All in Favour? Attitudes of Stakeholders and Drug Users Towards Judicial Alternatives

Different judicial alternative sanctions and measures exist on the three levels of the criminal justice system. These alternative sanctions and measures can be applied to a specific target group, namely drug users. The current study is a qualitative assessment of the application and execution of alternative measures and sanctions for drug users, based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews in which stakeholders (magistrates, judicial assistants and social workers) and drug users were asked for their attitudes towards these sanctions and the factors that influence them in their convictions and beliefs. In conclusion we can state that the interviews have increased the insight in the attitudes of decision makers, social assistants, judicial assistants and drug users towards alternative sanctioning. From the interviews we learn that there are strong similarities between the three profiles, which provide for a strong basis for the continued functioning of alternative sanctioning.

What Is “Successful” Resettlement? Refugee Narratives From Regional New South Wales in Australia

This paper explores how people from refugee backgrounds experienced regional resettlement in New South Wales, Australia, by focusing on their narratives of determinants of “successful” resettlement. Semi-structured interviews with nine refugee participants in 2016 revealed challenges in relation to employment, social networks and relationships, and support services. While such challenges are consistent with research in metropolitan cities, there were limitations unique to the regional context. Resettlement policies have contradictory elements inherent to their design that can be detrimental to what refugees consider as successful resettlement. This has particular implications for more recent schemes like the Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV).     

Eggs on Ice: Imaginaries of Eggs and Cryopreservation in Denmark

While Denmark is widely known as a global exporter of cryopreserved sperm, Danish women’s eggs face a very different fate. This paper combines legal and rhetorical analyses with the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries. In establishing the genealogy of the sociotechnical imaginaries that shaped Danish regulation of the cryopreservation of eggs, we analyse the relevant Acts, Bills, preparatory work, and readings in Parliament, along with the concurrent public and ethical debates that over time relaxed the legal limit for the cryopreservation of eggs to the current five years and today continue to ignite discussions on elective egg freezing. We rely on welfare-state perspectives to discuss why reproduction, in the Danish context, is seen as a legitimate and appropriate sphere to regulate, and we turn to feminist theorizing to discuss the gendered implications captured in the sociotechnical imaginaries of the “Moral State”, “technologies to be tamed”, “the nuclear family”, and “technology as equality and hope”. We end by discussing how an interdisciplinary approach enriches our understanding of the legal, cultural, and political entanglements related to putting eggs on ice.     

Volunteer care workers: A case for challenging resource theories on volunteering

This paper challenges prevailing theories on volunteering which explain participation in volunteer work by the high capital resources of individuals (resource theories). Using care theory and focusing on volunteers working with the frail elderly, the sick and the dying, we ask whether resource theory is a suitable theoretical framework for this particular kind of unpaid work. With a 2012 Danish population survey, we find that care volunteering attracts lower-resourced individuals who are predominantly female. We use this finding to argue that resource theory is unhelpful in explaining this particular form of volunteering and to call for more theory development.     

Global Connections: ‘A Tool for Active Citizenship’

As a result of globalisation and changing technologies, young people are increasingly required to engage with the broader world beyond their local and national communities. This raises significant questions about the ways and spaces in which young people will need to engage as active citizens, and the new tools and resources that young people will need to equip them for their futures. The Global Connections Program has been developed to address these identified needs. It is a youth-led global learning initiative which aims to provide an opportunity for connection and learning among young people in Australia and Indonesia. This article explores Plan's youth-led approach to global learning, with a focus on the implementation and evaluation findings of the Global Connections Program, as well as the challenges faced thus far.     

Invited Commentary: Why Body Image is Important to Adolescent Development

Although the majority of adolescents report body dissatisfaction and the consequences of body image concerns are developmentally significant, most research addressing body image has been conducted by clinicians. Developmental scientists are in a unique position to contribute to body image research given their understanding of the intrapersonal (e.g., pubertal development) and interpersonal (e.g., family relationships) factors that affect the development of body image. The adolescent years provide a particularly good example of the developmental nature of body image because a myriad of “normal” developmental factors (e.g., peer relationships) coalesce to shape adolescents’ body image. This commentary will summarize some of the significant body image research—focusing on adolescence—in the hope that it will encourage developmental psychologists to recognize the central role body image plays in development and address this topic in future research.