Iwi community justice panels reduce harm from re-offending

ABSTRACT

The effect of iwi community justice panels is assessed using data from seven years of implementation. Panel participants of 1013 are compared to a control group drawn from 73,000 offenders charged with similar offences and propensity-matched by age, gender, ethnicity, offending history and location. The dependent measure is re-harm from offending calculated using the NZ Crime Harm Index. Panel participants did not reduce their rate of offending compared to matched controls. However, there is a significant reduction in harm from post-panel offending, on average by 26.9 ± 21.05 equivalised prison days. The relative reduction is 22.25% of the harm committed by matched controls. Iwi panels are an effective alternative justice resolution. Panel participants are found to re-offend with minor offences and thus any focus on rates of offending would miss the complexity of the restorative justice process that reduces the harm of re-offending.     

Alcoholism as Sickness and Wrongdoing

It is now commonplace to call persons sick when their wrongdoing becomes entrenched, extensive, and extreme. This mixing of moral and therapeutic categories seems incoherent if we uncritically embrace a morality-therapy dichotomy: Behavioral problems like alcoholism are either moral or therapeutic matters, but not both. This paper dissolves the dichotomy by arguing that chronically abusive drinking is simultaneously a sickness and wrongdoing. Alcoholism is at least partly a self-inflicted impairment of responsible agency that has unhealthy consequences and usually requires therapeutic interventions. Morality and therapy are not inherently opposed. Morality enjoins compassionate helping and nonjudgemental therapy, and therapy is rooted in moral values of caring and respect. The polarized positions of Herbert Fingarette in Heavy Drinking and George E. Vaillant in The Natural History of Alcoholism are reconciled by paying close attention to their accounts of the condition, causes, consequences, and cure of alcoholism.     

Nonparametric Engel Curves and Revealed Preference

This paper applies revealed preference theory to the nonparametric statistical analysis of consumer demand. Knowledge of expansion paths is shown to improve the power of nonparametric tests of revealed preference. The tightest bounds on indifference surfaces and welfare measures are derived using an algorithm for which revealed preference conditions are shown to guarantee convergence. Nonparametric Engel curves are used to estimate expansion paths and provide a stochastic structure within which to examine the consistency of household level data and revealed preference theory. An application is made to a long time series of repeated cross–sections from the Family Expenditure Survey for Britain. The consistency of these data with revealed preference theory is examined. For periods of consistency with revealed preference, tight bounds are placed on true cost of living indices.     

Bioecological Theory, Early Child Development and the Validation of the Population-Level Early Development Instrument

The Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus and Offord in Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science 39:1–22, 2007) project is a Canadian population-level, longitudinal research project, in which teacher ratings of Kindergarten children’s early development and wellbeing are linked to health and academic achievement variables at the individual level, and to demographic, cultural, and socioeconomic variables at the community level. In this article, we draw from Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development to create a coherent theoretical framework for guiding validation research within a population-level approach to child development research in general and for the EDI project in particular. The discussion draws from a range of social and health sciences as well as validity theory. The paper seeks to align complex conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and psychometric considerations, to provide specific design, methodology, and validation recommendations for a population-level approach to studying children’s development and wellbeing, and to discuss the strengths and challenges of this approach.     

An agenda for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience

Young people who are currently or were previously in state care have consistently been found to have much higher rates of mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties than the general youth population. While a number of high-quality reviews highlight what research has been undertaken in relation to the mental health of young people with care experience and the gaps in our knowledge and understanding, there is, until now, no consensus, so far as we aware, as to where our collective research efforts should be directed with this important group. Through a series of UK wide workshops, we undertook a consultative process to identify an agreed research agenda between those with lived experience of being in care (n = 15), practitioners, policy makers and researchers (n = 59), for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience, including those who are neurodiverse/have a neurodevelopmental difficulty. This consensus statement identified 21 foci within four broad categories: how we conceptualize mental health; under-studied populations; under-studied topics; and underused methodologies. We hope that those who commission, fund and undertake research will engage in this discussion about the future agenda for research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience.     

Substance use and other factors associated with child welfare case duration: Looking beyond out of home care

Little is known about factors associated with child welfare case duration. Understanding factors associated with case duration may help stakeholders make more informed decisions about funding and service allocation and improve compliance with federal law. This study had two research questions: (1) What factors are associated with child welfare case duration? And (2) Do factors differ depending on whether children were placed exclusively with parents or with others (e.g. relatives and foster care) during the case? The study sample consisted of families (N = 874) with co-occurring child maltreatment and substance use in one midwestern state in the United States between 2007 and 2016. Linear regression models were used to identify correlates of case duration while controlling for child placement status. Overall, having a child under 1 year of age, benzodiazepine use, methamphetamine use and injection drug use were all associated with longer case duration, whereas marijuana use with no other substance use was associated with shorter case duration. Additionally, factors associated with case duration differed based on child placement status during the case. These findings suggest important heterogeneity in families involved with child welfare services and may allow for proactive mitigation of cases at greater risk.     

The attention-based view: Review and conceptual extension towards situated attention

Over two decades ago, William Ocasio introduced the attention-based view (ABV) of the firm with a powerful argument: firm-level behaviour is the result of the situated distribution and allocation of managerial attention, embedded in broader organizational structures and the environmental context. ABV-based research has received substantial and increasing scholarly attention, resulting in a complex and incoherent body of research. In order to address this issue, this paper takes stock of extant research on the ABV and consolidates key debates. Based on a systematic review of 173 articles, we synthesize existing research into a unifying framework. Drawing on this framework, we propose situated attention as a central theme for future research. We elaborate on four situational factors (materiality, social dynamics, temporality and what we call framing of the strategic setting), which may influence how actors’ attention is situated in the particular context.     

Socioeconomic Status,Family Processes,and Individual Development

Research during the past decade shows that social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is related to satisfaction and stability in romantic unions, the quality of parent‐child relationships, and a range of developmental outcomes for adults and children. This review focuses on evidence regarding potential mechanisms proposed to account for these associations. Research findings reported during the past decade demonstrate support for an interactionist model of the relationship between SES and family life, which incorporates assumptions from both the social causation and social selection perspectives. This review concludes with recommendations for future research on SES, family processes, and individual development in terms of important theoretical and methodological issues yet to be addressed.     

Identity Management of the Dead: Contests in the Construction of Murdered Children

Presenting data gathered from fieldwork and ethnographic interviews with families of homicide victims, this study explores “postmortem identity‐contests” faced by families who have experienced the homicide of a child or other family member. Interview data from families on their interaction with police, funeral home directors, and other institutional officials suggest that the construction of postmortem identities is commonly a process of contestation filled with competing identity‐claims. The findings reveal that as families resist “oppressive othering” by the state and other institutional actors, they develop various accounts and strategies in “selfing” and sanctifying the identity of the dead.