Bringing the feelings back : returning emotions to criminal justice practice

This article argues that probation policy needs to take much greater account of the important role of emotion in probation and other criminal justice practice. Drawing on the findings of three separate pieces of research, we argue that emotions play a critical role in practice despite their absence from policy in recent years. Emotions, we argue, are important in terms of developing effective practice. Moreover, there are several consequences of using emotion in practice and relevant organisations need to recognise this and provide sufficient support for staff in dealing with such consequences. This, we argue, would allow for practitioners to be both emotionally literate whilst also enabling practice which encourages offenders to take responsibility for their actions. In sum, it will lead to an intuitively intelligent system of justic

Soft skills for hard work: an exploration of the efficacy of the emotional literacy of practitioners working within the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) with high risk offenders

This study seeks to explore ways in which the emotional content of probation intervention with offenders is central to practitioner/offender relationships, but constitutes a discourse that has been largely silenced within an organisation that favours a business orientated model. Questions addressed within this thesis relate to how practitioners understand, regulate and work with emotion; how the organisational ‘silence’ on the subject is maintained and reinforced; the costs of this silencing and how practitioners endeavour to surmount it in their daily working practices. The term ‘emotional literacy’ (Killick 2006) captures the phenomenon of ‘emotion work’ or the ‘soft skills’ that many practitioners use in pursuit of the ‘hard work’ of assessing, managing and enabling change in offenders. It is a qualitative study which has used a thematic analysis to explore the concept of emotional literacy in probation practice. The study is informed by a theoretically eclectic approach and uses Layder’s theories of social domain (Layder 2006), and of interpersonal control (Layder 2004), as frameworks for analysis. Findings from the research demonstrate that the practice of emotional literacy is significantly affected by organisational and contextual constraints. The tensions inherent for practitioners in holding emotionally conflicting and ambivalent positions in their practice with offenders are illustrated. There is evidence that practitioners predominantly exercise interpersonal emotional control through benign means. However, some concerns were highlighted by respondents of the risk of more collusive, manipulative or even repressive means of interpersonal control being deployed. It is argued that in the absence of training and support in the area of emotions and emotion management, most of this ‘underground’ emotional work is subjective, idiosyncratic, undervalued and largely unnoticed by the organisation. It is further argued, that the silencing of the discourse imposes a burden on workers, providing them with few opportunities to explore the implications of their emotions in practice, and limiting the effectiveness of the organisation in enabling offenders to change. The research also reveals some gender implications. An argument is developed for the explicit building of emotional resources within the organisation to sustain the development, enhancement and support of emotional literacy in the workforce, and for an increased profile to be afforded these ‘soft skills’ in policy debate

Structural and dielectric studies of the phase behaviour of the topological ferroelectric La1-xNdxTaO4

We thank the University of St Andrews and EPSRC (via DTG studentships to CALD and JG) for funding,The layered perovskite LaTaO4 has been prepared in its polar orthorhombic polymorphic form at ambient temperature. Although no structural phase transition is observed in the temperature interval 25° C < T < 500 °C, a very large axial thermal contraction effect is seen, which can be ascribed to an anomalous buckling of the perovskite octahedral layer. The non-polar monoclinic polymorph can be stabilised at ambient temperature by Nd-doping. A composition La0.90Nd0.10TaO4 shows a first-order monoclinic-orthorhombic (non-polar to polar) transition in the region 250° C < T < 350 °C. Dielectric responses are observed at both the above structural events but, despite the ‘topological ferroelectric’ nature of orthorhombic LaTaO4, we have not succeeded in obtaining ferroelectric P–E hysteresis behaviour. Structural relationships in the wider family of AnBnX3n+2 layered perovskites are discussed.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Extramammary Paget disease of the perianal region:the potential role of imiquimod in achieving disease control

Extramammary Paget disease (EMPD) is a rare perineal neoplasia associated with a high rate of local recurrence. Surgical excision is the standard treatment; however, this has high rates of post-operative morbidity in combination with potentially mutilating results. Previous literature has demonstrated good response with imiquimod 5% cream in patients with vulval EMPD, yet its effectiveness in primary perianal disease is unknown. We describe the case of a 40-year-old woman presenting with EMPD of the perianal region, providing detailed histological and pictoral evidence of its response to topical imiquimod 5% cream over a 16-week period, which initially resulted in remission prior to metastatic lymph node recurrence. This case demonstrates the potential for topical imiquimod cream to avoid major surgery and its associated complications in patients presenting with EMPD of the perianal region. We discuss the current evidence for treating this rare condition with medical therapy, how this case adds to current literature and possible future directions

EFFECTS OF SUPPORTED ELECTRONIC TEXT AND EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION ON SCIENCE COMPREHENSION BY STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Supported electronic text (eText), or text that has been altered to increase access and provide support to learners, may promote comprehension of science content for students with disabilities. According to CAST, Book BuilderTM uses supported eText to promote reading for meaning for all students. Although little research has been conducted in the area of supported eText for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), technology (e.g., computer assisted instruction) has been used for over 35 years to instruct students with ASD in academic areas. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a supported eText and explicit instruction on the science vocabulary and comprehension of four middle school students with ASD. Researchers used a multiple probe across participants design to evaluate the Book BuilderTM program on measures of vocabulary, literal comprehension, and application questions. Results indicated a functional relation between the Book BuilderTM and explicit instruction (i.e., model-lead-test, examples and non-examples, and referral to the definition) and the number of correct responses on the probe. In addition, students were able to generalize concepts to untrained exemplars. Finally, teachers and students validate the program as practical and useful

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Ten Million Acres of Timber: The Remarkable Story of Forest Protection in the Maine Forestry District (1909-1972) by Austin H. Wilkins; Anthropology Toward History: Culture in a 19th Century Maine Town by Richard P. Horowitz; A Long Deep Furrow: Three Centuries of Farming in New England by Howard S. Russell; Henry: Man of Aroostook County, Maine by Milton T. Lufkin; Waterford, Maine, 1875-1976 edited by Bertram F. Wentwort

Project ATTAIN: Advancing Trauma-Informed Care for Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and/or Gender Diverse Youth

Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and/or gender diversity are at higher risk of experiencing trauma. Provider knowledge is lacking; trauma, disability, and LGBTQ+ resources are often siloed; and few providers screen for trauma in this population. This paper describes the design, delivery, and initial evaluation of Project ATTAIN (Access to Trauma-informed Treatment and Assessment for Neurodivergent and/or Gender-expansive Youth). ATTAIN is an ongoing 5-year state-wide initiative aiming to assess readiness to engage in new roles and practices over time; provide state-wide training and consultation in trauma, disability, and LGBTQ+-informed practices; install screening and assessment of trauma exposure and PTSD and quality of life into IDD and gender service settings; and include people with lived experience. A readiness assessment identified pre-training gaps between role responsibilities and practice engagement across five professional sectors serving our target population (n=39) in LGBTQ+-, disability-, and trauma-informed practices. We learned that specific sectors would benefit from introductory training to increase buy-in and promote role expansion; others would benefit from advanced instruction and implementation support. So far, we have trained 966 unique providers in trauma-informed care and have seen changes in the attitudes or perspectives of participants. Participants were highly satisfied with our provided training and saw increased knowledge across training. We screened 49 people in an IDD service setting for PTSD and quality of life. Two people with lived experience are active members of our research team, participating in project planning, training delivery, and manuscript authorship. Individuals who work with IDD and/or gender-diverse youth would benefit from increased training to expand their knowledge on LGBTQ+-, disability-, and trauma-informed practices. In year three, we intend to continue outreach and evidence-informed training focused on the intersection of trauma, IDD, and gender diversity. Ongoing evaluation of our outreach, training, and screening efforts will continue to inform program activities

Thermal evolution of the crystal structure of the orthorhombic perovskite LaFeO3

CALD and CMK were supported by EPSRC DTA studentships (EP/L505079/1).The thermal evolution of the crystal structure of the prototypical orthorhombic perovskite LaFeO3 has been studied in detail by powder neutron diffraction in the temperature range 25<T<1285 K. A conventional bond length/bond angle analysis, combined with an analysis in terms of symmetry-adapted modes, allows key aspects of the thermal behavior to be understood. In particular, the largest-amplitude symmetry modes (viz. in-phase and out-of-phase octahedral tilts, and A-site cation displacements) are shown to display relatively ‘normal’ behavior, increasing with decreasing temperature, which contrasts with the anomalous behavior previously shown by the derivative Bi0.5La0.5FeO3. However, an unexpected behavior is seen in the nature of the intra-octahedral distortion, which is used to rationalize the unique occurrence of a temperature dependent crossover of the a and c unit cell metrics in this compound.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Telehealth Skills, Training, and Implementation Project: An evaluation protocol

External stabilization is reported to improve reliability of hand held dynamometry, yet this has not been tested in burns. We aimed to assess the reliability of dynamometry using an external system of stabilization in people with moderate burn injury and explore construct validity of strength assessment using dynamometry. Participants were assessed on muscle and grip strength three times on each side. Assessment occurred three times per week for up to four weeks. Within session reliability was assessed using intraclass correlations calculated for within session data grouped prior to surgery, immediately after surgery and in the sub-acute phase of injury. Minimum detectable differences were also calculated. In the same timeframe categories, construct validity was explored using regression analysis incorporating burn severity and demographic characteristics. Thirty-eight participants with total burn surface area 5 – 40% were recruited. Reliability was determined to be clinically applicable for the assessment method (intraclass correlation coefficient \u3e0.75) at all phases after injury. Muscle strength was associated with sex and burn location during injury and wound healing. Burn size in the immediate period after surgery and age in the sub-acute phase of injury were also associated with muscle strength assessment results. Hand held dynamometry is a reliable assessment tool for evaluating within session muscle strength in the acute and sub-acute phase of injury in burns up to 40% total burn surface area. External stabilization may assist to eliminate reliability issues related to patient and assessor strength