DoodooCat

Original Articles

Validity, utility and ethics of profiling for serial violent and sexual offenders
Paul Wilson;Robyn Lincoln; Richard Kocsis
Pages 1 – 11
Abstract
Despite its apparent popularity, criminal personality profiling has been poorly evaluated as either an investigative aid or a conceptual tool. This article documents some aspects of the development of offender profiling. Importantly, it identifies and differentiates the different styles of profiling and their distinct conceptual orientations. The literature is also reviewed to extract what conclusions can be drawn with respect to the validity, utility and ethics of offender profiles in criminal investigations and what this may mean for psychiatry, psychology and the law in general.



Child witnesses in the criminal courts: Furthering New Zealand's commitment to the United Nations convention on the rights of the child
Emma Davies; Fred W. Seymour
Pages 13 – 24
Abstract
Key issues highlighted in the international literature that impact on New Zealand's commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child are discussed. Recent changes to the law regarding how children give evidence has facilitated children's participation in the criminal justice system in New Zealand. However, in themselves these advances are not sufficient to satisfy Article 3(1) of the Convention concerning the paramountcy of the best interests of the child. The authors contend that it is also necessary to reduce long delays in hearings, improve waiting facilities in the court building, educate children for court, give children more control over how they give their evidence, clarify acceptable support for children in court, train lawyers and Judges in issues concerning children's evidence, and debrief children after court. International research related to these issues is reviewed. It is argued that addressing these issues not only furthers New Zealand's commitment to the UN Convention, but also serves to ensure a fair and just determination of cases.  



Community treatment orders in Victoria: Emergent issues and anomalies
Elizabeth McDonnell; Terry Bartholomew
Pages 25 – 36
Abstract
The current pa-per highlights contemporary trends in the use of Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) in Victoria, Australia. CTOs were designed as a legislative operationalisation of the theoretical notion of the least restrictive alternative, providing recipients with the opportunity to receive treatment for mental illness in the community rather than in an institutional setting. Data collected from 130 cases over three months (representing approximately 10% of the total number of cases heard by the Mental Health Review Board over the period of one year), and interviews with past and present recipients of CTOs, are drawn upon to highlight a number of important concerns, findings indicate that current implementation practices in regards to CTOs in many instances are not consistent with the theoretical rationales deployed by practitioners and legislators to justify them. The features and limitations of recent moves to improve and/or guide legislation in this growing area are also discussed and a number of recommendations made regarding how future research and service delivery could be better focused.



Assisted and substituted decision-mak-ing: A new Guardianship law for Queensland?
John Devereux; Penny Cooper
Pages 37 – 44
Abstract
This article outlines the Queensland Law Reform Commission's review of Queensland Guardianship law. The present provisions on guardianship are complex, administered by separate government departments and offer little by way of scope as to the extent of powers which may be given to a substitute decision-maker. The Commission recommends the adoption of a new scheme, whose underpinning philosophy is that outside intervention should be kept to a minimum and should only occur when the decision-mak-ing needs of the affected person cannot be met in any less intrusive way.



Women's mental health and mental illness in custody
Exploring the gap between the correctional system as it is presented and the correctional system as it is experienced
Helen Connor
Pages 45 – 53
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to provide a background, raise awareness and initiate discussion around the issue of women's mental health and mental illness in custody. It outlines current indications of the level of unmet need for mental health services in Queensland prisons. It also identifies existing suggestions for responding to this need. Women's anecdotal views of imprisonment and the effect on the individual's mental health are presented with the emphasis on acknowledging and valuing women's experience of the criminal justice system, particularly custodial corrections. The article is written from a consumer perspective based on a review of the current literature, the personal experience of the author and the experiences of imprisoned women as told to the author. The identity of the women is protected by referring to these experiences as 'anecdotal'.  



Health of women ex-prisoners
Kathryn Lewis; Susan Hayes
Pages 55 – 64
Abstract
In an attempt to assist understanding of the specific health problems of women prisoners, the research reported here described the health of a volunteer group of female ex-prisoners (N = 30), comparing them with a group of women from similar life circumstances who had not been imprisoned (N = 30), and with data from an Australian community study. The following instruments were administered: a structured interview; General Health Questionnaire (30 item) (GHQ-30) Medical Outcomes Study. Short Form-36 items (SF-36) Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT). Physical and mental health effects specifically related to imprisonment were examined. Both ex-prisoners and non-prisoners had poor mental and physical health compared-with Australian women generally. This poor level of health functioning was probably related to the method of recruitment of the sample, reflecting the fact that women from poor socioeconomic levels who are receiving help from welfare agencies tend to be in poor health. The ex-prisoners functioned even lower than the non-prisoners in relation to their general health, and the findings indicate that their serious physical and mental health problems may be related to a history of substance abuse, violence, and disrupted family background.



Perspectives from practice

Sexual abuse — a process, not an event: A view from practice
Suzanne Jenkins
Pages 65 – 71
Abstract
The perception of sexual abuse as an event or a series or events is reinforced through traditional strategies for investigation, the current legal system and single agency responses. If, however, we are to understand the dynamics of sexual abuse, offenders and victims, we need to explore and understand the nature of sexual assault as a process. This process of abuse often starts long before the actual 'hands-on' assault and may continue long after the 'hands-on' assault is over.  



Case commentaries

The diagnostic expertise of forensic psychologists: Whitbread v The Queen (1995) 78 A Crim R 452
Ian Freckelton
Pages 73 – 77
Abstract
Along with increased awareness amongst legal practitioners of issues such as the imprecision of predictions of dangerousness, the problems in assessments of fitness to stand trial, the subjectivity in evaluations of legal insanity, the controversies surrounding the emergence of forensic syndromes, and the legal epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder, has come a recognition of the need to confine the opinion evidence of mental health professionals within witnesses' demonstrated areas of expertise. This recognition has, in its tum, led to the delineation of generic areas of forensic expertise for psychiatrists and psychologists and the promotion of a judicial recognition of sub-specialties of expertise amongst mental health professionals. Mere possession of qualifications does not make a mental health professional an expert on all matters falling under the rubric of psychology or psychiatry. This principle has ramifications in many contexts.



Judicial pedagogy and expert evidence on victims' responses to trauma: Jv The Queen (1994) 75 A Crim R 522 F v The Queen (1995) 83 A Crim R 502
Ian Freckelton
Pages 79 – 86
Abstract
It has recently been argued by Faunce and McSherry1 that appellate courts have an important educative and regulatory role in respect of professionals, a role which they maintain the courts have not been discharging well enough. Two important cases in Victoria2 and South Australia3, however, have recently articulated a series of principles for the giving of opinion evidence on matters related to mental health expertise. Scrutiny by prosecutors and experts of the defects highlighted by the courts in the evidence elicited at trial in the two cases and of the principles identified by the courts has the potential to make significant improvements in relation to the giving of expert evience by psychiatrists and psychologists.



Psychological evidence in refugee cases about conscientious objection to military service: Zakinov v Gibson, unreported, Australian Federal Court, 26 July 1995
Ian Freckelton
Pages 87 – 91
Abstract
In Zakinov v Gibson a former national of Israel applied for refugee status in Australia on the basis of what he alleged to be persecution arising out of his genuinely held conscientious objections to any form of military service. A psychologist was called before the Refugee Review Tribunal ('“the Tribunal”) to buttress his case. The Tribunal permitted the evidence but gave it minimal weight The refugee seeker appealed on this basis but lost in the Federal Court Justice North's judgment contains a worrying backlash against mental health professionals' evidence, perhaps arising out of the circumstances of the case, citing the context in which a forensic assessment takes place to justify little weight being given to it. It is argued that such an approach lacks justification and has worrying ramifications.