Using the interpersonal reactivity index to assess empathy in violent offenders

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), developed by Davis (1980), provides an excellent multidimensional measure of empathy for the general adult population, the domain for which it was developed. Its use has subsequently expanded into other areas, for example criminal psychology. In this domain empathy is a critical variable in theoretical accounts of criminality and particularly of violence. For many researchers within the field of criminal psychology, the IRI has become the instrument of choice for the assessment of empathy. However, the psychometric properties of the scale, when used with a criminal population, have not been investigated. This paper reports the results of an investigation into the reliability and component structure of the IRI using a sample of violent offenders. The Personal Distress subscale was found not to be reliable when used in an offender population. Furthermore, when used to assess offenders, principle components analysis did not confirm the four-subscale structure of the IRI. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed in relation to offender assessment in general

Restored saltmarshes lack the topographic diversity found in natural habitat

Saltmarshes can be created to compensate for lost habitat by a process known as managed realignment (MR), where sea defences are deliberately breached to flood low-lying agricultural land. However, the vegetation that develops on MR sites is not equivalent to natural habitat. In natural sites, surface topography and creek networks are drivers of vegetation diversity, but their development on restored sites has not been well studied. We investigate the topographic characteristics of 19 MR areas, and compare these to nearby natural saltmarshes (representing desired conditions) and to coastal agricultural landscapes (representing conditions prior to MR). From high-resolution LiDAR data, we extracted values of elevation, six measures of surface topography (although two were later excluded due to collinearity), and three measures of creek density. MR and natural marshes differed significantly in all surface topographic indices, with MR sites having lower rugosity and more concave features, with greater potential for water accumulation. MR sites also had significantly lower creek density. MRs and coastal agricultural landscapes were more similar, differing in only one topographic measure. Importantly, there was no relationship between age since restoration and any of the topographic variables, indicating that restored sites are not on a trajectory to become topographically similar to natural marshes. MR schemes need to consider actively constructing topographic heterogeneity; better mirroring natural sites in this way is likely to benefit the development of saltmarsh vegetation, and will also have implications for a range of ecosystem functions

Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective

This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through on-line media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focussed on process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come

Child Maltreatment

The recognition of child maltreatment arguably began with the unusual case of Mary Ellen in 1874. When a New York parishioner went to visit a dying woman, the woman told about a child's screams for help that she could hear from another apartment. After some persuasion, the parishioner agreed to find help for the child. The police, local pastor, charitable agencies and the District Attorney all turned the parishioner away since the view at the time was that no one had the right to interfere in the private sphere of the family. It was not until the parishioner approached the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), that help was forthcoming. The parishioner managed to convince the ASPCA that children should be afforded the same protections as animals. Subsequently, the ASPCA conducted an investigation of the treatment of Mary Ellen, uncovering evidence of both physical and emotional abuse as well as neglect. Mary Ellen was eventually removed from her foster parents and placed in the care of the helpful parishioner

Dionysius's brutal sense of entitlement: Plato's contribution to criminogenic needs

Criminogenic needs are now well established in the fields of psychology and criminology as factors that identify risk of criminal behaviour and recidivism. We propose that an inflated sense of entitlement may also be identified as a criminogenic need. An examination of the literature revealed an extensive variety of descriptions pertaining to an inflated sense of entitlement from character excesses to character deficits. However, whilst the wide variety of notions may be correct, there has been no mention, nor acknowledgement, of the origin of the concept of a sense of entitlement. In this article we will illustrate how an inflated sense of entitlement underpins criminal behaviour in general and violent behaviour in particular by using the framework proposed by Plato. An inflated sense of entitlement is then is discussed in response to each of the criteria required to be classified as a criminogenic need. This notion is purely theoretical and will benefit from qualitative exploration and quantitative investigation

Ethnicity, attributions for offending behaviour, and judgements of responsibility and severity of sentence

An attribution model was used to explore whether a male offender’s ethnicity impacted on how responsible he was judged to be for his offending behaviour in a sample drawn from the Perth metropolitan community in Western Australia and how severe the imposed sentence was perceived to be. While an offender’s ethnicity had no direct effect on judgements of responsibility and sentence severity, the causal factors for an offence were attributed as more stable when the offender was identified as an Indigenous Australian. Responsibility was predicted by attributions of controllability for both Anglo-Australian and Indigenous offenders, and locus of control for Indigenous offenders only. Severity of sentence was predicted by locus of control for both Anglo-Australian and Indigenous offenders; stability for Indigenous offenders; and being male and responding to a violent offence for Anglo-Australian offenders. A number of theoretical and practical implications arising from these findings are discussed

Attitudes toward Indigenous Australians: The role of empathy and guilt

Previous research in Perth, Western Australia, finds a disturbing amount of prejudice against Indigenous Australians. At the forefront of much prejudice research has been the distinction between old-fashioned and modern prejudice. We constructed an Attitude Toward Indigenous Australians scale from items originating from qualitative data. We found that negative attitudes were predicted by collective guilt about past and present wrongs to Indigenous Australians (collective guilt directly linked to Indigenous issues, as well as collective guilt generally). Negative attitudes were also predicted by a lack of empathy for Indigenous Australians, and affective perspective taking generally. Socio-demographics (e.g. a lack of education) predicted negative attitudes, which indicate the necessity of taking both social-psychological and socio-demographic factors into account when examining the nature of prejudice. A number of practical implications arise from these findings

Restoration or renovation? Evaluating restorative justice outcomes

Critics of restorative justice claim that its popularity is based on 'humanistic sentiment' and suggest that the process is incapable of achieving its aim of restoring victims and offenders. The current study sought to establish if restorative justice is capable of restoring victims and offenders in a meaningful manner, or if the process simply results in a superficial renovation of the impact of crime. Seventy-two victims and offenders participated in a community group conference model of restorative justice and were compared on outcome variables with a control group of victims and offenders who underwent a conventional court process. Results demonstrate that the process is capable of impacting upon variables associated with the criminal act. Furthermore, it is argued that a reduction in offending behaviour and victimisation impact are realistic outcomes of the restorative justice processes. Finally, regression analysis indicated that victims were satisfied with the restorative justice process as a result of their greater participation rather than their satisfaction with reparation or restitution

Jaimie P. Beven, Guy Hall, Irene Froyland, Brian Steels and Dorothy Goulding (2005), 'Restoration or Renovation? Evaluating Restorative Justice Outcomes', Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 12, pp. 194-206.

Critics of restorative justice claim that its popularity is based on 'humanistic sentiment' and suggest that the process is incapable of achieving its aim of restoring victims and offenders. The current study sought to establish if restorative justice is capable of restoring victims and offenders in a meaningful manner, or if the process simply results in a superficial renovation of the impact of crime. Seventy-two victims and offenders participated in a community group conference model of restorative justice and were compared on outcome variables with a control group of victims and offenders who underwent a conventional court process. Results demonstrate that the process is capable of impacting upon variables associated with the criminal act. Furthenmore, it is argued that a reduction in offending behaviour and victimisation impact are realistic outcomes of the restorative justice processes. Finally, regression analysis indicated that victims were satisfied with the restorative justice process as a resutt oftheir greater participation rather than their satisfaction with reparation or restitution