With the numbers of women imprisoned increasing across Western jurisdictions over the last 15 or so years, so too have the numbers of women returning to the community following a period in custody. Despite increasing policy attention
There is a large body of research which suggests that support, rehabilitation and supervision programs can help offenders to reduce recidivism. The effectiveness of services is, however, dependent on the extent to which the workers who deliver them comply with "what works" principles and practices. Most of this research has been conducted with men and this study examines the extent to which these principles and practices apply to women. The study focuses on services offered to a group of women in prison in Victoria and following their release to the community. It examines the relationship between the women"s views about the services, recidivism and characteristics of services. The results are generally consistent with earlier research.They favour services which are delivered by workers who are reliable, holistic, collaborative, understand the women"s perspective and focus on strengths. They do not support services which challenge the women, focus on their offences or things they do badly.
Child abuse allegations in the context of parental separation and divorce have long been seen as merely weapons fashioned by angry and vindictive parents involved in separation and divorce wars. They have been disregarded on the basis that they were unlikely to be real.However recent research from Australia and overseas has shown that this picture is not true. Child abuse in this context is real and it is serious. Moreover the research has shown that the socio-legal system does not serve children caught in this situation at all well.The Magellan program, a world first experimental program to overcome the problems for these children and their families as they progress through the socio-legal system, was introduced by a consortium of agencies in Victoria recently. This article reports on the program and its outcomes, and considers implications of some of the components of the new program for the various professionals working with this issue.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.