Legal professionals’ knowledge and experience of autistic adults in the family justice system

Abstract

Access to justice is a key theme in the family justice system, especially for those with particular vulnerabilities. Autism, a development condition characterised by difficulties in social communication and interaction, and the presence of rigid, repetitive behaviours, presents particular challenges in this area. This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods study with legal professionals working in the family justice system, asking about their knowledge of autism, their perceived self-efficacy when working with autistic clients, and their experience of cases involving autistic litigants. The study reports high levels of knowledge, but low levels of confidence, by legal professionals (N = 204), and addresses the experiences of particular cases in follow-up discussions (N = 10). The paper concludes by making a series of recommendations for legal professionals to assist autistic people to engage fully in family court proceedings.     

The enhanced cognitive interview: could individual differences in visuo-spatial working memory explain differences in recalling an event?

The Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI) is one of the most useful witness interviews, consisting of 5 techniques (context reinstatement: CR; report everything: RE, mental imagery: MI, change order: CO and change of perspectives: CP) aimed at increasing both the quantity and the quality of elements recalled. All the techniques require mental imagery skills. The present study investigates the relationship between forward and backward visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) and correct elements recalled through the ECI with respect to its techniques. 99 college students (48 males) watched a color videotape of a fictional crime and performed a visuo-spatial working memory task. The following day they were interviewed about what they had seen. Results showed that high forward VSWM capacity has a role in favoring the total amount of correct information recalled, specifically in the MI technique. This suggests that maintaining and processing mood-related contents in VSWM is easier for individuals with high working memory skills.     

A model of decision making and the public service professional

This article offers a reformulation of the concept of professionalism as it applies to public sector decision making. After critically evaluating existing work, we present a role theoretic model of public sector decision making that provides a precise conceptual and operational meaning to the term professionalism. We then evaluate the model's applicability to public sector actors, using city managers as an example. Finally, we discuss some of the public policy implications of increasing public service professionalization.     

Suicide by fire in a car trunk: a case with potential pitfalls

We present an unusual case in which an adult female committed suicide by fire while enclosed in the trunk of her vehicle. A finding of suicide was reached only because several key investigative facts were uncovered. Without these discoveries the case may still remain open as a suspicious death. Fire is rarely used as a mechanism of suicide in Western culture, and, as such, similar cases should be reported to advance our recognition of this phenomenon.     

The determination of nicotine and sulfate in supermarket ground beef adulterated with Black Leaf 40

In December 2002, approximately 250 lbs. of ground beef was adulterated with nicotine sulfate by a supermarket employee and subsequently sold to the public. Soon afterward, reports of illness associated with ground beef purchased at a single store were identified. Authorities suspected the ground beef was tainted with Black Leaf 40, a banned pesticide containing approximately 40% nicotine as nicotine sulfate. Ground beef submitted to our laboratory was analyzed in concert by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and high performance anion exchange chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection. GC-MS was used to identify the samples that contained nicotine. The nicotine was confirmed and quantitated by HPLC-UV. The sulfate was identified and quantitated by high performance anion exchange chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection. Our analysis revealed that the raw tainted beef contained about 350 mg/kg nicotine free base, a potentially lethal dose of nicotine per serving for an adult. Additionally, we found elevated sulfate levels in the samples that tested positive for nicotine, providing evidence that nicotine sulfate was the probable adulterant.     

PC_Eyewitness and the Sequential Superiority Effect: Computer-Based Lineup Administration

Computer technology has become an increasingly important tool for conducting eyewitness identifications. In the area of lineup identifications, computerized administration offers several advantages for researchers and law enforcement. PC_Eyewitness is designed specifically to administer lineups. To assess this new lineup technology, two studies were conducted in order to replicate the results of previous studies comparing simultaneous and sequential lineups. One hundred twenty university students participated in each experiment. Experiment 1 used traditional paper-and-pencil lineup administration methods to compare simultaneous to sequential lineups. Experiment 2 used PC_Eyewitness to administer simultaneous and sequential lineups. The results of these studies were compared to the meta-analytic results reported by N. Steblay, J. Dysart, S. Fulero, and R. C. L. Lindsay (2001). No differences were found between paper-and-pencil and PC_Eyewitness lineup administration methods. The core findings of the N. Steblay et al. (2001) meta-analysis were replicated by both administration procedures. These results show that computerized lineup administration using PC_Eyewitness is an effective means for gathering eyewitness identification data.