Cold, Hungry and Scared:Prison Films About the Troubles

The cinematic representations of the prison experience during the Northern Irish Troubles.

'Just be Brave' - The Experiences of Young Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings in Northern Ireland

The last three decades have witnessed considerable interest in the position of children and young people acting as witnesses in criminal cases and on how best to facilitate them to give their best evidence and minimise the trauma involved. This paper presents the findings of a small-scale study in Northern Ireland examining the experiences of young witnesses pre-trial, during the trial and post-trial. Interviews were carried out with 37 young witnesses and 33 parents, and a questionnaire was completed by 16 volunteers and practitioners working in a local young witness support scheme. The findings indicate that the prospect and actuality of giving evidence in a criminal trial are anxiety-provoking and stressful for the majority of young witnesses. Particular issues identified are delay, both in terms of cases coming to court and in waiting times at court, the availability of pre-trial preparation and support, facilities at court buildings and the treatment of young people during cross-examination by defence lawyers. The paper concludes that there is a continuing need to strive for improvement, and that this necessarily involves reviewing the experiences of young witnesses and seeking their views on measures designed to enable them to give their best evidence. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

3D deflagration simulations leaving bound remnants:A model for 2002cx-like Type Ia supernovae

2002cx-like supernovae are a sub-class of sub-luminous Type Ia supernovae (SNe). Their light curves and spectra are characterized by distinct features that indicate strong mixing of the explosion ejecta. Pure turbulent deflagrations have been shown to produce such mixed ejecta. Here, we present hydrodynamics, nucleosynthesis and radiative-transfer calculations for a 3D full-star deflagration of a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf. Our model is able to reproduce the characteristic observational features of SN 2005hk (a prototypical 2002cx-like supernova), not only in the optical, but also in the near-infrared. For that purpose we present, for the first time, five near-infrared spectra of SN 2005hk from -0.2 to 26.6 d with respect to B-band maximum. Since our model burns only small parts of the initial white dwarf, it fails to completely unbind the white dwarf and leaves behind a bound remnant of ~1.03Mconsisting mainly of unburned carbon and oxygen, but also enriched by some amount of intermediate-mass and iron-group elements from the explosion products that fall back on the remnant.We discuss possibilities for detecting this bound remnant and how it might influence the late-time observables of 2002cx-like SNe. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Sexual offences against children: An exploration of attrition in the Northern Ireland criminal justice system

Objective: This paper uses data provided by the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) to compare the characteristics and outcomes of reported sexual offences involving child and adult victims and explore the factors associated with case outcomes.
Method: PSNI provided data on 8,789 sexual offences recorded between April 2001 and March 2006. Case outcomes were based on whether a case was recorded by police as having sufficient evidence to summons, charge, or caution an offender (detected). Where an offender was summonsed, charged, or cautioned, this is classified as detection with a formal sanction. A case can also be classified as "detected" without a formal sanction. The analysis focused on two key categories of detection without formal sanction: cases in which the police deem there to be sufficient evidence to charge an offender but took no further action because the victim did not wish to prosecute, or because the police or the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) decided that no useful purpose would be served by proceeding.
Results: The analysis confirmed that the characteristics of recorded sexual offences involving adult and child victims vary significantly according to gender, offence type, the timing of report and victim-offender relationship. Almost half of child sex abuse cases are not detected by police and a quarter do not proceed through the criminal justice system because either the victim declines to prosecute or the Police/PPS decide not to proceed. Only one in five child cases involved detection with a formal sanction. Child groups with lower detection with formal sanction rates included children under 5, teenagers, those who do not report when the abuse occurs but disclose at a later date; and those who experience abuse at the hands of peers and adults known to them but not related. The analysis also highlighted variation in formal sanction rates depending on where the offence was reported.
Conclusions: Consideration needs to be given to improving the criminal justice response to specific child groups as well as monitoring detection rates in different police areas in order to address potential practice variation.
Practice implications: Consideration needs to be given to improving the professional response in relation to with particularly lower detection with formal sanction rates. There is also a need to monitor case outcomes to ensure that child victims in different areas receive a similar service.