Impact of early intervention for youth with problematic sexual behaviors and their caregivers

ABSTRACT

Targeting broad implementation of early intervention services has a high potential for impact given the prevalence of child sexual abuse committed by youth and the low recidivism rate following effective interventions. This multisite quasi-experimental study examined the outcomes for 320 youth ages 10–14 years and their caregivers who participated in community-based problematic sexual behavior – cognitive behavior therapy (PSB-CBT). Significant reductions in PSB with a large effect size (e.g. t(126)?=?11.69, p?<?.001, d?=?2.08) were found. No site differences were found, despite racial and regional diversity. Nonsexual behaviour problems, emotional problems, and trauma symptoms also significantly improved. Positive outcomes extended to caregivers. Recommended next steps include rigorous strategies for examining the impact of widespread implementation of evidence-based early intervention programmes on the prevention of sexual abuse, complemented with thoughtful efforts to develop and implement policies and procedures that improve the safety and well-being of all children in the community.     

Identifying Points of Contact and Engagement Between Legal and Environmental Education

This article explores the shaping and possibly reforming potential of ideas about sustainability in legal education by drawing up a scale of environmental education theories, arranged according to their propensity to transform radically university education. The article offers a critical analysis of current individualist strategies aimed at developing students' environmental skills, in particular that these hamper opportunities for universities to develop a broader and more creative agenda of social change. Applying ideas about how environmental education communities of practice develop, this article identifies some pockets of activity seeking to integrate ideas of sustainability into the law curriculum, including via environmental law and teaching Wild Law or Earth Jurisprudence. These issues form part of an on‐going debate about how well law students are being prepared for work in highly challenging social, environmental, and financial circumstances, against the backdrop of a broader question about ‘what are universities for?’     

Participation as a Framework for Analysing Consumers’ Experiences of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

This article argues that an analytic framework based on participation is useful for analysing consumer experiences of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), providing a complementary approach to analyses drawing on procedural justice theory. The argument is developed by applying McKeever's ‘ladder of legal participation’ (LLP)¹ to a qualitative data set consisting of interviews with United Kingdom consumers. The article concludes that applying the LLP in the consumer ADR context results in novel empirical and theoretical insights. Empirically, it demonstrates that – even in low-value and transactional disputes – consumers expect high levels of participation from ADR. Theoretically, it argues that the LLP complements existing approaches by providing an unifying lens through which to study consumer experiences by emphasizing the importance of participation, not only as a process value but also in shaping outcomes highlighting the distinction between genuine and tokenistic provision of ADR.     

The Relation of Harsh and Permissive Discipline with Child Disruptive Behaviors: Does Child Gender Make a Difference in an At-Risk Sample?

The role of parenting in child disruptive behaviors has received substantial support; however, the findings as to differential effects of specific parenting behaviors (e.g., discipline) on boys’ and girls’ disruptive behavior problems have not been consistent. The current study examined the individual, unique, and interactive relation of two types of ineffective discipline (i.e., harsh & permissive) with child disruptive behavior for at-risk boys and girls separately. Participants were 160 parents with 3- to 6-year-old at-risk children (47.5% girls). Findings revealed that higher levels of harsh discipline were related to more intense disruptive behavior of both boys and girls, whereas higher levels of permissive discipline were related to more intense disruptive behavior of only boys. Additionally, results indicated that harsh and permissive discipline did not interact to predict child disruptive behavior problems. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Consent forms in genomics: the difference between law and practice

Consent forms are the principal method for obtaining informed consent from biomedical research participants. The significance of these forms is increasing as more secondary research is undertaken on existing research samples and information, and samples are deposited in biobanks accessible to many researchers. We reviewed a selection of consent forms used in European Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and identified four common elements that were found in every consent form. Our analysis showed that only two of the four most commonly found elements in our sample of informed consent forms were required in UK law. This raises questions about what should be put in informed consent forms for research participants. These findings could be beneficial for the formulation of participant information and consent documentation in the future studies.     

Forensic identification science evidence since Daubert: Part II--judicial reasoning in decisions to exclude forensic identification evidence on grounds of reliability

Many studies regarding the legal status of forensic science have relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's mandate in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., and its progeny in order to make subsequent recommendations or rebuttals. This paper focuses on a more pragmatic approach to analyzing forensic science's immediate deficiencies by considering a qualitative analysis of actual judicial reasoning where forensic identification evidence has been excluded on reliability grounds since the Daubert precedent. Reliance on general acceptance is becoming insufficient as proof of the admissibility of forensic evidence. The citation of unfounded statistics, error rates and certainties, a failure to document the analytical process or follow standardized procedures, and the existence of observe bias represent some of the concerns that have lead to the exclusion or limitation of forensic identification evidence. Analysis of these reasons may serve to refocus forensic practitioners' testimony, resources, and research toward rectifying shortfalls in these areas.