Validation of the Child Sexual Abuse Knowledge Questionnaire

A validation study of the Child Sexual Abuse Knowledge Questionnaire (CSA-KQ) was conducted on a sample of 1712 non-empanelled jurors in the greater Sydney area, Australia. The CSA-KQ contains nine items derived from empirical findings on common misconceptions about typical features of abuse offences, children’s responses to child sexual abuse, and their ability to give reliable evidence. Study 1 tested the factor structure of the questionnaire in a sample of 843 non-empanelled jurors. The best model indicated by exploratory factor analysis had two factors: the Impact of Sexual Abuse on Children and Contextual Influences on the Report. Study 2 cross-validated the findings and tested the predictive validity of the CSA-KQ in a realistic simulated trial in which an 11-year-old complainant alleged abuse by her grandfather. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the findings of Study 1, showing strong reliability for each of the factors (ρ_y?=?0.70 to ρ_y?=?0.80) and for the CSA-KQ (ρ_y?=?0.76). CSA-KQ scores were significantly correlated with the perceived credibility of the complainant (r?=?0.23). Moreover, the CSA-KQ scores predicted verdict: jurors with greater knowledge about CSA were more likely to convict the defendant than jurors who knew less about CSA.     

Are women really difficult? Challenges and solutions in the care of women in secure services

Abstract

Concern about the approach to the care of women in secure hospitals led to radical Department of Health Guidance in 2002 and 2003. This paper explores the views and experience of senior clinicians and managers involved in delivering care through semi-structured interviews. The gendered nature of the therapeutic challenge and the complexity of the women in their care are both articulated as well as the extent to which respondents see themselves as having addressed clinical practice guidance. Service delivery is substantially informed by the ideas of relational security, attachment theory and the recovery model. Traditional concepts of security were considered unhelpful in the care of women. Reliance on respondents’ views as to the quality of care offered must remain limited in view of the continuing absence of corresponding clinical outcome data. However, their responses should inform amendments to current service organisation.     

Demanding Their Rights? Collective Identity and the Tactics of Older Persons’ Organisations at the UN

ABSTRACT

Recent scholarship in International Relations focuses on the tactics of international non-government organisations and transnational advocacy networks, with scholars mostly explaining the diverse and dynamic tactics of organisations working on similar issues. Based on multiple qualitative data sources, this article explores why the members of a transnational advocacy network, comprising organisations of, and representing, older persons, that are calling for a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons adopt tactics that are static, uniform and surprisingly softly-softly, despite their modest gains since the issue was put on the UN’s agenda nine years ago. The article demonstrates many of the existing explanations for tactical choices, but it extends what we know by importing the concept of collective identity from social movement studies. It argues that the older persons’ network has a weak collective identity that is conservative in nature, which influences the tactics deployed at the UN.     

The ‘us vs them’ mentality: a comparison of police cadets at different stages of their training

ABSTRACT

Any depiction of police culture includes a strong ‘us versus them’ element, but research has been unable to satisfactorily explain its development and evolution. In particular, very few studies have focused on the training period, between when an individual chooses a police career and his/her first day as an officer. A total of 1,979 pre-university students from seven colleges in Quebec (Canada) completed a self-administered survey where they had to answer general questions about the police followed by specific questions about four realistic videos of fictional police interventions involving use of force. Unsurprisingly, the analysis suggests that students in Police Technology tend to think they are more supportive of the police and the use of force than students in other programs. However, students in Police Technology increasingly indicate that the majority of people would report a more negative opinion than they have, suggesting that police candidates increasingly disidentify with the rest of the population.     

Predictors of being unsafe: participation in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2006 intimate partner violence module

A common reason for not participating in intimate partner violence (IPV) research is thought to be fear for one's safety. However, little is known about those who do not participate due to safety fears. To better characterize this population, we investigated correlates of being "not safe" to answer the optional IPV module in the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), a yearly cross-sectional telephone survey in the United States. We compared those who said they were not safe to complete the module with those who were safe and reported (+IPV) or denied (-IPV) IPV. Forward stepwise multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify significant correlates of being not-safe. Those who said they were not safe to answer IPV questions were found to have lower income, lower education levels, and were older than either +IPV or -IPV respondents. They were also more likely to be male than the +IPV group. The not-safe differ from those traditionally identified as being at greatest risk for IPV. However, the percentage of IPV victims in the not-safe group remains unknown. Greater efforts should be made to include this group in future IPV research, both to determine these groups' true IPV risk and to avoid missing potential IPV victims. The validity, reliability, and comprehensibility of safety questions should also be assessed.     

Social change and social conflict in nineteenth century England: A comment

This article addresses the potential for food movements to bring about substantive changes to the current global food system. After describing the current corporate food regime, we apply Karl Polanyi's ‘double-movement’ thesis on capitalism to explain the regime's trends of neoliberalism and reform. Using the global food crisis as a point of departure, we introduce a comparative analytical framework for different political and social trends within the corporate food regime and global food movements, characterizing them as ‘Neoliberal’, ‘Reformist’, ‘Progressive’, and ‘Radical’, respectively, and describe each trend based on its discourse, model, and key actors, approach to the food crisis, and key documents. After a discussion of class, political permeability, and tensions within the food movements, we suggest that the current food crisis offers opportunities for strategic alliances between Progressive and Radical trends within the food movement. We conclude that while the food crisis has brought a retrenchment of neoliberalization and weak calls for reform, the worldwide growth of food movements directly and indirectly challenge the legitimacy and hegemony of the corporate food regime. Regime change will require sustained pressure from a strong global food movement, built on durable alliances between Progressive and Radical trends.     

Education and training in public administration and development: what does the customer really want and are we prepared to provide it?

This article examines some of the difficulties arising from the introduction of market forces into the field of higher education.In particular it notes how the changing demands of sponsors and other key players, coupled with recent trends in teaching and learning methods, have caused providers of education and training in development to review ‘core products’ and modify the style of service delivery to accommodate the changing expectations of ‘customers.’ Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Socio‐legal Scholarship in Canada: A Review of the Field

This article is the second in an occasional series dealing with the development, current status, and future of socio‐legal studies in selected countries. It follows Kim Economides's review of socio‐legal studies in Aotearoa/New Zealand.