Wendy O'Brien

Abstract: Responding to children and young people with sexualised or sexual offending behaviours presents significant challenges across the allied health, child protection, education and juvenile justice sectors. This report maps the specialised therapeutic services designed to effect positive behavioural change and thus divert young people with sexualised behaviours from the juvenile justice system. Accurate numbers on children with sexualised or sexual offending behaviours are difficult to determine. There are several factors contributing to this gap in understanding. These include entrenched ideals about children as inherently innocent, widespread ignorance about developmental sexuality, and the tendency of both young people and parents to deny or minimise incidents when they do occur. In Australia, data on children with sexualised behaviours are not collected uniformly and nondisclosure contributes to what might be large numbers of offences going undetected. Mandatory reporting requirements apply where children display sexualised behaviours and are thought to be at risk of harm. Yet a general lack of knowledge as to what constitutes appropriate behaviour means that many may respond inappropriately to incidents of sexualised behaviours. This context of confusion, denial and non-disclosure creates a hidden population of children that continues to be at risk. Attention to redressing the contexts for non-disclosure is urgently required to ensure that children in need are provided with specialised therapeutic care. This report presents qualitative data from interviews with specialised clinicians as well as submissions from service providers in both community and youth justice settings. In mapping the availability of therapeutic services, this report highlights a number of geographic and demographic gaps in service provision, including difficulties with eligibility criteria, referral pathways, funding arrangements and specialised workforce development. There are multiple challenges facing the tertiary services sector, yet the comprehensive provision of specialised services is just one part of the response required. This study emphasises the need for effective primary and secondary prevention to effect a reduction in the numbers of young people requiring counselling in the future. Consistent with the public health model, this report prioritises professional and community education strategies that would ultimately necessitate fewer tertiary services for young people and fewer places in juvenile detention centres.

Abstract: Although there is an under-acknowledgement of the issue in Australia there is a large body of international scholarship on juveniles who exhibit sexually violent or coercive behaviours toward other juveniles. Research undertaken in the United States and the United Kingdom emphasises options for clinical treatment, the logistics of coordinating multi agency response, and the causes and correlatives for coercive sexual behaviours in adolescents. Much of this literature has tended to focus on adolescents and there is an urgent need for increased studies on young children engaging in problem sexual behaviour. The smaller body of work published in Australia also favours adolescents rather than children with much of this work heavily influenced by international clinical studies. There are, however, a handful of reports based on Australian practitioner data that do focus on young children who engage in problem sexual behaviour. This literature surveys and evaluates the very limited number of existing therapeutic programs in Australia, and provides interview data with practitioners working with children exhibiting problem sexual behaviour. In the main, this research reinforces the findings of the internationa scholarship, both in terms of the contributing factors to problem sexual activity in children, but also in terms of the need for multi-faceted and contextually based cognitive behavioural therapeutic programs in response. More importantly, this burgeoning field of study indicates how far we have to go both in understanding the extent of the problem in Australia and in fashioning appropriate programs for prevention and intervention. Dr Joe Tucci is Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF), an organisation that has taken a lead in responding to childhood problem sexual behaviour. Tucci et al., (2006) claim an urgent need for investment in a dedicated research and response agenda (Staiger et al., 2005b). To effectively address this issue researchers and practitioners require comprehensive empirical data on problem sexual behaviour in children across all sectors of Australian society, including Indigenous communities.

Abstract: violence in criminal ‘justice’ systems around the world and those held in penal detention are especially vulnerable. This collection of essays both exposes such phenomena and charts ways in which it can be, and must be, addressed. The book makes a timely and important contribution to an evolving literature and it comprises an essential point of reference for researchers, advocates, policymakers and practitioners alike’. Professor Barry Goldson, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, The University of Liverpool, UK

Abstract: In 2010, two Australians, convicted in childhood of rape and murder, lodged a joint submission with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, claiming that successive changes to sentencing legislation in New South Wales breached their human rights by denying them any meaningful prospect of release. In this article, we examine the political, legislative and procedural moves that have resulted in Australian children being sentenced to life without parole or release. We argue that successive legislative changes in various Australian jurisdictions have resulted in a framework for sentencing decisions that is considerably out of step with international legal standards for criminal justice. These increasingly punitive legislative changes exacerbate Australia’s already declining record of cooperation with UN processes, and reveal Australia’s reluctance to respect the legitimacy and authority of international law. Against this troubling context, the views of the Human Rights Committee serve as a much-needed reminder about the importance of a principled approach to child sentencing that forecloses neither the goal of rehabilitation nor the prospect of release and reintegration.

Abstract: The applicant had been arrested in 1997 on suspicion of carrying out a number of armed robberies on mini-cab drivers. He agreed to participate in identification parades but failed to attend on the day on which they were due to take place. Instead he sent a doctor’s note stating that he was too ill to go to work. The parades were rearranged and notice to that effect was sent to the applicant’s home address. The applicant did not attend the rearranged parade, stating that he had not received notification as he had changed address. A further robbery then occurred for which the applicant was arrested. The applicant again agreed to stand on an identification parade, but again failed to attend on the day that it was to take place. Following this failure to attend two more robberies were committed with which the applicant was subsequently charged. The mainstay of the prosecution’s case against the applicant would be the ability of a number of witnesses to make visual identifications and for this reason submitting the applicant to an identification parade was of great importance. In light of the applicant’s failure to attend the parades that had been arranged, the police decided to arrange a video identification. Permission to film the applicant covertly for this purpose was sought from the Deputy Chief Constable under Home Office guidelines. The applicant was taken from prison, where he was being detained in relation to another matter, to a police station. Both the applicant and the prison authorities had been informed that this was for identification purposes and further interviews regarding the armed robberies. On arrival at the police station he was invited to participate in an identification parade but refused. The custody suite at the police station was fitted with a camera which was kept running at all times and covered an area in which police officers and other suspects came and went. Before the applicant arrived at the police station an engineer made adjustments to the camera to ensure that clear images were obtained that were suitable for use in a video identification. The footage of the applicant was then used in a compilation with footage of 11 other volunteers who imitated the actions of the applicant. Two of the witnesses who viewed the video compilation picked out the applicant. Neither the applicant nor his solicitor were informed that a tape had been made or used for identification purposes and were, therefore, not given an opportunity to view it prior to its use.

Abstract: Social media and other online technologies have transformed communication between social workers and service users, with many practitioners engaging and working with clients through social networking sites. While there are numerous ethical issues associated with online practice related to confidentiality, dual relationships, and boundary crossing, there is lack of clarity about how to deal with such issues. This article uses a case example to develop a nuanced understanding of ethical issues and ethical behaviour in online spaces. We argue that social workers need to link their knowledge of the complex interplay between discourses that underpin daily practice like those related to power, permanency, authorship, audience, embodiment, and professionalism to social media created spaces. In doing this, social workers must retain their commitment to ethical values and critical reflective practice. We conclude with recommendations for education, research, and practice.

Abstract: Illicit drug use and harms can significantly and rapidly change with market disruptions. The study of major historical events (e.g. illicit drug use in the context of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis [1]) can inform predictions of the effects of major market disruptions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is an unparalleled event in modern times, precipitating widespread government interventions to close borders and restrict social interactions. These changes are causing unprecedented economic, social and political upheaval, meaning historical events may only offer limited insight regarding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is coupled with increasing morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 and from disruption to health service provision (although the magnitude of the latter is yet to be established as of early April, at least in Australia). The current situation has profound implications for illicit drug supply, procurement and use practices, as well as prevention, treatment and harm reduction responses—both now in the midst of the pandemic and in the coming years as the ramifications of actions to reduce COVID-19 transmission unfold.

Abstract: Some adolescents who have committed a sexual crime are placed by the courts in secure residential settings. Given the heterogeneity of this client group, it is important for clinicians in these set...

Abstract: Young people under 18 years of age are responsible for a significant proportion of officially recorded sexual offences worldwide, including in Australia. In this article we examine the wider problem of youth sexual violence and abuse, and propose solutions for the Australian context. We describe an ecological, field-based clinical forensic practice model developed in Queensland, and show how engagement with youth sexual offenders within their natural social ecologies has led to the discovery of specific endemic problems that would normally remain hidden or beyond the reach of conventional clinical services. Drawing on public health and crime prevention concepts and methods, we present a comprehensive framework for organising prevention strategies and describe how this framework has guided our approach to developing place-based prevention strategies at two sites. We conclude by outlining the changes we see as necessary for forensic psychology practitioners to engage in a wider crime prevention agenda. Language: en