Against Legitimacy

Beetham has recently made an impressive contribution to the understanding of Legitimacy which he holds to be central to both political and social theory. As a social science concept, capable of playing a significant part in the explanation of the workings and breakdowns of political systems, however, legitimacy so defined proves difficult, sometimes impossible, to apply and runs the serious danger of misleading explanation. The case against legitimacy is argued through a combination of theoretical and empirical considerations and in place of legitimacy a case is made for the experience of government behaviour and the capacity for collective action as the more fruitful foci of social theory.     

A descriptive study of juvenile family violence: Data from intervention order applications in a Childrens Court

There is increasing recognition that family violence may be perpetrated by juveniles against their parents and siblings, however empirical research regarding the nature and causes of such violence is relatively limited. This study examines juvenile family violence in the context of an Intervention Order (IO) being sought against a relative aged 18 years or less. All cases over a 3-year period involving an IO application in a major metropolitan Children's Court in Australia were analysed (n = 438). The majority of applicants/victims were parents (78%) and to a lesser extent siblings (11%) and other relatives (9%). Most parents who sought applications were mothers (63%) and one-parent households were over-represented (66%). The majority of defendants/perpetrators were male (69%), though juvenile females constituted a significant minority (31%). Intervention orders were sought to prohibit property damage (61%), physical assaults (59%) and/or threats (53%). According to the victim reports, these behaviours emerged in the context of prolonged behavioural problems (49%), a desire to intimidate the victim (12%) or retaliation (8%). While 44% of IO applications were granted, the majority were not (56%) due to the victim discontinuing the application prior to a formal hearing. Of the orders that were granted, a third (32%) were subsequently reported as having been breached. Juvenile family violence is a serious social problem that requires more systematic research to identify the correlates of this behaviour and effective interventions to prevent or reduce its occurrence.     

Forensic Assessment of Adults Reporting Childhood Sexualized Assault: Risk,Resilience, and Impacts

Though childhood sexualized assault (CSA) increases risk for varied psychological difficulties, no single condition, syndrome, or set of difficulties is reliably associated with such experiences. CSA likely disrupts or impairs normal development in complex ways that depend on the risk and resilience factors present before, during, and after CSA. CSA characteristics that increase risk for later difficulties include young age, trauma inflicted by another person, number of occurrences, violence or intrusiveness, betrayal of trust, adverse peri-traumatic reactions, negative reactions from others following disclosure, and a context of previous sexualized assault or maltreatment. Resilience increases with positive self-esteem, better intellectual functioning, good self-control, positive social support, and early therapeutic intervention. CSA is associated with impaired psychological development, mental health disorders, behavioural and relationship difficulties, physical health problems, reduced intellectual function, lower educational achievement, lower occupational attainment, and reduced lifetime income. Any particular difficulty may be problematic in its own right and may also contribute to other difficulties in the interlocking domains of individual abilities and attributes, relationships, and significant life activities. In individual forensic assessment cases, general evidence on CSA risk/resilience and impacts can be used in combination with the lifespan developmental analysis (Barnes & Josefowitz, Psychological Injury and Law, 2014), to determine whether and how CSA contributed to psychological injuries.     

International Power and Local Action – Implications for the Intersectionality of the Rights of Women with Disability

The recent United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reframes how policy responds to disability, difference, interdependence and rights. We examine how Australian disability activists used the CRPD to advocate for the intersectional rights of women with disability. We applied a framework from Zwingel's conceptualisation of mutually constituting global norms to analyse the intersectionality of rights represented in three stages of the CRPD process – during the drafting, the wording in the Convention, and the periodic review. We found that disability activists were able to shape the gendering of disability through their targeted representation as people with lived experience. This expertise filled a knowledge gap in the policy process valued by the actors at other policy levels. Extending Zwingel's concept of global discourse translation, it also suggests that the dynamic contribution continues in the international interpretation of the CRPD itself.     

Former Canadian Federal Prisoners’ views of wrongful conviction: experiences,interpretations, and governmentality

Crime, Law and Social Change - Wrongful convictions continue to occur, with over 350 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States, and a collection of over 2500 known cases of presumed...     

Casualisation and international labour standards： The role of trade unions in Nigeria

Casualisation is a new form of work arrangement occasioned by globalisation and trade liberalisation. This development was facilitated by the technological improvements in communication and information technology. Scholars have attributed the shift from standard work arrangements to nonstandard work arrangements to the fact that employers use it to avoid the mandates and costs associated with labour laws which are designed to protect permanent employees. Casualisation became a feature of Nigerian labour market in the late 1980＇s and is traceable to the adoption of the Structural Adjustment Programme in line with the neoliberal policies prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. One of the effects of this policy was the retrenchment of workers in the public sector which created large scale unemployment. However, the private sector which was to be strengthened by government policies to absorb these workers could not absorb all the retrenched workers from the public sector. Therefore, many of them were employed as casual and contract workers with low remuneration, limited benefits and lack of right to organise. This development led to a ＇race to the bottom＇ of labour standards. This paper seeks to examine the adequacy of labour laws governing trade unionism in Nigeria in ensuring the right of nonstandard workers to freedom of association, as well as their conformity to international labour standards. It is argued that Nigerian labour laws are inadequate and need to be reformed in order to give protection to casual and contract workers in many sectors of the economy and to guarantee their right to unionise in order to enable them improve their rights at works.     

Characteristics of men and women completing cognitive/behavioral spouse abuse treatment

Although abuse in relationships is widespread and often escalates without intervention, the scant extant data indicate that people in abusive relationships often fail to complete treatment programs. We compared demographic characteristics, Male-Female Relations Inventory scores (MFRI), and selected MilIon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory I (MCMI-I) scale scores of men and women who did and did not complete an 8-session 4-week cognitive/behavioral group treatment program. The 16 completer men had lower scores on MCMI-I scales related to drug abuse as compared with the 18 noncompleter men. Court-referred men completed more often than other men. The 23 completer women also had lower scores on MCMI-I scales related to drug abuse than the 17 noncompleter women. Fewer of the completer women were employed and fewer had children than the noncompleter women. Scores on the MFRI were not different for completer or noncompleter men or women. Implications for interventions are discussed.