Addressing the Victim–Offender Overlap: Advancing Evidence-Based Research to Better Service Criminally Involved People with Victimization Histories

ABSTRACT

We studied a representative sample of male and female inmates (N = 266) in two prisons (remand and sentenced) in Western Canada. Our research asks: what are the self-reported victimization histories of currently incarcerated men and women prior to first charge (i.e., before becoming known offenders) and during their life-course? As a second objective, we discuss how we sought to mobilize our findings to change relevant policy and police practice. We found that the overwhelming majority of our female participants had experienced violent, sexual, or property victimization throughout their life course; the majority had experienced victimization prior to first charge. Based on our findings, the local police service introduced victim services for the incarcerated population as well as made changes to their recruit training program to make new police officers aware of the victim–offender overlap and its effects. If replicated, the introduction of victim services for inmates in other jurisdictions and the education of police officers on the victim–offender overlap would emphasize the humanitarian recognition of supporting victims who need help, while also having a series of subsidiary benefits with respect to re-offending, resiliency, and police legitimacy.     

Fast cars,fast food,and fast fixes: industry responses to current ethical dilemmas for Australian advertisers

• This paper reviews three ethical dilemmas currently facing advertisers for cars, fast food and pharmaceuticals in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and discusses Australian industry responses to these dilemmas. In Australia, as in the U.S. and U.K., the main response mechanism for advertisers has been the introduction of self‐regulatory codes of practice. It is important to note that in a number of cases there is no conclusive evidence of the argued harm from advertising that is subsequently banned or regulated. A review of the general and trade press, and the records of the Australian Advertising Standards Board, finds that industry responses tend to be based on industry rather than community concerns, with the primary motive being to avoid deleterious outcomes for the industry rather than for society as a whole.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating genetic discrimination in the Australian life insurance sector: the use of genetic test results in underwriting, 1999-2003

A major component of the Genetic Discrimination Project (GDP), an Australia-wide study to examine the advantages and disadvantages for individuals of having genetic information and cases of alleged genetic discrimination, is the analysis of insurers' use of genetic test results. The peak life insurance body, IFSA, had collected data through the Australian Institute of Actuaries (AIA) for the period June 1999-May 2003 from life insurance companies in Australia regarding their use of genetic test results in insurance underwriting. The GDP negotiated with IFSA and the AIA for access to this data for independent analysis. Applications from 288 individuals who had disclosed a genetic test result included products for cover for death, trauma/crisis, income protection/disability and total and permanent disablement. A total of 81% (234/288) contained usable data for analysis. These cases involved the genetic conditions haemochromatosis (71%), Huntington disease (12%) and breast/ovarian cancer (6%). In 49% of cases, the genetic test result was described as the only influencing factor and of these, 32% involved a "positive" genetic test result. Whilst underwriting in most cases appeared to be reasonable, the article highlights several cases involving disclosure of a positive predictive test result for breast/ovarian cancer that required further investigation.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in a sample from São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil

Population: Unrelated males from the S?o Paulo State, Brazil (n=617).     

Gender differences in cognitive and affective responses to sexual coercion

This study examined gender differences in responses to sexual coercive experiences in mixed-sex (male-female) relationships. Participants were 112 women and 28 men who had experienced sexual coercion and completed measures of cognitive (attributions to self, attributions to the coercer, internal attributions) and affective (guilt, shame) self-blame, trauma symptoms, and upset at the time of the incident) with respect to their most serious or upsetting sexually coercive experience. The women were more upset than were the men at the time of the incident. Contrary to predictions, the men and women did not differ in the extent to which they attributed blame to themselves or the strength of their internal attributions, guilt, or shame. Both the men and women attributed more blame to the coercer than to themselves; however, the women attributed more blame to the coercer than did the men. The women reported more trauma symptoms than the men did which was related to the finding that more women than men had experienced sexual coercion involving physical force. These results are discussed in terms of the similarities and differences between men's and women's cognitive and affective responses to sexual coercion.     

Sisters,not demons: the influence of british suffragists on the American suffrage movement

British suffragettes were an important, if controversial, influence on the American suffrage movement, for the successful achievement of the franchise in 1920 was helped by the adoption of the suffragettes' militant tactics in the final stage of the campaign. When Harriot Stanton Blatch returned to the USA in 1902 after living for twenty years in England, she found that the suffrage movement her mother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had helped to found was stagnant. Blatch energized the movement in New York City by recruiting working-class women and organizing colorful parades and other dramatic events, strategies she had learned from Emmeline Pankhurst. Blatch arranged a successful tour of the USA for Pankhurst in 1909.     

Facing the challenges of research‐informed knowledge mobilization: ‘Practising what we preach’?

The political imperative to make public services more evidence based has contributed to the growth in the past two decades of both research and practice in the field of knowledge mobilization: the range of approaches to encourage the creation, sharing and use of research‐informed knowledge alongside other forms of knowledge. Paradoxically the growth of the field has made the challenge of encouraging research use much more complex and uncertain, and the roles of knowledge mobilizers much more diverse and demanding. This in‐depth interview study of knowledge mobilization in 51 agencies concerned with knowledge for public services breaks new ground in exploring a paradox at the heart of knowledge mobilization practice: the challenges that research agencies face in practising in research‐informed ways themselves.     

The RedTube copyright infringement affair in Germany: shame on who?

Recently, tens of thousands of German Internet users were confronted with copyright infringement claims for allegedly watching porn clips on the streaming platform RedTube.com. The alleged copyright infringers received ‘Abmahnung’ cease and desist letters that gave them an opportunity to settle copyright infringements out of court by paying rights-holders €250 in compensation. While in cases relating to peer-to-peer file-sharing, the IP address of a peer can easily be identified,¹1. In order to identify the subscriber of a certain IP address at a given time, the rights-holders will file a disclosure request with a court. For details see below, Section 2.3.View all notes the RedTube case raises the question how consumers of a stream could be identified. In addition, it raises the question of whether the consumption of a stream is illegal under German law. Assuming that this is not the case, this analysis of the RedTube case highlights that the system of Abmahnungen is prone to abuse in an Internet context. Several weaknesses of the current system are identified, which show that disclosure requests are not thoroughly assessed by courts and that lawyers are far too willing to send out cease and desist letters although an infringement is not obvious. This environment allowed the emergence of anti-piracy business models that succeed in turning infringements into profit and that do not hesitate to make unfounded claims.