Utilization and satisfaction of volunteer law enforcement officers in the office of the American sheriff: an exploratory nationwide study

Many government organizations utilize volunteers to enhance services, and volunteers have been used in law enforcement agencies for a variety of functions. However, volunteers in American policing are a largely under-studied part of the criminal justice system. This current paper examines the utilization of volunteer reserves, auxiliaries, and special deputies in the office of the American sheriff. The article also examines the perceived organizational characteristics of those agencies that treat volunteers the same as regular full-time sworn deputies by allowing them full power of arrest and the authority to carry a weapon on and off duty. The results generally show that volunteer deputies that are treated the same as their full-time counterparts in regard to authority and responsibility are generally more satisfied with their role within the organization and report greater satisfaction with the organization in terms of communication, leadership, and professionalism.     

以关系为视角的加拿大原住民司法

司法除了应该及时保护社会外,还需要包涵以下目标:使得加害人在情感层面上了解犯罪所造成的损害不止发生在被害人一个人身上,与被害人有关的每个人都会受到伤害;确定加害人生活中的哪些不和谐因素导致了犯罪,并且为加害人努力塑造其他各种关系来减少重复犯罪的可能;寻求途径使得加害人和被害人双方都能摆脱受损的关系,因为在犯罪发生后他们都被束缚在了受损关系上.可见,关系模式中对加害人的惩罚和刑事司法制度中的惩罚,二者基础不同.后者的基础是与犯罪行为的社会危害性程度相适应的刑罚,而不考虑加害人对自身罪行的理解和悔罪程度.而在关系模式中,惩罚的重点在情感层面,惩罚的基础是悔罪.一旦用关系的视角看待犯罪,便开始重新审视西方刑事司法系统的一些基本理念,它们没有我们一直以为的那样精致.     

Moving Forward: Response to “Studying Eyewitness Investigations in the Field”

Field studies of eyewitness identification are richly confounded. Determining which confounds undermine interpretation is important. The blind administration confound in the Illinois study is said to undermine it’s value for understanding the relative utility of simultaneous and sequential lineups. Most criticisms of the Illinois study focus on filler identifications, and related inferences about the importance of the blind confound. We find no convincing evidence supporting this line of attack and wonder at filler identifications as the major line of criticism. More debilitating problems impede using the Illinois study to address the simultaneous versus sequential lineup controversy: inability to estimate guilt independent of identification evidence, lack of protocol compliance monitoring, and assessment of lineups quality. Moving forward requires removing these limitations.     

Modern Interpretations of Sustainable Development

Early interpretations of sustainable development based on weak sustainability address neither the limits to the earth's resilience nor our failure to curb consumption. Given the challenges facing the earth today, especially climate change, a much more meaningful instrument is required and a new ethic based on the ecological carrying capacity of the Earth. The article examines the impact of those early interpretations before exploring the importance of ecological sustainability as the moral and (potentially fundamental) legal principle underpinning the concept of sustainable development. It examines the influence of the climate change agenda before examining the mechanisms available to make this ethic operational. Sustainable development has the capacity to set meaningful objectives, duties and rules, and provide boundaries for decision making, as reflected in recent legislation. Enhancing ecological sustainability through improving supply and impact is relatively easy for governments, businesses, and individuals; reducing consumption is much harder, and will require strong leadership.     

Proactive and Reactive Violence among Intimate Partner Violent Men Diagnosed with Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorder

Personality disorder features have been an important basis of many batterer typologies (Babcock et al. J Fam Violence 15:391–409, 2000; Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart Psychol Bull 116:476–497, 1994), most notably Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorders. Aggression that partner violent men commit has also been found to be heterogeneous, motivated by the need to control (proactive) or enacted out of emotion (reactive). In the present study, men who were physically abusive towards their female partner (N = 124 couples) were administered the SCID-II diagnostic interview for Antisocial (ASPD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It was hypothesized that partner violent men diagnosed with ASPD would show highest levels of proactive violence whereas men diagnosed with BPD (alone or comorbidly with ASPD) were expected to be reactively violent. Results suggest that violence perpetrated by men with different personality disorders differs in its function. Within the context of intimate relationships, BPD/comorbid men appear to use violence more reactively, while ASPD men tend to use violence both proactively and reactively. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Urban Youth Workers' Use of “Personal Knowledge” in Resolving Complex Dilemmas of Practice

Using narrative inquiry to analyze accounts of how two experienced youth workers handled the potential for gun violence in their organizations, this article argues that youth worker expertise in part is based on personal knowledge derived from childhood neighborhood-based peer groups and participation in youth programs. Expert youth workers draw on personal and professional craft knowledge and move between the rules of youth organizations and the rules of the streets to read people and situations and address the potential for serious violence. Implications for youth worker professional development are raised.     

Switching on,switching off: reflections of a practitioner researcher examining the operational behaviour of police officers

ABSTRACT

Evidence-based policing is rapidly becoming adopted by policing agencies among policing jurisdictions. Many academic programmes have been established in higher education to train police managers in applied criminology. However, there is a lack of literature for police officer practitioner researchers (POPR) who might undertake qualitative research, especially research projects that examine police behaviour. This paper reflects on the changing role of the practitioner-researcher and suggests that police officers undertaking qualitative research need to learn to ‘switch off their police role’ and ‘switch on their researcher role’. The author’s insights are drawn from his own experience of qualitative fieldwork working with police officers from New Zealand Police and South Australian Police.     

Can computed tomography replace or supplement autopsy?

Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has been integrated into the practice of many forensic pathologists. To evaluate the utility of PMCT in supplementing and/or supplanting medicolegal autopsy, we conducted a prospective double-blind comparison of abnormal findings reported by the autopsy pathologist with those reported by a radiologist reviewing the PMCT. We reviewed 890 cases: 167 with blunt force injury (BFI), 63 with pediatric trauma (under 5 years), 203 firearm injuries, and 457 drug poisoning deaths. Autopsy and radiology reports were coded using the Abbreviated Injury Scale and abnormal findings and cause of death (COD) were compared for congruence in consensus conferences with novel pathologists and radiologists. Overall sensitivity for recognizing abnormal findings was 71% for PMCT and 74.6% for autopsy. Sensitivities for PMCT/autopsy were 74%/73.1% for BFI, 61.5%/71.4% for pediatric trauma, 84.9%/83.7% for firearm injuries, and 56.5%/66.4% for drug poisoning deaths. COD assigned by reviewing PMCT/autopsy was correct in 88%/95.8% of BFI cases, 99%/99.5% of firearm fatalities, 82.5%/98.5% of pediatric trauma deaths, and 84%/100% of drug poisoning deaths of individuals younger than 50. Both autopsy and PMCT were imperfect in recognizing injuries. However, both methods identified the most important findings and are sufficient to establish COD in cases of BFI, pediatric trauma, firearm injuries and drug poisoning in individuals younger than 50. Ideally, all forensic pathologists would have access to a CT scanner and a consulting radiologist. This would allow a flexible approach that meets the diagnostic needs of each case and best serves decedents' families and other stakeholders.