Fear of crime in Brisbane - Individual, social and neighbourhood factors in perspective

Numerous theories apply to fear of crime and each are associated with different kinds of variables. Most studies use only one theory, though this study examines the relative importance of different kinds of variables across a number of theories. The study uses data from a survey of residents in Brisbane, Australia to examine the relative importance of individual attributes, neighbourhood disorder, social processes and neighbourhood structure in predicting fear of crime. Individual attributes and neighbourhood disorder were found to be important predictors of fear of crime, while social processes and neighbourhood structure were found to be far less important. The theoretical implications are that the vulnerability hypothesis and the incivilities thesis are most appropriate for investigating fear of crime, though social disorganization theory does provide conceptual support for the incivilities thesis. Although social processes are less important in predicting fear of crime than neighbourhood incivilities, they are still integrally related to fear of crime: they explain how incivilities arise, they buffer against fear of crime, and they are affected by fear of crime.

Desistance from Sexual Offending: Do the Mainstream Theories Apply?

The literature on desistance from crime has become well established in recent years with strong bodies of evidence supporting the role of factors such as employment, relationships and identity change in this process. However, the relevance of this literature to individuals convicted of sexual crimes is not known as such individuals are almost always excluded from this research. This article presents the results from one of the first empirical studies on desistance from sexual offending based on 32 in-depth life story interviews with adult males previously convicted of child sex offences. In this analysis we explore the significance of work, the role of relationships, and changes in imagined selves in the self-identities of individuals successfully desisting from sexual offending. The findings provide support for all three factors in helping to sustain desistance from sex offending, but also suggest clear differences between desistance from sex offending and other types of crime in these regards.

Desistance from Sexual Offending: A Policy and Research Agenda Whose Time Has Come

For the past three decades or so, criminal justice policies have been enacted under the assumption that individuals who have been convicted of a sex offense are life course persistent sex offenders. In that context, research has been heavily focused on the assessment of risk and the prediction of sexual recidivism.Simultaneously, little to no attention has been given to the majority of individuals convicted of sex offenses who are not arrested or convicted again.Researchers have witnessed a growing gap between scientific knowledge and the sociolegal response to sexual violence and abuse. The current legal landscapecarries important social implications and significant life course impact for a growing number of individuals. More recently, theoretical and research breakthroughs in the study of desistance from crime and delinquency have been made that can help shed some light on desistance from sex offending. Desistance research, in the context of sex offending, however, represents serious theoretical, ethical, legal, and methodological challenges. To that end, this article introduces a special issue exploring current themes in desistance research by examining the life course of individuals convicted of a sexual offense while contextualizing their experiences of desistance.

Crime and Punishment.

The study of Victorian crime and punishment is a rich area of research that has attracted the interest not only of literary scholars but also of social historians, legal historians, and criminologists. Related scholarship therefore often situates itself at the intersection of traditional disciplinary boundaries, facilitating interdisciplinary conversation. Crime and punishment was a pressing issue for the Victorians and provoked a wealth of responses from contemporaneous commentators in literature, culture, and science. As a new phase of industrialization brought immense wealth for some and abject poverty for others, Victorian urban centers in particular were afflicted by crime. Without an effective system of social welfare in place, social inequality and deprivation drove women, men, and children into petty crime and more serious offenses, resulting in severe punishment ranging from incarceration via penal transportation to hanging. Public executions, not abolished until 1868, attracted huge crowds of spectators, including authors such as Charles Dickens and William Thackeray, who wrote about these experiences. A forerunner of the popular press, street literature conveyed and illustrated these events for a broad audience. Execution broadsides of famous cases, printing the alleged last lamentations of convicts on the scaffold in verse, are estimated to have sold by the million. As the legal system was undergoing reform (comprising changes in legal evidence procedure, divorce law, women’s property rights, and punishment for sexual offenses, for example), sensational trials caused furor and stimulated commentary in literature and the media. Crime and punishment was discussed in a range of literary and popular genres, poetry, and reformist writing. The “Newgate School” of fiction was accused of glamorizing crime, and the popular penny dreadfuls were feared to corrupt public morals. Sensational fiction in the 1860s, which often drew on real-life criminal cases and newspaper reports, depicted the supposedly respectable middle-class family home as a center of transgression. Similarly, detective fiction typically focused on crime in the world of the middle classes. For the student new to the subject of crime and punishment, this area’s interdisciplinary nature can pose an initial challenge.

Violência institucional e responsabilidade profissional na resposta ao abuso sexual de crianças

Apresenta-se como um artigo de construção teórica, no qual se explora teoricamente o conceito de violência institucional na relação com os limites da responsabilidade profissional por omissão ou por incorrecto procedimento profissional. A reflexão é realizada tendo por base a análise do funcionamento do sistema de justiça na articulação com o sistema de protecção na resposta ao crime de abuso sexual intra-familiar de crianças na comarca de Lisboa. Apresenta-se um conjunto sistematizado de factores de atrito, identificados como principais elementos promotores de violência institucional no quadro da intervenção profissional realizada no contexto das entidades sociais de intervenção nos abusos sexuais de crianças, organizados segundo as categorias de dispositivos e procedimentos.

Legal disclosure of childhood sexual abuse: what can professionals tell us?

ABSTRACT: Purpose: This study explores how the decision to disclose Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) to the legal setting for adult victims is perceived by key informants, specifically factors that are believed to facilitate or prevent legal disclosure from occurring. Background: Prevalence rates of CSA are high (Pereda, Guilera, Forns & Gomez-Benito, 2009) and the negative consequences caused by the abuse acknowledged (Filipas & Ullman, 2006). Disclosure of this crime is understood to be complex and delayed disclosure recognised (Arata, 1998) but little is known about disclosure to the legal system. Rates of legal disclosure of CSA remain low and the attrition rates high (London, Bruck, Ceci & Shuman, 2005), but investigation and understanding of the contributory factors is rare. Disclosure of CSA to the legal system enables prosecution of the abuser and protection of the victim and others. Method: 10 “key informants” consisting of specialised clinicians working with adult victims of CSA were interviewed. Each informant completed an indepth interview exploring their beliefs about factors that facilitated or prevented adult victims of CSA from disclosing their experience to the legal system. Interviews were transcribed and the qualitative data subjected to Thematic Analysis. Conclusions: Two super-ordinate themes (Legal Disclosures Are Rare: “Why would they do that?” and The Anomalies: Acknowledging that this is a crime) and four sub-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis and an analytical narrative constructed. Themes emphasised the rarity of legal disclosure and the significant number of barriers adult victims of CSA perceive. Implications for clinical practice and future research are outlined.

Os autores de crimes contra a liberdade e auto-determinação sexual no discurso dos peritos psiquiatras médico-legais

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica.

The role of forensic dentistry for identification of a criminal sexual assault: a casework report

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

O Abuso Sexual de Crianças e a Criança no Papel de Testemunha

O presente estudo pretende explorar a perceção dos profissionais de saúde mental acerca do crime de abuso sexual de crianças e as competências da criança no papel de testemunha, centrando-se para tal, na identificação das crenças e mitos existentes entre os participantes, no âmbito dessa problemática. Esta investigação pretende assim alargar o conhecimento relativamente a esta temática, enfatizando o facto de que qualquer profissional pode ratificar mitos de abuso sexual e que isso pode interferir nas suas atitudes perante a atribuição de credibilidade à criança. Os dados foram obtidos através da técnica da entrevista, como recurso a uma entrevista semi-estruturada e um questionário sócio-demográfico. Foram analisadas 11 entrevistas de uma amostra constituída por 9 psicólogos, 1 psiquiatria e 1 pedopsiquiatria, sendo 8 participantes dos sexo feminino e 3 do sexo masculino. Da análise realizada observou-se que os participantes detêm crenças adequadas quanto à situação abusiva; aos motivos para a criança não revelar a situação abusiva ou revelar apenas tardiamente; e quais os fatores que estão implicados/ afetam as competências da criança, enquanto testemunha credível. Por sua vez, os mitos observados surgiram relativamente ao agressor, acreditando que os abusadores apresentam caraterísticas distintas das outras pessoas e/ou doença mental e que abusam de crianças e/ou adolescentes motivados por um gosto padrão; relativamente às vítimas, acreditando que os rapazes adolescentes podem defender-se do abuso e que os adolescentes são abusados por terem caraterísticas semelhantes aos adultos; e sobre as caraterísticas do testemunho realizado pela criança, acreditando que as crianças não mentem sobre situações de abuso sexual e que não podem recordar/reportar de forma fidedigna eventos que aconteceram há muito tempo.

Iowa Attorney General's Crime Victim Assistance Division: Three Year Program Reports Fiscal Years 2011, 2012, 2013 July 1, 2010 through June 2013, December 2014

We are pleased to present this report of our work and accomplishments on behalf of crime victims and survivors. The eight programs of the CVAD served over 225,000 Iowa crime victims over SFY11, SFY12 & SFY13. This report statistically outlines the services being provided in each of these individual programs. CVAD Staff and funded victim service providers work day in and day out to provide essential, victim-centered services to those who have been harmed by violent crime. This report aims to capture the work being performed around the State of Iowa with CVAD funds. Significant accomplishments have occurred during this reporting period, including the initial planning phases of a restructuring of domestic violence, sexual assault, shelter-based and homicide survivor programming and services; enhancements in automated victim notification and continued strides in restitution collection.

Trata de mujeres con fines de explotación sexual en el marco de cooperación de Naciones Unidas y su Oficina UNODC. Colombia (2007—2010)

El interés de este caso de estudio es mostrar un diagnóstico sobre la situación de trata de mujeres con fines de explotación sexual en Colombia, basado en el avance de las acciones emprendidas por parte de los Organismos Internacionales y del Estado, durante el periodo comprendido entre los años 2007 y 2010. A partir de lo anterior, se utilizaron tres conceptos claves los cuales fueron: Globalización, Derechos Humanos y Perspectiva de Género con el fin de hacer una descripción del fenómeno de trata en Colombia. Se plantean como propósitos particulares contextualizar el fenómeno de la trata y su impacto a nivel mundial, identificar las políticas del Estado; y finalmente identificar el rol que tuvo la participación de Organización de las Naciones Unidas y su oficina especial UNODC frente al delito de trata de mujeres con fines de explotación sexual en Colombia.