The highs and lows of working with sexual offenders: A New Zealand perspective

Abstract

The positive effects on clinicians responsible for the treatment of sexual offenders are little understood. The few available studies have focused upon the negative sequelae of this work. The current study of clinicians working therapeutically with sexual offenders at a community-based organization aimed for a more balanced picture of the effects of sex offender treatment provision. Using qualitative methods, both negative and positive aspects of this work emerged within three main themes: taking an optimistic perspective, working for community outcomes and supportive agency culture. Although the study revealed many challenges for therapists, these were found to be counterbalanced against rewards, affording a high degree of personal and professional fulfilment from working within this field.     

The Effects of Medical Accidents and Litigation on Doctors and Patients*

Medical accidents and litigation can have a profound and long lasting effect on both doctors and patients. Research has shown that for doctors, working in a profession which is intrinsically stressful, the added stress of litigation and accidents is leading to considerable strain and sometimes to maladaptive and inappropriate behaviors on the part of some doctors. For many it is leading to the practice of defensive medicine. For patients the picture is not better. Some are left with no clear idea of what has happened or why they have been injured by their medical treatment. Many are left needing further remedial treatment and for some the psychological effects are akin to those suffered by victims of major disasters. In this paper we have looked at these issues and have put forward proposals to suggest how things can be improved for both doctors and patients.     

Violence against teachers: prevalence and consequences

Data collected from 731 teachers were used to examine the consequences of violence directed toward teachers while in the workplace. Analyses showed that the majority of respondents (n = 585, 80.0%) had experienced school-related violence—broadly defined—at one point in their careers. Serious violence (actual, attempted, or threatened physical violence) was less common, but still common enough to be of concern (n = 202, 27.6%). Violence predicted physical and emotional effects, as well as teaching-related functioning. In addition, a model with fear as a potential mediator revealed that both fear and violence were independently predictive of these negative outcomes. Finally, analyses showed that, in general, women reported higher levels of physical symptoms compared to men. We discuss the implications of violence against teachers in terms of personal consequences and the implications for mental health professionals working in an educational setting.     

Court sets aside immigration employment authorization containing HIV-related job restrictions

In an order issued on 30 May 2003, the Federal Court-Trial Division set aside an employment authorization that prohibited an HIV-positive man from working in childcare, primary and secondary school teaching, health services, and agriculture. The court directed immigration medical officers to decide whether a new medical examination is required. This is a significant case for HIV-positive immigrants and refugees who are required to hold an employment authorization if they intend to work in Canada while their applications for permanent residence are decided, a process that can take years.     

Personal values and expert testimony

This paper explores challenges to personal values which are inherent in the situation that any expert witness with a scientific background finds himself or herself in when working in the legal context. Case histories are relied on to make the point that time is needed for psychologists and lawyers to develop an effective and ethically sound working relationship. The paper takes issue with the notion that the experts should be constrained in their behavior and their testimony by new rules and guidelines for testimony content. It further argues that the model of going public with psychological knowledge is a time-honored function of members of the American Psychological Association.The author was supported in the preparation of this article by grant No. DAR 7926805 from the National Science Foundation.     

The effect of zinc chloride, humidity and the substrate on the reaction of 1,2-indanedione-zinc with amino acids in latent fingermark secretions

Anecdotal evidence from forensic practitioners and studies conducted under controlled conditions have indicated that the reaction between 1,2-indanedione and the amino acids present in latent fingermark deposits is highly susceptible to ambient humidity. The addition of catalytic amounts of zinc chloride to the 1,2-indanedione working solution--usually in the order of 1:25 to 1:4 molar ratio (indanedione:zinc)--significantly improves the colour and luminescence of fingermarks treated under dry conditions but appears to have a negligible effect on fingermarks treated in humid environments. The results presented in this paper confirmed that zinc(II) ions added to the 1,2-indanedione working solution act as a Lewis acid catalyst, stabilising a key intermediate during a rate-limiting hydrolysis step. Furthermore, studying the reaction using a chromatography-grade cellulose substrate method previously reported confirmed that cellulose substrates play a major role in facilitating the indanedione-amino acid reaction by acting as a surface catalyst in the early stages of the reaction and by directing the formation of the desired luminescent product (Joullié's Pink).     

Sudden and suspicious deaths outside the deceased's own country — Time for an international protocol

Increased leisure time, international business commitments, and ease of travel have led to an increased incidence of sudden deaths outside the deceased's own country.Methods of investigation of sudden death, and the extent of such enquiries, vary greatly from country to country. The relatives of the deceased frequently make serious allegations relating to the circumstances of the death when they return to their homeland, and when the body is repatriated, a local pathologist may be directed to make an examination. This is frequently limited by inadequate police information, inadequate preservation of the organs and the absence of any autopsy report.Examples of these difficulties are presented, and suggestions offered for a basic protocol for the examination and report upon the death of a foreign national.Following the presentation of this paper at the International Association of Forensic Sciences Meeting in Bergen, considerable discussion took place and there have been further developments in the United Kingdom. These are briefly reported.     

Law and Social Protests

This paper deals with the relationship between law and social protests, a topic that seems particularly relevant at this time, when recent public events show the existence of growing tension between citizens and public officers. The paper does not explore the ultimate causes that triggered these social protests, but rather the normative and legal questions raised by these conflicts. The main question that it addresses is the following: How should the law act in the face of these growing expressions of social discontent? The main point that it defends is that social protests are political expressions that, as such, deserve a special public (and particularly judicial) protection. The argument is particularly directed at studying the legal consequences of taking the expressive components of social protests seriously. The exploration may have a further theoretical interest for those who are interested in reflecting upon the scope and limits of the theory of deliberative democracy.     

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention: a Short Presentation

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet, BRÅ) is a centre for research and development work within the justice system and is to provide assistance to the agencies of the criminal justice system in improving their knowledge and developing their methods to combat and to prevent crime.

In this article a summary of the operations of the Council – with a focus on the year 2004 – is presented. It is shown that a great number of evaluation projects have been conducted (e.g. of electronic monitoring of offenders). Another way in which the Council can contribute is working to develop various instruments that can be used to measure the effects of different parts of the criminal justice system. As an example, a routine measure of repeat victimization at the regional and local level for different crime types, is being developed.

In order to maintain a national centre of expertise in the broad area of economic and organized crime, a special secretariat has been established. Its focus is directed at the area of prevention, ranging from strategies to methods. Finally, the Council has the responsibility to support local crime prevention work and mediation at the local level.

The article also points out some challenges for the future.     

THE UTILITY OF THE DEVIANT CASE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORY*

This article asserts that the deviant case method offers a potential avenue for enhancing theory directed at explaining crime by using more available information to better connect the process of analyzing cases with that of explanatory refinement and elaboration. This approach has facilitated theoretical development in other social sciences and has proven useful where applied in criminological inquiry. Extant research is reviewed, and an empirical example is presented to demonstrate how this approach might be operationalized in criminological inquiry using quantitative methods. Conclusions relevant to future research are considered.     

加工速度、工作记忆与心算能力的发展

以243名10-18岁儿童为被试,研究了加工速度和工作记忆与儿童心算能力发展的关系.验证性因素分析表明,加工速度、工作记忆与心算能力之间存在显著的相关.结构方程建模表明这种显著相关的实质在于三者之间可能存在一个递进式发展过程,即工作记忆能力几乎可完全解释儿童心算能力的发展变化,而加工速度可解释2/3的工作记忆能力的发展变化.这表明工作记忆是心算能力发展的基础,而加工速度可能是工作记忆能力发展的基础,但后者尚需要进一步验证.     

Scientists’ Participation in University Research Centers: What are the Gender Differences?

University-affiliated multidisciplinary research centers have grown in importance in academia. Most research to-date has focused on these centers from an institutional perspective, with recent work only beginning to explore the ways in which such centers affect the development of academic careers. Hence, little is known about how scientists who are center-affiliated differ from those who are not affiliated. Clearly, both selection and influence effects may be expected to operate in terms of research productivity, timing, and resources. A further puzzle is how center affiliation may differ between male and female scientists. In this study, we use a new, nationally representative dataset of scientists and engineers working in Carnegie Research Extensive universities to develop an understanding of how center-affiliated scientists differ from exclusively department-based academic scientists and engineers, and investigate the extent to which gender moderates the effects of centers. As expected, our national sample shows that women are younger, whiter, less likely to be tenured, and at a lower rank than their male colleagues. We find that women are as likely to join centers as men, and do so at a similar stage in their career. Most of the male–female differences observed in disciplinary settings are sustained in centers, but women appear to have greater research equality in them (compared to the departmental setting). In particular, men and women in centers spend the same amount of time writing grant proposals, conducting both grant-supported and unfunded research, and administering grants. This suggests that centers may constitute an institutional context in which some aspects of gender equity in science may be achieved.JEL Classification: C42, O32, Z13, E61     

Multilevel public funding for small business innovation: a review of US state SBIR match programs

US State governments invest in early-stage innovative activity as an economic development strategy. Nevertheless, attention directed at the public sector’s role in this capacity has been placed on federal policy actions overlooking the growing role of states. The primary aims of this paper are two-fold: (1) to articulate the motivations for multilevel public support for small business innovative activity, placing emphasis on state level incentives directed towards entrepreneurial activity; and (2) to empirically evaluate the State Match Phase I (SMP-I) program. The SMP-I program is a diffuse state level policy designed to complement the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program by offering noncompetitive matching funds to the state’s successful SBIR Phase I recipients. This offers an opportunity to examine the marginal impact of public R&D given the state intervention. This paper employs a state and year fixed effects model and considers two outcome variables—SBIR Phase II success rates and SBIR Phase I application activity. To account for industrial heterogeneity, the data are stratified by the federal mission agencies. Results from the empirical analysis indicate that the state match increases the Phase II success rates for firms participating in the National Science Foundation SBIR program.     

Forensic medicine and criminalistics

The supplementary designation "criminalistics" in the title of certain forensic medical institutes in the first half of this century is to be regarded as a reaction to faulty developments in our specialty, which almost led to the elimination of forensic medicine as an independent scientific discipline in the 1960s. The ability to think in terms of criminalistics and the corresponding working procedures has always been a crucial precondition for the forensic physician, since forensic medicine is the application of medical knowledge for juridical purposes. Forensic medicine originated with the appraisal of cases of violent death by doctors, i.e., reconstruction of the facts in the case. To use the term "criminalistics" in the form of a supplementary designation is thus not required. An attempt is nevertheless made to define "medical criminalistics" as a small but important component of criminalistics. They are subdivided into two phases: the first part begins at the scene of the crime or the place of discovery (local evidence). Here, the trained eye of the forensic physician is indispensable to the criminal investigation department and the prosecutor. Medical criminalistic thinking and working procedures continue at the autopsy. Here, forensic autopsy differs from that practiced by the pathologist. Without knowledge of the situation at the discovery location, the forensic physician runs the risk of not recognizing facts that are important for reconstruction and thus becoming a "destroyer of clues". The second part of medical criminalistics is the actual detection of medical clues, i.e., the investigation of medical clues with special methods, including histological and toxicological investigations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Government-Voluntary Sector Compacts: Governance, Governmentality, and Civil Society

In 1998 government and the main representatives of the voluntary sector in each of the four countries in the United Kingdom published 'compacts' on relations between government and the voluntary sector. These were joint documents, carrying forward ideas expressed by the Labour Party when in opposition, and directed at developing a new relationship for partnership with those 'not-for-profit organizations' that are involved primarily in the areas of policy and service delivery.This article seeks to use an examination of the compacts, and the processes that produced them and that they have now set in train, to explore some of the wider issues about the changing role of government and its developing relationships with civil society. In particular, it argues that the new partnership builds upon a movement from welfarism to economism which is being developed further through the compact process. Drawing upon a governmentality approach, and illustrating the account with interview material obtained from some of those involved in compact issues from within both government and those umbrella groups which represent the voluntary sector, an argument is made that this overall process represents the beginning of a new reconfiguration of the state that is of considerable constitutional significance.     

The presumptive reagent fluorescein for detection of dilute bloodstains and subsequent STR typing of recovered DNA

A presumptive reagent for dilute blood detection other than luminol is fluorescein. The sensitivity of fluorescein approaches the sensitivity of detection levels of luminol. The fluorescein detection method offers the advantages of working in a lighted environment, and the reaction persists longer than luminol. A series of diluted bloodstains, ranging from neat to 1:1,000,000, was placed on a variety of substrates. Three sets were made per substrate. One set was exposed to fluorescein, one set was exposed to luminol, and one set served as an uncontaminated control. The fluorescein signal persisted longer than luminol. However, background staining for fluorescein was observed on some substrates within 30 s to 1 min, and no background staining was observed for luminol. Stains on non-absorbent surfaces were detectable at 1:100,000 dilutions, and stains on absorbent surfaces were detectable usually at no more than 1:100. The sensitivity of detection of fluorescein was comparable to that of luminol in this study. In all cases, where sufficient DNA was recovered, typeable results at all 13 core CODIS STR loci were obtained from treated bloodstains and controls. The results from STR typing indicate that there was no evidence of DNA degradation.     

Truth and Consequences: Law,Myth and Metaphor in American Indian Contested Adoption

This article considers the effects of the operations of myth and metaphor on law through a comparison of a United States Supreme Court decision and a novel that deal with the contested trans-racial adoption of an American Indian child. It argues that the United States founding myth of Manifest Destiny—of the divinely ordained fate of the continent to host a (white) Christian state—is determinative of the way in which legal decisions regarding American Indians are made. The myth of Manifest Destiny contains a metaphor of vanished American Indians, such that contemporary American Indians are rendered nearly invisible and whose existence is not easily absorbed into the working of the American legal system. The American Indian Child Welfare Act provides protections against assimilation for indigenous families and community, thus working at cross-purposes to the ultimate aim of Manifest Destiny. What happens in those instances when legal provisions and interpretation run counter to Manifest Destiny? Through the consideration of the situation of a contested adoption, this article reveals the heavy influence of Manifest Destiny in the Supreme Court decision, which is counter to the vision of a pluralistic culture envisioned in both the novel and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) itself. The consequences of legal resistance to ICWA for American Indian communities and as to the operation of the legal system itself are discussed.     

The Role of Emotional Security,Narrative, and Resilience for Youth and Families in Contexts of Armed Conflict

The far‐reaching devastation created by contemporary armed conflict puts children and families at risk. The goal of this article is to describe current research on the effects of armed conflict and political violence on families and youth with a focus on the roles of emotional insecurity and narratives of conflict that can persist long after the end of conflict. We describe how identity processes that are at the heart of many intergroup conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries are linked with emotional insecurity and the historical and personal narratives of youth in these contexts. We conclude with general considerations for legal, medical, and mental health practitioners working with families who have experienced armed conflict.     

Regulating the Reproduction and Morality of Women

ABSTRACT

Punishment and corrections continue to be shaped by political, economic, and religious/moral forces. Yet, penologists tend to overlook another significant social formely, technology. By exploring technological forces, emerging mechanisms of social control are also discerned, especially those relating to female reproduction and morality. In addition to attending to technological forces, this article critically examines various applications of androcentric positivism, in particular the claims surrounding the effects of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and fetal (drug) abuse. While discussing how these technological developments contribute to repressive measures of gendered social control, attention also is directed at the controversy of Norplant as a form of coercive contraception. Issues pertinent to race and class are taken into account as well.     

An ideal material for the preparation of known toolmark test impressions

Traditionally, toolmark test exemplars are produced by applying a tool's working surface to a piece of soft metal such as lead. Soft, pliable metals are primarily used for this purpose because they will replicate the microscopic grooves present on a tool's working surface without damaging the tool. In this paper the authors present an alternative material for the preparation of test toolmarks. Jewelry modeling or carving waxes are utilized in this study. These waxes are designed for the jewelry modeling industry to create very fine, highly detailed wax models of jewelry pieces that will be cast in various metals utilizing the lost wax casting method. Jeweler's waxes have been found to be ideal for preparing test toolmarks from exemplar tools. The test tool's working surface is applied to a piece of the appropriate wax in a manner consistent with the tool's design. The replicas obtained are exact, highly detailed, 1:1, negative impressions of the exemplar tools working surface, have a long shelf-life, and are suitable for use in toolmark examination and comparison cases.