Tutorials and textbook Flashcards
What is family violence?
Threats, physical/sexual abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, economic abuse, damage to property, injury to animals. Threatening, coercive, controlling and dominating behaviour that makes a family member fear for their safety, or for that of another family member.
In respect to children, family violence can also include a child hearing, witnessing or otherwise being exposed to any of these features outlined above.
what are some child custody issues?
Child custody issues when there are allegations of intimate partner violence or child abuse: Ethical issues and common pitfalls made by many custody evaluators
what is trauma in families compared to single event trauma?
More likely to be chronic rather than a single event; result is less likely to be PTSD, more likely complex trauma.
Further complication that the child must retain an on-going, and often dependent relationship on the abuser.
Witnessing violence has the same effects as being the direct recipient of it.
Closest situations to family violence are hostage situations.
Children are particularly vulnerable to cumulative harm and multiple adverse circumstances.
Cumulative harm has a profound impact on children and diminishes their sense of safety and wellbeing (Bromfield & Miller, 2007)
Children are not resilient; children are malleable (Siegel)
What are resulting harms (impact on the child)
Physical (body) – bruising, fractures, internal injuries, burns
Emotional (feelings and ability to express emotions) – hypervigilance, poor self esteem, self harm
Psychological (mind and cognitive processes) – disorganised attachment, learning and developmental delays, impaired self-image
What is the Risk-need responsibility model?
The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model is widely regarded as the leading model for guiding offender assessment and treatment. It’s recognised as an effective intervention for reducing recidivism and focuses on the following principles to inform rehabilitation
What are the risks in RNR?
Whom to target? Assessments must determine an offender’s level of risk of recidivism. Higher levels of service should be provided to those assessed as high risk, and low risk offenders should be assigned lower levels of service.
What are needs in RNR?
What to target? Assessments need to measure an individual’s criminogenic needs and the risks associated with their offending to inform risk management strategies and effectively target intervention.
What is responsivity in RNR?
Any barriers? It’s important to identify factors that may pose as a barrier to rehabilitation and one’s ability to engage with the recommendations made by a Probation and Parole Officer. These may include motivation, mental illness, poor social skills, or cognitive impairments/learning difficulties among others.
How does Risks, Needs and Responsivity influence interventions?
Though they tend not to influence offending behaviour directly, they may undermine intervention and successful rehabilitation.
Probation and Parole Case Managers conduct offender assessments, exploring a range of factors. What are these factors?
employment, education & training, accommodation, general health, substance abuse, gambling/financial issues, relationships (including availability of social supports, pro-criminal associates or involvement as perpetrator or victim of domestic violence), and criminal attitudes.
What is the assessment process of Parole Managers guided by?
The assessment process is guided by the RNR model and seeks to determine an offender’s criminogenic needs and protective factors to inform a plan for the individual’s supervision.
what are protective factors in treatment?
Protective factors are those considered to prevent offenders getting into trouble and believed to mitigate their risk of reoffending, such as stable housing, employment/education, and positive role models or social supports.
What are criminogenic needs?
Criminogenic Needs (aka dynamic risk factors) are the factors that can be addressed through intervention believed to have lead to criminal behaviour, such as pro-criminal attitudes, antisocial/pro-criminal associates, substance abuse, anger, or impulsivity etc.
What were the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study results?
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study – results were devastating:
Over 17000 participants
Looked at exposure to ACE and outcomes in adults
Children didn’t “outgrow” the impacts – pervaded their lives
More adverse experiences in childhood linked to higher rates of mental illness, drug/alcohol use, suicide attempts, financial problems, health problems (smoking, obesity, unintended pregnancy, cancer, emphysema)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fBdHHsj5A
What is elimination lineup?
lineup procedure for children that first asks them to pick out the person who looks most like the culprit from the photos displayed. Next, the children are asked whether the most similar person selected is in fact the culprit
what are the two judgement theory of identification proposed by Pozullo and Lindsay (1999) that reaches an accurate identification decision?
relative and absolute
relative - choose similar looking culprit - relative to judgement
Absolute - compare most similar lineup members to their memory of culprit and decide if it is the culprit (this is where children struggle and thus make false-positive identifications)
What is competency inquiry?
Questions posed to child witnesses under age of 14 to determine whether they are able to communicate the evidence and understand the difference between the truth and the lie, and, in the circumstances of testifying, to see if they feel compelled to tell the truth
What must children under the age of 14 be able to do before testifying in court according to the Canada Evidence Act s 16?
- Be able to communicate the evidence
- Understand the difference between the truth and a lie, and,
- in the circumstances of testifying, feel compelled to tell the truth
What are some alternative in-court testimonies used in the Canadian and US system for witnesses under the age of 18 and to vulnerable witnesses upon application?
- A shield/screen to separate child from defendant and so child does not see D’s face
- close-circuit television monitor - Child and lawyer in separate room where D can be in touch with law via phone
- child has support person with him/her whist providing testimony
- child may be video-recorded while being interviewed and recording admitted to evidence
- Judge may allow statements of child made previously during initial disclosure of the abuser into evidence (which is not usually the case in other cases)
- Judge may close courtroom to public and/or media to protect privacy of child
What is physical abuse
deliberate application of force to any part of a child’s body that results or may result in a nonaccidental injury
Sexual abuse
when adult or youth uses child for sexual purposes
Neglect/failure to provide
occurs when a child’s caregivers do not provide the requisite attention to the child’s emotional, psychological or physical development
R v Poulin
18 YO - Poulin - religious leader given responsibility to look after children in commune whilst their parents worked. P used wooden paddle when disciplining the children resulting in assault charges in 2002
Many children testified that she often beat them.
Found guilty of assaulting 5 children and sentenced 8 months jail and ordered to not live with or care for children under age of 14 for three years following release
Case led to the abolishment of s 43 of Canadian Criminal Code (that allowed physical punishment).
however parents and teachers still allowed to use in case of threat of harm to person or property.Parents not permitted to use any corporal punishment on children under than 2 or older than 12. 3-12 is permitted but not in face or head under any circumstances
Emotional maltreatment
Acts or omu]issions by caregivers that cause or could cause serious behavioural, cognitive, emotional or mental disorders
“in need of protection”
A term used to describe a child’s needs to be separated from his or her caregivers because of maltreatment
Define incidence?
number of new child-maltreatment cases in a specific population occurring in a given time period, usually a year
Prevalence
In the study of child abuse, the proportion of a population at a specific point in time that was maltreated during childhood
What are risk factors?
a factor that increases the likelihood for emotional and/or behavioural problems
what is related to the likelihood of substantiated physical abuse compared to unsubstantiated physical abuse cases?
domestic violence, parental drug and alcohol use, prior child abuse and neglect, being on public assistance, and child behaviour problems
what are common effects of sexual abuse?
lowered self-esteem, behaviour problems, inappropriate sexuality and symptoms consistent with PTSD. Within two years of abuse, children report an umber of physical difficulties such as sleep disturbances, eating disorders, stomach problems and headaches
what are the three categories of outcomes of adults with a history of child sexual abuse?
- psychiatric disorder
- major depression - dysfnctional behaviours
- sexualised behaviour - neurobiological dysregulation
- MRI studies found reduced hippocampal volume (similar to those of war veterans experiencing PTSD
R v Smymes
S = 36 YO former church pastor from Ontario. BEtween April and august 2005, S began a series of internet chats with two girls whom he thought were 12-13 years of age. the girls however were undercover investigators. The chat exchange between S and the girls was sexually exploit and left no doubt that he wanted to have sexual relations with both girls. S agrranged to meet one of the girls and when he attended meeting, poice arrested him.
S pleaded guilty of two counts of internet luring and sentenced to 12 months in prison, which was reduced to 2 after double credit was given for time served
what is the accuracy of children’s reporting?
highly dependent on how they are asked to report. When asked to recall memories using free-narrative method, children’s recall is as accurate as adults.
A number of procedures and protocols to increase the accuracy of child’s responses having been investigated through statement validity analysis, step-wise interview and narrative elaoration
Juries Act
Provincial and territorial legislation that outlines the eligibility criteria for jury service and how prospective jurors msut be selected
Jury Summons
A court order that states a time an place to go for jury duty
What are the two fundamental characteristics of juries according to the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Sherratt
- A composition that representes the community in which the crime occurred. This is know has representativeness
- A lack of bias on the part of jurors, known as impartiality
what must “represenativeness” allow?
must allow any possible eligible person from the community the opportunity to be part of the juror. This is achieved through randomnes
Representativeness
A jury composition that represents the community whre the crime occurred
Imprtiality
A characteristic of jurors who are unbiased
R v Brown
2001 - two while men charged for sexually assaulting 12 yo aboriginal girl. Of approz 100 jurors who showed up for jury duty, only one was visible aborigial. Not surprisingly, the jury was composed, all those sitting on the jury where caucasion. During trial, D admitted to picking the girl up giving her five beers to drink and engaging in sexual activity outside a truck belonging to a third man. The jury heard evidence and then deliberated to reach verdicts of not guilty for both defendants.
Trial of third defendant, found guilty with all-caucasian jury as the complainant testified more fully but reluctant agaisnt first two.
On appeal, acquittals set aside and new trial ordered for first two defendant. Appeal not based on racial composition of jury, rather the jjudge’s instruction to the jury.
What are the three issues of impartiality?
- for juror to be impartial, he or she must set aside any pre-existing biases, prejudices or attitudes and judge the case based solely on admissible evidence.
- To be impartial means that the juror must ignore any information that is not part of the admissible evidence..
- It also is important that the juror have no connection to the D so that the juror does not view the evidence subjectively or unduly influence the other jurors
R v Guess
Guess and juror entered into sexual relationship. Both charged with obstruction of justice
change of venue
moving trial to a community other than the one in which crime occurred
adjournment
delaying the trial until sometime in the future
challenge for cause
an option to reject bias juror
how to enhance impartiality of jury?
change of venue
adjounment
challenge for cause
jury nullification
occurrs when a jury ignores the law and the evidence, rendering a verdict based on some other criteria
chos theory
the theory that when jurors are guided by their emotions, and personal biases rather than by the law, chaos judgements result
deliberation
when jury members discuss the evidence privately among themselves to reach a verdict that is then provided to the court
polarization
when individuals tend to become more extreme in their initial position following a group discussion
Leniency bias
when jurors move toward greater leniency following deliberation
hung jury
a jury that cannot reach a unanimous verdict
racial bias
the disparate treatment of racial out-groups
black sheep effect
when evidence is strong, similarity between defendant and jury leads to punitiveness
actus reus
a wrongful deed
mens rea
criminal intent
unfit to stand trial
refers to an inability to conduct a defence at any stage of the proceedings on account of a person’s mental disorder
R v Prichard
considered key case for fitness standard
3 criteria delineated in Prichard case for fitness to stand trial
- whether D is mute of malice (i.e. intentionality)
- whether D can plead to the indictment
- Whether the D has sufficient cognitive capacity to understand the trial proceedings
