Legislating Dangerously: Bad Samaritans,Good Society,and the Heroism Act 2015

The Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015 is a troublesome statute. The Act requires that, when considering a claim brought against a defendant in negligence or for breach of statutory duty, the court must assess whether that party was ‘acting for the benefit of society or any of its members’ (section 2), or ‘demonstrated a predominantly responsible approach towards protecting the safety or interests of others’ (section 3), or was ‘acting heroically’ (section 4). However laudable the Coalition Government's attempts to foster a ‘Big Society’ might have been, this enactment was not the proper vehicle to achieve it. Some provisions merely repeat longstanding common law principles. Others may have been intended to amend the common law to encourage ‘good citizenship’, but fall well short of that aim. And some aspects of the Act's drafting have the (perhaps unintended) potential to sit uncomfortably with established common law negligence principles.     

Transnational policy influence and the politics of legitimation

Many domains of transnational policy are now governed through dynamic, multilevel governance processes, encompassing transnational, national, and subnational scales. In such settings, both membership of policy communities and distributions of authority within them become more fluid and openly contested—increasing the importance of the politics of legitimation as a basis for distributing influence over policy processes and outcomes. Drawing on insights from theories of organizational and institutional legitimation, this article theorizes three distinctive strategies of policy influence exercised by transnational actors in multilevel governance settings, through which strategic efforts to legitimize transnational actors and forums are deployed as means of transnational policy influence. The three strategies involve: transnational field building, localized network building, and role adaptation. The effects of these influencing strategies on policy processes and outcomes are illustrated with reference to the case of Indonesian land governance, in which highly dynamic, contested, and multiscalar governance processes lend our theorized strategies particular salience.     

“It’s Like Standing on a Beach,Holding Your Children’s Hands,and Having a Tsunami Just Coming Towards You”: Intimate Partner Violence and “Expert” Assessments in Australian Family Law

The ways in which postseparation parenting disputes are managed has undergone significant change in Australia since the Family Law Act (Cth) was first enacted in 1975. The best interests of children have always been paramount in children’s cases and over the last 20 years, this concept has been legislatively shaped to include ongoing beneficial post separation parental relationships and protection from harm. A critical piece of evidence to inform a Family Court’s decision making in such matters is a family report, which is an expert assessment compiled by a social science professional. The authors report findings from an Australian based qualitative study exploring the experiences of family report assessment practice from the perspective of victim mothers who have separated from men who perpetrate intimate partner violence. The authors conclude that reforms are necessary to improve the practice and procedure of family report writing in Australia. Such reforms should ensure that the lived experience of victims of intimate partner violence is validated, assessment processes have victim efficacy, and the outcomes of such reports do not put women and their children at ongoing risk of harm.     

Stopping the Traffic: the National Vigilance Association and the international fight against the ‘white slave’ trade (1899–c.1909)

The National Vigilance Association was the most prominent organization to take on the fight against sex trafficking in turn-of-the-century Britain. In 1899, it established and presided over the first global multidenominational anti-trafficking task force, the International Bureau for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic (later Traffic in Persons). This article focuses on the configuration of the National Vigilance Association's anti-trafficking work during the formative years of the Bureau, paying particular attention to the relationship between the Association and the state. It sheds new light on the nature and significance of both the Association's role in the Bureau and the Association's domestic anti-trafficking operations. It exposes the way in which, while making notable advancements in the fight against trafficking, the Association brought an assumption of British superiority to its international work, and operated on the basis of a misdiagnosis of ‘sexual exploitation’ informed by a gender- and class-biased xenophobia, such as to detract from its commitment to the suppression of trafficking.     

Backsliding and Reversal: The J Curve Revisited

In this article we argue that democratic transitions can reverse, oscillate, or simply stall. These transitions are exemplified in the different types of states we categorize. We construct a model of stability vs openness using three dimensions of stateness, namely authority, legitimacy, and capacity. With the additional application of a six-fold typology of states, we offer a robust analytical framework with which to identify and explain changes in state status. Our construct of stability and openness leads to a novel development of a global conflict damage index, which is built upon conflict risk, but considers a state’s capacity to deal with conflict. The paper concludes with implications for policy and the application of the model to conflict prediction when states under go transition.     

Into the Words: Using Statutory Text to Explore the Impact of Federal Courts on State Policy Diffusion

I examine the impact federal appellate courts have on state policy diffusion through the use of computational text analysis. Using a dyadic framework, I model the impact courts have on the decision to adopt a policy and, if adopted, how much text to borrow directly from another state's preexisting law. A court decision ruling a statute unconstitutional can generate up to a 28% relative reduction in the probability of adoption, and a ruling of constitutionality can both increase the probability of adoption by a similar amount and more than double the amount of borrowed text. These findings shed light on how states learn from one another.     

Empirical evaluation of a technology acceptance model for mobile policing

Technology acceptance in policing is under-researched, yet mobile devices are widely implemented across UK police forces. The paper validates a mobile technology acceptance model (M-TAM) developed in a single police force. It shows that the M-TAM is transferrable to other UK police forces, and potentially worldwide. The influence of local supervision and fit of technology to roles and tasks are shown to be the most influential factors. Factors beyond the technology itself, such as the influence of peers and involvement of operational officers in technology investment decisions, must be considered to accommodate the strong cultural barriers in policing.     

Moving prison health promotion along: towards an integrative framework for action to develop health promotion and tackle the social determinants of health

The majority of prisoners are drawn from deprived circumstances with a range of health and social needs. The current focus within ‘prison health’ does not, and cannot, given its predominant medical model, adequately address the current health and well-being needs of offenders. Adopting a social model of health is more likely to address the wide range of health issues faced by offenders and thus lead to better rehabilitation outcomes. At the same time, broader action at governmental level is required to address the social determinants of health (poverty, unemployment and educational attainment) that marginalise populations and increase the likelihood of criminal activities. Within prison, there is more that can be done to promote prisoners’ health if a move away from a solely curative, medical model is facilitated, towards a preventive perspective designed to promote positive health. Here, we use the Ottawa Charter for health promotion to frame public health and health promotion within prisons and to set out a challenging agenda that would make health a priority for everyone, not just ‘health’ staff, within the prison setting. A series of outcomes under each of the five action areas of the Charter offers a plan of action, showing how each can improve health. We also go further than the Ottawa Charter, to comment on how the values of emancipatory health promotion need to permeate prison health discourse, along with the concept of salutogenesis.