Knowledge and attitudes of lawyers regarding offenders with intellectual disability

People with an intellectual disability appear to be over represented in the criminal justice system and have characteristics that may render them particularly vulnerable. Hypotheses concerning different treatment have been investigated by others through analysis of the attitudes of various criminal justice personnel. The current study extends this work by examining the knowledge and attitudes of Victorian criminal lawyers towards offenders with an intellectual disability. Criminal lawyers (n = 96) responded anonymously to a questionnaire concerning their knowledge of the characteristics of people with intellectual disability and their attitudes regarding the exposure and disposition of this population within the criminal justice system, In addition, respondents were asked to indicate their level of social and professional experience with people with intellectual disability. Results revealed that although the majority of criminal lawyers generally had some understanding of the problems encountered by people with an intellectual disability when they come into contact with the criminal justice system, some deficits that may contribute to vulnerability were evident.

Sentencing of indigenous offenders in Victoria

It is common knowledge, especially in the context of the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC),' that indigenous persons are over-represented at all stages of the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, little has changed since the RCIADIC and indigenous representation in prisons throughout the states and territories of Australia remains at high levels. What has come to prominence since the RCIADIC, particularly through the findings of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in the 1997 report Bringing Them Home, is the notion of the Stolen Generation. For practitioners with indigenous clients, an important matter that may be put in mitigation is the effect of belonging to the Stolen Generation in terms of offering not only an explanation for offending, but also in terms of submissions put forward on behalf of the client pertaining to disposition. In this context, the Victorian Court of Appeal decision in R v Fuller-Cust is an important one, particularly the dissenting judgment of Eames J. His Honour, in a persuasive and well-reasoned judgment, suggests a method of sentencing indigenous offenders that relates questions of Aboriginality, the Stolen Generation and punishment.

The need for a higher custody threshold for indigenous offenders in Victoria

Over-representation of indigenous persons in the criminal justice system has changed little since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) - claim by the Victorian Department of Justice that a key recommendation of RCIADIC had been implemented, namely that imprisonment should be a sentence of last resort for indigenous offenders - how to ensure that imprisonment is a sanction of last resort when indigenous prisoners present for sentence.

Literary concepts and the plea in mitigation

The article focuses on the plea in mitigation, one of the most common occurrences in the criminal justice system. Methods of approaching the plea in mitigation typically emphasize the need for the advocate to address the circumstances of the offence and offender. Typically, such matters are put forward as items on a list which the advocate must ensure are addressed during the plea in mitigation. Whilst it is important for those matters to be covered in providing the factual background, or context, of the offender and the offence, it is contended that in a plea in mitigation it is not sufficient nor adequate to simply present such matters to a judicial officer at sentencing and to allow those matters then to be assembled and interpreted by the sentencing judge.

Crown appeals against sentence in Victoria : results and implications of an empirical study

Empirical study between 2002 and 2004 on decisions of the Victorian Court of Criminal Appeal relating to sentencing appeals - increase in number of Crown appeals - possible reasons - increasing success of Crown appeals - implications for criminal justice system - higher success on the basis of manifest inadequacy for the Crown than for sentenced persons on the same ground of manifest excess - reconsideration of principles concerning Crown appeals.

Just deserts in post-colonial society : problems in the punishment of indigenous offenders.

Revised version of a paper presented to the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, Sydney, 2-3 October 2003 - disproportionate number of indigenous persons in the criminal justice system - the concept of 'just deserts' in regard to indigenous punishment - legislative reforms are needed to empower the judiciary in the sentencing process - must take account of the historical fact of dispossession - destructive effects on indigenous communities.

On-track to what? Foucauldian analysis of Victorian post-compulsory education policy

Current ideas of adolescent development portray a slow steady movement toward adulthood. These notions developed hand in hand with social practices that evolved in the latter half of the 19th century and contemporaneously with modernisation. During this period conceptions of adolescence included longer stays in school, organised leisure activities, juvenile justice policies and the protection of youth from child labour. Lesko (2001) works from a position that the modern age is defined by time, an understanding that events and change are meaningful in their occurrence in and through time. She examines adolescence as partaking of panoptical time which is condensed and commodified; a time framework that compels us - scholars, educators, parents, and teenagers - to attend to progress, precocity, arrest, or decline" (2001 p.41). Panoptical time can be used to explore how ideas of what is 'normal' development can be used to privilege particular ways of being an adolescent, to monitor who is deemed to be 'at risk' of not conforming to that model and to govern their behaviour. A Foucauldian analysis suggests the formation of 'at risk' identities reflects historically specific discourses. An understanding of how these and other discursive constructions are formed opens the way for resistance. This presentation explores the recent implementation of On-Track and On-Track Connect within Victorian government policy and explores the experience of a Local Learning and Employment Network in implementing the policy.

Just deserts in a post-colonial society : problems in the punishment of indigenous offenders

An enduring aspect of the operation of the criminal justice system in Australia has been the disproportionate representation of indigenous persons. Under current sentencing principles, aboriginality can be taken into account as a factor in mitigation because of the nature of social and economic disadvantage suffered by indigenous communities. It is contended that such an approach is inadequate as it fails to comprehend the reasons for that disadvantage. In short, the effects of colonialism and dispossession. An account of punishment will be developed that colonialism and dispossession cannot be omitted from any satisfactory account of the theory and history of punishment of indigenous persons. By relying on the notion of ‘just deserts’ an account of punishment will be proposed that extends the categories currently put forward to justify punishing indigenous persons. Traditional, philosophical accounts of punishment and insights from critical race theory will both be used in an attempt to articulate what ‘just deserts’ means in the context of a post-colonial society.

Offender rehabilitation : a normative framework for forensic psychologists

Community protection from offenders is addressed through punishment, deterrence, incapacitation, and/or rehabilitation. The current public policy debate about community protection refers to community rights as opposed to offender rights as if the two are mutually exclusive. However, in this article it will be argued that offender rehabilitation can enhance community protection if it addresses community rights and offender rights. The author proposes a normative framework to guide forensic psychologists in offender rehabilitation. The normative framework considers psychological theory—the risk-need model to address community rights and the good lives model to address offender rights. However, forensic psychologists operate within the context of the criminal justice system and so legal theory will also be considered. Therapeutic jurisprudence can balance community rights and offender rights within a human rights perspective. The proposed normative framework guides forensic psychologists in the assessment of risk, the treatment of need, and the management of readiness in balancing community rights and offender rights. Within a human rights perspective, forensic psychologists have a duty to provide offenders with the opportunity to make autonomous decisions about whether to accept or reject rehabilitation.

Accountability and dignity : ethical issues in forensic and correctional practice

Our aim in the special issue is to address some of the more abstract and fundamental ethical problems evident in the criminal justice system and to inquire into their significance for those individuals who assess and deliver rehabilitation programs to offenders. In order to provide an appropriate theoretical framework for an investigation of ethical concerns in the forensic and correctional practice domains, we first outline an ethical framework that is intended to help practitioners reflect systematically on their practice [Ward, T., & Syversen, K., (2009). Vulnerable agency and human dignity: An ethical framework for forensic practice. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14, 94–105]. Second, we explicitly examine the relationship between two normative frameworks evident within the criminal justice system, punishment and rehabilitation, and inquire into their relationship. Finally, we briefly describe each of the papers comprising the special issue.

The rehabilitation of indigenous prisoners : an Australian perspective

The massive problems experienced by Indigenous Australians in their encounters with the criminal justice system have been well documented and widely discussed. This paper applies the Risk, Needs and Responsivity Model of rehabilitation to Indigenous offenders. While much of the review is devoted to a discussion of Australian Indigenous offenders, the issues raised are likely to be relevant to Indigenous groups from other countries and, possibly, ethnic minority offenders more generally. We concluded that whilst the model clearly has value, rehabilitation programs would benefit from a careful consideration of issues relating specifically to the Risk, Needs and Responsivity of Indigenous offenders.

Coerced offender rehabilitation : a defensible practice?

The use of the criminal justice system to force offenders to receive psychological treatment is one of the most controversial aspects of service provision for offenders. Coerced treatment needs to be distinguished from pressured treatment, both having objective and subjective dimensions. In this paper some arguments for and against coerced offender rehabilitation are discussed. We suggest that coercing offenders into attending rehabilitation programmes (or placing legal pressure on them to attend) is unlikely by itself to lead to poorer outcomes. Rather, the individual's perception of coercion will be more influential in determining how an offender approaches treatment. Even when offenders perceive they are being coerced, it is likely that pre-treatment anti-therapeutic attitudes can change over the course of a programme, such that therapeutic gains (risk reduction) can occur. Coercion and its effects on treatment engagement and rehabilitation outcomes require further empirical research and conceptual analysis.

An empirical study on the relationship between intellectual ability and an understanding of the legal process in male remand prisoners

Research conducted in Australia and around the world in the last decade has shown that people with significant intellectual impairments are over-represented in all areas of the criminal justice system. They are particularly over-represented in remand populations appearing before court. Previous research has suggested that as many as one-quarter of offenders facing sentencing in court have difficulty in understanding court procedures and it is suspected that a majority of these individuals suffer a significant intellectual impairment. The purpose of this study was to establish whether remandees with significant intellectual impairments (IQ < 70) have an accurate understanding of the court system. Seventy-four remand prisoners took part in the study. Remandees with an IQ of less than 70 demonstrated a significantly poorer understanding of the court system than those remandees with an IQ of 70 and above. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to the need for law reform and diversionary practices for this population of remandees.