It is now commonly accepted that there exists a form of drug supply, that involves the non-commercial supply of drugs to friends and acquaintances for little or no profit, which is qualitatively different from profit motivated 'drug dealing proper'. 'Social supply', as it has become known, has a strong conceptual footprint in the United Kingdom, shaped by empirical research, policy discussion and its accommodation in legal frameworks. Though scholarship has emerged in a number of contexts outside the UK, the extent to which social supply has developed as an internationally recognised concept in criminal justice contexts is still unclear. Drawing on an established international social supply research network across eleven nations, this paper provides the first assessment of social supply as an internationally relevant concept. Data derives from individual and team research stemming from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, England and Wales, and the United States, supported by expert reflection on research evidence and analysis of sentencing and media reporting in each context. In situ social supply experts addressed a common set of questions regarding the nature of social supply for their particular context including: an overview of social supply research activity, reflection on the extent that differentiation is accommodated in drug supply sentencing frameworks; evaluating the extent to which social supply is recognised in legal discourse and in sentencing practices and more broadly by e.g. criminal justice professionals in the public sphere. A thematic analysis of these scripts was undertaken and emergent themes were developed. Whilst having an absence of local research, New Zealand is also included in the analysis as there exists a genuine discursive presence of social supply in the drug control and sentencing policy contexts in that country. Findings suggest that while social supply has been found to exist as a real and distinct behaviour, its acceptance and application in criminal justice systems ranges from explicit through to implicit. In the absence of dedicated guiding frameworks, strong use is made of discretion and mitigating circumstances in attempts to acknowledge supply differentiation. In some jurisdictions, there is no accommodation of social supply, and while aggravating factors can be applied to differentiate more serious offences, social suppliers remain subject to arbitrary deterrent sentencing apparatus. Due to the shifting sands of politics, mood, or geographical disparity, reliance on judicial discretion and the use of mitigating circumstances to implement commensurate sentences for social suppliers is no longer sufficient. Further research is required to strengthen the conceptual presence of social supply in policy and practice as a behaviour that extends beyond cannabis and is relevant to users of all drugs. Research informed guidelines and/or specific sentencing provisions for social suppliers would provide fewer possibilities for inconsistency and promote more proportionate outcomes for this fast-growing group.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has made substantial changes to the classification of paraphilic disorders for the Eleventh Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11), recently approved by the World Health Assembly. The most important is to limit paraphilic disorders primarily to persistent and intense patterns of atypical sexual arousal involving non-consenting individuals, manifested through persistent sexual thoughts, fantasies, urges, or behaviors, that have resulted in action or significant distress. To analyze the legal, regulatory, and policy implications of the changes in the ICD-11 classification of paraphilic disorders for forensic practice, health systems, adjudication of sex offenders, and the provision of treatment in Mexico. An expert Mexican advisory group was appointed to conduct this evaluation following an assessment guide provided by the WHO. The WHO assessment guide covered (i) laws related to sexual behaviors; (ii) the relationship between legal and clinical issues for non-forensic health professionals; (iii) implications of mental disorder classification for forensic practice; (iv) other implications of ICD-11 paraphilic disorders proposals; and (v) contextual issues. A variety of factors in Mexico make it highly unlikely that appropriate, evidence-based treatments for paraphilic disorders will be provided to those who need them, even if they seek treatment voluntarily and have not committed a crime. Mexican law focuses on the punishment of specific sexual behaviors rather than on underlying disorders. A paraphilic disorder would not be considered sufficient grounds for exemption from criminal responsibility. The application and scope of mental health evaluations in Mexican legal proceedings are quite limited, and individuals who commit sexual crimes almost never undergo forensic evaluations to establish the presence of paraphilic disorders. Psychiatric services may be mandated for sex offenders in highly specific circumstances but cannot exceed the duration of the criminal sentence. Evaluation and treatment guidelines should be developed based on international evidence and standards and promulgated for use with individuals with paraphilic disorders in forensic and non-forensic poopulations. The much greater specificity and operationalization of the ICD-11 guidelines as compared with the ICD-10 guidelines provide a better basis for identification and case formulation. Major strengths of this analyses were that it was conducted to facilitate international comparability across several participating countries and the fact that it was conducted by a diverse multidisciplinary group representing various relevant legal, forensic and and clinical sectors. A limitation was that it was only possible to examine relevant federal laws and those of Mexico City rather than those of all 32 Mexican states. The descriptions of paraphilic disorders in the ICD-11 could support substantial improvements in the treatment of individuals with paraphilic disorders and the adjudication of sex offenders in Mexico, but specific changes in Mexican law would be required. Martínez-López JNI, Robles R, Fresán A, et al. Legal and Policy Implications in Mexico of Changes in ICD-11 Paraphilic Disorders. J Sex Med 2019;16:1623-1637.
Recently the guidelines for the diagnosis of paraphilic disorders in the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11), have been published. This article analyzes legal, regulatory, and policy issues relevant to the potential effects of the changes for the classification of paraphilic disorders in the ICD-11 in Germany. A forensic and a legal expert in Germany worked with other international experts to conduct this evaluation using an assessment guide provided by the World Health Organization. Possible effects of the changes for the classification of paraphilic disorders in the ICD-11 on forensic practice, health systems, adjudication of individuals who have committed a sexual offense, and the provision of treatment in Germany. Results highlight the special situation of medical confidentiality in the German health system that facilitates the establishment of preventive networks for the treatment of pedophilic patients. The ICD-11 guidelines will help to clarify the boundary between pedophilic disorder and crimes of child sexual abuse. These will also establish a boundary with other paraphilic diagnostic concepts. We describe the central construct of criminal responsibility in the German legal system in relation to paraphilic disorders, the prominent role of expert witnesses, and the differences in the conceptualization of medical confidentiality within the health care system and within the legal system. The ICD-11 proposals for paraphilic disorders provide a clearer differentiation, as compared with ICD-10, between variants of normal sexual behavior and sexual behavior that involves a non-consenting person or entity. Particular patterns of sexual preference that are not of relevance to public health, the health care system, or the legal system, such as masochism and fetishism, will no longer be named psychiatric entities and will, therefore, be regarded as private behaviors and destigmatized. The assessment shows the specific legal situation in Germany for the treatment of paraphilic patients in a sexual medicine, psychiatric, and legal discourse. However, it was done only by a small number of experts. A conclusion of the analysis was that the more specific and narrower definitions in the ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines, compared with those in ICD-10, particularly for pedophilic disorder and coercive sexual sadism disorder, will result in a reduction in false-positive diagnoses. It is unlikely that significant unintended and negative consequences will occur as a result of implementing the ICD-11 guidelines for paraphilic disorders. Briken P, Boetticher A, Krueger RB, et al. Current Legal Situation for Patients with Paraphilic disorders and Implications of the ICD-11 for Paraphilic Disorders for Germany. J Sex Med 2019;16:1615-1622.
Care pathway approaches were introduced into health care in the 1980s and have become standard international practice. They are now being introduced more specifically for health care in the criminal justice system. Care pathway delivery has the theoretical advantage of encouraging a whole-systems approach for health and social care within the criminal justice system, but how well is it supported by empirical evidence? The aim of this study is to review the nature and extent of evidence streams supporting health care delivery within interagency pathway developments since 2000. We used an exploratory narrative method to review the nature and extent of evidence streams supporting health care delivery within interagency pathway developments since 2000. The available literature was reviewed using a keyword search approach with three databases: PubMed, Medline, and Google Scholar. Research in this field has covered police custody, courts, prisons, and the wider community, but there is little that follows the entire career through all these elements of offender placement. Main themes in the research to date, regardless of where the research was conducted, have been counting the disorder or the need, development and evaluation of screening tools, and evaluation of clinical intervention styles. Most evidence to date is simply observational, although the possibility of conducting randomised controlled trials of interventions within parts of the criminal justice system, especially prisons, is now well established. Access to health care while passing through the criminal justice system is essential because of the disproportionately high rates of mental disorder among offenders, and the concept of structured pathways to ensure this theoretically satisfying, but as yet empirically unsupported. Further, substantial cuts in services, generally following government economies, are largely unresearched. Considerable investment in new possibilities, driven by both pressure groups and government, tend to be informed by good will and theory rather than hard evidence and are often not evaluated even after introduction. This must change.
Using the new legal basis provided by the Lisbon Treaty, the Council of the European Union has endorsed the 2009 Procedural Roadmap for strengthening the procedural rights of suspected or accused persons in criminal proceedings. This Roadmap has so far resulted in six measures from which specific procedural minimum standards have been and will be adopted or negotiated. So far, only Measure E directly touches on the specific issue of vulnerable persons. This Measure has recently produced a tentative result through a Commission Recommendation on procedural safeguards for vulnerable persons in criminal proceedings. This contribution aims to discuss the need for the introduction of binding minimum standards throughout Europe to provide additional protection for mentally disordered defendants. The paper will examine whether or not the member states adhere to existing fundamental norms and standards in this context, and whether the application of these norms and standards should be made more uniform. For this purpose, the procedural situation of mentally disordered defendants in Belgium and England and Wales will be thoroughly explored. The research establishes that Belgian law is unsatisfactory in the light of the Strasbourg case law, and that the situation in practice in England and Wales indicates not only that there is justifiable doubt about whether fundamental principles are always adhered to, but also that these principles should become more anchored in everyday practice. It will therefore be argued that there is a need for putting Measure E into practice. The Commission Recommendation, though only suggestive, may serve as a necessary and inspirational vehicle to improve the procedural rights of mentally disordered defendants and to ensure that member states are able to cooperate within the mutual recognition framework without being challenged on the grounds that they are collaborating with peers who do not respect defendants' fundamental fair trial rights. Throughout this contribution the term 'defendant' will be used, and no difference will be made in terminology between suspected and accused persons. This contribution only covers the situation of mentally disordered adult defendants.
Researchers have identified that autistic individuals are encountering the criminal justice system as victims, offenders, and witnesses at high rates. The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is increasing and generating a comprehensive approach to addressing criminal justice system involvement among autistic individuals is a timely and urgent need. Revisions to an established framework generated for use among individuals with mental health diagnoses, the sequential Intercept Model (SIM), were produced by an international consortium of interdisciplinary stakeholders presenting a new opportunity to identify gaps in ASD research and generate preventive solutions across the criminal justice system. The revised SIM maps each criminal justice system component, or Intercept, and includes paths for the experiences of autistic individuals as victims or witnesses to crimes as well as offenders to catalyze new and interdisciplinary research, policy, and practice efforts. As the field of ASD research continues to grow, the revised SIM is a promising pathway to avoiding siloed research approaches, including diverse autistic voices, and contributing to international dialogue about criminal justice reform at a critical juncture. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic individuals are encountering the criminal justice system as victims, offenders, and witnesses at high rates. A revised version of the SIM generated by an international consortium provides a cohesive framework to ensure research focused on this topic extends across the criminal justice system. Preventing and improving interactions between autistic individuals and the criminal justice system is an urgent research, policy, and practice need.
Gambling is now widely acknowledged to be a major public health (PH) issue. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities conservatively estimated that gambling harm is associated with an annual cost of £1.05-£1.77 billion in England alone. Marionneau et al have categorised gambling harms into seven themes: (1) financial, (2) relationship/conflict, (3) emotional and psychological (mental health), (4) health decrements (physical health), (5) employment/education, (6) cultural and (7) criminal activity. In this understanding, gambling harms are not restricted to individual experiences: they also impact families, the wider community and society, and hence they require a whole systems, PH approach, anchored in population-level interventions to reduce harms. We aim to identify the effects of interventional PH laws and regulations on the harms associated with gambling. We limit our focus to interventional PH laws and regulations within a comprehensive search of scientific and legal databases, grey literature and books. Following Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, Study, Timing inclusion criteria, evidence will be screened and appraised in Covidence by two reviewers (MF and TP). Included evidence will be analysed and synthesised using a narrative synthesis approach. Methodological quality will be appraised using the relevant risk of bias tool. Randomised controlled trials will be assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool (RoB2), Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions (ROBINS-I) will be used for other non-randomised studies. Qualitative studies will be appraised using the EPPI reviewer software for systematic reviewing. The review protocol is registered with PROSPERO (International prospective register of systematic reviews) at the National Institute for Health Research and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York (CRD42024574502). We aim to define a theory of change and produce a context-mechanism-outcome framework with relevant experts using the findings. We plan to disseminate the findings through peer-reviewed publications, meetings with relevant experts and international conference presentations.
Sexual abuse is a global issue and, therefore, responding to and preventing sexual abuse are global challenges. Although we have examples of and evidence for sexual abuse prevention initiatives internationally, these tend to come from a small, select group of countries (i.e., United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia) and not from a broader global pool. This article will present the qualitative data from an online study (n = 82), covering 17 countries, on professionals' (i.e., people working in the arena of sexual offending from a clinical, criminal justice, policy, research, and/or practice perspective) perceptions sexual abuse prevention in theory, practice, and policy. The article identifies three main themes: (a) professionals' understandings of the prevention of sexual abuse, (b) public understanding of sexual abuse prevention, and (c) governmental attitudes towards, and support of, sexual abuse prevention programs. The article highlights that, although there are similar understandings of sexual abuse prevention internationally, practice is characterised by national differences in the funding of, provision of, and public/policy perceptions of prevention as well as its impact on offending.
Research has demonstrated that autistic individuals have higher rates of police contact, however, research has seldom explored the fundamental reasons for these interactions and how this might vary across international contexts. To remedy this, the Global Autism and Criminal Justice Consortium created and disseminated the Global Criminal Justice Survey. Descriptive statistics of survey respondents with and without police contact were compared to glean differential characteristics. Frequency and type of recent police interactions (within the last 5 years) among autistic individuals were also examined to better contextualize the reasons that autistic individuals encounter police. Study findings indicated that across a global sample (i.e., North America, Scandinavia, Europe, and Oceania) nearly half of all autistic individuals had an interaction with police and that those with a history of police contact were usually older, had higher educational qualifications, and were more likely to have a co-occurring mental health or developmental disorder. Among types of interactions, noncriminal encounters, such as welfare checks, traffic incidents, wandering, and behaviors associated with autism, were most common, followed by autistic individuals alleging a crime was committed against them. These findings offer important directions for future research and for targeted policy responses that can address the unique needs of autistic individuals within the justice system.
Drug conventions serve as the cornerstone for domestic drug laws and impose a dual obligation upon states to prevent the misuse of controlled substances while ensuring their adequate availability for medical and scientific purposes. Despite the mandate that these obligations be enforced equally, the dominant paradigm enshrined in the drug conventions is an enforcement-heavy criminal justice response to controlled substances that prohibits and penalizes their misuse. Prioritizing restrictive control is to the detriment of ensuring adequate availability of and access to controlled medicines, thereby violating the rights of people who need them. This paper argues that the drug conventions' prioritization of criminal justice measures-including efforts to prevent non-medical use of controlled substances-undermines access to medicines and infringes upon the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. While the effects of criminalization under drug policy limit the right to health in multiple ways, we draw on research and documented examples to highlight the impact of drug control and criminalization on access to medicines. The prioritization and protection of human rights-specifically the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress-are critical to rebalancing drug policy.
There is a dearth of published literature that demonstrates the impact and effectiveness of school-based oral health education (OHE) program in Bangladesh and it is one of the most neglected activities in the field of public health. Keeping this in mind, the objectives of this study were to assess the effectiveness of OHE program in: 1) increasing oral health knowledge, attitude, and practices and 2) decreasing the prevalence of untreated dental caries among 6-8 grade school students in Bangladesh. This intervention study was conducted in Araihazar Thana, Narayanganj district, Bangladesh during April 2012 to March 2013. The total participants were 944 students from three local schools. At baseline, students were assessed for oral health knowledge, attitude and practices using a self-administered structured questionnaire and untreated dental caries was assessed using clinical examination. Follow up study was done after 6 months from baseline. McNemar's chi-square analysis was used to evaluate the impact of OHE program on four recurrent themes of oral health between the baseline and follow-up. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to determine the impact of the intervention group on our outcome variables. Significant improvement was observed regarding school aged adolescents' self-reported higher knowledge, attitude and practices scores (p < 0.001) at follow-up compared with baseline. The prevalence of untreated dental caries of the study population after the OHE program was significantly (p < 0.01) reduced to 42.5 %. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that the OHE intervention remained a significant predictor in reducing the risk of untreated dental caries (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =0.51; 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 0.37, 0.81). In the follow-up period participants were 2.21 times (95 % CI = 1.87, 3.45) more likely to have higher level of knowledge regarding oral health compared to baseline. Compared with baseline participants in the follow-up were 1.89 times (95 % CI = 1.44-2.87) more likely to have higher attitude towards oral health. In addition, OHE intervention was found to be significantly associated with higher level of practices toward oral health (AOR = 1.64; 95 % CI = 1.12, 3.38). This study indicated that OHE intervention was effective in increasing i) knowledge, ii) attitude, and iii) practices towards oral health; it also significantly reduced the prevalence of untreated dental caries among school aged adolescents from grade 6-8 in a deprived rural area of Bangladesh.
When voters passed the 2020 Ballot Measure 110 (M110), the U.S. State of Oregon changed course from a criminal legal system response to a health-centered approach to substance use. M110 was passed with the goal of making health assessment screenings, treatment, and recovery services for substance use disorder available to all who need them and reduce the harms associated with involving the criminal legal system for people who use drugs. Although drug decriminalization was enacted in February 2021, most of M110's funding streams for substance use disorder treatment, harm reduction, and housing assistance were delayed until August 2022. In the absence of health- or treatment-related data, preliminary studies used pre- and post-crime trend data to show that possession of controlled substances arrests decreased after Oregon implemented drug decriminalization. The goal of this methods piece is to inform researchers and governments about the nuances of crime data when these data are often the only means available to assess a new drug policy. Given the multiple factors that occurred immediately before or contemporaneous to enactment of M110 (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregon's acute affordable housing shortage), we consider the methodological issues of prematurely attempting to answer research questions using available crime trend data and associated analytic models to make determinations about whether M110 was meeting its intended goals. Patience and time are needed for ensuring that the necessary and appropriate data are available that correspond to policy goals. We include recommendations for future analyses when more robust data are available to holistically assess the impacts of drug policies.
Autistic people's perceptions of their interactions with criminal justice professionals are predominantly negative; however, little is known about the state of interactions on a global scale. To further understanding, a comprehensive stakeholder questionnaire was created. Aspects of reliability and validity including evidence for test content and internal structure were gathered using expert reviews, cognitive interviewing, pilot data collection, and a larger data collection effort (N = 1618). Data was gathered from the autism community through perspectives of parents/caregivers as well as from self-reported autistic adults. Criminal justice professionals included law enforcement officers, corrections professionals, probation and parole officers, forensic psychologists and legal professionals. The scale development process was detailed in order to sufficiently document the initial psychometric evidence and share the steps taken to gain diverse stakeholder input. This study is a critical first step in generating further information to facilitate policy and program development with wide applicability.
Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, some jurisdictions have applied criminal law to the transmission of HIV. In 2002, UNAIDS issued a policy options paper on this issue. In light of renewed calls for the application of criminal law to HIV transmission and concerns raised in this regard by the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Humans Rights and others, UNDP and the UNAIDS Secretariat decided to bring together a number of legal experts and other concerned stakeholders to discuss this issue in the context of an effective human rights and public health response to HIV. The discussion would inform a UNAIDS/UNDP policy brief on this subject. It was clarified that the consultation would focus primarily on HIV transmission through sexual contact, although it was noted that concerns exist in relation to applying criminal law to HIV transmission in other contexts. This Bookshelf article consists of excerpts from the report of the meeting.
Urban Indigenous populations face disproportionate mental health challenges, including high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorders, yet they have limited access to health services, especially culturally relevant care. The mechanism for providing care to Indigenous people in the United States, the Indian Health Service, is significantly underfunded and only accessible to certain Indigenous people. With more than 70% of Indigenous individuals in the United States living in urban settings, there is a growing need for innovative health care solutions. A community-based, Indigenous-led health and mental health-focused nonprofit in the northeast United States developed ShockTalk, a tele-mental health linkage-to-care app tailored specifically for Indigenous communities, to fill this gap. This study aims to assess (1) the feasibility, including accessibility, experience, and value, of ShockTalk for practitioners and clients interested in providing or receiving culturally responsive mental health treatment, and (2) changes in client attitudes related to tele-mental health treatment value and trust in ShockTalk technology. This study outlines the development and pilot study of ShockTalk. The conceptual framework is based on the behavioral model of health care use. ShockTalk uses artificial intelligence to connect clients with Indigenous or culturally aligned therapists and facilitates access to care via Facebook Messenger. Using a prewaitlist or postwaitlist design, 5 client participants will be admitted to the study at first, and 5 additional participants at 3 months. Data collection includes presurveys and postsurveys on client attitudes toward mental health treatment and trust in the ShockTalk platform at baseline and a 3-month follow-up, followed by in-depth qualitative interviews at 3 months. A preliminary economic evaluation will track direct costs (ie, therapist time, platform fees, and administrative expenses) and compare relative costs across treatment doses. Analyses will assess the feasibility of data collection and inform a future full-scale trial. This study was funded in April 2022. Data collection occurred between May 2022 and October 2024. In total, 4 client participants and 2 therapist participants were enrolled. Data analysis is complete and results are expected to be published in February 2026. This pilot study will offer insights into optimizing technology-based, culturally relevant mental health care. By examining varying levels of engagement and associated costs, this research seeks to identify the most effective and cost-efficient strategies for improving mental health outcomes in urban Indigenous populations in the United States. ShockTalk has the potential to shape future health care innovations in this field. Findings are expected to contribute significantly to Indigenous mental health care by offering insights into sustainable, accessible, and culturally appropriate telehealth interventions, guiding future policy and practice. DERR1-10.2196/67757.
Under what circumstances should a citizen be able to avoid the penalties set by the citizen's home country's criminal law by going abroad to engage in the same activity where it is not criminally prohibited? Should we view the ability to engage in prohibited activities by traveling outside of the nation state as a way of accommodating cultural or political differences within our polity? These are general questions regarding the power and theory of extraterritorial application of domestic criminal law. In this Article, I examine the issues through a close exploration of one setting that urgently presents them: medical tourism. Medical tourism is a term used to describe the travel of patients who are citizens and residents of one country, the "home country," to another country, the "destination country," for medical treatment. This Article is the first to comprehensively examine a subcategory of medical tourism that I call "circumvention tourism," which involves patients who travel abroad for services that are legal in the patient's destination country but illegal in the patient's home country--that is, travel to circumvent domestic prohibitions on accessing certain medical services. The four examples of this phenomenon that I dwell on are circumvention medical tourism for female genital cutting (FGC), abortion, reproductive technology usage, and assisted suicide. I will briefly discuss the "can" question: assuming that a domestic prohibition on access to one of these services is lawful, as a matter of international law, is the home country forbidden, permitted, or mandated to extend its existing criminal prohibition extraterritorially to home country citizens who travel abroad to circumvent the home country's prohibition? Most of the Article, though, is devoted to the "ought" question: assuming that the domestic prohibition is viewed as normatively well-grounded, under what circumstances should the home country extend its existing criminal prohibition extraterritorially to its citizens who travel abroad to circumvent the prohibition? I show that, contrary to much of current practice, in most instances, home countries should seek to extend extraterritorially their criminal prohibitions on FGC, abortion, assisted suicide, and, to a lesser extent, reproductive technology use to their citizens who travel abroad to circumvent the prohibition. I also discuss the ways in which my analysis of these prohibitions can serve as scaffolding for a more general theory of circumvention tourism.
Purpose Despite the existence of minimum age laws for juvenile justice jurisdiction in 18 US states, California has no explicit law that protects children (i.e. youth less than 12 years old) from being processed in the juvenile justice system. In the absence of a minimum age law, California lags behind other states and international practice and standards. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this policy brief, academics across the University of California campuses examine current evidence, theory, and policy related to the minimum age of juvenile justice jurisdiction. Findings Existing evidence suggests that children lack the cognitive maturity to comprehend or benefit from formal juvenile justice processing, and diverting children from the system altogether is likely to be more beneficial for the child and for public safety. Research limitations/implications Based on current evidence and theory, the authors argue that minimum age legislation that protects children from contact with the juvenile justice system and treats them as children in need of services and support, rather than as delinquents or criminals, is an important policy goal for California and for other national and international jurisdictions lacking a minimum age law. Originality/value California has no law specifying a minimum age for juvenile justice jurisdiction, meaning that young children of any age can be processed in the juvenile justice system. This policy brief provides a rationale for a minimum age law in California and other states and jurisdictions without one.
The prevention of recidivism has long been a central issue in criminal justice policy. This is justified because an offender who repeatedly commits crime inflicts far greater damage on society than an offender who commits a crime just once in his/her lifetime. For instance, research by the Ministry of Justice of Japan (2007) reveals that only approximately 30% of repeat offenders were responsible for around 60% of the crime committed in Japan from 1948 to 2006. It has been proven that the realization of the rehabilitation of offenders contributes to the reduction of recidivism. The successful rehabilitation of offenders depends in large part upon the effectiveness of the community-based treatment given to offenders based upon an appropriate assessment of multidimensional risk factors and a multidisciplinary approach. In exploring effective community-based treatment of offenders using a multidisciplinary approach, the author touches upon several effective programs from an international comparative view, including: intensive supervision probation/parole (ISP), Drug Court, cognitive behavioral treatment programs and some recent developments related to this field in Japan.
Prevention science researchers and practitioners are increasingly engaged in a wide range of activities and roles to promote evidence-based prevention practices in the community. Ethical concerns invariably arise in these activities and roles that may not be explicitly addressed by university or professional guidelines for ethical conduct. In 2015, the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) Board of Directors commissioned Irwin Sandler and Tom Dishion to organize a series of roundtables and establish a task force to identify salient ethical issues encountered by prevention scientists and community-based practitioners as they collaborate to implement evidence-based prevention practices. This article documents the process and findings of the SPR Ethics Task Force and aims to inform continued efforts to articulate ethical practice. Specifically, the SPR membership and task force identified prevention activities that commonly stemmed from implementation and scale-up efforts. This article presents examples that illustrate typical ethical dilemmas. We present principles and concepts that can be used to frame the discussion of ethical concerns that may be encountered in implementation and scale-up efforts. We summarize value statements that stemmed from our discussion. We also conclude that the field of prevention science in general would benefit from standards and guidelines to promote ethical behavior and social justice in the process of implementing evidence-based prevention practices in community settings. It is our hope that this article serves as an educational resource for students, investigators, and Human Subjects Review Board members regarding some of the complexity of issues of fairness, equality, diversity, and personal rights for implementation of preventive interventions.
Across the world, people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) face investigation, prosecution, conviction, and punishment if they transmit HIV to another person, expose others to the risk of HIV acquisition, or fail to disclose in advance their HIV positive status. This article seeks to explain why limiting the criminalisation of HIV is important and necessary; identifies some of the ways in which it has been, and might be, limited; and, finally, offers some reflections on whether there exists a principled limit to decriminalisation arguments (ie whether there are cases which, even if the general principles underpinning decriminalisation is accepted, justify state punishment). Drawing on recent international policy guidance, current scientific knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment, and research on the impact of criminalisation of PLHA, the article argues that decriminalisation is critical to eradicating HIV and should be a public health priority, that biomedical advances in prevention and treatment will assist the decriminalisation project but are insufficient in the absence of legal and criminal justice practice reform.