generalisable inference that is directed, explicit, and incorporates complexity incrementally. Finally, we outline how the discrete parts of this process might be carried out in practice, using a simple simulation model.

Grooming child victims into sexual abuse: a psychometric analysis of survivors’ experiences

This study sought to examine the psychometric properties of the Grooming subscale of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI) in a sample of adult survivors of child sexual abuse. There are currently no other research measures that examine grooming events as experienced by survivors, which underscores the importance of a reliable and valid way of gathering this information. Participants (n?=?295) were adult survivors of child sexual abuse who completed this anonymous study online. The sample was collected through the use of adult survivor of child sexual abuse websites, trauma blogs, and survivor group pages on Facebook. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Cronbach’s Alpha were used to ascertain the reliability and validity of this subscale. These analyses suggest that the Grooming subscale of the CAMI is a reliable and valid measure. This measure is an important addition to the body of research instruments that measure adult survivor of child sexual abuse experiences, particularly since this is the only instrument that examines grooming from this perspective.     

The Process Matters: Fairness in Repository Siting For Nuclear Waste

Siting contested infrastructure such as repositories for nuclear waste very often faces strong local resistance. One major reason for this opposition may arise because siting processes do not appropriately consider fairness issues such as transparency, the availability of options, or the sufficient involvement of concerned and affected people. The aim of this study was to analyze people’s concerns related to justice in siting nuclear waste. Besides procedural aspects, both distributive justice and outcome valence are considered important and therefore the “total fairness model” by T?rnblom and Vermunt (Soc Justice Res 12:39–64, 1999) was used as a framework. In three quasi-experimental studies (N ₁ = 53; N ₂ = 56; N ₃ = 83) applying conjoint analysis, respondents ranked 11 vignettes with the three attributes procedural justice, distributional justice, and outcome valence. Each vignette represents a realistic scenario of a site selection process for the disposal of nuclear waste in Switzerland. All the three studies yield a consistent result: vignettes representing a situation with a fair process are top-ranked by respondents; situations with negative outcome valence are ranked lowest; distributive issues turned out to be of minor importance. We conclude that procedural fairness should be given more attention in any kind of contested infrastructure siting and that real-world examples like the one discussed here can inform justice research.