The effectiveness and impact of the child protection and criminal justice systems in cases of intrafamilial child sexual abuse

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a study commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) in England, concerning intrafamilial child sexual abuse (IFCSA)/incest. Specifically, it aims to explore the evidence about child protection and criminal justice responses to victims of IFCSA in the UK and where the gaps in these approaches lie. Design/methodology/approach – A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) was used, the function of which is to: search the literature as comprehensively as possible within given time constraints; collate descriptive outlines of the available evidence on a topic and critically appraise it; sift out studies of poor quality; and provide an overview of the evidence. Over 57,000 documents were scanned, and 296 ultimately systematically analysed. Findings – It was found that children may be re-victimised by various aspects of “the system” and professionals within it, including social workers, police officers, and lawyers. Research limitations/implications – A REA is not a full systematic review, differing in the scope and depth of the searches and depending almost exclusively on electronic databases, not accompanied by searching journals by hand. Originality/value – The findings of this research provide the evidence-base for a new two-year inquiry into the subject of IFCSA by the OCC

Identifying the routes by which children view pornography online: implications for future policy-makers seeking to limit viewing

Report of Expert Panel for DCM

Understanding sexual violence and factors related to police outcomes

In the year ending March 2020, an estimated 773,000 people in England and Wales were sexually assaulted. These types of crimes have lasting effects on victims’ mental health, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a large body of literature which identifies several factors associated with the likelihood of the victim reporting a sexual assault to the police, and these differences may be due to rape myth stereotypes which perpetuate the belief that rape is only “real” under certain conditions. Less is known, however, about the effect these rape myths and stereotypes have on the investigation process itself and the subsequent police outcomes assigned to sex offences. This study aimed to address this gap, providing a profile of all RASSO (rape and serious sexual offences) committed over a 3-year period in one English police force, the police outcomes of these offences, and whether any offences, suspect, or victim variables were associated with different outcomes, in particular the decision to charge or cases where victims decline to prosecute. In line with previous research, the majority of victims were female while the majority of suspects were male, and the most frequent victim–suspect relationship was acquaintance, followed by partner/ex-partner. Charge outcomes were more likely in SSOs and less in rape offences, more likely with stranger offences and less likely than offences committed by partners/ex-partners and relatives, and some non-white suspects were more likely to be charged than suspects of other ethnicities, including white suspects. Victim attrition was more likely in cases where the suspect was a partner or ex-partner and least likely where the suspect was a stranger, more likely in SSOs than in rape cases, and more likely when the victim ethnicity was “other”. Law enforcement should be aware of the potential biases, both relating to rape myths and stereotypes and to the biased treatment of victims and suspects based on demographic characteristics, and work to eliminate these to ensure a fairer and more effective RASSO investigative process

The impact of witnessing other people's trauma: the resilience and coping strategies of members of the faculty of forensic and legal medicine

Introduction: The coping strategies, resilience and psychological distress of members of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM) were measured in an attempt to establish how they are affected by, and accommodate potentially traumatic encounters with patients. Belief in a just world was also measured as it was deemed to be a mediating factor in the psychological distress exhibited in the medical practitioners who participated in this study. Methods: 120 members of the FFLM (65 females, 54 males and 1 undisclosed) volunteered to complete an online survey. Data was collected using Survey Monkey. Participants filled out the Personal Belief in a Just World Scale and General Belief in a Just World Scale, as well as the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25, the COPE and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Results: A multiple regression with stepwise entry was carried out. Personal belief in a just world, coping strategies and resilience were all identified as having a significant relationship with psychological distress. Conclusions: Although this is only a preliminary study into this phenomenon, findings suggest the personal belief in a just world, coping strategies and resilience are useful predictors of psychological distress amongst forensic medical practitioners. However they did not predict the majority of the variance and as such, so more detailed investigations are needed to identify which other factors are important in order to design interventions and support for members of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine and other forensic medical practitioners

Measurement of the top quark mass using events with a single reconstructed top quark in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

Abstract:A measurement of the top quark mass is performed using a data sample en-riched with single top quark events produced in thetchannel. The study is based on proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1, recorded at√s= 13TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016. Candidate events are selectedby requiring an isolated high-momentum lepton (muon or electron) and exactly two jets,of which one is identified as originating from a bottom quark. Multivariate discriminantsare designed to separate the signal from the background. Optimized thresholds are placedon the discriminant outputs to obtain an event sample with high signal purity. The topquark mass is found to be172.13+0.76−0.77GeV, where the uncertainty includes both the sta-tistical and systematic components, reaching sub-GeV precision for the first time in thisevent topology. The masses of the top quark and antiquark are also determined separatelyusing the lepton charge in the final state, from which the mass ratio and difference aredetermined to be0.9952+0.0079−0.0104and0.83+1.79−1.35GeV, respectively. The results are consistentwithCPTinvariance

Taking stock; a review of the state of forensic psychology as revealed through an analysis of journal articles 2015-20

A total of 3719 articles appearing in five key generalist forensic psychology journals (n = 1374) and six more specialist targeted forensically related journals (n = 2345) between 2015 and 2020 were subject to a bibliometric analysis to reveal trends in research topics, populations studied, jurisdiction, and research methods employed. Research on offenders dominated and over half of all the papers were located in North American jurisdictions. About a third of papers made explicit reference to diversity and two thirds of research designs employed quantitative methodologies. The discussion features comments on changing trends over time from forensic psychology’s initial narrow focus on witness testimony to its current broader remit, and the different coverage between targeted and generalist journals. The conclusion offers some reflections for future forensic psychology

A typology of multiple perpetrator rape

Some consistency in existing typologies of rape has been found, which have extended from lone to multiple perpetrator offenses. The current study sought to explore the facets of multiple-perpetrator rape (MPR) in a sample representative of one geographical area. Seventy-five victim statements of MPR reported to an urban police force in the United Kingdom were classified into a qualitative model denoting offender actions in MPR. Four types from pathways through the model were produced: violence, criminality, intimacy, and sexuality. Analysis of the crime scene variables provided additional evidence of the four types. Finally, the associations between the four types and offense characteristics, such as victim and perpetrator age, were explored. Implications of these findings for the prevention and investigation of MPR are discussed along with suggestions for future research directions

Reconstructing and sequencing behaviours in multiple perpetrator rape

Much of the existing knowledge base of multiple perpetrator rape (MPR) comes from studies undertaken more than 20 years ago, and thus fails to integrate contemporary perspectives on sexual violence. The current study used Grounded Theory methodology to construct a holistic model of MPR from 15 victim accounts. The model of multiple perpetrator rape (MMPR) included both the actions of the perpetrators and the reactions of the victim in a temporal sequence of 13 categories, 9 of which had sub-categories that allowed for individual differences. Broad themes of MPR were then explored using a total of 101 cases. Each case was coded in the 9 sub-categories where individual differences were allowed from the model. An associative analysis of these sub-categories was then performed using Smallest Space Analysis. Two dominant themes were displayed. The Manipulate theme included two perpetrators who offended sequentially and socialised with the victim. The Force theme did not involve any social interaction, as the force and teamwork of the group enabled the victim to be physically overpowered