Contents

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 393

Public protection in youth justice? The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme from the inside
Tom Ellis, Nick Pamment and Chris Lewis

In 2001, the Youth Justice Board of England & Wales introduced the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP). It was quickly hailed as the most robust community-based sanction available for the most serious and persistent young offenders. However, it has been dogged by high reconviction rates. This paper undertakes first a review of the international evidence base for the effectiveness of all types of intensive supervision, before focusing specifically on its effectiveness within youth justice. It then presents our findings from fieldwork (participant observation, interviews and questionnaires) carried out within two Youth Offending Teams, comparing the views of supervisors and the supervised young offenders. The conclusions show that ISSP is not founded on sound evidence. Our own evidence suggests a number of reasons why ISSP does not work, and is not likely to, in its present form. Most importantly, it is clear that ISSP cannot provide the level of public protection claimed with such a severe offending group, and therefore does not aid the realistic promotion of greater use of community sentences. The article makes suggestions for an alternative approach to dealing with serious and persistent offenders in the community, based on the views of the young offenders subject to ISSP and the staff who supervise them.

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 414

The application and use of TASERs by a Midwestern police agency
Gregory J. DeLone and Liddie M. Thompson

Of the some 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, TASERs have been adopted by approximately 7,000 departments. Following on the call of White and Ready (2007) for more research on TASER use by police, this paper investigates the use of TASERs by a medium sized, Midwestern police agency. All TASER deployments by police officers in this Midwestern city are examined for a three-and-a-half-year time period (January 2004¿August 2007). Findings indicate that the TASER was used primarily against physically resistant white male suspects with a history of police contact. The majority of the incidents took place at a private residence or apartment as opposed to a public place of business. The TASER was overwhelmingly effective and, as for officer safety, on the few occasions that an officer was injured, the injury was not related to the TASER.

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 429

Policing police crime: the case of criminals in the Norwegian police
Petter Gottschalk

There seems to be a tendency to consider police crime as a result of bad practice, lack of resources or mismanagement, rather than acts of criminals. However, examples illustrate that criminal acts are intentionally carried out by police officers on duty. For example, a 30-year-old female police officer in Norway used her computer access in the police department to change the addresses of her personal enemies in public systems, which represents a serious kind of document crime. Unauthorised disclosure of confidential information occurred in two out of ten criminal police cases in Norwegian courts in 2007. Police crime does not only occur in countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico and Nigeria. It is common in the UK, USA, Australia and Norway as well ¿ although on a smaller scale. Police crime tends to be discovered when investigating police complaints. Police crime is defined as intentional crime committed by police officers on duty. Policing police crime is defined as enforcing law on potential and actual criminal employees in the police organisation. In days gone by we would have said, ¿Who will watch the watchman?¿, or ¿Who is guarding the guardian?¿ ¿ now we say, ¿Who is policing the police?¿. This paper addresses the following question: what kind of knowledge is needed for policing the police?

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 442

Investigative interviewing of suspected sex offenders: a review of what constitutes best practice
Julianne M. Read, Martine B. Powell, Mark R. Kebbell§ and Rebecca Milne

Research on the topic of investigative interviewing of suspected sex offenders is still in its infancy, with the majority of work to date focusing on developing theories underlying confessions, and reflecting on the value of specific interview techniques that have been observed in the field. This paper provides a synthesis of the literature in order to produce a preliminary guide to best practice for the interviewing of this particular interviewee group. Specifically, this review is structured around five elements that should be considered when planning for and administering the interview. These elements include: (a) establishing rapport, (b) introducing the topic of concern, (c) eliciting narrative detail, (d) clarification/specific questions and (e) closure. The unique contribution of this paper is its practical focus, and its synthesis of findings across a variety of streams, including the general eyewitness memory literature, legislation and case law, therapeutic literature, and research specifically related to the interviewing of offenders (including confessions). At the conclusion of the review, recommendations are offered for further research.

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 460

Does the form of question repetition have an effect on children¿s recall accuracy and consistency?
Sarah J. Krähenbühl and Mark Blades

This study examined what effect different forms of question repetition had on children¿s accuracy and consistency in interviews. One hundred and sixty children aged 4¿5, 6¿7 and 8¿9 were interviewed about an event they had witnessed a week earlier. Each child was asked an initial 16 questions; subsequently each question was repeated twice in a different format. Half of the questions asked were answerable from the information presented in the event and half were unanswerable. Four different forms of repetition were used: verbatim, gist, repetition of a specific question as a closed one and repetition of a closed question as a specific one. Response accuracy and consistency improved with age, but both accuracy and consistency declined with repetition. Overall, one-third of responses to repetitions changed, and accurate responses became inaccurate more often than inaccurate responses became accurate. Verbatim and gist repetitions had the least detrimental effect on the number of accurate responses, and verbatim repetition resulted in the most consistent responses. Repeating questions in any form had detrimental effects on the accuracy and overall consistency of children¿s testimony, but we suggest that, when it is necessary to ask a question more than once, either gist or verbatim repetition should be used.

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 476

Emotional labour in the context of policing in Victoria: a preliminary analysis
David Chapman

Much research has been undertaken and much has been written about the effects of emotional labour in the service and helping industries. While there has been much conjecture as to the definitions of emotional labour, there has been little serious analysis on the effects on police officers of performing emotional labour. On the one hand, the available evidence suggests police officers are among the most stressed employees of all professions, whilst on the other, the limited research on emotional labour and policing makes only tenuous links possible between the performance of emotional labour and high-stress outcomes in policing. This paper reviews emotional labour theory, past studies of employees and the culture within Victoria Police (Australia) and their stress claims data. Further research is required to establish a link between performing emotional labour and the stress of police officers.

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 493

Policing fraud in the private sector: a survey of the FTSE 100 companies in the UK
Graham Brooks, Mark Button and Kwabena Frimpong

Fraud has increasingly become recognised as a problem in the private sector, with a growing number of estimates of the size of the problem produced by official government bodies and private professional services companies such as KPMG. There have, however, been fewer surveys of the strategies being used by the private sector to tackle fraud. This paper presents findings from a survey of the UK's FTSE 100 companies which produced 32 responses and the strategies they are using to counter fraud. It demonstrates a mixed picture of both good and bad practice, when benchmarked against well-recognised standards for tackling fraud, on issues such as having: a strategy; a designated person responsible for fraud; regular risk assessments; preventative measures; investigative resources and effective relationships with the police. It also calls for further research to be conducted on private sector counter fraud strategies.

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IJPSM 11 (2009) 505

An examination of police officers' notes of interviews with alleged child abuse victims
Rita Cauchi and Martine B. Powell

This study provided a critical examination of handwritten records (notes) of interviews contained in a sample of 89 police case files about alleged child abuse. Some of the notes examined related to initial disclosure (complaint) interviews which were not electronically recorded and were meant to be recorded verbatim. Notes of electronically recorded interviews, which merely constituted a convenient summary of the case details, were also examined. Collectively, the analyses focused on the accessibility, completeness and accuracy of the notes, and the degree to which the interviewers¿ questions and witnesses¿ answers were differentiated. In relation to the disclosure interviews, a substantial proportion of these were not accessible. Of those where the notes were obtained, the detail recorded was not a complete record of conversation, and there was often poor delineation of questions and responses. Analysis of the electronically recorded interviews showed that these were not an entirely accurate summary of event details even though the note takers¿ sole task was to document the interview. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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Links to other issues

Volume 4 (2002) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 5 (2003) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 6 (2004) :   1   2   3

Volume 7 (2005) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 8 (2006) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 9 (2007) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 10 (2008) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 11 (2009) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 12 (2010) :   1   2   3

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