Parent abuse: Can law be the answer?

© Cambridge University Press 2012This article reviews the different forms of legal interventions which may be available to address parent abuse. It seeks to examine the evidence as to which are actually used currently and the problems which are inherent in them. We do this both by examining the statutory basis of the existing potential legal remedies and reported cases relating to those provisions, and by drawing on evidence from a small-scale study of relevant professional workers in one city. We conclude that while recourse to the police, and hence potentially the criminal justice system, is most frequent in practice, the criminal justice system is not suited to tackling the issue. Other interventions, such as anti-social behaviour orders and injunctions, also reveal problems. Law struggles to find an effective response to such a complex problem. Notwithstanding the acknowledged limits of law in changing behaviour, we argue that law could be used more effectively to reduce the incidence and impact of parent abuse

Parents, children and the porous boundaries of the sexual family in law and popular culture

This article focuses on a perceived ideological overlap between popular cultural and judicial treatments of sex and conjugality that contributes to a discursive construction of parenthood and parenting. The author perceives that in both legal and popular cultural texts, there is a sense in which notions of ‘natural’ childhood are discursively constituted as being put at risk by those who reproduce outside of dominant sexual norms, and that signs of normative sexuality (typically in the form of heterosexual coupling) may be treated as a sign of safety. These ideas are rooted in ancient associations between fertility, sexuality and femininity that can also be traced in the historical development of the English language. With the help of commentators such as Martha Fineman, the article situates parents and children within a discourse of family which prioritises conjugality, with consequences for the ways in which the internal and external boundaries of families are delineated

Challenging homophobic bullying in schools: the politics of progress

In recent years homophobic bullying has received increased attention from NGOs, academics and government sources and concern about the issue crosses traditional moral and political divisions. This article examines this ‘progressive’ development and identifies the ‘conditions of possibility’ that have enabled the issue to become a harm that can be spoken of. In doing so it questions whether the readiness to speak about the issue represents the opposite to prohibitions on speech (such as the notorious Section 28) or whether it is based on more subtle forms of governance. It argues that homophobic bullying is heard through three key discourses (‘child abuse’, ‘the child victim’ and ‘the tragic gay’) and that, while enabling an acknowledgement of certain harms, they simultaneously silence other needs and experiences. It then moves to explore the aspirational and ‘liberatory’ political investments that underlie these seemingly ‘common-sense’ descriptive discourses and concludes with a critique of the quasi-criminal responses that the dominant political agenda of homophobic bullying gives rise to. The article draws on, and endeavours to develop a conversation between, critical engagements with the contemporary politics of both childhood and sexuality

Who are these youths? Language in the service of policy

In the 1990s policy relating to children and young people who offend developed as a result of the interplay of political imperatives and populist demands. The ‘responsibilisation’ of young offenders and the ‘no excuses’ culture of youth justice have been ‘marketed’ through a discourse which evidences linguistic changes. This article focuses on one particular area of policy change, that relating to the prosecutorial decision, to show how particular images of children were both reflected and constructed through a changing selection of words to describe the non-adult suspect and offender. In such minutiae of discourse can be found not only the signifiers of public attitudinal and policy change but also the means by which undesirable policy developments can be challenged

Learning to use data analytics to manage an outsourced public service : a case study of organizational learning

Public service outsourcing has been a decades-long practice of governments intent on downsizing and leveraging private enterprise to realize market efficiencies. The practice has delivered challenges for public managers, a key one being detecting and managing opportunism, service provider advantage-seeking behaviour. Outsourcing challenges may be met with the emerging potential of data analytics, but to realize the potential, an organization is faced with learning how to use data, analysis and scientific methods so that an orientation for evidence based management becomes an organizational norm. In this thesis the literature from outsourced service management, the phenomenon of opportunism, data analytics and organizational learning is examined to synthesize significant findings and validate exploring the research question: When data analytics is introduced to manage opportunism and accountability for an outsourced public service, in what ways does the organization learn to use data and analytical methods for performance management? The research was designed using the foundational tenets of qualitative research, involving participants in an action research case study. Through prolonged, longitudinal engagement the case delivered the experience of a learning journey using the interview as purposeful conversation. The research was designed in three phases to implement technology and processes for data analytics in a public registry service outsourced to a network of providers, then support the organization to develop familiarity with using analytics, and finally evaluate the learning journey. This study shows that pressure from authoritative sources in the government and enthusiasm for the public service value of accountability led to accelerated learning to work in new ways with data and analytics to manage service provider performance. But the outsourced environment, and more particularly the business environment played critical roles to limit learning and shift the focus from new ways of working to exploiting existing ways and to mire the perceived problems of the organization as top-of-mind for many. This study underscores how complex and fraught with barriers a learning journey is and supplies lessons on organizational learning for academics and practitioners. The study adds depth and nuance to the value of the learning lens, where learning was an outcome from a study of learning

Ideology and rhetoric in the classical Hollywood movie trailer

Auteurist criticism is among the most enduring methods of film scholarship, and many significant directors including Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford have been exalted, by audiences and academics alike, to the prestigious status of auteur. This thesis aims to investigate how the trailers for their films functioned, in an industry that continually navigates the territory between art and commerce. Rooted in preceding research on advertising in both film and print, this thesis investigates the development of the trailer form as a parallel text, or paratext, intended to shape audiences' conceptions about the feature film, and the experience of cinema in general. Rhetorical methods of appealing to consumers were honed in print publications beginning in the late 19 th Century, and particularly, in their advertising. These methods crossed over into the trailer, functioning to draw spectators into theatres based on conceptions that the Hollywood industry held of their potential audiences. The textual analysis of Hitchcock's and Ford's classical-era trailers offers insights into those industry conceptions, and affords an opportunity to trace how visual marketing techniques have carried into the present context of media-saturated culture. This thesis reveals how Hollywood appealed to spectators' assumed desires for quality and prestige through film, and how both Hitchcock and Ford were positioned as exemplary auteurs. It also offers a glimpse of how capitalist ideology was served through the promotion of specific narratives and thematic tropes in classical American cinem

Introduction: Twenty-Five Years of Social & Legal Studies

This short article introduces the five review articles, which make up this special issue to mark the 25th anniversary of Social &amp; Legal Studies. </jats:p