Powerful perpetrators,hidden in plain sight: an international analysis of organisational child sexual abuse cases

ABSTRACT

There is virtually no literature on child sexual abuse committed by “powerful perpetrators”, who, use position, reputation, wealth and/or power, to become influential members of their organisation. Seventeen cases relating to youth serving organisations were identified using a comprehensive search of databases covering case reviews from England, Australia and the US. A Quantitative Content Analysis was used to analyse the sample with a focus on identifying offenders’ “modus operandi”. Findings revealed a number of critical differences between powerful perpetrators and other child sexual offenders described in the literature. Findings are discussed in relation to their implications for creating safer youth serving organisations. In particular, focusing on educating YSOs to recognise and address risks posed by powerful perpetrators; expanding organisational safety policies and practices and taking steps to develop a strong, positive organisational safety culture are commended as key approaches.     

Helena Normanton: legal crusader or myth Maker? ‘[S]urely the one thing history teaches us is that we cannot generalise,or even worse,categorise individual humans into saints and sinners,or heroes and villains’

ABSTRACT

Helena Normanton aspired to become a lawyer at a time when women were prohibited from entering the legal profession. This aspiration became a reality when, on 24 December 1919, she became the first woman to be admitted to an institution of the legal profession after the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, thus enshrining her place in legal history. Her achievement was, without doubt, remarkable. She has become the ‘face’ of women’s entry to the legal profession, but what was her contribution to the opening the legal profession to women? How should history remember her? This article will examine her role in this history and compare it to her own narrative. Further it will consider how we reconcile her trailblazing challenge to the male exclusivity of the Bar with the difficulties her behaviour often presents to us. Helena Normanton: saint or sinner? And does it matter?     

Performance regulation in a networked healthcare system: From cosmetic to institutionalized compliance

This article studies the role of a public regulator in managing the performance of healthcare professionals. It combines a networked governance perspective with responsive regulation theory to show the mechanisms that have added to significant changes in medical cost management in the Netherlands. In a five-year period, hospital practices transitioned from cosmetic compliance with performance regulation and strategic upcoding to institutionalized compliance more in line with regulatory goals. The article demonstrates how policy changes transformed incentive structures, introduced new forms of accountability, and added actors to the network with technocratic disciplining tasks. The networked character of performance regulation offered opportunities for a responsive, non-coercive regulatory strategy that engaged various actors in a regulatory conversation about strategic coding. Responsive regulation can reduce strategic responses to performance regulation and manage the gap between administrative and clinical logics. The case study contributes to our understanding of the effectiveness of responsive, non-punitive regulation in networked settings.     

City of Illusions,layers of deceit,and the sterility of isolation

Ursula K. Le Guin frequently uses the genre of science fiction/fantasy to explore power relationships between cultures. This paper examines an early and neglected work, City of Illusions, within the context of post‐colonial criticism to show that the novel is in fact a highly sophisticated political parable. The novel depicts a colonized Earth under the control of an extragalactic power which employs many of the strategies for control used by the hegemonic powers of the past and present. Essentially, the novel explores how these methods of manipulation and control work, the effects they have on the colonized societies, and colonized peoples' strategies of resistance. The novel makes use of a series of metaphors to convey these ideas.     

Psychosocial Perspectives of Girls and Violence: Implications for Policy and Praxis

Psychosocial and feminist criminologies produce a complex etiology of adolescent female violence, and advance understanding of much female behavior that juvenile authorities formally address: mental health disturbances. When girls’ violent behaviors are considered within a psychodynamic theoretical framework, policy problems are dramatically redefined, resulting in a reformulation of the social problem, newly contextualized, and the collective responses to the troubled girls it has defined. This paper places known etiologies of violent behaviors, including case study material, in a context of extant social policies that impact and determine the social location and control of violent girls. We argue that efficacious policy responses would be psychosocially informed, and focus upon a more holistic mental health praxis, rather than criminal justice practices alone.     

De-antagonising the Other: Changing Constructions of the Taliban and the Possibility of Reconciliation

Shortly after 9/11 any kind of engagement, let alone reconciliation, with the Taliban was considered absurd. Recently, however, Afghan as well as Western elites have announced that they are now willing to talk to parts of the Taliban in an attempt to begin a reconciliation process in Afghanistan. This article focuses on the discourse theoretical framework developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and illustrates the merits of such an approach for explaining how such a shift became possible. It argues that the turn to reconciliation with the Taliban was enabled by a transformation of the discursive construction of the Taliban. The article focuses on the discursive dynamics of the (de)coupling and differentiation of signifiers as a central mechanism of meaning production. It argues that antagonistic identity constructions in the context of the global war on terror formed the discursive background against which the Taliban were first articulated as part of the terrorist “Other”, which made any engagement impossible. From 2009 onwards, however, it can be observed how the signifier “Taliban” was decoupled from the identity of the “terrorist”, how it transcended the antagonistic frontier and came to be seen as an entity worthy of engagement.     

Health Ombudsmen in Polycentric Regulatory Fields: England,New Zealand,and Australia

Health ombudsmen (health complaints commissioners), an unusual entity internationally, exist only in England, New Zealand, and the Australian states and territories. Established to respond to complaints from patients, the intention is to make health services and professionals more accountable to the public. Most cases are handled around the softer base of a regulatory pyramid, such as advice to complainants and requests to providers for an explanation and/or apology. Few cases escalate to investigations and prosecutions. Although the legal powers of some health ombudsmen to redress individual grievances have been strengthened, most lack the independent power to initiate an inquiry into systemic problems. To produce quality improvements, health ombudsmen need powers to require compliance from providers and to initiate inquiries. With the advent of new health sector regulators, health ombudsmen must negotiate their role and function within expanding networks of governance.