Globe Newspaper Co. v. Commonwealth: An Examination of the Media’s “Right” to Retest Postconviction DNA Evidence

In January of 2000, Governor George Ryan of Illinois issued a statewide moratorium on capital punishment, citing among his reasons the fact that more convicted killers had been exonerated than executed since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977. In 2001 Maryland’s governor issued a temporary moratorium on capital punishment, pending the results of a University of Maryland death penalty study. The North Carolina Senate recently approved a bill that would suspend all state executions for two years, after twenty-one North Carolina municipalities passed resolutions favoring a moratorium and two death-row inmates were awarded new trials

Re-imagining social care services in co-production with disabled parents

Researchers from the Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care at the University of Bedfordshire engaged with disabled parents involved with Ginger Giraffe (a cooperative that brings together disabled people and those experiencing multiple disadvantage together with health and social care students on placement) to define the priorities for the research (‘what do we want to explore?’).  The central aims of the research were to: explore these six disabled parents’ experiences of statutory assessments in children’s social care services and subsequent service provision, including examination of: the assessment pathway (how they accessed support) ; the assessment itself (thresholds and eligibility criteria) ; the principles guiding the assessment, and how these were experienced by disabled parents ; draw on disabled parents’, child and family social workers’ and researchers’ knowledge and expertise to re-imagine how children’s and adult social care might deliver holistic services which value the needs, assets and rights of the whole family

Outcomes for looked after children

Data on 242 children looked after by six local authorities between 1st April 1996 and 31st March 1997, and who were still in care or accommodation 12-24 months later revealed that the largest group in this long stay sample were babies admitted before their first birthday. An in-depth study was conducted to explore the life pathways and decision-making process for these very young children

Balancing looked after children's protective, provisional and participatory rights in research, policy and practice

In England around 68,000 children are currently looked after by the state. Sixty two per cent of this population are admitted to care or accommodation in response to abuse and neglect. As the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges, the state has a unique responsibility for these children and is expected to ensure their safety, wellbeing and development. Underpinned by a rights-based framework the publications in the thesis make an original contribution to social work research, policy and practice, in respect of looked after children nationally and internationally. Three cohering theoretical strands - the new sociology of childhood, attachment theory and focal theory, and different methodological lenses, (from participatory research with young people to cross-national analysis of administrative data), are employed to advance understanding of the balance of protective, provisional and participatory rights ( 3 Ps ) for these children and young people. The work focuses upon their life pathways at two key stages in the lifespan: early infancy and adolescence into adulthood. Consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of the research, the methodological approach employed in two of the four core studies sought to promote children s active participation in the research process, and to give them a voice . The participatory peer methodology adopted moved beyond involving care experienced young people in interviewing their peers, to training and engaging them in several major aspects of the research cycle, including analysis of the data and the design and write up of the findings, to produce accessible peer research reports for young people. At the national level the work undertaken demonstrates how a needs-based discourse, and orientation towards considering looked after children as objects of concern, can mean that young children s protective rights may be prioritised in policy and practice, at the expense of their provisional and participatory rights. Children s participation rights are also constrained due to assumptions about the (in)capacities of younger children to express their wishes and feelings. In this context parents rights tend to be prioritised at the expense of the rights of the child. Whereas parents rights may take precedence when children are young, in adolescence the rights of parents are more peripheral. Cross-national comparisons reveal variations in how young people s provisional, participatory and protective rights are balanced as young people negotiate the transition from care to adulthood in western societies, as well as different drivers for reform. Empirical research on recent policy developments in England also illuminates the tensions and dilemmas professionals can face as they attempt to protect and provide for young people, whilst recognising their evolving capabilities and their right to autonomy and active participation in decision making processes. Finally, the studies highlight that young people with the most complex care histories may be denied the right to decide for themselves if they want to remain in foster or residential care into early adulthood