Kathy Ellem

Police Contact with Young People with Cognitive Disabilities: Perceptions of Procedural (In)justice:

The interactions of police with young people with cognitive disabilities (YPWCD) have seldom been considered in research, even though this group is over-represented in the criminal justice system. This article presents the results of a qualitative study into YPWCD’s experiences with police in Queensland, Australia. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with service providers who work with YPWCD and YPWCD themselves. The procedural justice perspective was used as an analytic framework to provide an insight into YPWCD’s relationships with the police. Findings point to ways in which police can better respond to YPWCD in procedurally just ways, as well as to the role that family and service providers might play in supporting this outcome.

Young people with cognitive disabilities and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system: service provider perspectives on policing

Abstract Young people with cognitive disabilities (YPWCD) are overrepresented as offenders in the criminal justice system. However, most existing research on this topic examines overrepresentation in courts and corrections rather than at the police gatekeeping stage of the criminal justice process. Furthermore, while the views of other groups have been documented, the perspectives of service providers – who often bear witness to YPWCD’s interactions with police – have yet to be examined. This research addresses this gap by analysing qualitative interviews with service providers from Queensland, Australia, using the three most common theoretical explanations for the overrepresentation of PWCD (the susceptibility, differential treatment and psychosocial disadvantage theses) as an analytic framework. A number of implications emerged from the study. There is a need to take a critical and intersectional lens to YPWCD’s experiences, as well as to equip police to work with YPWCD to de-escalate interactions with this group.

Choosing the harder road: Naming the challenges for families in person-centred planning:

Person-centred planning (PCP) has underpinned disability service provision in many Western countries for the past 30 years. For many people with an intellectual disability, family members are central to this process and are important allies in facilitating positive change. This article presents findings from an evaluation of a family resourcing and capacity building project in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Accounts from families show the merits of such work, but family efforts can be undermined by apathy and discrimination to disability from extended family, community and service providers. Asking families to be the primary support in PCP initiatives may potentially ignore the impacts of structural and psycho-emotional disablism on all family members. For families to support people with intellectual disability in PCP, there is a need to acknowledge and respond to the material, cultural and personal challenges for all family members in planning processes.

Supporting young people with an intellectual disability transitioning from out-of-home care to adult life in Queensland, Australia

Young people with mild or borderline intellectual disability exiting out-of-home care (OHC) are a vulnerable group. Experiences of intellectual disability; abuse and neglect; and OHC present significant challenges for their transition to adult life. Many experience poor outcomes; gaps in life skills; and few supportive relationships. Many are reliant on services, but face barriers to effective support in mainstream services unresponsive to intellectual disability; and adult disability services lacking knowledge of trauma and OHC experiences.

Doing Qualitative Research in Social Work

research”, D’Cruz and Jones usefully include material associated with a number of central areas. These include: formulating research questions; responding to the literature and reading research critically; determining research methodology and methods; generating data; making sense of data analysis; and reporting and disseminating research. This practical emphasis fully supports their goal of making research and researching central to social work practice. Overall this book serves to both theoretically underpin social work researching and provide an informative guide to the process of emancipatory researching. It is accessible and thought provoking and, although it does not seek to address the divide between positivist and emancipatory paradigms, it draws attention to the necessity of social work practitioners engaging in research and provides key pointers in terms of how to go about doing this. As a result, this second edition is one that will effectively serve new generations of social work students and social work practitioners.