How do offenders move through the stages of change?

This study sought to investigate the way in which offenders moved through the stages of change. The University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA) was administered to a group of general offenders (N = 371) who participated in the Short Motivational Programme (SMP), a brief motivational interviewing programme administered to medium-risk offenders in New Zealand. The offenders' URICA responses were subjected to a cross-lagged panel analysis using structural equation modelling. Four models specifying different prospective associations between stage engagements were examined. It was hypothesised that there would be support for sequential transitions through the stages as proposed by the Stages of Change model. However, the analysis rendered support for and against sequential transitions, in that offenders regressed to earlier stages or skipped a stage post-SMP. Offenders who skipped to an adjacent stage after the SMP may have actually passed through an intermediary stage during the intervention, and those who regressed to an earlier stage post-SMP may have gained a more realistic awareness of their problem behaviour. This finding also raises questions about the practical utility of the model with offenders and highlights the need for more rigorous studies investigating the way offenders move through the stages of change.     

A grounded theory analysis of sexual sadism in females

Abstract

Although there has been a great deal of research conducted on sex offenders, a majority of studies have focused on male perpetrators. The general consensus is that very little is known about female sexual perpetrators due primarily to the small number of identified offenders and sociocultural factors. These issues are even more prominent for subtypes of female perpetrators such as those whose offences involve sexual sadism. The following paper examined five incarcerated female offenders, diagnosed with sexual sadism. Grounded theory analysis was used to identify psychological characteristics and behavioural patterns related to the sadistic behaviours that are not currently included in diagnostic criteria.     

Maidens at risk: 'date rape drugs' and the formation of hybrid risk knowledges

The ill-defined set of substances and behaviours collected under the name 'date rape drugs' present an opportunity to rethink risk management and the ways in which risk is studied in governmentality analyses. We borrow and develop Bakhtin's notion of the 'chronotope' - the spatially specific temporality constituting each literary genre - to understand how the risks associated with certain illicit drugs consumed by youth at weekend parties are thought of as inhering in a chronotope rather than in some chemicals. This chronotope, like most others, is gendered, but the gender-specific character of both the risks of partying and the friendship networks mobilized to prevent mishaps is denied by the educational materials: risks are simultaneously gendered and de-gendered.The insights generated by this study highlight the importance of relying on a more flexible toolbox for doing research on knowledges of risk.     

A comparison of rapists and sexual murderers on demographic and selected psychometric measures

This study compared 58 sexual murderers and 112 rapists who were about to undergo treatment in prison for their sexual offending behavior. The two groups were compared on background, personality, offense, and victim characteristics. The sexual murderer group were less likely to have been involved in a relationship at the time of their index offense, generally attacked older victims, and had higher self-esteem. The rapist sample were found to have more violent previous convictions and scored higher on measures of historical deviance (nonsexual), paranoid suspicion, and resentment. No differences were found on the personality or clinical syndrome scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III. However, the rapist sample had significantly higher mean scores on the Paranoid Suspicion, Resentment, and Self-Esteem subscales of the Antisocial Personality Questionnaire. Future research should compare the two groups on dynamic or changeable factors to determine differential treatment needs.     

Wiki approaches to wicked problems: considering African traditions in innovative collaborative approaches

Wicked problems are complex problems that are seemingly impossible to solve. However, an analysis of selected traditional African philosophies provides insight into how certain traditions may be applied in a practical sense to address social and environmental problems. Further, many newer collaborative and ‘wiki’-based solutions provide a natural way for Africans and other global actors to participate in lessening the impact of global wicked problems. Ushahidi and the Geo-Wiki Project serve as examples of organisations that have provided a platform for this type of open development.     

“I Don’t Want to Go Back to That Town:” Incarcerated Mothers and Their Return Home to Rural Communities

The increased representation of women in prisons and its consequences has been constructed as an urban, inner-city problem. Lost in this conversation, is the acknowledgement of how the limited socioeconomic opportunities, spatial isolation, and stigma which characterize rural America, lead to the vulnerabilities that mark the lives of rural women (Pruitt in Utah Law Rev 2:421–488, 2007). Through the lens of the Vulnerability Conceptual Model, this study explores the ways that community context shapes women’s experiences of mothering, the effect of incarceration on their children, and plans for returning home. Results of the study contribute to the limited research dedicated to rural women, usually obscured by society’s dominant urban perspective.     

WORLD HERITAGE DESIGNATION

The author of this piece from Luang Prabang remarks on the effects of Unesco's designation of Laos's fourth largest city as a “World Heritage Site.” Was the assigning of the label in 1995 a “kiss of death” for what makes Luang Prabang special? Will the designation lead to a tsunami of tourism that will destroy the cultural character and treasures Unesco sought to preserve? Has Unesco's action given birth to a premature mad dash for modernization, development, and tourism that threatens Laos and its people almost as much as incursions and colonial ambitions and mad bombing campaigns by the U.S. Air Force did in the past?