Desistance and Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders: Facilitation or Hindrance?

In an ideal world, there would be a seamless relationship between interventions that focus on risk factors causally associated with sexual reoffending and the subsequent release of, and ongoing support for, offenders into the community. However, emotionally fueled and uninformed public responses to news of released sex offenders, and the legislation such responses have inspired, severely hinder this process. Our aims in this paper are to review findings of research on community attitudes about sex offenders within a desistance framework. More specifically, we provide a synthesis of the current research literature on attitudes towards sex offenders. Second, we consider in more detail those studies that include community member samples. Third, we review interventions aimed at promoting attitude change amongst professionals working with sex offenders and finally formulate some recommendations for promoting positive attitude change amongst the general public.     

Development and Initial Validation of the Miranda Vocabulary Scale

Miranda vocabulary forms the essential foundation for Miranda comprehension and subsequent decisions to exercise or waive Miranda rights. The purpose of the current study is the development of the Miranda Vocabulary Scale (MVS), designed to evaluate key vocabulary words found in Miranda warnings and waivers across American jurisdictions. A preliminary list of MVS words was refined by expert ratings and by each word’s discriminability between failed and good Miranda comprehension. Miranda and other measures were collected at multiple sites on 376 pretrial defendants. With further refinements, the MVS is composed of 36 words with excellent scale homogeneity and interrater reliability (r = .99). It also demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity for cognitive abilities and psychological impairment.     

The meaning of a militia: Understanding the civil defence forces of Sierra Leone

This article is an adapted, narrative version of an expert witnessreport the author wrote for the Defence of one of the accusedbefore the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The case againstthe Civil Defence Forces militia was predicated in part on theargument that the CDF was a military organization with military-stylecommand and control. Based on a close reading of the Prosecution'smilitary expert witness report and the author's ethnographicresearch with the militia, the article outlines a case for understandingthe CDF as the militarization of a social network rather thanas a military organization. This framing has implications notonly for post-conflict adjudication, but for how we think aboutand intervene in violent contexts throughout contemporary WestAfrica.     

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Subsequent Substance Abuse in a Sample of Sexual Offenders: Implications for Treatment and Prevention

The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of substance abuse indicators in a sample of male sexual offenders (N = 679) and to examine the influence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on the likelihood of substance abuse outcomes. Half of these sex offenders reported a history of drug or alcohol abuse, and nearly one in five reported a substance-related arrest. Higher ACE scores were associated with endorsement of a greater number of substance-abuse-related problems, suggesting that accumulation of early trauma may increase the likelihood for substance misuse. By enhancing our understanding of the frequency and antecedents of dynamic risk factors such as substance abuse, we can better devise clinical interventions that respond to the comprehensive needs of sexually abusive individuals and reduce risk for sexual reoffense. As well, early interventions for at-risk families and maltreated youth may interrupt their trajectory toward adulthood substance abuse and criminal behavior, including sex offending.     

Semiotic Interpretation on Translation Principles of Legal Terms

Translation of legal terms, as the linguistic transfer and reconstruction of sign meanings with legal concepts, holds both the symbolic nature of language and the professionalism of law. This paper finds that two intra-semiotic subjective links are identified within the process of formulation, interpretation, translation and reception of legal terms, and analyzes the five translation principles of legal terms within the semiotic interpretation from Semantic Triangle Model, and Translation Triangle Model as well as its corresponding three elements — namely, Representation, Reference and Interpretant. In addition, it is suggested that corpus, by capturing micro translation features, has the guiding and nurturing significance for translation principles of legal terms and general legal translation.     

Revalidating the salient factor score: A research note

In conjunction with a system of explicit decision-guidelines, the United States Parole Commission uses an actuarial instrument as an aid in assessing risk of recidivism. Known as a “salient factor score,” the instrument currently employed by the Parole Commission was constructed on a sample of federal prisoners released in 1970, and initially validated on two samples of federal prisoners released in 1971 and 1972. Since the power of any predictive instrument may change over time, periodic revalidation is essential. In this note, revalidation of the salient factor score, using a sample of federal prisoners released in 1976 (N = 1260), is described.