Fear and loathing in public policy : ethical issues in laws for sex offenders

Laws intended to increase protection from sex offenders are often prompted by sensational crimes that provoke public outrage. As public policy, questions have been raised about the legality and effectiveness of these legislative initiatives as enacted in North America, Australasia and the UK since the early 1990s. Mental health professionals involved in the implementation of these laws are faced with ethical concerns that distinguish this area of forensic practice from other clinical roles. This article presents a brief description of the impetus for specific laws allowing for involuntary civil commitment, extended supervision and community notification of sex offenders in different jurisdictions. A model of human rights is then used to consider the ways in which these laws threaten the rights of offenders, and provides a framework for identifying ethical concerns inherent in professional practice in this area.

Leadership for rural school community partnerships

This paper presents a model for examining effective leadership for rural school community partnerships, derived from Australian research supported by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. The research team investigated effective school community partnerships in five different Australian rural locations. Four government and one independent school featured in the study. Partnership effectiveness was confirmed by seeking advice from a range of experts including State, Commonwealth, independent school and Catholic education authorities, as well as rural education professionals. The particular focus of the study was on the community outcomes of such partnerships.

The model is consistent with, but further develops, earlier partnership models. It uses the leadership process, rather than the leader, as the unit of analysis. The model outlines a five-stage process of partnership development: trigger, initiation, development, maintenance and sustainability. While the stages of the process appear to be consistent across study sites, the way in which the model is implemented differs according to context, with factors such as the level of maturity of the school community partnership influencing the process. The flexibility of the model, in terms of better understanding the contextualised nature of educational leadership, suggests it has broader application beyond rural school community partnerships.

How community development programmes can foster re-engagement with learning in disadvantaged communities : leadership as process

Family and community capacity building projects in Tasmania are attempting to address the disadvantage of communities marginalised by socio-economic and other influences. Collaborations between the projects, community members and groups, and education and training organisations, have resulted in a leadership process which has fostered reengagement with learning in these disadvantaged communities. This study uses an ethnographic research methodology to examine the experiences of a number of new students or trainees, and the partnerships and collaborations which evolved between community development programmes, community members and groups, and educational and training organisations. Such collaborations may develop into dynamic leadership processes, enhancing social capital formation — thereby fostering genuine community development — while also facilitating re-engagement with learning.

Ethical practice from the perspective of the forensic psychologist : commentary on the uses and value of the Australian Psychological Society (2007) code of ethics

Forensic practice in Australia and around the world attracts a high level of public and judicial scrutiny. The way in which the forensic psychologist conducts him or herself in ethically challenging situations is important not only to the reputation of the individual practitioner, but to the profession more widely. This paper outlines some of the ethical issues that commonly arise in forensic psychology practice and discusses these in relation to the recently published Australian Psychological Society (2007) Code of Ethics. Four ethically challenging scenarios are described and discussed in terms of how the Code might be used to offer guidance to psychologists about how they might best respond.