Australian Rules: The Rise of Rights and the Demise of the Right

Over a number of years there has been a public debate in Australia over the place of legal rights in the struggle for Indigenous economic, social and cultural gains. Most Indigenous leaders have called for a rights agenda as a solution to Indigenous disadvantage. However, one leader has been a vocal critic of this approach. This paper considers the possibility that although the debates may fundamentally represent different views as to how best to improve conditions for Indigenous Nations, they also represent differing approaches to harnessing the support of mainstream Australia in a politically conservative environment. In coming to this position, I am reminded of the arguments put by proponents of the Critical Legal Studies movement in US, that rights are merely abstractions, and the counter by Patricia Williams, a Critical Race Theorist, that as a result, they can be framed in a variety of ways and can take the form required by the community in which they are found. In Australia, minority groups must find an indexically-open vehicle, fitting to the Australian rhetorical structure(s), to represent their struggle for economic, social and cultural rights. Tracey Summerfield is a white woman born in Perth, Western Australia. Thanks to Stephanie Monck, a Kungarakan/Warramungu woman from the Northern Territory, who provided assistance and feedback on an earlier version. The views expressed here are, of course, those of the writer alone.     

A functional approach to sudden unexplained infant deaths

There is a great deal of variation in the methods and wording used by medical examiners in the medicolegal investigation and certification of infant deaths. This paper was created by the NAME Ad Hoc Committee on Sudden Unexplained Infant Death to address several specific issues, namely: * To establish a functional approach to the investigation of sudden unexplained infant deaths; * To outline a "bare minimum" set of recommendations to define the scope of investigation required; * To recommend methods and wording to be used when certifying infant deaths; * To develop a list of potential stressors or possible external causes of death that should be identified and reported on the death certificate and/or within a medical examiner/coroner office database. This paper was electronically posted for NAME member review and comment for a period of 30 days. The paper was further revised based on member comments and then submitted to the NAME board of directors in the fall of 2005 prior to the annual meeting. This text of this paper was officially approved and endorsed by the NAME board of directors on October 14, 2005, at the annual meeting in Los Angeles, CA.     

‘Good neighbours or distant relatives?’ Regional identity and cooperation in the South Caucasus

Conceptualization of the South Caucasus as a distinct regional unit is a relatively new development. Notwithstanding geographic proximity, the three states of the region face different political, economic and security realities, precipitating different strategic orientations. Conflicting dynamics complicate relations between states and serve to undermine efforts, both internal and external, to establish a sense of regional identity and advance inter-state cooperation. This paper argues that the concept of a distinct ‘South Caucasus’ region is an externally generated, geographical label, which implies a certain degree of unity and positive interdependence that does not exist. The three states may be geographical neighbours, but they are not ‘good neighbours’, as the complex web of enmities that has developed over the centuries means the three states tend to look externally to ‘distant relatives’, undermining both regional cohesion and awareness.     

The Salience of Social Contextual Factors in Appraisals of Police Interactions with Citizens: A Randomized Factorial Experiment

Objectives

Prior research indicates that public assessments of the manner in which the police exercise their authority are a key antecedent of judgments about the legitimacy of the police. In this study, the importance of context in influencing people’s assessment of police wrongdoing is examined.

Methods

A randomized factorial experiment was used to test how respondents perceive and evaluate police–citizens interactions along a range of types of situations and encounters. 1,361 subjects were surveyed on factors hypothesized to be salient influences on how citizens perceive and evaluate citizen interactions with police. Subjects viewed videos of actual police–citizen encounters and were asked for their evaluations of these observed encounters. Contextual primes were used to focus subjects on particular aspects of the context within which the encounter occurs.

Results

Structural equation models revealed that social contextual framing factors, such as the climate of police–community relations and the legality of the stop that led to the encounter, influence citizen appraisals of police behavior with effects comparable in size to and even larger than demographic variables such as education, race, and income.

Conclusions

These results suggest that the understandings and perceptions that people bring to a situation are important determinants of their assessment of police fairness. The police can positively influence citizen interpretations of police actions by striving to create a climate of positive police–community relationships in cities.     

The development and pilot testing of a family treatment court best practices assessment: The model standards implementation scale

In 2019, the family treatment court (FTC) best practice standards (the Standards) were published to clarify attributes of FTC programs associated with superior child, parent, and family outcomes. The Standards cover the breadth of FTC operations including program structure and leadership, substance use treatment and complementary services, and behavioral responses to participants. This study aimed to develop an instrument (the Model Standards Implementation Scale; “MSIS”) that stakeholders can use to assess implementation of the Standards by individual FTCs. The MSIS balances usability with scientific validity. Interrater reliability (IRR), internal consistency, and several types of validity were assessed. Results indicated moderate to strong IRR, high internal consistency, mixed known groups validity depending on Standard, and high convergent and divergent validity. Initial findings suggest good validity and usability of the MSIS for evaluating FTC Standards' implementation. Notably, the process of using the tool functioned to educate FTC team members on the Standards. Although implementation of the MSIS is a resource-intensive process, the opportunity to receive constructive feedback proved to be an effective incentive for initial and subsequent participation in the evaluation among FTCs. Future research is needed to examine predictive validity, including association between Standards' implementation and family outcomes in FTCs.     

Desistance and Legitimacy: The Impact of Offender Notification Meetings on Recidivism among High Risk Offenders

Legitimacy-based approaches to crime prevention assume that individuals will comply with the law when they believe that the law and its agents are legitimate and act in ways that are “fair” and “just.” Currently, legitimacy-based programs are shown to lower aggregate levels of crime; yet, no study has investigated whether such programs influence individual offending. Using quasi-experimental design and survival analyses, this study evaluates the effectiveness of one such program—Chicago’s Project Safe Neighborhoods’ (PSN) Offender Notification Forums—at reducing individual recidivism among a population of returning prisoners. Results suggest that involvement in PSN significantly reduces the risk of subsequent incarceration and is associated with significantly longer intervals that offenders remain on the street and out of prison. As the first study to provide individual-level evidence promoting legitimacy-based interventions on patterns of individual offending, out study suggests these interventions can and do reduce rates of recidivism.