Working with sex offenders in a climate of public blame and anxiety: How to make defensible decisions for risk

Abstract

Work with sex offenders takes place in a climate of public blame and anxiety. This requires practitioners to adopt the highest standards of practice to ensure that defensible decisions are made. These are decisions that must withstand hindsight scrutiny in the light of a risk management failure. This paper reviews the key practice points that will assist practitioners in making defensible decisions, and the key challenges for practitioners in this challenging area of work.     

Population data for four population groups from the United States for the eleven Y-chromosome STR loci recommended by SWGDAM

POPULATIONS: Caucasian ( n =1243), African American ( n =1605), Hispanic ( n =454), and Native American ( n =104).     

Examining Resource and Protective Factors in the Adjustment of Latino Youth in Low Income Families: What Role Does Maternal Acculturation Play?

This longitudinal study examined whether the risk and positive factors contributing to the delinquent behaviors and internalizing problems of 454 Latino adolescents varied across maternal linguistic acculturation and adolescent gender. Although the level of cumulative risk to which the 10-to-14-year old adolescents were exposed did not vary by maternal linguistic acculturation, the factors contributing to their subsequent adjustment 16 months later varied substantially. Multiple regression analyses showed that for boys, maternal monitoring offset cumulative risk effects in the high acculturation group, but was unrelated to adjustment in the low acculturation group. Social competence served a protective function for boys in the high acculturation group, but was detrimental for boys in the low acculturation group and mother-son relationship quality directly predicted more subsequent delinquent behaviors among boys in the low acculturation group. Maternal monitoring was the only positive factor contributing to girls’ adjustment, directly predicting fewer delinquent behaviors for all girls. Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Michigan State University. Research interests focus on the development of problem behaviors in children and adolescents, with a particular focus on externalizing and internalizing problems and alcohol and tobacco use. Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Received her Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University. Research interests focus on parent-child relationships and how they shape children’s development and learning across cultures and ethnic groups Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Texas. Research interests are ecocultural models of risk and resiliency in minority youth and measurement equivalence of risk and resiliency constructs     

Predictors of Psychosocial Well-Being in Urban African American and European American Youth: The Role of Ecological Factors

Hierarchical regression analyses were used to identify factors that functioned as either promotive or protective factors against the impact of ecological risk on the psychological adjustment of 112 African American and 94 European American adolescents (13–19 years of age). Indicators of ecological risk, promotive/protective factors, and adjustment were assessed concurrently via adolescent self-report questionnaires. Supportive parenting emerged as a promotive factor for both African American and European American adolescents for academic achievement, competence, and problem behaviors. Additionally, school connectedness served as a promotive factor for both African American and European American adolescents with competence as the criterion. However, in analyses with problem behaviors as the criterion, school connectedness intensified the effect of ecological risk for European American adolescents. Of the three hypothesized positive factors (supportive parenting, ethnic identity, and school connectedness), only ethnic identity emerged as a protective factor for problem behaviors and this effect was only observed for European American adolescents. An assistant Professor in Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Texas. Major research interests are risk and resiliency processes in ethnic minority youth and measurement equivalence issues. Doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Research interests are risk and protective factors in minority youth Post-doctoral Fellow now at Arizona State University. Received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. Research interests are risk and protective processes in minority youth and measurement equivalence issues     

The Impact of Field Court Attendance Notices on Property Crime in New South Wales,Australia

Objectives

This paper investigates the impact of Field Court Attendance Notices (FCANs) on rates of property crime in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. FCANs are used for relatively minor offenses, are issued ‘on the spot’, and provide an alternative to the time consuming process of arresting an alleged offender and taking them to the police station for processing. Despite their use in NSW for over 20 years, this study is the first to evaluate their impact on crime.

Methods

We use data provided by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We specify a general dynamic panel data model estimated via the Arellano and Bond (Rev Econ Stud 58:277–297, 1991) estimator, specifically the first-differenced twostep generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator.

Results

For property crime as a whole, in both the short- and long-run, we find no significant relationship between the use of FCANS and levels of offending. However, when offending rates are disaggregated into 11 sub-categories, we find that in the short-run an increase in the use of FCANs leads to statistically significant decreases in the rate of crime for five of the sub-categories offenses considered (break and enter dwelling; motor vehicle theft; steal from motor vehicle; steal from retail store and; steal from dwelling). The long-run results are largely consistent with the short-run results in terms of their signs and statistical significance, suggesting that the effects persist.

Conclusions

The empirical analysis presented in this paper suggests that the use of FCANs is an effective and potentially efficient policing strategy for a subset of property offenses, in that offenders can be processed at lower cost and long-run rates of certain crimes reduced.

     

“Give me some space”: exploring youth to parent aggression and violence

A small scale qualitative project, undertaken by an interdisciplinary domestic violence research group involving academic researchers and research assistants, with colleagues from Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS), investigated youth aggression and violence against parents. Following the literature review, data was generated through several research conversations with young people (n = 2), through semi-structured interviews with mothers (n = 3) and practitioners (n = 5), and through a practitioner focus group (n = 8). Thematic analysis and triangulation of the data from parents, practitioners and young people, elicited interconnected and complex overarching themes. Young people could be both victim and perpetrator. The witnessing or experiencing of domestic aggression and violence raised the concept of ‘bystander children’. The impact of young people experiencing familial violence was underestimated by parents. For practitioners, the effects of working with domestic violence was shown to be significant - both positively and negatively.