Weighing Ethical Considerations in Proposed Non-recent Child Sexual Abuse Investigations: A Response to Maslen and Paine’s Oxford CSA Framework

Questions about when it is right for police forces to investigate alleged offences committed in the more or less distant past have become increasingly pressing. Recent widely publicized cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) and exploitation, sometimes involving high profile individuals, have illustrated the ethical, psychological, and forensic complexities of investigating non-recent child sexual abuse. Hannah Maslen and Colin Paine have developed the Oxford CSA Framework to assist police to weigh the various ethical considerations that militate for and against initiating a CSA investigation. While such a tool is to be welcomed, and while there is much that is helpful in Maslen and Paine's approach, we suggest that the Oxford CSA framework could be strengthened. Our first suggestion is to abandon a proposed distinction between a set of considerations that is said to generate a “presumption” in favor of investigation and other considerations that may supplement or oppose this presumption. Our second suggestion is to review the weightings applied to the considerations within the model, which lack clear justification and create problematic effects. Finally, we suggest that referring the Oxford CSA Framework to a panel with lived and professional experience of CSA could serve important procedural justice goals and enhance the Framework's recommendations.     

Ubuntuism as a Foundation of Media Ethics in Zimbabwe? Journalists’ Perspectives and Discontents

Abstract

There are debates on the relevance of Eurocentric normative frameworks for studying the media in post-colonial Africa. Emerging from these debates is a rebuttal of the dominant Western-derived paradigms for the conceptualisation of journalistic norms, values and practices. Given that the dominant Western liberal models for normative media ethics are incongruent to the needs of Africa, there is a growing call to reconceptualise media ethics anchored upon alternative epistemologies and moral foundations such as ubuntuism. Although there is existing scholarship on ubuntuism as a framework for media ethics in Africa, none of these studies has focused particularly on Zimbabwe. Using the 16 August 2019 (hereafter August 16) protests as a photojournalistic “moment” as a frame, this article explores the views and perspectives of Zimbabwean journalists on their understanding of media ethics and professionalism. Further, it probes the possibilities of ubuntuism as a moral foundation of journalistic practice in the country. Journalists’ views are diverse and contested on the nature and practice of media ethics in the country. Although ubuntuism is touted as a normative framework for media ethics, the Western liberal perspectives remain dominant. As such, post-colonial theory offers a useful approach to understanding the interconnections, contradictions and tensions underpinning media ethics in post-colonial Zimbabwe.     

Fixing Financial Plumbing: Tax,Leaks and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting in Europe

Aggressive tax planning by multinational enterprises (MNEs) costs EU member states between €50-70 billion and €150-190 billion per annum through base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). This tax gap has been blamed on ‘unethical’ companies acting legally, but inappropriately. Action to curtail this behaviour has been made possible by the confluence of two powerful movements: a popular articulation of tax morality as it relates to MNEs and the high issue salience reached as a consequence of the financial crisis and austerity in Europe, an emerging discourse around tax morality, and the efforts of prominent whistleblowers. As a result, domestic governments have removed their ‘soft’ veto and facilitated supranational bodies in innovating on corporate taxation, helping to rebalance the technical and structural superiority of MNEs in the international tax system.     

What Executioners Can—and Cannot—Teach Us About the Death Penalty

Those who work with the condemned often come to reject the death penalty not only in individual cases, and not only on the ground that it is poorly implemented. They tend to conclude that the punishment is wrong. I argue that the perspective of the executioner helps illuminate the debate about whether to abolish capital punishment, and that indeed the perspective of those who work with the condemned raises the troubling possibility that support for the death penalty can survive only at a great remove. Jeffrie Murphy has also argued that the executioner’s perspective can be useful, but I contend that Murphy asks the wrong question. His essay considers whether an executioner may, under some circumstances, take pride in his work. The better question is whether anyone ought to be asked to do such work. On this latter question, the perspective of the executioner sheds important light. Like Murphy, I draw on works by and about Albert Pierrepoint, the “last hangman” of Britain. I also draw on the perspectives of numerous executioners, wardens, chaplains, and other death row personnel. I argue that their perspectives offer a powerful argument against the main rationale for the death penalty: retribution. If retribution is keyed to the offender’s character as well as his wrongful act, then post-conviction character ought to matter. The executioners’ accounts share a common theme: that death row inmates change over time and hold the potential for redemption.     

高职院校学生思想政治教育的特点与规律研究

高职院校学生因学生生源与普通本科学生生源的差别,高职院校学生在思想政治教育方面也有其自身独特的特点和自身的规律。加强高职院校学生思想政治教育尤为重要,一方面因为高职院校学生数量相对与本科要多,另一方面,高职院校学生毕业后一般从事着一线的工作,并且高职院校学生思想政治教育的不容乐观之处等的客观存在,迫使思想政治教育工作者必须以适合高职院校学生的方式来进行思想政治教育,必须对高职院校学生思想政治教育的状况有一个常态化的研究工作。     

Social Media and E-professionalism in Child Welfare: Policy and Practice

The professional child welfare literature offers little guidance to child welfare managers and agency policy makers about the use of social media to search for or communicate with clients. Ethical social media use relies upon e-professionalism, defined as the professional identity established by workers through the way they utilize digital communications. This article offers considerations for standards of e-professionalism in child welfare policy and practice. Specific considerations are outlined for social media policy and practice scenarios are offered, which can be used to prompt agency discussions with child welfare workers.     

信息技术与课程整合的现实困境与实践探索——基于高职英语教师的视角

当前,我国教育进入了教育信息化发展的新时期。教育信息化的重心转向以课程改革为导向,教师的信息化教学设计培训为核心,推进课程与信息技术整合的深入发展。高职公共英语课程的信息化教学设计过程,是提高高职院校公共英语课程教学效果的有效途径,也对各级公共英语的教学设计起到示范和参考作用。     

高职高专院校图书馆建设中存在的问题

随着高职高专院校教育事业的蓬勃发展,高职高专院校图书馆也迎来了绝好的发展机会,但目前图书馆自身存在的一些共性问题,阻碍了图书馆的建设进程。     

高职高专计算机基础教育考评方法探析

高职高专计算机基础教育的培养目标是为了培养高素质的劳动者,因此在教学考评中应主要考察学生的职业能力。为了达到这样的目的,应尽量探索新的计算机基础教育的考评方法,认真研究考评方法的原理,比较不同考评方法的优劣,权衡不同类型考评方法的得失,构建面向素质教育的新计算机基础教育考评体系。     

环境刑法的伦理基础探析

本文首先将人与自然的关系划分为本体论上的主体共享关系、实践论上的主客体关系以及价值论上的主体共享关系和主客体关系。以此为基础,在人与自然价值论关系层面笔者展开了对主张主客体关系的人类中心主义与主张主体共享关系的非人类中心主义环境伦理观的利弊分析。考虑到弱式人类中心主义对公众道德水准的合理要求与刑法道德底线定位之暗合、刑法对人的预设模式之要求以及刑法的可操作,本文将弱式人类中心主义确立为环境刑法的伦理基础。