Understanding the impact of digital forensic analysts’ experiences of working with online child sexual exploitation and abuse

This thesis has been submitted towards the requirements of the Doctorate in Clinical Forensic Psychology and consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists of a systematic literature review, which included 13 published research studies exploring digital forensic analysts’ experiences of working with online child sexual exploitation and abuse and child sexual exploitation materials. The review has a specific focus on understanding the psychological impact this work can have, and how analysts manage the complex demands of this job. Five themes were identified which reflected the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural changes recognised and experienced from working in this role. The second chapter is an empirical research study which adopted an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach, to explore digital analysts’ personal experiences of working in this role, how they feel it has impacted them, and how they manage this. Seven digital forensic analysts were interviewed. Three group experiential themes were identified which captured the complex challenges faced from working in this role, and its perceived impact on analysts’ wellbeing and relationships. The third, and concluding chapter, contains two press releases which provide an accessible and succinct overview of both the review and empirical research study

Sexual Harassment: A Legal Perspective for Public Administrators

Since the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, there has been a heightened awareness in the U.S. of sexual harassment in the workplace. Recent case law has given men and women more protections against sexual harassment. At the same time, the liability of employers for acts of harassment in the public and private sector has increased. The purpose of this article is to discuss the issue of sexual harassment from a public administrator's viewpoint. Various types of sexual harassment are identified and preventive and remedial measures are provided

Comparing City Policies on Mandatory Drug Testing: A Process Evaluation

Presidential decree and federal legislation have resulted in substantial employee drug testing at all levels of government as well as among private sector contractors. Joining the War on Drugs, many other employers have taken up the practice voluntarily. However we may feel about the arguments for and against testing – whether on the basis of public safety, integrity, access to sensitive information, etc. -- the fact remains that drug testing policies are non-uniform and unevenly applied, and the common testing technologies are unreliable. If we believe as a society that drug testing serves a legitimate public function consistent with our cultural and legal values, then uniform standards and procedures must be developed. If not, we should give greater consideration to alternative measures, such as employee education and assistance

Rejoinder to Keller and Spicer

The article presents the authors' response to a critique of an article that levied several criticisms arguing for stronger links between political science and public administration. In their commentary on our article, Keller and Spicer levied four criticisms arguing for stronger links between political science and public administration. The approaches Keller and Spicer do espouse are not contradictory with viewing government as a system, and, indeed, complement such a view. Nothing inherent in a systems framework contends that administrators cannot take an activist role, as Carl Friedrich (1940), George Frederickson (1971), and John Rohr (1986) argue they should, for arguing that government converts inputs into policy outputs does not necessarily specify the role of public administrators in that conversion. Another old but still useful concept in political science--that of the iron triangle--sees bureaucrats as activist and astutely forming a political coalition with members of key subcommittees in the U.S. Congress as well as relevant interest groups to garner more resources for their agency and its mission

The Impact of Presidential Selection Methods on Executive-Legislative Conflict

This paper used computer simulation to test the effectiveness of nine different presidential selection methods in generating executive-legislative conflict. Interest group ratings from the 101st Congress are used to simulate presidential nominees selected under both partisan and non-partisan methods. Three measures of ideological conflict for liberalism, conservatism, and the average ideological difference of the two are calculated between the simulated presidents and each member of Congress, and then averaged across all members of Congress. Through sensitivity analysis, the current method of selection which sequences partisan primaries in small states first in the process is found to result in the most executive-legislative conflict of all the methods examined. Nonpartisan methods generally result in less conflict than their partisan counterparts, although reductions in conflict may be achieved with the adoption of certain partisan selection options

The Constitution Under Pressure: The Amendment Process

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Managing diversity: does it matter to municipal governments?

This paper seeks to investigate how seriously diversity issues are considered by municipal governments in North Carolina and to identify specific diversity management practices (DMPs) that are adopted more often by municipalities. It also aims to examine whether the adoption levels of DMPs are influenced by demographic and economic factors and the various backgrounds of city managers. Data about adopted DMPs and city managers' backgrounds were collected by surveying all municipalities in North Carolina with populations of at least 5,000 (response rate: 50 percent). An index was constructed to determine the adoption level of DMPs, and the cities were divided into four groups, based on their index scores (i.e. DMP scores). Analysis of variance and correlations were used to test the relationship between a number of factors and the index score. A number of DMPs were identified as being more popular among municipalities that took diversity and its related issues more seriously, and other DMPs as being less popular among cities that did not pay particular attention to diversity. It was also found that the adoption level of DMPs was significantly affected by population size, the heterogeneity of population, urbanization level, and city manager's age. The DMPs that were found suitable for each one of the four groups of cities can be used as a guide when cities in a particular group want to adopt more DMPs to support and encourage diversity at work. According to the findings, cities need to be more proactive in managing diversity by introducing appropriate DMPs when their demographics are changing substantially. This is one of the first studies to identify the more popular DMPs among municipalities with different attention levels toward diversity and its related issues. The study also contributes to the construction of a comprehensive diversity management model that explains how cities respond to changing demographics

The Twenty-Seventh Amendment and Constitutional Change by Stealth

The 27th Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that any adjustment in compensation to legislators could take effect only after a new election was held, was ratified in 1992, some 203 years after it was first proposed. The amendment passed as a reaction of voters to a 1989 proposal by legislators for a increase in their salaries by 51%, from $89,500 to$135,000 per annum. A question as to the constitutionality of an amendment that took more than two centuries to pass is being raised

Political and Socioeconomic Indicators of State Restrictiveness Toward Abortion

We compare the relative impacts of political and socioeconomic factors on state restrictiveness toward abortion during the pre. Roe, pre-Webster and post-Webster time frames. This analysis tests the value of cycle theory, where shifting epochs dominated by liberalism and conservatism enhance the role of political variables in shaping policy formation. It also tests the explanatory value of public opinion theory which holds that bimodal issues which cut across party lines accentuate the role of socioeconomic variables in shaping issue evolution. The results of this analysis lend support to cycle theory and public opinion theory, although public opinion theory receives stronger support. When socioeconomic independent variables are regressed against our dichotomous measures of state restrictiveness toward abortion, they explain more variance than political independent variables. Political variables were more important in the conservative era (1989) than in the liberal era (1972)