Background This report describes a group intervention for men with an intellectual disability who have sexually offended or abused others. The group was in response to referrals to a psychology department. The majority of these individuals had not been subject to legal proceedings. Methods A number of assessments were conducted prior to the group, immediately after the group and at 3-and 6-month follow-up. Results Attitudes consistent with offending reduced after participation for most participants, however, these tended to revert to pre-group levels over time. Locus of control became more external after the group treatment, this was contrary to expectations and results obtained with interventions for individuals without an intellectual disability. Knowledge tended to increase after the group, however, problems with the questionnaire used made interpretation of the results difficult. No further incidents of sexual abuse have been recorded by any of the five group members who completed the group, since the start of the group (a period of 1 year to date). Conclusions This group should be seen as a pilot project. However, further therapeutic work is indicated as is theoretical and questionnaire development.

PurposeCitizens' opinions of the police are important indicators of how well the police are performing their duties and can help to shape police practice as well as public policy. However, little research exists in Canada on people's opinions of the police. This paper aims to provide a more robust understanding of citizen attitudes toward the police in Canada by examining a variety of factors that have been deemed important in shaping people's attitudes in other countries (predominantly from research conducted in the USA).Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilizes path analysis to decompose and better understand the relationships between sociodemographic/non‐sociodemographic variables and attitudes toward the police. Data were drawn from the 1999 General Social Survey conducted by Statistics Canada. A random sample of Canadians was surveyed regarding victimization, personal safety and attitudes toward the criminal justice system.FindingsSeveral distinct groups of people (i.e. young people, visible minorities, males, those who have experienced criminal victimization, those dissatisfied with their safety and those who perceive their neighborhoods as being high in crime) emerged as having negative views toward the police, which is consistent with much of the research conducted in the USA.Originality/valuePolice practice should more closely resemble the principles inherent in community policing if certain groups' negative views of the police are to be improved. This can be partly accomplished by the police being more inclusive of diverse opinions in the community and actively seeking out this opinion in order to better inform policing practices and strategies.

Studies of social media's impact on policing have emerged in several disciplines, including criminology, sociology, and communications. Despite their insight, there is no unified body of knowledge regarding this relationship. In an attempt to synthesize extant work, bring coherence to the field, and orient future scholarship, this article summarizes research on social media's implications for practices and perceptions of order maintenance. It does so by identifying how social media's technical affordances empower and constrain police services. By offering new opportunities for surveillance, risk communication, and impression management, emergent technologies augment the police's control of their public visibility and that of the social world. However, they also provide unprecedented capacities to monitor the police and expose, circulate, and mobilize around perceived injustice, whether brutality, racial profiling, or other forms of indiscretion. Considering these issues promises to enhance knowledge on contemporary directions in social control, organizational communication, inequality, and collective action. Suggestions for future research are also explored.

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