Dual-Factor Mental Health from Childhood to Early Adolescence and Associated Factors: A Latent Transition Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The dual-factor model of mental health indicates the importance of simultaneously assessing symptoms and subjective wellbeing, but there is limited understanding...     

Getting the story from child witnesses: exploring the application of a story grammar framework

Abstract

Investigative interviews with children about alleged abuse were analysed to determine the degree to which the child's responses adhered to a story grammar framework, and whether the presence of story grammar elements was associated with interviewers’ adherence to best-practice (i.e. open-ended) questioning. The sample included 51 interviews with child witnesses from across Australia. The interviews were administered by a police officer with children (37 girls and 14 boys) aged 3–16 years (M age = 103.82 months, SD = 34.21 months). The interviewers’ questions were categorised as open-ended or specific and the children's responses were classified as a story grammar element, context/background information, or ‘don't know’ responses. The majority of interviewer questions were specific in nature and the majority of children's responses were context/background details. Open-ended questions were more successful in eliciting story grammar from children. Of the story grammar elements, the interviewers’ specific questions usually targeted setting and attempt details. These findings suggest that improvement in the narrative coherence of children's reports of abusive events can potentially be achieved by increasing interviewers’ use of open-ended questions.     

Comment on Harvey Jacobs' “Social conflict over property rights: the end,a new beginning,or a continuing debate?”

Jacobs draws on history, law, politics, and policy to examine the development and response of the private property movement and the social conflict over property rights and public planning. This comment suggests that the debate be broadened beyond the advocates of property rights and planning to include the interests of other members of the community, including minority and low-income households who are often affected by the outcomes. Otherwise, property will continue to be used to exclude people from democracy, rather than include them.     

A Call for Help: Women Offenders' Reflections on Trauma Care

Female prisoners have extensive trauma histories and complex treatment needs that contribute to their criminality, yet trauma screening and treatment is not widespread in prisons. This article examines qualitative data gathered from face-to-face interviews with 31 female offenders in Canadian prisons. Using a grounded theory approach we demonstrate an unmet need for trauma-specific services for female offenders. These services go beyond trauma-informed practice and treat the psychological and behavioral sequelae of trauma exposure (e.g., mental illness and addictions) to facilitate recovery. The findings suggest that women in prison want and need specific treatment for trauma exposure. Integrating trauma-specific services involves a cultural shift within the prison environment that might be achieved by positioning trauma within the risk–need–responsivity model as an additional risk factor for criminality. Although counter to the public health perspective that trauma is a health concern, it is a way to ensure that trauma becomes part of the battery of care in corrections so that the needs of traumatized women are addressed while they are in custody. This was a unique opportunity to learn about what women would like to help deal with their experiences of trauma.     

Defence lawyers and probation officers: offenders' allies or adversaries?

The shift in recent decades towards an explicitly punitive agenda for criminal justice in Western jurisdictions has been well-documented in the criminological literature. People accused of offences and convicted offenders progress through a punitive criminal justice system replete with crime control values. Furthermore, in criminal justice policy development, the notion of victims' rights and the quest to rebalance the system in favour of victims now override concerns about rights. In the light of this state of affairs, it seems necessary to assess the role of practitioners within the criminal justice system who, by virtue of their professional mandates, can be expected to act as much needed allies for defendants as they progress through the system. These practitioners are defence lawyers and probation officers. Insufficient attention has been paid to the role of both and they have not previously been considered as two parts of a greater whole despite their obviously complimentary nature. In an effort to address this gap in knowledge, this article draws on two different studies to offer an exploratory discussion of how both practitioners interact with their clients and whether or not the practitioners can be viewed as effective allies of those implicated with the criminal process.     

Reducing recurrent care proceedings: initial evidence from new interventions

The English family justice system faces a crisis of recurrence. As many as one in four birth mothers involved in public law care proceedings in English family courts are likely to reappear in a subsequent set of proceedings within seven years. These mothers are involved in up to one-third of total care applications, as they are – by definition – linked to more than one child . Few birth mothers experiencing the removal of a child to care are offered any follow-up support, despite often facing multiple challenges including poverty, addiction, domestic violence and mental health problems. Since 2011, however, a number of new services have been established to begin to address their unmet needs. This article summarises the findings of the first academic-led evaluation of two of these initiatives. Presenting evidence from a mixed-methods evaluative study, it concludes that the new services were able to foster relationships that ‘worked’ in reducing recurrent proceedings. None of the women engaging with the services went on to experience what could be described as a ‘rapid repeat pregnancy’ within the evaluation window. Just as significantly, a number of clients reported some improvement in their psychological functioning, and the practitioners involved reported positively on their experience of delivering and managing innovative services. The article closes with a discussion of the challenges of evaluating personalised, strengths-based interventions and the possibilities of evidencing empowerment in these cases.     

Simplified low-copy-number DNA analysis by post-PCR purification

Frequently, evidentiary items contain an insufficient quantity of DNA to obtain complete or even partial DNA profiles using standard forensic gentotyping techniques. Such low-copy-number (LCN) samples are usually subjected to increased amplification cylces to obtain genetic data. In this study, a 28-cycle polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to evaluate various methods of post-PCR purification for their effects on the sensitivity of fluorophore-based allelic detection subsequent to capillary electrophoretic separation. The amplified product was purified using filtration, silica gel membrane, and enzyme mediated hydrolysis purification techniques and evaluated for their effect on fluorescent allelic signal intensity. A purification method was selected and its effect on fluorescent allelic signal intensity was compared with that of the unpurified PCR product. A method of post-PCR purification is described which increases the sensitivity of standard 28-cycle PCR such that profiles from LCN DNA templates (<100 pg DNA) can be obtained. Full DNA profiles were consistently obtained with as little as 20 pg template DNA without increased cycle number. In mock case type samples with dermal ridge fingerprints, genetic profiles were obtained by amplification with 28 cycles followed by post-PCR purification whereas no profiles were obtained without purification of the PCR product. Allele dropout, increased stutter, and sporadic contamination typical of LCN analysis were observed; however, no contamination was observed in negative amplification controls. Post-PCR purification of the PCR product can increase the sensitivity of capillary electrophoresis to such an extent that DNA profiles can be obtained from <100 pg of DNA using 28-cycle amplification.     

School disorder, victimization, and general v. place-specific student avoidance

This study utilizes a national sample of 3, 776 high-school students to test two theoretical models of school avoidance behavior. More specifically, this study examines the relationships between student avoidance and both school disorder (or, incivilities) and previous victimization experiences. Further, the study also examines whether the presumed effects of incivilities and victimization on avoidance operate indirectly, through student fear. Negative Binomial regression analyses showed that perceived disorder in the form of presence of gangs and previous bullying victimization are key sources of student fear. In turn, student fear is positively correlated with two distinct types of avoidance behavior. Interestingly, controlling for student fear does not dissolve the significant, positive effects of perceived gang presence and bullying victimization.