Indirect Victims of Child Sexual Abuse: Preliminary findings from research on the needs of and support for families of child sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse is a complex and highly emotive subject. This research focuses on what victimologists sometimes called ‘indirect’, tertiary’ or even ‘secondary’, ‘victims’. These people are those non-abusers who are close to the ‘primary’ or ‘direct’ victim/s – the abused child/children. Indirect victims might be parents, carers, guardians, siblings, grandparents or friends. The experiences and needs of these people have rarely been the subject of research; yet the small number of (mostly US-based) studies of families of children subjected to sexual assault point to the profound impacts such offences can have, particularly on mothers. This poster reports on some preliminary findings from my ongoing research on the needs of and support for families of child sexual abuse. Findings derive from discussions with key contacts and from semi-structured interviews with key professional staff working in agencies involved in such cases. It reports in general terms on their perceptions of the ‘ripple effect’ emanating from child sexual abuse. Specifically it reports on their perceptions of who is affected, how people are affected, what their needs are and what services/support is available. Ultimately the research examines the scope and adequacy of extant support structures with a view to minimising risk and reducing harm in families

Feminist Voices, Gender and Victimisation

This chapter commences from a position that accepts the patriarchal nature of western societies, that is, the law, or rule of the father. Such societies will feature male domination in a broad and cultural sense and in institutions such as the legal system where a male standpoint and interests preside. Drawing on this universally accepted feminist position, this chapter explores how gender relates to victimisation. The content is organised around three main headings, feminism and victimhood, sexual crimes and victimisations, and responses to victimisation. Under these themes the chapter applauds the theoretical, policy, practice and research achievements of feminist approaches. It explores how feminist thinking has furthered both our knowledge about serious forms of violent victimisation and gendered theorising of perpetrators and victims of crime. It illustrates the patterns and processes associated with victimisation and highlights how gender matters most in respect of revealing the nature and extent of sexual crimes (Davies 2014). The example of rape is used to illustrate the influences of feminist voices in our understanding of victimisation. This organising framework facilitates a reflexive discussion whereby gender-wise approaches alongside some seemingly intractable feminist conundrums that appear to be impeding feminist theorising particularly in areas of victimisation that affect women and children affected by sexual abuse

Time is of the essence: Social theory of time and its implications for LIS research

Abstract: “Time,” like “information,” is a concept that has received a great deal of attention in some disciplines and is ignored or taken for granted in others. Traditional studies of information seeking have focussed on spatial issues – primarily, locating/ location of sources – to the neglect of temporal issues. This paper proposes that the social constructivist theoretical paradigm recently adopted by LIS researchers demands recognition of social time; that is, not absolute time, but another type of meaning constructed between people through their interactions. Attending to social concepts of time can have important implications for research into organizational and individual information behaviour. Information practices in organizations and work groups within organizations cannot be fully understood without acknowledging the multitude of times that exist within such groups. Studies of workplace information practices focus variously on organizations, project teams, task forces, crews, departments, etc. Each group has a different temporal existence based on its practices. For example, organizations, departments and communities imply longevity as well as duration. We describe a developing study of information practices in a limited-duration work group. Traditional studies of information seeking often consider individuals’ descriptions of their information seeking behaviour as transparent representations of underlying cognitive processes. A constructivist stance permits an analysis of the ways that accounts of information seeking can take discursive action: the ways that such accounts are structured and the ways they may be used to make claims about individuals’ general behaviour or competence, and to prescribe or proscribe certain sets of activities. The concept of “time” may then be used as a discursive resource by individuals in a social interaction. We report findings from a study of the ways that information seekers may use various representations of “time” in justifying certain kinds of information seeking behaviour

Victims, Crime and Society

Organized around the intersecting social divisions of class, race, age and gender, the book provides an engaging and authoritative overview of the nature of victimisation in society. In addition to a review of the major theoretical developments in relation to understanding aspects of victimization in society, individual chapters explore the political and social context of victimisation and the historical, comparative and contemporary research and scholarly work on it

Economy Versus Environment: How Corporate Actors Harm Both

The reshaping of the planet by people is having significant consequences for the environment and for human communities. Even though the degradation is visible and pervasive, much of the harm inflicted by humans remains outside the realm of and is not addressed by our criminal justice systems. Such harms tend not to be criminalized and while they may be regulated, such regulation has not led to the overall preservation of the environment or to non-humans. Furthermore, weak and uneven environmental regulations across the globe often have not led to local communities enjoying the economic prosperity from which corporations have benefited greatly. We will demonstrate this complex relationship between the economy and the environment by revisiting the closure of Rio Tinto Alcan's Lynemouth aluminum plant in North East England. Through a literature review and document analysis, we present the past and current socio-economic and environmental contexts of a deprived community entangled in global efforts to protect and improve the environment. Our research reveals a discourse from corporations promoting their social and environmental responsibility in a community that faces socio-economic marginalization and environmental challenges

Methodological Strategies for Studying Documentary Planning Work.

This paper reports on the pilot testing of data collection strategies for a study of the complex and idiosyncratic document work involved in everyday life planning and time management. We describe two iterations of two data collection strategies, in-depth semi-structured interviews and photography of individual documents and document collections. Cette communication prente un projet pilote de straties de collecte de donns pour l\u27ude du travail documentaire complexe et idiosyncratique nessaire la planification et la gestion du temps au quotidien. Seront prents deux itations de deux straties de collecte de donns : les entrevues en profondeur semi-structurs et la photographie de documents individuels et de collections de documents

Information creation and the ideological code of “keeping track”

Introduction. This paper considers the practices of information creation in personal information management by studying the work of keeping track in everyday life, e.g., creating lists and calendars.Method. We interviewed ten participants from two Canadian provinces about how they keep track and we observed and photographed the physical spaces and the documents they created and used. Our data set consists of fourteen hours of interviews, 330 photographs and 500 pages of interview transcripts.Analysis. We used the qualitative technique of constant comparison within an abductive framework of relational and discourse analysis to study a) how the domestic work of keeping track hooks into the requirements of organizations such as schools and workplaces, and b) how talk about keeping track relates to participants\u27 presentations of themselves as good workers, parents, citizens, etc.Results. The work of keeping track functions in terms of Dorothy Smith\u27s concept of the ideological code. A managerial imperative pervades this work, even in domestic contexts, and participants made use of workplace genres and conventions.Conclusions. Even in households, the work of keeping track is embedded within organizational contexts. Managerialism is produced and reproduced as an ideological code that shapes participants\u27 information creation and their talk about it

Child abuse

Child abuse is one form of the maltreatment of a child or young person under 18 years of age