Using cost-effective multimedia to create engaging learning experiences in law and other disciplines

This is the final report of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Teaching Fellowship which addressed the needs of two separate groups of learners: (1) final year law students studying ethics and (2) law academics and other interested educators in higher education wishing to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to create engaging learning environments for their students but lacking the capacity to do so. The Fellowship resulted in final year law students being infused with an improved appreciation of ethical practice than they receive from traditional lecture/tutorial means by the development of an integrated program of blended learning including an online program entitled "Entry into Valhalla". This "ethics capstone‟ utilises multimedia produced using cost effective resources (including the "Second Life" virtual environment) to create engaging, contextualised learning experiences. The Fellowship also constructed the knowledge of producing cost-effective multimedia projects in other law academics and other educators in higher education by staff development activities comprising workshops, conference presentations and an interactive website using the "Entry into Valhalla" program as a case study exemplar.

Victims Speak: Comparing Child Sexual Abusers and Their Victims Accounts of Offence Circumstances

This article presents findings from a longitudinal study. The research aimed to explore the effectiveness of a treatment program for offenders which lasted for three years. The research design was structured around the program with interviews and psychometric testing undertaken at key points in time with the same group of respondents. View all notes that sought to evaluate a treatment program for child sexual abusers. A triangulated methodological approach was adopted drawing upon quantitative and qualitative methodological techniques. The focus here is upon one element of this research. 2 2The quantitative element of this research will be published shortly but is referred to in the following reports Davidson 2000, 2003 [research funded by the National Probation Service]. Psychometric testing was undertaken over a four-year period with the men attending the treatment program to explore shifts in the extent of denial, blame attribution, and victim empathy over time. Offender cognitive distortions, general health, and self-esteem were also explored via psychometric testing. An interview-administered survey was undertaken with all sex offenders registered with the Probation Service (those on probation and in custody) in order to gather demographic data, and 117 of 150 offenders responded. View all notes Ninety-one in-depth interviews were conducted over a four-year period with a small, nonrandom sample of twenty-one male offenders who had been convicted of sexual offenses against children. All of the men were subject to probation orders with a psychiatric condition (Criminal Justice Act, 1991). One of the aims of this element of the research was to explore the extent to which evidence of denial could be found in offenders’ accounts of offense circumstance and also to explore the extent to which offenders minimized the nature and extent of abuse perpetrated. Offenders’ accounts of offense circumstances were compared to victim statements, and stark differences emerge. These findings have considerable implications for treatment practice with sex offenders, where victims’ perceptions could be used to directly confront offender denial and minimization.

Emotions, crime and justice [Onati International Series in Law and Society, Number 1]

The return of emotions to debates about crime and criminal justice has been a striking development of recent decades across many jurisdictions. This has been registered in the return of shame to justice procedures, a heightened focus on victims and their emotional needs, fear of crime as a major preoccupation of citizens and politicians, and highly emotionalised public discourses on crime and justice. But how can we best make sense of these developments? Do we need to create "emotionally intelligent" justice systems, or are we messing recklessly with the rational foundations of liberal criminal justice? This volume brings together leading criminologists and sociologists from across the world in a much needed conversation about how to re-calibrate reason and emotion in crime and justice today. The contributions range from the micro-analysis of emotions in violent encounters to the paradoxes and tensions that arise from the emotionalisation of criminal justice in the public sphere. They explore the emotional labour of workers in police and penal institutions, the justice experiences of victims and offenders, and the role of vengeance, forgiveness and regret in the aftermath of violence and conflict resolution. The result is a set of original essays which offer a fresh and timely perspective on problems of crime and justice in contemporary liberal democracies.

Gifts, the law and functional rationalism

This paper examines the legal facilitation (or rather lack of facilitation) of gifts. The emerging western political ideology of welfare is based on the premise that nonprofit organisations are to play a far greater role in the delivery of welfare services. This role will be enabled in part by increased gifts. The ideology has not addressed the fundamental hostility of the law to the facilitation of gifts. The nature of the legal obstruction of such gifts is compared to equivalent commercial transactions, the reasons given for this obstruction are analysed and the appropriateness of such nonfacilitation is challenged. A state that does not alter the legal hostility to gifts may find that organisations do not attain their expected role in the changing welfare state.

Data mining traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) lessons learnt from mining in law and allopathic medicine

Key decisions at the collection, pre-processing, transformation, mining and interpretation phase of any knowledge discovery from database (KDD) process depend heavily on assumptions and theorectical perspectives relating to the type of task to be performed and characteristics of data sourced. In this article, we compare and contrast theoretical perspectives and assumptions taken in data mining exercises in the legal domain with those adopted in data mining in TCM and allopathic medicine. The juxtaposition results in insights for the application of KDD for Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Property law and practice in Queensland : being a commentary on the Property Law Act 1974

A Commentary on the Property Law Act 1974 Queensland

Reasonable adjustments in assessment : putting law and policy into practice in Australia

The Australian Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Cth) require education providers to make reasonable adjustments in educational assessment so that students with disability can participate on the same basis as other students and be able to demonstrate what they know and can do. Reasonableness is governed by a determination of the balance of interests, benefits and detriment to the parties involved. The Standards require providers to consult with students and associates on adjustments, although guidance on how consultation should occur and how the views of students and associates are to be taken into account is vague. In this article, we identify three principles to be considered in order to put appropriate and effective reasonable adjustments in assessment into practice. While Australian law and assessment contexts are used to examine intentions, expectations and practices in educational assessment for students with disability, we argue that these three principles must be considered in any national education system to ensure equitable assessment practices and achieve equitable educational inclusion for students with disability.