An exploration into the acceptance of male rape myths within the UK

Rape is worldwide issue with no demographic constraint, and previous studies have explored how rape myths serve to justify sexual violence against women at the hands of men. However, this study aims to bridge the gap in the literature that fails to account for rape myths that do not follow the traditional script. 65 UK university students completed measures of rape myth acceptance and ambivalent sexism to investigate the factors associated with supporting rape myths. A multiple regression indicated that the acceptance of female rape myths predicted the acceptance of male rape myths. However, the factors involved in facilitating this acceptance differed between the genders. The findings are discussed in relation to the implications and conclude by offering directions for future research. Whilst the study is limited in some areas, such as the generalisation of findings, and the photonegative scales, it offers an interesting insight into understanding male rape myths and the factors that contribute to these attitudes within the UK

Deconstructing the personal narrative through offending behaviour and interpersonal style

Conference presentation at The Annual Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL) (2012

The evaluation of a summer youth scheme for children with disabilities: a brief report on the findings from an evaluation of the Special Needs Advisoryand Activities Project (SNAAP)

Questionnaires were distributed to 7 parents who had children involved in the SNAAP summer youth scheme, along with 7 staff members. Interviews were also carried out with 11 children accessing the SNAAP service. All questionnaires and interviews were developed to provide a detailed evaluation of the SNAAP summer youth scheme. The questionnaires distributed to both parents and staff evaluated the progression of the children and their overall satisfaction with the scheme. The interviews carried out on the children focused on their overall perceptions and satisfaction with SNAAP’s summer youth scheme. The overall aim of the study was to evaluate SNAAP’s existing summer youth scheme and identify any needs or areas of development for the future

Dogs in the criminal justice system: consideration of facility and therapy dogs

It is known that the criminal justice process is most often perceived as a negative experience by victims, witnesses, as well as defendants. Whilst measures have been put into place across the globe to improve their experiences, there is still much more which needs to be done, especially as the process can involve secondary victimisation of those participating in it and prolonged trauma. The current opinion piece centres on the use of trained dogs to help the experiences of criminal justice system users during active cases. Whilst this practice is mostly used in North America, hints at bringing varying types of dogs into the criminal justice system are visible elsewhere, too. With the criminal justice users in mind, it is key to establish, from the offset, the positives of such service, but also be very aware of its limitations and challenges, in order for the service delivering what it aims without causing a disruption to the criminal justice process or its users. This piece provides a theoretical and practical analysis of topics surrounding the use of specially trained dogs to support criminal justice system users with the view of highlighting our lack of knowledge on the topic and practical challenges of this service

Specially trained dogs in the UK criminal justice system

For over 20 years specially trained dogs have been used to help support witnesses throughout the criminal justice system in North America. Whilst anecdotal evidence has found these practices to be highly successful in comforting witnesses, to date, there has been no empirical research to support this evidence. Furthermore, this type of service has yet to be explored within a UK context. Recently however, researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) have been working to explore these benefits and provide the first global evaluation within the area. The current article explores the benefits of using specially trained dogs in the criminal justice system, along with introducing readers to the current research agenda being carried out, and highlighting some of the preliminary results from the research. Overall, building this type of evidence base could further open up these practices to a number of countries, including the UK

Helping criminal justice system users: utilising specially trained dogs

It has been shown that dogs can have numerous beneficial effects on individuals, for example, being able to alleviate stress (Aydin, et al., 2012). Countries such as USA, Portugal and Canada, have expanded such use of dogs and use specially trained courthouse dogs to accompany witnesses whilst testifying but also, for example, during medical examinations (Sandoval, 2012). Recently, in England and Wales, specially trained dogs have been introduced into the Criminal Justice System. However, there is currently no evidence evaluating such initiatives worldwide and most information on the effects a specially trained dog can have on individuals is anecdotal. The aim of this talk is to present current knowledge on using specially trained dogs within the Criminal Justice System. It is also to provide preliminary results from a selection of our studies exploring the use of specially trained dogs as viewed by the public and as viewed by court users who were offered this service. Preliminary results show benefits of using specially trained dogs within the Criminal Justice System when approached with care and when dog is appropriate/appropriately trained