Participative leadership and hierarchical structures in multiple perpetrator rape: replicating and extending a scale of influence among offenders

ABSTRACT

This paper replicates and extends Porter and Alison’s (2001. A partially ordered scale of influence in violent group behavior: An example from gang rape. Small Group Research, 32(4), 475–497) method of leader identification in Multiple Perpetrator Rape (MPR). The study examined 216 MPR offences (totalling 712 different offenders), collected from archival sources (predominantly law reports). Porter and Alison’s original coding scheme was refined and Multidimensional Scaling identified a partially ordered scale of influence based upon the decisions, actions and orders made by the offenders at each chronological offence stage. The updated scale identified leaders in 97% of the sample groups. The hierarchical structures of the groups were also examined through the distribution of influence among co-offenders. While the majority (68%) of cases exhibited a dichotomous leader/follower structure, some “followers” also exhibited influence tactics to varying degrees with the presence of “lieutenants” and linear hierarchies. The findings are discussed in relation to group dynamics as well as the reliability and validity of the influence scale.     

Social relationships between prisoners in a maximum security prison: Violence, faith, and the declining nature of trust

Purpose

This paper describes significant changes to social relationships in a high security prison, including the prominent role played by faith identities and fears of radicalisation in shaping prisoner social life.

Methods

The study consists of a repeated sociological investigation of the nature of staff-prisoner relationships at a single site in the UK. Methods included extensive observation, the creation of a regular dialogue group with 14 prisoners, long, private interviews with 32 staff and 52 prisoners, focus groups, and surveys with 170 prisoners and 180 staff.

Results

The study found a decline in already low levels of trust, with dramatic effects on the prison's inner life. Relationships between prisoners were fractured, more deeply hidden than in the original study, and the traditional prison hierarchy, formerly easily visible in long-term prisons, had dissolved. Longer sentences, fears of radicalisation, confusion about prison officer power, and high rates of conversion to Islam, reshaped the dynamics of prison life, raising levels of fear. Clear indications of the anxieties and social unravellings of late modern society were found.

Conclusions

Increased punitiveness, indeterminate sentences, the intensification of risk-oriented practices, and anxieties relating to terrorism, have deepened the tone and reshaped the practices of long-term imprisonment.     

Analysis of the stages of change model of drug and alcohol treatment readiness among prisoners

A classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was applied to data for 237 male participants (M = 31.93 years, SD = 7.64) in a prison-based substance abuse treatment program to study the integrity of the Stages of Change model of treatment readiness. Using the Stages of Change Questionnaire (STOCQ), participants were assigned to Contemplation (102), Action (118), or Maintenance (17) groups. A CART analysis then examined differences in the overall group profiles on the basis of scores on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking, the Situational Confidence Questionnaire, and the Carlson Psychological Survey. The assumption of discrete stages of change was not supported. Alternative models are suggested: one based on states of change and one on personality characteristics. A focus on equal attention to both cognitive and behavioral aspects of substance abuse treatment readiness is suggested.     

Leading the way: the integral role of local government within a multisector partnership delivering a large infrastructure project in an Australian growth region

Multisectoral partnerships with local government have emerged as a strategy for solving ‘wicked’ problems in communities, although research about these types of public–private partnerships is limited. Available evidence suggests that differentials in power and status, value bases and perspectives on priorities have been problematic in partnership building with community. This paper examines the role of local government as the funded, lead organisation, in a public–private partnership for planning, designing and constructing a business accelerator in one of Australia’s growth regions. Partnership scope, role and outcomes were measured against a conceptual framework mapping success indicators. Findings show core principles for successful partnership were achieved and supported by the role, capacity and commitment of local government to forming strong working relationships with consortium partners. Relationship building and commitment to collective project outcomes were pivotal to success. Further research is needed to assess whether emerging trends hold and consolidate over time.     

Transnational Organized Crime: A European Perspective

One of the most controversial issues the United States has to deal with since the beginning of the 2003 war in Iraq is the Mujahedeen a-Khalk (MEK). For more than two decades the organization had been the major armed opposition to the Iranian government and, at the same time, had been a close ally to Saddam Hussein's regime. This study examines the history of the MEK, the debate within the Bush administration on what to do with the MEK fighters, and the solutions proposed by the Iraqi Governing Council, the Iranian government, and the United States. The analysis suggests that operationally and ideologically the MEK has reached a dead end.‐