The Treatment of Sex Offenders within HM Prison Service: Responding to the Risks and Needs of a Diverse Population

This thesis considers the experiences of both staff and adult male prisoners involved in group-based sex offender treatment in prison, and explores the potentially diverse needs of different groups of prisoners. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten prisoner participants at a single prison, all of whom had completed the Core Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) (Mann & Thornton, 1998) and identified with at least one of three specified minority groups (BME, physically disabled, gay or bisexual). These groups were identified on the basis of current knowledge gaps. A second study involved interviews with fourteen members of staff drawn from different establishments, all of whom had experience of delivering Core SOTP. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith et al., 2009) was selected as an appropriate method of analysis. For prisoners, superordinate themes relating to the therapeutic process, group membership and identity, and group dynamics are reported. For staff, super-ordinate themes relating to power relationships, responding to needs, and managing the group are presented. For each study, data are presented as descriptive, phenomenological accounts alongside substantive verbatim quotes from interviewees. Separate discussion chapters are included for the purposes of engaging in higher order analysis, interpretation, and making relevant links to existing theory. For prisoners, this allows for a more detailed consideration of various narratives of identity, both at an individual and group level. Connections between wider experiences of prison, and diversity issues in the context of treatment are highlighted. For staff, identity is also discussed, but framed in terms of interactions with prisoners, other staff and feelings of professional competence. The exploratory investigation of data from two small samples allows for a rich and detailed analysis of complex and under-researched issues. A consideration of both studies in tandem also makes it possible to engage in a process of triangulation, revealing commonalities and contrasts in the ways in which both groups experienced related phenomena. In conclusion, recommendations for both further research and practice are considered

Sustaining Economic Development by Reforming Basic Institutions through Community Participation

It is universally accepted and advocated that without community involvement and participation, development initiatives either in the economic or social sector, have little chances of success/sustainability, especially at the grassroots level, where the majority of the country’s population lives [AKRSP (1984, 1999); FAO (1989); Khan et al. (1984) and Mustafa (1998)]. In this connection the concept and approaches of community development have been tested in Northern Areas of Pakistan and the principles and experiences have been replicated in some other parts of the country by Non Government Organisations (NGOs), different national and international government projects and programmes [Mustafa and Grunewald (1996); NRMP (1993) and NRSP (1995)]. The need for conceptualising a realistic framework for collaboration between government/other development agencies and community organisations engaged in pursuit of both social and economic goals is imperative for an equitable and sustainable development because when it comes to community involvement, the two sectors cannot be divorced from each other [Khan (1999) and Reid and Khan (1996)]. The objectives of the paper are: to highlight the need and the importance of grassroots non-government institutions based on participatory community development approaches; to analyse the role of community participation models in the country and to recommend strategies for an effective linkage between grassroots non-government organisations and basic-services-driven government institutes for effective and sustainable development; also to review and recommend primitive structural changes in basic institutions as development partners.

Time Crystals from Minimum Time Uncertainty

Motivated by the Generalized Uncertainty Principle, covariance, and a minimum measurable time, we propose a deformation of the Heisenberg algebra and show that this leads to corrections to all quantum mechanical systems. We also demonstrate that such a deformation implies a discrete spectrum for time. In other words, time behaves like a crystal. As an application of our formalism, we analyze the effect of such a deformation on the rate of spontaneous emission in a hydrogen atom.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Remnants of Black Rings from Gravity's Rainbow

In this paper, we investigate a spinning black ring and a charged black ring in the context of gravity's rainbow. By incorporating rainbow functions proposed by Amelino-Camelia, et al. in [arXiv:hep-th/9605211, arXiv:0806.0339v2] in the metric of the black rings, a considerable modification happens to their thermodynamical properties. We calculate corrections to the temperature, entropy and heat capacity of the black rings. These calculations demonstrate that the behavior of Hawking radiation changes considerably near the Planck scale in gravity's rainbow, where it is shown that black rings do not evaporate completely and a remnant is left as the black rings evaporate down to Planck scale.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Remnant for all Black Objects due to Gravity's Rainbow

We argue that a remnant is formed for all black objects in gravity's rainbow. This will be based on the observation that a remnant depends critically on the structure of the rainbow functions, and this dependence is a model independent phenomena. We thus propose general relations for the modified temperature and entropy of all black objects in gravity's rainbow. We explicitly check this to be the case for Kerr, Kerr-Newman-dS, charged-AdS, and higher dimensional Kerr-AdS black holes. We also try to argue that a remnant should form for black Saturn in gravity's rainbow. This work extends our previous results on remnants of Schwarzschild black holes [ arXiv:1402.5320] and black rings [arXiv:1409.5745].Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, Accepted in Nucl.Phys.

A survey on the possibility of utilizing γH2AX as a biodosimeter in radiation workers

Introduction DNA damage is among the main consequences of radiation. Of many different classes of DNA damage, double-strand breaks are the most deleterious. Development of a sensitive biodosimetry method, which utilizes a detection material with a similar construction to the body, seems essential for monitoring radiation workers. In this study, histone H2AX protein was examined as a potential biodosimeter in radiation workers. Moreover, the presence of this protein after in vitro irradiation of blood samples was assessed simultaneously. Materials and Methods Blood samples from 46 radiation workers were analyzed in Golestan province, Iran. Meanwhile, two groups of blood samples (five blood samples in each group) were irradiated in vitro by doses of 1 to 0.2 Gy and 0.09 to 0.01 Gy from a 60Co source, respectively. γH2AX level in lymphocytes was measured, using Western blot technique. ANOVA and Tukey's tests were performed, using SPSS version 16. The significance level was considered to be 0.05. Results The results of Western blotting for the identification of γH2AX protein in radiation workers were negative. However, γH2AX level in lymphocytes of two in vitro irradiated groups showed a significant correlation with the radiation dose (P<0.0001). Conclusion The results showed that γH2AX was a good indicator for acute or local exposure to ionizing radiation, while in chronically exposed individuals, including radiation workers, this protein was useless at least in autoradiography detection method. Regarding the presence of γH2AX protein in blood samples, which were irradiated in vitro at low doses, it can be concluded that this protein has powerful repair mechanisms