Collaboration and Integrated Services in the NSW Public Sector

The paper discusses some of the findings of a review of whole-of-government activities in the NSW public sector conducted for the NSW Premier's Department. Some major sources of the difficulties people encounter in whole-of-government initiatives are identified, together with some factors essential for success. Since there is no one 'right' model for whole-of-government activity, criteria are proposed for identifying the most appropriate whole-of-government response to different types of problem. In conclusion the paper summarises some key benefits and achievements of a growing whole-of-government ethos in the NSW public sector, and some possible strategies for further strengthening whole-of-government approaches.     

Beyond Doing No Harm: A Call for Participatory Action Research with Marginalized Populations in Criminological Research

While most social scientists agree that the outcome of research should be useful in the real world, the idea that research can, and should, be empowering and directly useful to research participants has largely been limited to the margins of a few social science disciplines. While community psychologists and critical sociologists have long embraced participatory research and co-operative inquiry approaches—where the empowerment of research participants is as important as the contribution to knowledge and policy development—criminologists have been slow to adopt more emancipatory research models except for a few notable exceptions. This essay calls for the use of participatory action research by criminologists and for us to have a dialogue about the social value of our research and our obligations to research participants beyond “simply doing no harm.”

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Legal and ethical issues in knowledge management in Malaysia

In this era of k-economy, knowledge management is becoming crucial to take stock of the influx of knowledge available on the Internet as well as consolidating knowledge generated within an organization. This paper explores the legal and ethical ramifications of all the various processes of knowledge management from capturing, creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge within an organization in Malaysia.     

Older African American Women and Barriers to Reporting Domestic Violence to Law Enforcement in the Rural Deep South

Victims of domestic violence are legally entitled to police protection, but multiple barriers exist in contacting law enforcement. In this study, we used Federal Bureau of Investigation data, key informant interviews, and focus groups to examine barriers to reporting domestic violence among older African American women in the rural Deep South. Three primary barriers were identified: gender roles, age dependency, and mistrust of law enforcement. The main finding was that reports of domestic violence were deterred by fears of being stigmatized by church, family, and community. The one compelling and feasible resolution is for law enforcement to take a leadership role in educating clergy and other community leaders about domestic violence as a crime against older women.     

Age of greatest risk for victimization by forced sexual intercourse: Vulnerability of high school women

Data were collected from three studies over an eight–year period, which produced a sample of 868 female college students at a southern university. The three data sets were combined to permit an assessment of the extent to which reported victimization occurred among students before coming to the university rather than during their college experience, and to examine the nature of force in intimate relationships among maturing adolescents. About half of the subjects reported that their last victimization occurred while in high school, thus they were younger and less mature at the time of their victimizations. The researchers note that these two factors raise concern as adolescent girls may not be prepared to adequately define or protect themselves from inappropriate use of force in dating relationships, as the literature reports that both the development of sexuality and a redefinition of the use of force in childhood play are occurring at this point in their development, increasing the potential for victimization.     

Detecting children's false allegations and recantations of a crime

This study examined adults’ abilities to detect the veracity of children's (ages 6–11) initial disclosures and their later recantations about a crime. Children (N?=?32) were asked to make a false denial or a false accusation of an alleged theft, while some were asked to tell the truth. Afterwards, children recanted their initial statements in a second interview; thus, children who initially denied the theft accused a researcher of the transgression in the second interview, and vice-versa. Adult raters (ages 18–25; N?=?108) watched both interviews and completed a questionnaire that required them to determine the veracity (i.e. whether the report was true or false) and credibility of the disclosure. Adults accurately detected the veracity of children's reports 53% of the time (55% of original reports, 50% of recantations). Raters were more accurate when detecting false denials than false accusations in the children's original and recanted reports. Despite being more difficult to detect, children's recanted denials that became accusations were rated as the least credible. Furthermore, self-reported level of experience with children and ratings confidence were not significant predictors of truth/lie detection accuracy.     

Democratic Transitions

Przeworski et al. (2000) challenge the key hypothesis in modernization theory: political regimes do not transition to democracy as per capita incomes rise, they argue. Rather, democratic transitions occur randomly, but once there, countries with higher levels of GDP per capita remain democratic. We retest the modernization hypothesis using new data, new techniques, and a three-way rather than dichotomous classification of regimes. Contrary to Przeworski et al. (2000) we find that the modernization hypothesis stands up well. We also find that partial democracies emerge as among the most important and least understood regime types.     

Assessment of sexual interest using a choice reaction time task and priming: A feasibility study

Purpose. We investigated the feasibility of assessing sexual interest in hetero‐ and homosexual men using two information‐processing methods, namely a choice reaction time task and priming. The participants were expected to have longer reaction times for sexually explicit when compared with non‐explicit pictures due to sexual content‐induced delay. In addition, the reaction times of the heterosexual (N=15) and homosexual (N=11) men for pictures corresponding with their sexual interest were compared to pictures not corresponding with their sexual interest. Heterosexual men were expected to have longer reaction times during the presentation of sexually explicit female as opposed to male pictures, whereas homosexual men were expected to have the opposite pattern. Method. The participants were presented either sexually explicit or non‐explicit male and female target pictures (and primes that preceded the targets in random combinations) while simultaneously performing a choice reaction time task in three phases each containing a total of 160 prime–target pairs. Results. Both expectations were confirmed in phase 1 of the study. In phase 2, the means differed in the expected way, but the effects were not significant. In phase 3, the expected effect was moderated by a complex priming effect. Conclusions. The results suggest that the choice reaction time task is a promising way of measuring sexual interest but that questions of habituation should be given more attention in future studies.     

Some Personal Reflections on the Foundation of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History in 1987: a message sent to the participants of the twentieth anniversary conference,held in Bulgaria, 2007

This article is a greeting sent to the participants in the International Federation for Research in Women’s History (IFRWH) Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, 8–12 August 2007. The author looks back to the establishment of the IFRWH in 1987, of which she was Co‐founder, tracing the contacts, correspondence and meetings that led to that moment. Attention is also drawn to the first conferences in Bellagio, Madrid, Bielefeld and Montreal, as well as to the Newsletter activities that served to connect all the national committees that make up the Federation. The story told is one of friendships and inspiring moments. It ends with hope for the continued importance of the IFRWH to global women’s and gender history.