Factors that influence engagement in pre-proceedings practice: presenting the roles of professionals working within the family justice system through personal narratives

Public discourse around changes introduced as part of a drive to tackle spending on welfare, reflect a less than tolerant attitude towards welfare generally, but more specifically towards parents who require state involvement to care safely for their children. The introduction of a deadline of 26 weeks for the completion of care proceedings, together with a clear steer to resolve disputes wherever possible prior to making an application to court has introduced further instrumental approaches to working with parents. In this paper we explore practitioner experiences and understandings of working within the new legislative frameworks and consider the dominant cultural narratives they are working within. However, in some cases professionals felt able to challenge the economic narrative of the pre-proceedings protocol, and they experienced the legal and policy changes as an opportunity to engage in a helping alliance with families with the provision of support that otherwise they would not have been able to offer.     

Factors that Facilitate and Undermine Children's Beliefs About Truth Telling

This study examined the extent to which children believe that truth telling is compromised by negative outcome expectancies. It also investigated the efficacy of two types of appeals, externally and internally directed, for encouraging truth telling. Seventy-two children from three age groups (5, 7, and 10 years of age) participated in a vignette study designed to examine these issues. Results showed that children believed that truth telling about an adult's transgression would be more likely if negative outcomes were not expected than if they were expected. Further, children believed that either externally or internally focused encouragement would facilitate truth telling when negative outcomes were expected for truth telling. Beliefs about the propensity for truth telling were associated more with positive evaluations of truth telling than with negative evaluations of lying. These results have important implications for court cases in which children testify about an adult who has sworn them to secrecy and they are afraid to speak the truth.     

Biopsychosocial Factors that Perpetuate Chronic Pain, Impairment, and Disability

The biopsychosocial model provides the most heuristic account of the complex multifaceted nature of chronic pain and its associated impairment and disability. Although chronic pain, impairment, and disability are related, these are three separate constructs. In order to understand how these three constructs are interrelated, the development of pain from the acute to the chronic stage is discussed. Psychosocial factors as barriers to recovery are emphasized, including those that commonly manifest among patients receiving disability compensation. This is complemented by a review of psychometric instruments used to assess these psychosocial factors in chronic pain. Finally, the major delineation in levels of care for chronic pain is highlighted, emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach that is consistent with pain as a biopsychosocial phenomenon.     

Beliefs about child witnesses: A survey of professionals

This research addressed how professionals involved with the legal system evaluate children, primarily between 4 and 8 years old, as witnesses. In particular, we focused on professionals’ beliefs and opinions regarding children's memory, suggestibility, and behaviors as they relate to witness credibility. In addition, we surveyed professionals’ evaluations of investigative methods related to reliability. Four hundred and seventy-eight professionals working with children in the Norwegian legal system (i.e. judges, police detectives, psychologists, child psychiatrists, prosecutors, and defense attorneys) completed a questionnaire about child witness issues. Results indicated that psychiatrists as well as police officers expressed greater belief in children's capacities than did other groups, whereas defense attorneys and psychologists were more skeptical regarding children's general credibility. Psychiatrists and psychologists both, however, tended to favor, more than did legal professionals, the use of clinical techniques with children in abuse investigations. Implications are discussed in relation to professionals’ attitudes toward children as witnesses.     

Parents and medical professionals: conflict, cooperation, and best interests

Abstract This paper seeks to engage with the ideas expressed by Professor Brazier in her commentary on the Charlotte Wyatt case and to develop contemporary analysis around parental rights, notions of best interests, and shared decision-making between parents and professionals. The article begins by setting the scene in relation to parental/professional conflict and frames the discussion in the context of medical decision-making. Parental rights are then explored before the analysis progresses to how the concept of best interests has recently developed. Finally, the article investigates the benefits of compromise, cooperation, and shared decision-making as the most effective method for resolving disputes concerning children.     

Co-optation,competition and resistance: mediation and divorce professionals in Israel

This paper investigates the development of family mediation in Israel within the theoretical framework of the competition between professions (Abbott, 1988; Shamir, 1993), and the co-optation model of Coy and Hedeen (2005). It describes the formal institutionalization of family mediation in Israel and examines the claims made by lawyers, therapeutic mediators, and lawyer-mediators about the nature and boundaries of their professional enterprise and their goals and practices. Based on 254 questionnaires, semi-structured taped interviews and professional documents, our study found differences in the way the professionals construct the nature of the competition over mediation. While lawyers describe mediators as invading their realm of divorce practice, therapeutic professionals view mediation as a new field of knowledge which they are claiming as their own, in competition with legal professionals. Moreover, although elements of Coy and Hedeen's (2005) co-optation model were useful in describing the developing relationship between the divorce professionals, we found different strategies of resistance at each stage of the process.     

Factors that influence death penalty support among university students in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) became an independent nation state in 1992 and abolished the death penalty six years later. Little is known about how Bosnians view the death penalty. This study addresses this gap in the literature. Utilizing self-reported survey data collected from 440 university students enrolled at the University of Sarajevo in 2009, we assess the degree of support for the death penalty and what factors predict this support among university students in BiH. Drawing from the broader punitivity literature, the following correlates are considered: individual characteristics (e.g. age and sex), individual experiences (e.g. fear of crime and prior victimization) and philosophical attitudes pertaining to punishment (e.g. deterrence, retribution, modernity and indifference). Among the students surveyed, roughly half (52.7%) were in support of the death penalty. Results from a series of multivariate statistical analyses reveals that only philosophical attitudes predict death penalty support after controlling for important individual characteristics and experiences. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Violence against mental health care professionals: prevalence,nature and consequences

In this study, the prevalence, nature and consequences of violence against mental health care professionals are examined. Dutch mental health professionals working in clinical psychiatry were approached to fill in an online questionnaire on their personal experiences with physical violent incidents. It appeared that 67% of the 1534 respondents were victim of at least one physical violent incident in the past five years. In total, the 1534 respondents reported they had encountered 2648 physical violent incidents. In some cases, the consequences were very severe, not only for the victim but also for the employer. Some groups of professionals appear to have an increased risk of being victimized. The findings show that the violence that mental health professionals encounter is a substantial and severe problem that no longer should be disregarded.     

The court for sexual offences: perceptions of the professionals involved

This article evaluates the functioning of the Court for Sexual Offences in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa at the hand of the perceptions of those professionals most frequently involved with the Court. The findings suggest that professionals involved with this court tend to be positive in their appraisals of the sex-court system. However, the ability of the sex-court to remain objective and to reduce secondary victimization is called into question. Misconceptions with regard to the Court's current ability to contribute to the rehabilitation of offenders and the emotional recovery of the victims were exposed. The operational difficulties facing sex-court personnel are discussed and directions for future research are identified.     

Fax machines and social surveys: Teaching an old dog new tricks

Fax machines offer solutions to many of the disadvantages associated with other methods of administering surveys. Faxes are faster than mail methods, offer more control than personal interviews, and require fewer resources than phone surveys. Fax surveys are not without their drawbacks, however. This research note examines the issues that surround this technique of conducting such a survey and considers its suitability as a survey method of the future.     

Supervisory experience and data points: implementation barriers,risk assessment and correctional professionals

Drawing on interviews with 24 correctional practitioners who use risk assessment instruments daily, we examine barriers to the use and implementation of these instruments. Findings reveal that practitioners have confidence in the state of risk assessment generally, but are skeptical about risk assessment on the job due to limited resources. They also point to barriers that inhibit their effectiveness including recognition of population heterogeneity, predictive misspecification due to data lags and overemphasis on stable predictors, and lacking guidance on appropriate use of vast available data. Instruments for measuring risk serve purposes beyond those intended by the social scientists who developed measures. We conclude with lessons for increasing the utility and legitimacy of risk assessments and with a call for incorporating latent uses of assessments into design.     

Treatment adherence of maltreating families: A survey of professionals regarding prevalence and enhancement strategies

Maltreating parents often do not identify themselves as having a problem and are usually not self-referred for evaluation or treatment. As a result, treatment adherence problems are believed to be common. Unfortunately, the literature to date about the extent of the problem and what to do about it is sparse. The present investigation focuses on two types of treatment adherence by maltreating families: session attendance and homework completion. The goals of the study were the following: (a) provide information on the extent of the problem of nonadherence; (b) examine the relationship between nonadherence and client, treatment, and professional factors; and (c) provide information on the use and effectiveness of strategies to facilitate adherence. A survey was sent to 300 mental health and social service agencies nationwide and completed by 105 professionals. The survey requested specific data on three randomly selected maltreating parents from each respondent's current caseload. Data were obtained on 303 maltreating parents. Implications of the results for intervention and future research are discussed.