An empirical assessment of the process of restorative justice

This study involved an empirical assessment of restorative justice processes with an application of a theoretical model proposed by Presser and Van Voorhis (2002). Their model identified three common procedural activities associated with restorative justice: dialogue, relationship building, and communication of moral values. This study utilized secondary data, consisting of observation and interview data, originally obtained by Sherman, Braithwaite, Strang, and Barnes (1999) for their Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) in Australia, 1995-1999, to test the theoretical model. The results generally supported the hypothesis that the restorative justice program engaged offenders in dialogue, relationship building, and moral communication to a greater degree than traditional court proceedings. An unexpected result emerged in the interview data showing that violent offenders in the restorative justice program did not report a greater sense of relationship building than those in court proceedings. Possible explanations accounting for the anomaly are provided. Implications for policy and future studies derived from the findings are also discussed.     

Disaster Governance in the Philippines: Issues,Lessons Learned,and Future Directions in the Post-Yolanda Super Typhoon Aftermath

The article analyzes the importance of disaster governance as an emerging paradigm in the context of the post-Yolanda Super Typhoon devastation in the Philippines. The article offers various lessons which may be heeded in times of disaster in which various stakeholders of governance are involved with. Consequently, the article posits future challenges and directions hurled in the conduct of disaster governance in the Philippines in terms of policies and programs. Finally, the article enunciates that both the national government and local government must play an active role in disaster governance through policy-making and policy implementation changes in both theory and praxis.     

Rambling through the fields of justice in search of well-being for all

The article looks at basic questions of what constitutes a justice that takes into account the needs of all people. Thus an attempt is made to outline some of the basic tenets of a needs-based justice.     

Use of Perchlorate as a Tracer to Allocate Liability

There are few published reports of allocation methodologies for contamination at complex sites not associated with the traditional Superfund landfill scenario (i.e., based on waste in records). Allocation can be especially difficult when the contamination is derived from neighboring facilities. Such was the situation in a lawsuit brought by Solvent Chemical (Solvent) in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (New York v. Solvent Chem. Co., Inc., 685 F. Supp. 2d 357 (W.D.N.Y)). Solvent had filed a cost-recovery and contribution claim against Olin and DuPont, neighboring industrial facilities, to recover costs associated with groundwater and soil remediation. Solvent alleged that the contamination found in groundwater recovery wells on the Solvent site was predominately due to releases from the former adjacent Dupont chlorinated solvent production facility and from Olin's neighboring former chlorinated benzene production facility. However, complicating matters for Solvent was the former production of chlorinated benzenes at their site. Solvent needed a method of determining the source sites for chlorinated benzenes detected in remediation wells other than concentration since multiple facilities could have been the source. Among the methods employed by Solvent to differentiate the source-site allocation was the fact that perchlorate was indirectly generated at Olin's hypochlorite plant but not at the Solvent site. Therefore, the presence of perchlorate could be used as a tracer of contaminant transport from the Olin operations. The judge's ruling found that Solvent's use of perchlorate as a tracer was compelling evidence regarding the source of chlorinated benzenes and agreed to Solvent's suggested allocation.     

Nonviolence Begins With Speech: An Interview with Emily Gaarder on the Practice of Nonviolent Communication

This article focuses on the nature of nonviolent communication, specifically how to practice such in our everyday lives. Emily Gaarder discusses a theory and method developed by Marshall Rosenberg of the Center for Nonviolent Communication. She offers practical measures that enable anyone interested in nonviolence to assess whether their ways of speaking are nonviolent and how they might modify their language to interact with others peaceably.     

The role of cognitive distortions in paedophilic offending: Internet and contact offenders compared

Abstract

Cognitive distortions are held to contribute to sexual offending against children in a number of theoretical explanations of such crimes. However, not only is there little or no direct evidence in support of the centrality of cognitive distortions in offending but recent research has questioned whether the concept has explanatory power. Cognitive distortions are variously seen as necessary for the offender to offend against children, as post-offending justifications for the offence, or as reflecting distorted patterns in the offender's upbringing. This paper explores the role of cognitive distortions in sex offending by comparing the distortions of contact sex offenders against children with Internet child pornography offenders without contact offences against children. A new cognitive distortions questionnaire was developed which was suitable for administration to Internet offenders who had no contact offences against children as well as being suitable for contact offenders. It was found that some cognitive distortions are frequently agreed with by sex offenders against children whereas others were seldom or never agreed with. Little support was found for earlier typological approaches to the cognitive schema of sex offenders against children. Contrary to the expectation that contact offenders would have more cognitive distortions, it was found that Internet offenders had more cognitive distortions that children are sexual beings. Furthermore, there were no differences in cognitive distortions justifying the offence. However, offenders with a previous history of offending were more likely to admit to cognitive distortions which justify their offending. It is accepted that cognitive distortions are readily recognized in interviews with sex offenders against children. Nevertheless, it is argued that there is a need for new research to stimulate a new understanding of the nature and role of cognitive distortions in sex offending.     

Leave it at the gate: job stress and satisfaction in correctional staff

Though academic literature firmly establishes an inverse relationship between job stress and job satisfaction, global correctional studies fail to examine the extent of that affiliation on overall correctional job satisfaction. As such, this study uses a faceted approach to explore underlying relationships between organizational, job, and personal characteristics of correctional staff and causes of job stress and satisfaction. Using the Job Satisfaction Survey, nine aspects of job satisfaction are considered. The Work Stress Scale for Correctional Officers’ analyses of five areas of stress directly related to correctional environments. This study examines both uniform and nonuniform staff assigned to a minimum security prison. On average, staff scored well below the average American worker on the Job Satisfaction Survey. Job satisfaction was predicted exclusively by job characteristics or stressors, including the job itself, role conflict, and ambiguity, and the physical condition of the prison, while employee demographic variables and variables that measure healthy lifestyles (such as sleep and exercise) were not significant predictors. While job stress does predict a substantively significant portion of job satisfaction (21%), there is still room to improve prediction.     

The physical and mental health status of homeless adults

Abstract

This paper reviews recent research on the physical and mental health status of homeless single adults and briefly summarizes definitional, sampling, and measurement problems. It presents findings from research examining the physical health status of homeless adults; the data suggest that homelessness places people at greater risk for specific health problems and also complicates treatment. The authors then review findings on the mental health status of homeless adults from several methodologically rigorous studies that carefully define and measure mental illness among the homeless population. The final section discusses what is known about the short‐ and long‐term service needs of the physically and mentally disabled homeless population.

The studies reviewed suggest that individuals with chronic physical or severe mental illnesses are more vulnerable than others to homelessness. Homelessness exacerbates physical and/or mental conditions and complicates their treatment. Despite myths to the contrary, research and demonstration programs have shown that most homeless individuals are willing to receive assistance. By linking health and mental health services to appropriate housing, such individuals can be treated and cared for in community settings. However, local communities often do not have the necessary resources to meet the long‐term needs of severely mentally ill or physically disabled homeless people.