“Keeping Children Safe”: the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme in Scotland

Abstract

This article describes the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme in Scotland known as Keeping Children Safe (KCS), and the wider community engagement strategy developed by the charity Stop it Now! Scotland. The author coordinated the disclosure scheme on behalf of Police Scotland from November 2011 to March 2014. He is employed by Stop it Now! Scotland as a project officer. In 2011, Stop it Now! Scotland took over responsibility for the coordination of the KCS scheme from the Police. This work is embedded within a community engagement strategy known as the Upstream Project. The Upstream Project provides information to “community-facing” agencies to use in their interface with groups or individual adults in the community. To achieve this, a prevention toolkit was developed which includes a range of practical information and resources which adults can use to identify potential risk and take steps to prevent sexual abuse from occurring.     

Conditions for Guilt-Free Consumption in a Transnational Criminal Market

It has been widely opined in discussions around a number of transnational criminal markets that where a global economic supply and demand relationship exists, demand reduction by way of consumer education and ‘awareness-raising’ may be an effective intervention in reducing illicit trade. It seems an obvious and sensible suggestion on the face of it, but just how amenable are consumers to being educated away from purchasing illicitly obtained and trafficked goods, and what are the barriers that stand in the way of that process of demand reduction through awareness-raising? This paper approaches these questions by asking what are the conditions for guilt-free consumption in the international trade in illicit cultural objects. The paper identifies seven such conditions, and concludes that in this global market we are witnessing the playing out of a common social story in which a powerful group of market capitalists and end-consumers employs a range of sociologically developed linguistic and performative strategies to obfuscate or legitimise their exploitation of a group of less powerful victims. If that is the context for the so-called debate about illicit antiquities, crime-reduction strategies involving consumer education seem considerably more difficult to achieve than has been widely recognised in policy discussions on transnational crime.     

The ethical identity of law students

This paper uses measures of values, moral outlook and professional identity to explore the ethical and professional identity of law students. We do so in two jurisdictions, surveying 441 students studying in England and Wales and 569 students studying in the US. The survey covers the first and final years of an undergraduate law degree and the postgraduate vocational stage in England and Wales, as well as students in all years of the JD programme in the US. We explore whether law students towards the end of their legal education have ethical identities predictive of less ethical conduct than those at the beginning of their legal education; whether law students intending careers in business law have values and profiles consistent with less ethical conduct than those intending to work for government or individuals; and what factors might explain these differences in ethical outlook. Our findings suggest that ethical identity is strongly associated with gender and career intentions. They also suggest weaker moral identities for students intending to practise business law. Ultimately, our findings support a conclusion that is more nuanced than the predominant theses about the impact of legal education on student ethicality which tend to suggest legal education diminishes ethicality.     

Strengthening Coparenting Relationships to Improve Strained Parent–Child Relationships: A Follow‐Up Study of Parents’ Experiences of Attending the Overcoming Barriers Program

Several interventions have been developed to address children's resistance and/or refusal to have contact with a parent following separation and divorce. There remains little agreement about how best to evaluate the success of these approaches. To explore the experiences of parents in the Overcoming Barriers Program (OCB), an online survey was distributed to all previous participants. Of the 40 parents who completed the survey at least six months after attending OCB, findings suggest mixed results. Benefits of OCB were more pronounced when changes were made to the coparenting relationships. Improvements in the coparenting relationship were specifically related to children's spending more time with both parents and better parent–child outcomes postintervention. Findings suggest that both the quality of parent–child relationships and the time that the children spend with both parents are associated with reported improvements in the cooperative coparenting relationship as a result of attending OCB. Implications are discussed in terms of lessons learned for developing, delivering, and evaluating similar programs for strained parent–child relationships.     

A genealogy of hostility: parental alienation in England and Wales

ABSTRACT

This article explores the emergence and development of parental alienation (PA) in England and Wales. It considers the background into which PA first appeared in private law proceedings concerning children in England and Wales, and examines how it progressed in the case law through the changing political and discursive context of private family law from 2000 to the end of March 2019. A clear pattern emerged of, initially, parental alienation syndrome and subsequently PA being raised in family proceedings and in political and popular arenas in response to concerns about and measures to address domestic abuse. The case law revealed a high incidence of domestic abuse perpetrated by parents (principally fathers) who were claiming that the resident parents (principally mothers) had alienated the children against them, which raises questions about the purpose of PA. More recently, a PA ‘industry’ appears to have amassed comprising experts, therapists and lawyers, advocating transfers of children’s care from ‘alienating’ mothers to non-resident fathers, as well as PA therapy for children and parents. While PA has had a chequered history and is not without its critics, it has become part of the discursive repertoire of current family law, with increasingly harsh consequences for women and children.     

The legal and administrative processes in adoption: views and experiences of newly formed adoptive families

The early stages of adoptive placements are important in achieving successful long-term outcomes for adopted children and their families. This paper reports on findings from the Wales Adoption Study, in which adoptive parents shared their views and experiences of the legal and administrative processes in obtaining an adoption order. Parents described a range of difficulties that added to anxieties and delays. These arose mainly through poor communication about the steps in the legal process and avoidable administrative errors or oversights. Some parents also experienced lack of information and support regarding agreed contact arrangements and work with their child to help them make sense of their adoptive status.     

Parental and Others’ Responses to Physical Sibling Violence: a Descriptive Analysis of Victims’ Retrospective Accounts

Although sibling abuse may be the most common form of family violence, relatively few studies have been conducted on this topic. The current exploratory study addressed this gap in the literature through analyses of thematic categories in sibling abuse narratives gathered from an online survey of sibling violence victims. All data was collected via an online survey. Participants who reported being victimized by physical sibling violence were asked to reflect on how others—family members, professionals, and friends—responded to knowledge of the abuse. Results demonstrate a need for general education about sibling violence, particularly for parents who might minimize or normalize their children’s violent conflicts. Additionally, parents need assistance in developing appropriate responses to sibling violence, as participants often perceived their parents to be ineffective at preventing or stopping the abuse. Finally, this study suggests that negative or unhelpful parental responses can be as harmful as the sibling violence itself.     

Children's Participation in Family Law Proceedings: A Step Too Far or a Step Too Small?

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 established children's rights to have their views considered in family law proceedings. These rights go further than elsewhere in the UK: in requiring parents to consult their children when making any ‘major decision’, in creating a range of mechanisms for children to state their views and through facilitating children becoming party to legal proceedings if they are legally competent. Such rights are not without controversy, either in abstract (Is it in children's best interests to be involved in court proceedings? Should children have such rights?) or in practice (Do children and parents know of these rights and accompanying duties? How do legal professionals judge a child's competency?). This paper explores such controversies, using findings from a feasibility study undertaken with children, parents and legal professionals.     

Regulating stop and search: a challenge for police and community relations in England and Wales

Policing in England and Wales has become increasingly contested since the 1960s and has been subject to unprecedented levels of public scrutiny. Stop and search powers have played a central role in this process and, though often described as an essential part of modern policing, have continued to provide a flashpoint in police–community relations. In this article the authors briefly review the history of stop and search in England and Wales, drawing particular attention to the concerns that have been raised about the use of this power in relation to minority ethnic communities. The article goes on to consider how issues of public trust and confidence have been addressed and raises questions about the effectiveness of efforts to regulate this area of activity. Finally, we suggest that regulation has become too tightly bound to ‘‘race’’ and measures of disproportionality. Instead, we argue that the current focus on ‘‘race’’ should be broadened to include other groups that may be subject to over-policing and that monitoring should be based on a system of triangulation, which combines multiple indicators and mixed methods.     

Perceived Parenting Competencies following Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors may face specific challenges in their parental role because of the negative sequelae of their abuse. This study explored factors that might heighten or buffer the risk for problems in parenting for intrafamilial CSA survivors. A community sample of 54 CSA mothers completed questionnaires assessing the severity of their CSA experiences, current depressive symptoms, partner support, and key parenting dimensions. Six moderated mediational models revealed that CSA severity indirectly impacted the survivor’s bond with her child, limit setting ability, communication, and parental involvement through depressive symptoms at high levels of partner support. Partner support was protective against many difficulties in parenting at low levels of depressive symptoms, but did not promote, and at times hindered, effective parenting at high depressive symptoms. This study’s findings highlight the importance of attending to risk and protective factors in understanding parenting among CSA survivors.     

Psychological Injury and Law: Editorial on the Young and the Tested

In this editorial about our dynamic new journal and association, I describe how young professionals and students in both the mental health field and the legal profession can play a role in the association and how they can benefit from it and the journal. The association and journal are meant to serve the education and career aspirations of young people and, at the same time, we look forward to their contributions.     

Regulatory Threats to the Law Degree: The Solicitors Qualifying Examination and the Purpose of Law Schools

Two major regulatory changes are affecting the provision of undergraduate legal education in England and Wales. On the one hand, the Qualifying Law Degree is being deregulated, meaning law schools are free to make significant changes to how and what they teach. On the other hand, higher education in England has seen a significant overhaul through the creation of the Office for Students, which treats students as consumers. Now more than ever, law schools need to ask themselves existential questions which will not only test their continued relevance or indeed viability within the ‘market’ for higher education, but also the status of the discipline of law as a whole. The regulatory landscape may indeed present a significant threat, but it is also an opportunity to reflect on what law schools are for, and consequently what changes could result from the academic freedom that comes with deregulation. Whilst different law schools will interpret their mission differently, they should caution against either generalised inertia or succumbing to an outcomes-oriented provision that simply prepares students for the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination. Instead, law schools will find their proper purpose in critical reflection and academic self-grounding, providing undergraduate students with a ‘question everything’ mentality, and showing them that law is something to be experienced and not merely learnt.

     

American politics,British policy: whole of life imprisonment and transatlantic influence

Since the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment in England and Wales has had a literal meaning with exceptional rarity. Now though, in the rejection of perceived interference by the European Court of Human Rights in domestic sentencing, the politics of whole of life imprisonment have become exposed, specifically, in the widening applicability of the tariff to those who kill police officers or prison guards. Borrowing from the politics of capital punishment in the United States, in both “acting out” after a particular crime, and the prioritising of victim groups, the most severe penalty in England and Wales is increasingly beginning to mirror how the most severe punishment across the Atlantic is used, represented, and politicised.     

Fitting stories into professional legal education—the missing ingredient

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE considers the absence of story‐telling from legal education in England and Wales. This important aspect of persuasion is quite thoroughly considered in the academic and professional legal literature of the USA and Australia, for example, but has received very little attention in England, specifically when one looks at professional legal education and training. Currently, the training programme for law graduates (who will qualify as barristers1) devotes considerable time to training in advocacy skills and often in case preparation as well but typically little or no time to the concept of story‐telling or story‐framing. These training programmes do not seek to inform our lawyers‐in‐waiting about the ways in which fact‐finders make decisions.

If one actively seeks information and learned comment on the topic of story‐telling, the legal trainer in England is forced to turn elsewhere, usually to the USA. Undoubtedly, research is ongoing in England on the topic of juror decision‐making but at present this tends to be the exclusive province of psychologists. This article will suggest that this topic is a vital missing ingredient in professional legal training in England and that space must be made for its inclusion in such training programmes. Consideration will be given to the most appropriate ways to facilitate this inclusion.

Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.2     

Mapping the effects of Brexit on legal education in Wales: proposals for addressing students’ concerns

ABSTRACT

Whilst the future for UK–EU relations remains to be realised, Brexit will have consequences for legal education. However, to date, neither the UK nor Welsh Governments have sufficiently addressed what those consequences will be for higher education. This paper, which documents the results of 336 student questionnaires received from law students surveyed from every law school in Wales, evidences that learners have already started to decide what they believe Brexit means for them. Amongst the numerous challenges for Welsh law schools is the opinion of current students that Brexit makes Wales a less attractive place for overseas students and lecturers, both EU and other internationals, to study and work. Meanwhile UK students studying in Wales are questioning the relevance of EU law modules, and are viewing aspirational careers within EU institutions as now being “closed doors”. By drawing upon our findings, as well as comparisons with other EU Member States, this paper proposes six areas where urgent collaboration between governments and universities is needed. Failing to address the concerns identified by this research has the potential to further threaten the internationalised education model that UK students benefit from by studying law at Welsh universities.     

Parents' Reactions to Child Day Care Organizations: The Influence of Perceptions of Procedures and the Role of Organizations' Trustworthiness

On the basis of the uncertainty management model, we argue here that when people are uncertain about an organization's trustworthiness, they may resolve the question how they should react toward the organization by relying on their perceptions of the organization's procedures. As a consequence, we predicted that the reactions of parents whose child was in a day care center would be strongly influenced by their perceptions of the procedures used by the organization that was responsible for their children's day care when the parents would be uncertain about the organization's trustworthiness. However, when parents would be certain that the organization could be trusted they would be less in need of procedural information, yielding less strong effects of perceived procedure on parents' reactions. The findings of a survey study corroborate this line of reasoning. In the discussion it is argued that these findings suggest that people especially rely on their perceptions of procedures when they are uncertain about important aspects of their lives, such as the trustworthiness of organizations that are responsible for their children's day care.     

They Persist: Parent and Youth Voice in the Age of Trump

In recent decades, parents and youth involved in the child welfare and foster care systems have created myriad ways to have their voices heard and their concerns appreciated, including through collective self‐advocacy efforts. New forms of individual and communal advocacy have emerged, including with supportive professionals, that acknowledge the centrality of parents and youth in every decision being made about their lives and about the systems that control their lives. Nevertheless, studies of youth and parent engagement identify the numerous individual and systemic barriers to meaningful participation and self‐advocacy efforts and the challenges to overcoming those barriers. This essay explores how empowered parents and youth can surmount those barriers with the assistance of their professional allies. Ultimately, this individual and communal engagement will strengthen a family‐oriented child welfare system and a more responsive government in these uncertain times.     

In the matter of Christine B. Biersach. In the Ohio Court of Appeals

HOLDING: Before withdrawal of tube feeding may be permitted, a guardian must establish, by clear and convincing evidence, the treating and consulting physicians' education, training, and experience; the physician's history and experience with the patient; the fact that the physician personally examined the patient; and the opinions required by statute. Each physician should also testify to his opinion that the other physician in the matter is qualified, by reason of advanced education or training, limited practice, experience, or certification as a specialist, to make the findings and provide the opinions about the patient which are required by the statute. The consulting physician's opinion should be more than a conclusory adoption of the attending physician's opinion. Rather, it should be independently stated and, ideally, should include the reasons upon which it is based.     

Regional differences in spanking experiences and attitudes: A comparison of Northeastern and Southern college students

This study examined regional differences in college students experiences with corporal punishment. Students from two universities, one in the Northeast and one in the South, were surveyed about three aspects of spanking: their experiences receiving physical punishment, their assessments of their punishments, and their attitudes toward spanking. In general, Northeastern students were less likely than Southern students to have been hit and were hit less frequently. Further, Northeastern students were less likely than Southern students to feel that their spankings were justified, and less likely to favor spanking. Analyses of covariance for selected dependent variables controlling for religion, parents' education, and gender revealed that the effect of region was more important for attitudes than for behaviors. Implications of the findings for parents, children, and family professionals are discussed.     

Adoption Support and the Negotiation of Ambivalence in Family Policy and Children's Services

In this paper ambivalent commitments to parenting and family life by the New Labour government are explored by reference to the example of adoption support. Developments in adoption illuminate contrasting expectations in family policy and children's services more generally. Traditional normative concerns to support family status and parental autonomy are unsettled by contemporary anxieties about child outcomes and social mobility. Impatience with the attitudes and behaviour of parents has led to a 'progressive universalism' in which enhanced parenting services and expectations for all are combined with increasingly insistent and targeted interventions for the particularly needy, reluctant or recalcitrant few. At the same time demands for greater service modernization and professional effectiveness have led government to position parents as (potential) consumers too. The paper discusses these policy and practice tensions and concludes that new spaces are being opened up for the negotiation between parents and professionals about rights and responsibilities in family life and its support.