Elements underpinning successful implementation of a national best-practice child investigative interviewing framework

The complexity and effort required to achieve the widespread implementation of best-practice child interview guidelines justifies the establishment of structures to enhance cross-jurisdictional sharing of expertise, resources and training delivery support. Australia has made great strides toward such a system via work currently being undertaken by police jurisdictions to facilitate greater consistency in education and training for practitioners in the area of investigative interviewing, strengthening collaboration between police and tertiary education institutions, and growing commitment to evidence-based policy and practice among police executives. To maximise progress, however, organisations need to consider the development of a coordinated continual quality improvement approach. This will be impeded by three structural elements: access to field interviews for practitioner feedback and organisational evaluation, interviewer tenure and case tracking. This article discusses each element, their roles within a national best-practice interview framework, and attempts by some jurisdictions to address them. It also provides recommendations to guide further reform.

The chaotic state of the law of rape in Victoria: a mandate for reform

This article is intended as a final commentary and sequel to two earlier articles in this journal that have examined the arcane and circular wording of s. 37AA of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) and its patent incompatibility with ss 36 and 38 of that Act that define the elements of rape. In particular, this article will revisit many of the essential points raised in the first two articles in order to afford readers with an appropriate backdrop against which the Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in GC v The Queen will be examined. The article concludes with a strenuous recommendation that s. 37AA be repealed or substantially amended in order to comport with ss 36 and 38 as well as the Court of Appeal’s decision in NT v The Queen that significantly reshaped the Morgan principle.

Homicide law reform, gender and the provocation defence: a comparative perspective

 The operation of the partial defence of provocation has animated significant debate for more than two decades among scholars, legal practitioners, politicians and the community. In recognition of the injustices that result from its operation, criminal justice systems worldwide have conducted reviews of the law of provocation and have implemented divergent reforms targeted at minimizing the influence of gender bias in the law's operations. Drawing on the voices of over one hundred members of the Victorian, New South Wales and English criminal justice systems, this book provides a much-needed comparative analysis of the operation of this controversial partial defence to murder, the varied approaches taken to reforming the law of provocation and the effects of these reforms in practice.

Police Misconduct as a Breach of Public trust: the Offence of Misconduct in Public Office

Until relatively recently, the common law offence of misconduct in public office has been regarded as anachronistic. The offence was perceived to have been supplanted by specific statutory offences that could more appropriately deal with criminal conduct by public officials. However, there has been a revival of the offence with successful prosecutions occurring in Australia, England and Hong Kong. Many of these contemporary cases have involved police officers. Examination of these cases reveals that the circumstances in which misconduct in public office has been identified have been diverse, including the unauthorised disclosure of confidential information, the use of false search warrants and the sexual exploitation of vulnerable persons. In many instances, police officers were charged with other criminal offences in addition to charges relating to misconduct in public office. The matters prosecuted as misconduct in public office typically involved matters that were serious and/or could not be adequately prosecuted as other criminal offences or as breaches of police regulations governing conduct. Consequently, despite the proliferation of statutory criminal offences in the 20th century it appears that there continues to be a place for the offence of misconduct in public office. It criminalises misconduct by police officers that may not be adequately dealt with by other offences and recognises the public trust dimension of wrongdoing by these officials. However, a continuing and fundamental challenge is to determine the appropriate definition and scope of the offence.

The police and punishment: understanding the pains of policing

This article argues that police studies should draw on the sociology of punishment to better understand state pain-delivery. Whereas penal theorists commonly assess the pain and punishment of inmates in relation to wider social sentiments, police theory has yet to regard police violence and harm in the same fashion. As a result, police scholars often fail to address why the damage caused by public constabularies, even when widely publicized, is accommodated and accepted. Adapting the idea of ‘punitiveness’ from penal theory allows some explanation of how the public views injury and suffering caused by the police by illuminating the emotions and sentiments their actions generate.

Perceptions of subjective economic well-being and support for market reform among China's urban population

This article examines whether subjective economic assessments have any impact on support for further market reforms among China's urban population, utilising a large survey of 10,716 people across 32 cities. The effect of subjective economic well-being on support for market reforms is an important issue for the Chinese government as it seeks to sell the benefits of increased globalisation and marketisation to its citizens. Our main finding is that people's assessment of the overall economic situation helps to explain support for market reform, although the relationship is weak, while people's assessment of their own economic circumstances does not influence support for reform. The findings are compared with those of similar studies for Central and Eastern Europe. © 2005 Centre for Research into Post-Communist Economies.

The OPtimising HEalth LIterAcy (Ophelia) process: study protocol for using health literacy profiling and community engagement to create and implement health reform

Health literacy is a multi-dimensional concept comprising a range of cognitive, affective, social, and personal skills and attributes. This paper describes the research and development protocol for a large communities-based collaborative project in Victoria, Australia that aims to identify and respond to health literacy issues for people with chronic conditions. The project, called Ophelia (OPtimising HEalth LIterAcy) Victoria, is a partnership between two universities, eight service organisations and the Victorian Government. Based on the identified issues, it will develop and pilot health literacy interventions across eight disparate health services to inform the creation of a health literacy response framework to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

The payment of dividends : legal confusion, complexities and the need for comprehensive reform

Submissions have closed on exposure draft legislation intending to amend thetest for payment of dividends under s 254T of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).Until 2010, a dividend could only be paid out of profits of a company. Sincethen, the dividends provision has been repealed and replaced with a newprovision, which allows a company to pay dividends if it satisfies an “assetsgreater than liabilities”, “fair and reasonable to shareholders” and “no materialprejudice to creditors” test. This article first examines why the profits test wasomitted from s 254T, before examining the current dividends provision,identifying the shortcomings of the 2010 reforms and critically evaluating theprovisions proposed to replace the current s 254T. The article then considersinternational developments, with a focus on New Zealand and a look at SouthAfrica, as examples of dividends tests in overseas jurisdictions, beforeproposing how to address the current confusion and uncertainty. The articleconcludes that the proposed amendments to s 254T will only partly addressexisting problems. Thus, comprehensive reform in this area of the Australiancorporation’s law is recommended.

HealthPathways: creating a pathway for health systems reform

Inefficiencies in the co-ordination and integration of primary and secondary care services in Australia, have led to increases in waiting times, unnecessary presentations to emergency departments and issues around poor discharge of patients. HealthPathways is a program developed in Canterbury, New Zealand, that builds relationships between General Practitioners and Specialists and uses information technology so that efficiency is maximised and the right patient is given the right care at the right time. Healthpathways is being implemented by a number of Medicare Locals across Australia however, little is known about the impact HealthPathways may have in Australia. This article provides a short description of HealthPathways and considers what it may offer in the Australian context and some of the barriers and facilitators to implementation. What is known about the topic? Early evidence on HealthPathways suggests that the program does seem to be strengthening relationships between GPs and secondary care specialists. In New Zealand advances in efficiency and system integration have been noted. However, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of HealthPathways in Australia. What does this paper add? It is one of the first published papers to provide a perspective around HealthPathways and draws existing evidence and research to explore some of the barriers and facilitators to the development and implementation of HealthPathways in Australia. What are the implications for practitioners'? Early evidence suggests HealthPathways could help GPs and other practitioners' in the delivery of health services, it could also help to strengthen practitioner relationships.

Professionals’ views on child sexual abuse attrition rates

Child sexual abuse cases often do not result in convictions; this attrition is due to factors inside and outside the control of the justice system. The aims of the current study were to: (1) establish the most important factors in contributing to the attrition of child sexual abuse; and (2) suggest ways to reduce the attrition associated with these factors. This study focused on system improvements to determine where efforts should be prioritised. The research approach consisted of in-depth interviews with 31 professionals from various disciplines (including police, judges, child welfare officers, doctors and psychologists). The interviewees represented a diverse group of professionals offering unique perspectives. Thematic analysis revealed five broad areas requiring focus for improvement and further reform: greater specialisation, facilitating the accessibility of services, making the trial process more user-friendly, overcoming misinformed beliefs and adequate representation of child sexual abuse. These areas, along with professionals’ practical recommendations, are discussed.