Assessment of public attitudes towards sex offenders in an Australian population

Public attitudes towards sex offenders are believed to play a key role in the development of legislation and public policy designed to manage the risks posed by known sex offenders who live in the community. There have, however, been few previous attempts to validate methods by which public attitudes can be measured. The current study aims to address this issue by establishing the factor structure of the Community Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale with an Australian community sample and examine the extent to which demographic variables and support for sex offender management policies influence these attitudes. A sample of 552 participants recruited through online social media sites completed the CATSO as well as a number of items developed by the researchers designed to assess individuals’ support for specific sex offender policies. Results of an exploratory factor analysis suggested the presence of four distinct factors which were labelled ‘social tendencies’, ‘treatment and punishment’, ‘crime characteristics’ and ‘sexual behaviour’. Individuals with higher levels of educational attainment rated sex offenders less negatively than those with lower educational attainment, while those who reported being supportive of community notification reported more negative attitudes towards sex offenders.

The Supervision of Known Sex Offenders in the Community: Monitoring Progress and Providing Feedback

Case management is the process by which most known sex offenders who live in the community are currently supervised. However, by itself, case management has been shown to have only a modest impact on rates of re-offending, and it is only when case work and/or treatment sessions are introduced, that the benefits become apparent. This paper considers how routinely collecting and feeding back standardized data about client progress towards supervisory goals can be integrated into the offender supervision and case management process. Based on methods that have been shown to be associated with enhanced outcomes in mental health, it is suggested that the implementation of feedback approaches have the potential to both enhance the case management process and improve the effectiveness of those policies which require it.

Variation with depth in temperate seagrass-associated fish assemblages in Southern Victoria, Australia

Variability in the abundance and distribution of seagrass-associated fish assemblages was examined at different depths in a temperate bay in southern Australia. Depth differences in seagrass-associated fish assemblages are poorly known but this information is critical given that seagrass loss can occur at specific depths depending on the cause. Overall, 69 species of fish from 26 families were recorded, with higher species richness in shallow than deep beds, with 12 species found only in deep beds and 22 species found only in shallow beds. While the total fish abundance (i.e. abundance of all species recorded) varied between years and seasons, and to some extent between sites, it was significantly higher in shallow than deep seagrass beds in the majority of cases. Although there was some variation between sites, seagrass tended to be longer and have a higher biomass in shallow than deep beds during both spring and autumn throughout the study. A positive relationship between seagrass biomass/length and total fish abundance/species richness was apparent. Assemblage structure tended to be distinct at each depth, with the largest species recorded in shallow seagrass. Large numbers of small schooling fish, such as atherinids, dominated in shallow seagrass but were not found in deep seagrass. Loss of seagrass could therefore have varying implications for distinct assemblages found at different depths.

Erasure, exclusion by inclusion, and the absence of intersectionality: introducing bisexuality in education

Even though many schools and educational systems, from elementary to tertiary, state that they endorse antihomophobic policies, pedagogies, and programs, there appears to be an absence of education about, and affirmation of, bisexuality, and minimal specific attention to bi-phobia in curriculum, policy, and student welfare. Bisexuality continues to fall into the gap between the binary of heterosexuality and homosexuality across all educational sectors. These absences and erasures leave bisexual students, family members, and educators feeling silenced and invisibilized within school communities. Indeed, these absences and erasures have been considered a major factor in bisexual young people, family members, and educators in school communities experiencing worse mental, emotional, sexual, and social health than their homosexual or heterosexual counterparts. Also of interest is the persistence of bisexual erasure in adult-developed resources and programs, even though there is increasing evidence of sexual identities and practices in youth subcultures that are adopting shifting discursive and societal constructs of sexuality, characterized by notions of fluidity, ambisexuality, and a reluctance to label their sexuality according to the heterosexual/homosexual binary. The articles in this issue profoundly engage with and problematize the three impediments to education systems when those systems engage with sexual diversity instead of sexual duality, namely, erasure, exclusion by inclusion into gay and lesbian categories, and the absence of intersectionality (wherein other facets of identity and experience that interweave with sexuality are not taken into account, such as class, gender, Indigeneity/Aboriginality, ethnicity, geographical location, and religion). 

Forever troubling: feminist theoretical work in education

My life and intellectual history are closely connected to the late 20th Century rise of the second wave women’s, student and civil rights movements. These decades also witnessed the professionalization of women’s traditional fields of work— teaching and nursing—with their introduction into the academy. But as all feminists know, and my intellectual and personal history illustrates, there is no gradual progress towards the betterment of all or a fairer redistribution of power, and there is no safe discourse of equality. Any restructuring of the social relations of gender arising from local, national or global social, economic and political shifts often reasserts masculine privilege.

Does size matter? Sex differences in white-faced storm petrels’ ecology

Does size matter? In the case of the white-faced storm petrel, yes, it would appear so. The findings of this study make a significant contribution to further our understanding of how even subtle sexual size dimorphism influences aspects of this species’ biology and ecology, and how this relates across Procellariiformes.

Meta-analysis and research synthesis in education

This bibliography begins with this introduction followed by a general overview of meta-analysis and research synthesis methods in education. The third section cites references to illustrate how the concept of statistical integration of research findings dates back to early 20th century. Citations in the fourth section highlight early calls from educational researchers to recognize the process of synthesizing research as a scholarly endeavor in its own right. As evident from the citations in the fifth section, it was in the 1980s when monographs exclusively devoted to research synthesis methods started to be published. Since then, a number of books have been published on research synthesis methods. The sixth section cites some of the most comprehensive books on research synthesis methods and includes contributions from key players of meta-analysis current at the time. The citations in the seventh section illustrate how meta-analysis has become very popular over time. Several large organizations have been set up and software developed to support systematic reviews of research. These are cited in the eighth section. Citations in the ninth section illustrate critiques of systematic reviews. As qualitative research is becoming popular in education, sophisticated discussions of issues associated with synthesizing qualitative research have also been published, some of which are cited in the tenth section. The eleventh section presents a methodologically inclusive account of current developments in research synthesis methods. The final section cites examples of journals exclusively devoted to publishing research reviews and exemplary research synthesis with different methodologies. Individual methods of research synthesis are discussed chronologically as they became popular in educational research. Accordingly, this bibliography starts with a discussion of statistical methods of integrating research that parallels the dominance of quantitative research in education until the 1970s. As the popularity and diversity of qualitative research methods have been increasing in educational research, more methodologically inclusive discussions of research synthesis methods are becoming popular as described in the later sections of this bibliography.

The impact of community notification on the management of sex offenders in the community : an Australian perspective

Western Australia recently passed legislation that allows information about convicted sex offenders to be disclosed to the general public. After critically appraising the rationale behind community notification, this paper considers its impact on offenders’ reintegration into the community and their subsequent risk of reoffending, its potential deterrent effect and usefulness as a management tool, and implementation issues. This discussion identifies several factors that potentially moderate the effectiveness of community notification schemes and some directions for future research and the development of policy and practices in this area.