Therapeutic Jurisprudence, juvenile justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child : do they coexist?

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides children and young people with over 40 substantive rights, the five outcomes of which are living a healthy lifestyle, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution, and economic wellbeing. Moreover, Article 3 dictates that all organizations concerned with children should work towards what is best of each child. It is not clear how these rights translate to the care of children and young people who come before the courts (particularly those who are subsequently incarcerated). A review of the literature suggests that while best practice guidelines for the treatment and rehabilitation of adult offenders has moved forward, there is little consensus about how this might be achieved for young people. Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) needs to extend beyond its current considerations of the rights of children and young people, and to expand its focus to the extent to which international human rights standards are complied with in the cases of juveniles in the criminal justice system. This presentation will (a) explore the extent to which current practices in juvenile justice are consistent with the UN's Convention and (b) whether the adoption a rehabilitative and treatment approach based on a TJ framework might serve to improve outcomes for young people and ensure their rights are not being violated.

Ethical practice in sex offender assessment : consideration of actuarial and polygraph methods

The current generation of community protection laws represents a shift in priorities that may see the individual rights of sex offenders compromised for the goal of public safety. At the center of many judicial decisions under these laws are the risk assessment reports provided by mental health practitioners. The widespread enactment of laws allowing for additional sanctions for sex offenders, and a burgeoning research literature regarding the methods used to assess risk have served to heighten rather than resolve the ethical concerns associated with professional practice in this area. This article examines ethical issues inherent in the use of two assessment methods commonly used with sex offenders in the correctional context, focusing on actuarial measures and polygraph tests. Properly conducted and adequately reported actuarial findings are considered to provide useful information of sufficient accuracy to inform rather than mislead judicial decision makers, although careful consideration must be given to the limitations of current measures in each individual case. Despite its increasing use, polygraph testing is considered controversial, with little consensus regarding its accuracy or appropriate applications. On the basis of the current state of the professional literature regarding the polygraph, its use with sex offenders raises unresolved ethical concerns.

Assessing female sexual offenders' motivations and cognitions : an exploratory study

Semi-structured interviews eliciting cognitions and motivations were carried out with 15 incarcerated female child sexual abusers (nearly 50% of the current UK female sexual offender prison population). Qualitative analysis indicated that four of the five motivational schemas (implicit theories) suggested by Ward (Ward, 2000; Ward & Keenan, 1999) to underlie male sexual offenders' cognitions could be clearly identified in women, these were: Uncontrollability (UN, identified in 87% of participants), Dangerous world (DW, 53%), Children as sexual objects (CSO, 47%) and Nature of harm (NH, 20%). Entitlement, the final implicit theory (IT), commonly found in males, was not identified in any participants in the sample. Further analysis indicated that there were four main motivational types of offender based on combinations of these ITs. These were: (1) presence of DW/CSO, indicating sexual motivation and cognitions with fear of violence; (2) presence of DW/no CSO, indicating fear of violence with no sexual cognition or motivation; (3) presence of CSO/no DW, indicating sexual motivation and cognition; the NH IT also strongly featured in this group; and (4) presence of UN/no DW or CSO, indicating lack of control, sometimes with sense of protection for the victim. Suggestions are made on how the results can inform theoretical developments in the field as well as policy and practice.

Dignity and human rights in correctional practice

Interventions with offenders have a normative layer as well as a scientific basis and therefore it is not possible to quarantine ethical questions from discussions of best practice. My aim in this paper is to provide an expanded ethical canvass from which to approach correctional practice with offenders. The cornerstone of this broader ethical perspective will be the concept of human dignity and its protection by human rights norms and theories. I also explore the relationship between responses to crime and offender rehabilitation based on an enriched theory of punishment that is sensitive to offenders’ moral equality and their attendant rights.

A human rights-based practice framework for sexual offenders

Human rights create a protective zone around people and allow them the opportunity to further their own valued personal projects without interference from others. In our view, the emphasis on community rights and protection may, paradoxically, reduce the effectiveness of sex offender rehabilitation by ignoring or failing to ensure that offenders' core human interests are met. In this paper we consider how rights-based values and ideas can be integrated into therapeutic work with sex offenders in a way that safeguards the interests of offenders and the community. To this end we develop a rights-based normative framework (the Offender Practice Framework: OPF) that is orientated around the three strands of justice and accountability, offender needs and risk, and the utilization of empirically supported interventions and strength-based approaches. We examine the utility of this framework for the different phases of sex offender practice.

Spare the rod and spoil the child : should the abolition of corporal punishment be reversed?

The classic English case of Williams v Eady (1893) had, for over a century, supported a teacher acting in loco parentis when inflicting punishment on a child, so long as the punishment was reasonable and given in good faith. But in response to the European Convention on Human Rights, which calls for all to respect a child’s right not to be “subject to torture or to inhumane or degrading treatment” (Article 3), many countries have banned the practice of using corporal punishment in schools. This might even include the use of reasonable force to prevent a student from injuring others or causing damage to property if it is seen as a form of discipline or punishment. Schools, therefore, have a difficult task of striking a balance between providing a safe environment for the whole school community and a child’s individual rights. This paper gives an overview of the trends in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada and Singapore concerning corporal punishment, and then discusses the implications for employing or banning corporal punishment as a disciplinary strategy. The discussion takes on a brief jurisprudential analysis of this issue: that is, whether, corporal punishment, if carried out reasonably, is seen as a proper form of discipline, ensuring a safe and disciplined environment in which the school community, as a whole, might operate. Is the teaching profession over regulated in the area of physical discipline? If so, would the continuation or reintroduction of corporal punishment make sense, or would it make education an even riskier business?

Medical evidence in child sexual assault cases

Purpose – Previous studies suggest that the presence of medical evidence is rare in child sexual assault (CSA) cases, and if present at all, such evidence is unlikely to identify a specific assailant. This study aims to examine the role medical evidence plays in criminal cases of CSA. Specifically, the prevalence of medical evidence in CSA cases, its impact on decisions to prosecute CSA cases, as well as its effect on conviction rates are examined.

Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review was conducted on the impact of medical evidence in criminal child sexual abuse (CSA) cases.

Findings – The results of the review suggest medical evidence increases the likelihood of prosecution; however the impact of medical evidence on conviction rate is equivocal.

Research limitations/implications – The implications of these findings for legal and psychological practice, government policy and future areas for academic research are discussed.

Originality/value – To the authors' knowledge, no other review has systematically examined the role of medical evidence on the prosecution and conviction of CSA cases.

Lobbying in Australia : child or sibling of public relations

It is accepted now that lobbying and public relations share a strong relationship. How did this come about? How did lobbying become a subset of the discipline of public relations and is it accepted as such – by its practitioners and those it serves? In lobbying’s attempts to define the practice it has sought a broader discipline for explanation. Many terms came into being because as Harrison observed ‘ it has been impossible to clearly define a lobbyist’ (2011, p865). Macnamara (2012) includes lobbying under a heading of public affairs and government relations. Sekuless subtitled his 1991 text Lobbying in the Nineties ‘the government relations game’.
This paper seeks to define lobbying and its practice in Australia. In so doing it looks specifically at professional and academic definition of the lobbying and its growth as a subset of PR.

The association between investigative interviewers' knowledge of question type and adherence to best-practice interviewing

It is well established that not all investigative interviewers adhere to ‘best-practice’ interview guidelines (i.e., the use of open-ended questions) when interviewing child witnesses about abuse. However, little research has examined the sub skills associated with open question usage. In this article, we examined the association between investigative interviewers' ability to identify various types of questions and adherence to open-ended questions in a standardized mock interview. Study 1, incorporating 27 trainee police interviewers, revealed positive associations between open-ended question usage and two tasks; a recognition task where trainees used a structured protocol to guide their response and a recall task where they generated examples of open-ended questions from memory. In Study 2, incorporating a more heterogeneous sample of 40 professionals and a different training format and range of tests, positive relationships between interviewers' identification of questions and adherence to best-practice interviewing was consistently revealed. A measure of interviewer knowledge about what constitutes best-practice investigative (as opposed to knowledge of question types) showed no association with interviewer performance. The implications of these findings for interviewer training programs are discussed.

Techniques used by investigative interviewers to elicit disclosures of abuse from child witnesses : a critique

Eliciting disclosures of abuse from children is a challenging skill that requires considerable practice, feedback, training and instruction. While there is an abundance of literature outlining what constitutes best practice interviewing of children, there has been little discussion, in particular, of investigative interviewers’ limitations when applying best practice interview guidelines to elicit disclosures of abusive acts. This paper assists police by identifying common problems of child investigative interviewers when eliciting disclosures (N = 131) and provides alternate questioning strategies. The results support the need for further training to be developed to ensure better adherence to best practice guidelines in relation to all aspects of eliciting a disclosure from children.

Investigation of the WISC-III and WASI in clinical child populations : a framework for further exploration

To promote efficient clinical practice, interest has been growing in brief assessment scales to replace full-scale versions in some circumstances. In nonclinical populations, the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) has substituted for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Third Edition (WISC-III). Agreement between these scales remains untested in clinical populations. Twenty-five children, aged 6 to 15 years old were assessed. A correlational and within-participant design was used. These scales were significantly correlated. Despite a fourth edition of the WISC now available, WASI administration alone would at times appear to be a quick and valid estimate of IQ. Replication with the WISC-IV seems necessary to clarify the verbal/ performance distance criterion discrepancy and also the meaning of some variability between the scale and subtests.

Evaluating police interviewing practices with suspects in child-sexual abuse cases

This article examined adherence to current best practice recommendations for police interviewing of individuals suspected of committing child-sexual offences. We analysed 81 police records of interviews (electronically recorded and then transcribed) with suspects in child-sexual abuse cases in England and Australia. Overall we found areas of skilled practice, indicating that police interviewing in Australia and England is in a far better place than 20 years ago. However, this study also demonstrated that there is still a gap between the recommended guidelines for interviewing and what actually happens in practice. Specifically, limitations were found in the following areas: transparency of the interview process; introduction of allegations; disclosure of evidence; questioning techniques; and the interviewing approach or manner adopted. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Measuring harm: governing the effects of child sexual abuse

By analysing published research, and holding focus group discussions with counsellors, my thesis examines how the demands and practice of psychological measurement, understood as a scientific activity, have shaped, produced and constrained professional research and therapy concerning the effects of child sexual abuse.

Thirteen-year trends in child and adolescent fundamental movement skills: 1997-2010