Showing posts with label Vested Interests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vested Interests. Show all posts

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

When Careless And Unlucky, Hurting, Parents, Via Extreme Offenders, Challenge Already Bad Law

Very rarely, and very unfortunately, in a world of erring human beings, there is a coincidence of a number of circumstances, which leads to a terrible tragedy.

Sarah Payne, James Bulger, Madeleine McCann, April Jones etc, the list is relatively short, but very real. This is where parental responsibility has been lacking, even dangerously-lacking, but, paths have been crossed, with men in extreme mental states (usually), bent on carrying out unacceptable and, ultimately, devastating acts.

With these incredibly rare cases, comes the backlash, regret, grinding consciences, self and group recriminations, ill-informed, spineless and votemongering political populism, knee-jerk reactions and the dangerous input, of those with financial and other vested interests.

At these times, bad laws are created and regressed.

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April's Law Official @AprilsLawUK https://twitter.com/AprilsLawUK

April Jones Armyღ @AprilJonesArmy https://twitter.com/apriljonesarmy

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialAprilsLawUK

https://www.facebook.com/PrincessAprilJones

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Ah, the Daily Mail gets it so correct, and yet ...


Published: 00:21, 14 March 2017 | Updated: 08:15, 14 March 2017

'Their victims don't get a second chance': Fury as April Jones’s family are told their bid to keep sex offenders registered for life would breach the perverts' human right."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4310934/No-lifelong-sex-offenders-register-April-Jones-mum-told.html

14 MAR 2017

April Jones’s family bid to keep sex offenders on register for life - but Home Office says it would breach their human rights 

"Five-year-old April was snatched from outside her home in Machynlleth by Mark Bridger, who was sentenced to a whole life term for her abduction and murder."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/april-joness-family-bid-keep-10023283

We are not sure why the campaigners are surprised, we told them many times.

 


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13 March 2017

April Jones: Family's campaign debated in Parliament

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-39232812


http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/aprils-law-petition-calling-tougher-12736570 

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/717460/family-of-murdered-schoolgirl-april-jones-want-sex-offenders-on-the-register-for-life (video)

http://www.itv.com/news/2017-03-13/aprils-law-put-sex-offenders-on-the-register-for-life (video)

(N.B. Ms Coral Jones, and her youthful daughter, Jazmin, talking absolute and dangerous rubbish, about the issues, in the videos (Piers egging them on, with passive glee). The 'April's Law' campaign, is replete with such ignorance, emotive claptrap and downright idiocy; of course, in Westminster Hall, yesterday, the politicians applauded them - so it goes).

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http://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/f719ed61-5c41-423d-9217-b47257e79c57

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-03-13/debates/9CEF2396-BFAF-40BB-AC79-7E5087011744/ChildAbuseOffences(Sentencing)

 

They can and always do






(Embedded Tweets, click date)

Note the quaint and laughable usage of the term 'Debate'.

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http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/politics/2017/01/31/aprils-law-parliament-will-debate-petition-after-it-reaches-100000-signatures-overnight

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2017-02-13/campaign-for-aprils-law-gets-over-100-000-signatures

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/31/petition-for-aprils-law-to-get-tougher-sentences-for-sex-offenders-passes-target-6417781

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2756372/petition-in-memory-of-murdered-schoolgirl-april-jones-calling-for-tougher-laws-for-sex-offenders-is-set-to-be-debated-in-parliament

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/mps-think-punishments-sex-offenders-12729403

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 http://www.aprilstrust.org.uk

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https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166711

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Red herrings and empires ...

14 MAR 2017

Internet companies should do more to stop images of child abuse being posted online Newcastle MP 

"Catherine McKinnell said 'we can't be complacent' and should do more to protect kids."

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/internet-companies-should-more-stop-12736752 

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/politics/2017/03/13/aprils-law-sex-offenders-must-be-strictly-checked-says-mp

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/family-murdered-april-jones-hit-12546833

http://www.aol.co.uk/news/2017/03/01/april-joness-mother-hits-out-at-senior-police-officers-paedoph

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http://www.itv.com/news/2017-02-22/sister-of-murdered-schoolgirl-april-jones-reveals-killer-also-targeted-her

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Thursday 22 April 2010 09.19 BST

Sex offenders win appeal against indefinite inclusion on register

"Supreme court backs case of two sex offenders who claim being on register for life without review breaches their human rights."

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/apr/21/sex-offenders-register-life-appeal

R (on the application of F (by his litigation friend F)) and another (FC) (Respondents) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Appellant)

https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2009-0144.html

https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2009-0144-press-summary.pdf

http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2010/17.html 

http://old.gcnchambers.co.uk/news/supreme_court_upholds_sex_offenders_register_appeal 

26/7/2012


http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2012-06-27&number=29&display=allpossible

http://legislation.data.gov.uk/ukdsi/2012/9780111521403/data.htm?wrap=true

5 March 2012

Tightening the law on sex offenders

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tightening-the-law-on-sex-offenders

30 July 2012 

Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) Order 2012 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sexual-offences-act-2003-remedial-order-2012

Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) Order 2012 
 
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1883/contents/made

Sexual Offences Act 2003: Review of indefinite notification requirements

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/88A

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More to follow.

Thursday, 2 February 2017

In Memory, Of A Noble, Great And Loved Man

(Embedded Tweet - click date)

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Many Are Now Glowing




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September 2016

To catch a sex offender: the making of a new genre of miscarriage of justice

"On 16 October 2002, Claire Curtis-Thomas succeeded in holding a Commons debate to discuss the committee report, in which the Conservative shadow attorney-general, Edward Garnier QC, acknowledged the risks of miscarriages of justice, citing the cases of two of his own constituents. It appeared that the dangers of false convictions were beginning to be recognised by both main parties."

http://thejusticegap.com/2016/09/catch-sex-offender-part-one

To catch a sex offender: Institutional amnesia 

"Finally, in the autumn of 2012, Greenwood advised his clients to stop cooperating with Operation Reno, the criminal inquiry which he had himself triggered. The immediate result was that 53 separate police case files, which had been close to completion, had to be withdrawn from consideration by the CPS. More than 20 full-time CID officers had been working for years on inquiries that had now proven futile. The cost, needless to say, was immense.

Yet this was not the end of Operation Reno. Indeed, in the wake of the documentary that claimed to expose Jimmy Savile as a serial paedophile, as the issue of historic abuse began to occupy ever more news airtime and space in newspapers, both the St Williams civil action and the criminal inquiry continued to grow in scope. Noel Hartnett told me that by the summer of 2014, the action had attracted well over 200 claimants."

http://thejusticegap.com/2016/09/catch-sex-offender-institutional-amnesia

To catch a sex offender: The flight from reason 

"Hysteria is the right word. On some days now, when one opens a newspaper, one will find half a dozen articles about some aspect of alleged child sexual abuse. It is as if child abuse has become our greatest social ill, especially if it took place long ago.

But since the Savile and ‘Nick’ allegations, public discourse has had few, if any, limits. Richard Webster concluded The Secret of Bryn Estyn by warning that without action ‘to reintroduce reason and restraint into our system of justice,’ future historians would come to view the hunts for actual witches in the early modern era ‘as nothing’ compared to the contemporary child abuse panic. It seems to me that since he wrote those words in 2005, and especially since his tragically early death in 2011, we have come significantly closer to making that baleful vision a reality."

http://thejusticegap.com/2016/09/catch-sex-offender-flight-reason

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Richardwebster.net
 
"The most fervent modern advocates of reason and of science have often suggested or implied that we are no longer generally susceptible to dangerous delusions such as gripped the minds of learned men in the great European witch-hunt of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This is, I believe, but another example of the dangers of rationalism. For if we accept and allow ourselves to be guided by a view of cultural history which denies the very possibility of a witch-hunt taking place in our midst, we have created the ideal conditions for one to take place in front of our eyes without our even noticing what is happening.

My own investigation into police ‘trawling operations’, which occupied me for a number of years, was not, in one sense at least, a diversion from the theory of cultural history which is worked out in other parts of this website. It was an attempt to apply that theory in practice."

http://www.richardwebster.net

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Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse 

"While there has been a welcome increase in policies which address child abuse, rape and other sexual offences, these tend to neglect or disavow the diametrical problem of false allegations of such offences. It is inherent in the, typically, unwitnessed and physically uncorroborated nature of these ‘hidden’ crimes that they are difficult to prosecute; but also to disprove if no crime has been committed.

Tackling an under-researched and under-discussed area, Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse offers thoughtful and thought-provoking discourses around an understandably difficult and sensitive area."

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-08-18-new-publication-research-associate-ros-burnett-wrongful-allegations-sexual-and-child

Ros Burnett @rosburnett https://twitter.com/rosburnett

(Embedded tweet - click date)

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September 2016

Two trials, three jailhouse snitches, a four-part documentary – but no evidence 

"By the end of the series, MWT has highlighted merely the opposite of what he intended to establish – not that he has the intellectual courage to concede this. His year-long investigation has exposed the absence of any evidence that Causley murdered his wife and, by extension, the intrinsic weaknesses of the UK criminal justice system. Causley has now served 20 years in prison for a murder for which there is simply no bona fide evidence whatever.

This series could well be used by university media departments as a study in how television documentaries seek to mislead and conceal. Had it been attempted in the days when scrupulous standards still applied at ITV, it would have been deemed untransmittable and junked."

http://thejusticegap.com/2016/09/two-trials-three-jailhouse-snitches-four-part-documentary-no-evidence

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

But You Can Rarely Beat The System



Time for these guys to take one?

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31/03/2015

Beating the Detector

"Anjana Ahuja asks if polygraphs - or lie detectors - should be used to monitor sex offenders in the UK, when it can reportedly take just five minutes to learn how to beat them.

After successful trials, where sex offenders made more disclosures after their use, legislation was brought in to implement polygraph testing for those with a high risk of reoffending. The tests are now being introduced nationally with members of the police undergoing polygraph training.

However, interpretation of the science is under dispute and, according to critics, the test is not only unreliable, but it can easily be beaten. Two of the United States' most notorious serial killers both passed polygraphs. Former US policeman Doug Williams, who has been teaching people how to beat the detector for decades, claims it can be done in just five minutes. He is currently awaiting trial in the United States accused, according to the FBI, of "training customers to lie and conceal crimes during polygraph examinations".

Science columnist for the Financial Times, Anjana Ahuja, argues that the introduction of polygraphs for sex offenders in the UK requires further ethical scrutiny and academic oversight.

The programme includes interviews with Doug Williams, psychologist Professor Chris French, polygraph historian Ken Alder, Jeremy Wescombe from the British Polygraph Association, Professor of forensic psychiatry Don Grubin, Professor of criminal justice Phil Rumney and DC Andrew Tinker from South Yorkshire Police, one of the first police forces to trial the use of polygraphs with sex offenders."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nvg7p

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Published on Mar 17, 2015

Man V Expert S01E02 HD 

29:00 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3IpLAAKhys

Monday, 22 December 2014

The 'Tactical' Polygraph



The 'Tactical' Nuclear Missile

Related to ...

Jim Cannot Let Go - Perhaps He Never Will :(  

http://therealosc.blogspot.com/2014/12/jim-cannot-let-go-perhaps-he-never-will.html

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Published online: 24 Feb 2014

The use of tactical polygraph with sex offenders

Abstract

"Professionals who work with sexual abusers often are faced with a significant obstacle: offenders' failure to accurately report their histories of undetected offences, particularly hands-on crimes against children.

The implications are significant and include poor risk assessment, misguided treatment planning, inadequate sentences, and insufficient supervision conditions.

This problem is particularly important with so called child pornographers—offenders whose known criminality is limited to the Internet, and who may be reluctant to admit they have engaged in the hands-on abuse of children.

The current study examines an investigative method that we refer to as tactical polygraph and describes its effectiveness in identifying previously undetected sexual offending within this population.

In our sample of 127 suspects with no known history of hands-on offending, only 4.7% admitted to sexually abusing at least one child. During polygraph procedures, an additional 52.8% of the study sample provided disclosures about hands-on abuse they perpetrated."

Michael L. Bourke, Lance Fragomeli, Paul J. Detar, Michael A. Sullivan, Edward Meyle & Mark O'Riordan

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13552600.2014.886729#.VJfX9csKA

http://www.childabuseactionnetwork.com/Download-document/9-Tactical-Polygraph.html - Full (pdf) 

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4VNJeyVKGxQJ:www.childabuseactionnetwork.com/Download-document/9-Tactical-Polygraph.html+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk - Full 

4/10/2014

Selection, Engagement and Seduction of Children and Adults by Child Molesters  

 

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ekgHsbXbe-QJ:www.thechildcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-SES-short-version-no-art.pdf+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

http://www.thechildcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-SES-short-version-no-art.pdf

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Initially, let us be very clear what our position is, and has always been.

We would be amazed, if relevant hands-on offenders, given free access, to exciting images of the young, did not own these images.

We would be amazed, if relevant non-hands-on offenders, given free access, to exciting images of the young, did not own these images.

Indeed, we would be amazed, if the majority of such people, did not own these images.

In a regime of restricted access, to such images, we would expect the ownership to be reduced, for both cohorts.

Bearing that in mind, for now, we will will critique the approach.

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Points, as they arise ...

We really do not know what went on in these 'rapport interviews', within the three agencies. No details of discussions, quasi-plea-bargains, manipulations and other possible unethical procedures. We are asked to believe the ethical position of the authors (already seriously flawed) and the FBI et al (little to be said, there).

Credence is given to these 'amiable specialists' ...

July/August 2004, Vol 35, No. 7

Detecting Deception 

Human lie detectors

"In June, APA teamed up with the FBI and the National Institute of Justice on a comprehensive workshop for top law enforcers on the use of intuition. Experts presented the latest research on detecting deception and related psychological topics such as bias and event memory. Ekman thinks such behavioral training may help authorities spot subtle cues that they might miss because they deal with so many liars.

There are no signs of lying per se, but rather signs of thinking too much when a reply should not require thought, or of emotions that don't fit what is being spoken, he says. "We train people to look for 'hot spots,' where they're not getting a full account," he explains.

His Institute for Analytic Interviewing trains people to detect deception in the context of research findings on personality, memory and more. For example, Ekman says that skilled interrogators build rapport with suspects: "People will tell their story if they think you're being open-minded."

Meanwhile, Ekman has teamed with psychologist Maureen O'Sullivan, PhD, of the University of San Francisco, the lead investigator on a study of the hard-to-find, very small fraction of emotionally intelligent people who can very accurately distinguish deceptiveness from truthfulness. Some of them use the demeanor and vocal clues mentioned in this article, but others base their judgments on behaviors and word usage that no researcher has previously identified, O'Sullivan explains.

Can psychologists learn from these divining rods to train less-sensitive people? Ekman thinks more research is needed. O'Sullivan speculates that it could work only for those with some core skill: "Not everyone can be an Olympic athlete," she explains. "Agencies should identify people with basic talent and train them."

Shedding more light on the matter is Frank of Rutgers, who, with Tom Feeley, PhD, of the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York communication department, recently examined the research on training in the detection of deception.

"It showed that although the training methods used by most researchers were clearly inferior [such as just 10 to 15 minutes of training], there was still a significant--if weak--training effect. So we speculated that if training were done properly, it could work considerably better," says Frank.

Psychology could have a lot to offer, write DePaulo and Morris in their forthcoming book chapter: "Good human lie detectors, if there are such persons, are likely to be good intuitive psychologists. They would figure out how a person might think or feel if lying in a particular situation, then look for behavioral indications of those thoughts or feelings."

In the end, detecting deception is all about honesty. Ekman concludes, "It's much harder to find the truth than to find a lie. A good lie-catcher is good at identifying truthfulness.""

http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/detecting.aspx

... being able to tell truth from lie, even without the polygraph ...

July/August 2004, Vol 35, No. 7

Detecting Deception 

"Telling a little white lie may on occasion soothe ruffled social feathers, but covering up a murder plot or withholding information on terrorist cells can devastate individuals and society at large. Yet detecting deception often stumps the most experienced police officers, judges, customs officials and other forensic professionals. Research has shown that even agents from the FBI, CIA and Drug Enforcement Agency don't do much better than chance in telling liars from truth-tellers."

http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/detecting.aspx

2004

Detecting True Lies: Police Officers' Ability to Detect Suspects' Lies

"Police manuals typically give the impression that police officers who are experienced in interviewing suspects are good lie detectors (Inbau et al., 1986/2001).

Although previous research could not support this view whatsoever, our study, superior in terms of ecological validity over previous research, revealed that these claims are true to a limited extent.

Police officers can detect truths and lies above the level of chance and accuracy is related to experience with interviewing suspects.

However, the results also revealed serious shortcomings in police work. First, accuracy rates, although above the level of chance, were far from perfect and errors in truth/lie detection were frequently made.

Second, police officers tended to pay attention to cues which are not diagnostic cues to deceit, particularly body cues, such as gaze aversion.

There might be various reasons why these nondiagnostic cues are so popular, but in part perhaps the discussion of these cues as diagnostic cues to deception in popular police manuals, such as the manual published by Inbau and colleagues, could be blamed.

In fact, our research revealed that the more police officers follow their advice, the worse they became in their ability to distinguish between truths and lies."

http://eprints.port.ac.uk/23/1/SAMJAP.pdf

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GIYvu-uLcuMJ:eprints.port.ac.uk/23/1/SAMJAP.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk



The Truth About Lie Detection 

"As the best researchers can tell, and in my own experience as an FBI Special Agent (now retired), detecting deception is very difficult. Every study conducted since 1986, when the famed researcher Paul Ekman first wrote about this, has demonstrated that we humans are no better than chance at detecting deception (Ekman & O'Sullivan 1991, 913-920; Granhag & Strömwall, 2004, 169; Mann & Vrij 2004). That means that if you toss a coin in the air you will be as likely to detect deception as the truth. And while it is true that a very few people are better at detecting deception than others, they are barely above chance. In fact, those that are really good are only correct somewhere around 60% of the time; that means that 40% of the time they are wrong and you would not like them sitting on a jury judging you."

"We all have a stake in detecting deception, after all, no one wants to invest with another Bernard Madoff or date a Ted Bundy. But we have to be realistic as to what we can detect, as Paul Ekman warned us decades ago (Ekman 1985,165-178). This goes for law enforcement officers, judicial officers, and clinicians, as well as the average person interested in the topic. It is also my hope that researchers in the future will consider who is tested, where they are tested, and how they are tested to give us a more accurate view as to who really is good at detecting deception and under what circumstances."

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spycatcher/201203/the-truth-about-lie-detection

Polygraphs ...



The Truth About Lie Detection

"As for the polygraph, what can I say? Here is a machine that is very precise, which is why polygraphers reverently refer to it as an "instrument" and yet it does not detect deception. Wait, what? That is correct. A polygraph machine is not a lie detector and the so-called "instrument" does not and has never detected lies (Ford 1996, 221-236). It merely recognizes physiological changes in reaction to a cue (a question) but it doesn't detect lies and it can't. I repeat it can't. It is the polygrapher who interprets the instrument and your reactions to it and decides whether or not there is deception. It is this human factor, not dissimilar from some of the activity noted above, that the courts have found wanting (this is why polygraph result cannot be used against you in court) and why the American Academy of Sciences had less than choice words for the use of the polygraph in its formal report on the polygraph in 2002."

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spycatcher/201203/the-truth-about-lie-detection

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January 02, 2015 3:43 PM ET

Trial Of Polygraph Critic Renews Debate Over Tests' Accuracy


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Jc6X3eZzU#t=96

""You're a fool if you go into a lie detector test thinking that telling the truth is good enough," Moskos says.

The polygraph's power as an interrogation aid depends on whether people believe in it, and many critics think that's why the government has come down hard on anti-polygraph trainers."

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/02/371925732/trial-of-polygraph-critic-renews-debate-over-tests-accuracy

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Sexual Offender Treatment, Volume 9 (2014), Issue 1

Polygraph Testing of 'Low Risk' Offenders Arrested for Downloading Indecent Images of Children

"Conclusion

Polygraph testing is not without its critics (British Psychological Society, 2004; Fiedler, Schmid, & Stahl, 2002). However, much of the criticism relates to unsupported or unjustified claims of efficacy and accuracy, or to poor practice. There is evidence to show that applied properly and interpreted carefully, polygraphy can play a valuable role in a number of settings (Grubin & Madsen, 2005; Grubin, 2008; Honts & Schweinle, 2009). It is important, however, that examiners are competent and subject to stringent quality assurance.

Our findings suggest that polygraphy can be a useful adjunct in the investigation of men arrested for downloading indecent images of children. The study was small, however, and far from definitive. We believe larger trials are warranted, particularly given the difficulties inherent in accurately assessing men whose offending comes to light because of the internet. It remains to be seen whether those arrested for downloading indecent images of children will continue to agree to polygraph testing, and if they do whether the proportion whose risk assessment remains unchanged will alter. The views of their legal representatives will also be of interest."

http://www.sexual-offender-treatment.org/index.php?id=131 

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Probation Journal 0264550515571395 

Polygraphs and sex offenders; The truth is out there

"Abstract

Polygraphs (or lie detectors) have been introduced into the UK for the first time despite continuing concerns about their reliability and the ways in which they will be deployed. The police are enabled to use them on a ‘voluntary’ basis and the probation service on a ‘mandatory’ basis if their use has been made a condition of post-custodial supervision. This article seeks to bring the polygraph story up to date and pose the questions that are still unanswered as the use of the polygraph begins.

Conclusions

It is interesting to speculate on why the polygraph is being introduced into England and Wales now. Cynics might point to the General Election in May 2015 and see it as just a pre-election gimmick by politicians wanting to promote a ‘tough on crime’ image. As such it stands alongside the recently announced requirement on Young Offender Institutes to turn out all lights by 10.30 p.m. (Bowcott, 2014b) and the tightening of Open Prison rules following recent episodes of prisoners going missing (BBC News, 2014b).

Even if we are being unfair on the government’s motives, questions still remain about the effectiveness and the ethics of polygraphs including such basic questions as the right to privacy and the right of the state to deliberately induce states of anxiety in its citizens, in order for the polygraph to pick up on that state of anxiety. The polygraph gives a veneer of science and medical aura which research suggests it does not deserve.

We might also question why it is only being used on serious sex offenders who are some of the most disliked of offenders. Using the sex offender as homo sacer − life without form and value, stripped of political and legal rights accorded to the normal citizen (Spencer, 2009) − might be just the start of a slippery slope that will lead to a more widespread use once the polygraph has been embedded in the public’s consciousness.

Grubin states that he has already been in discussions with employers who think polygraphs could be useful in the pre-employment screening of those who want to work with children (cited in Bowcott 2014a); presumably this includes people being polygraphed who have no relevant convictions because they would not be short-listed had they declared such convictions as required - and if they had not declared them then a DBS conviction record check would reveal them. Lie detectors used because we can rather than because we need them – is this a solution in search of a problem?"

http://prb.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/02/09/0264550515571395.full?keytype=ref&siteid=spprb&hootPostID=8c3140b15370513b51b7b27a7030ce04&ijkey=M.31gMNMrej1E

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Sex Abuse vol. 25 no. 3 259-281

The (F)utility of Post-Conviction Polygraph Testing

"Abstract

The apparent utility of the polygraph to work both as a treatment and supervision aid and as a deterrent for future offending is cited as ample justification for its use.

This article examines these claims to demonstrate that although post-conviction polygraph testing may have some utility by increasing disclosures of prior offending and, within specific cases, admissions of treatment and supervision violations, the limited evidence accumulated thus far does not adequately ascertain its accuracy nor support its efficacy or effectiveness as a deterrent.

The article concludes with recommendations for creating a real evidentiary base beyond polygraph testing’s apparent ability to elicit more information from offenders to evidence that can determine whether it is efficacious and effective in reducing criminality and deviance."

http://sax.sagepub.com/content/25/3/259.abstract 

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More to follow.

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

'Sex Offender' Is A Legal Term, Not A Lifestyle Choice

Apr 15

Once a sex offender, always a sex offender?

"It is a striking task to ask undergraduate students (as well as friends and family members) what they believe is the proportion of convicted sex offenders who recommit a new sexual offence. The typical response is: “most” or, for the more statistically-inclined, “80%, give or take 5%.” Research, however, does not match the public’s view. When based on official statistics (for example: new arrests or convictions for a sexual offence), the rates are disproportionately lower than common expectations: about 7% after 5 years and 12% after 10 years (Helmus et al., 2012) ..."

http://nextgenforensic.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/once-a-sex-offender-always-a-sex-offender
(Embedded Tweet - click date)

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Posted: May 12, 2014 - 7:39pm | Updated: May 13, 2014 - 12:16am

Dear Abby: Register for sex offenders covers gamut of offenses

"The reason for this is because of a “one-size-fits-all” approach to punishment, be it a one-time offender or a serial rapist. Most sexual abusers are either members of the family or a close family friend, and most are never reported. Only a small percentage of registered offenders pose a danger and should be under surveillance. The others should be allowed a second chance to continue with their lives without undue harassment.

If “Stunned” reports her co-worker to her employer, she will jeopardize his livelihood, which he needs to redeem his life."

http://lubbockonline.com/life-columnists/2014-05-12/dear-abby-register-sex-offenders-covers-gamut-offenses#.U3Kp1naXtGy

Thursday, 10 April 2014

Ladies And Gentlemen - Please Meet, Mr Mic Wright (Part 3)


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As Mr Wright's (and other) publications, continue to cause harassment, anxiety and distress, the endangering of lives and the wasting of much police time, it appears clarification and correction are now essential.

Even though ignorance is no defence, to many offences, we are reasonable people.

It should be made clear, Dr Oldfield has served his time (and more) and need not justify his position to anyone; none of us are defined by our past. However, it is obvious, that many people, simply, do not understand what the legal and societal issues are, in such cases.

Of course, many are, simply, dangerous, greedy and malicious - or a combination, thereof.

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"Mic Wright"

Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy https://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy

"Mic Wright is a journalist specialising in technology, music and popular culture. He lives in Dublin."

Debatable, and certainly not anymore, for the Telegraph, it appears.

"The sex offender so brazen he's sharing a link to my blog post about him"

 See below.

"By Mic Wright Society Last updated: August 9th, 2013"

OK.

"Nigel Leigh Oldfield is a convicted sex offender. "

Well, it really is not that simple, it all depends on what you mean by 'sex offender'. This has been clarified, here.

"He is the worst kind."

There are graduations - really? - Excellent.

An unrepentant one. He is the man behind The OSC (Online Sex-Offender Community) the Twitter account and blog I wrote about earlier this week. He served 12 months in jail for downloading over 11,000 indecent images of children including babies in 2002. Though there are nests of pro-abuse activists online, Oldfield is isolated. He runs a “community” in name only. I am told by those who have studied this sick subculture that even some paedophiles consider him an embarrassment.

The pseudo-intellectual Oldfield is a former chemistry teacher. He styles himself as “Dr Nigel Leigh Oldfield” and has popped up several times on national radio and television. His most notable appearance was on Newsnight in 2007 pompously defending his repellent views. Over and over again he made excuses for viewing images of children being abused. He is the ugly agony uncle of the online child sexual abuse community giving tips on avoiding prosecution and defending the indefensible.

After I wrote about Oldfield and his activity on Twitter, he posted information about me on his latest blog. It is not the first he has run on the topic of defending child sex abuse. Previous sites have been shut down by ISPs. However, he currently has at least three up and running. A quick search also throws up numerous forum posts in which Oldfield defends child sexual exploitation. Here’s one example from a Google Group where he expresses disbelief that a convicted sex offender should be stopped from photographing children in the street. On YouTube, he has posted videos where he complains about the persecution of sex offenders, “isolated and poverty-stricken for no good reason”.

Now, on his OSC blog, where he obsessively documents media reports on child sexual abuse, he has posted: my picture, links to my Twitter account, my personal blog, my online CV and screen grabs of my original article shared on Facebook. The post assures me that I am “small fry” but that I can expect a “full and frank response – when we have finished with bigger and more essential issues”. Given his past record, I won’t pause to imagine what those could be. He’s certainly had time to boast about his renewed notoriety on yet another Google Group.

I don’t believe in naming and shaming sex offenders or in vigilante actions. I don't want these individuals pushed underground and out of sight. However, Oldfield names and shames himself. Across the internet, he is active in promoting abuse and attempting to dismiss the harm it causes. I have seen the flabby banal face of evil in a YouTube video. This is who the Prime Minister is trying to combat with his current proposals, the kind of offender so thoroughly certain that it is he who has been wronged. Oldfield thinks he is the one sane man in society. He luxuriates in being written about. Ultimately he is “small fry” himself but deeply unpleasant all the same. I know Nigel intends me to feel threatened but I’m not in his usual demographic.


Tags: Nigel Leigh Oldfield, paedophilia"

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/micwright/100009678/the-sex-offender-so-brazen-hes-sharing-a-link-to-my-blog-post-about-him

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"A 13-year-old sexual predator? No. I encountered the real deal last night"

"By Mic Wright Society Last updated: August 7th, 2013"

NW is 41 years old. He took a 13-year-old girl home, allowed her to strip and then engaged in what we must euphemistically refer to as a “sex act” with her. For this and other offences including the possession of eight images of child sexual abuse and eleven sexual images involving horses and dogs, he received an eight-month suspended sentence. But it’s not the lenience of the punishment that has pushed the case into the headlines. It's the comments of the prosecutor and judge.

The Crown Prosecution Service has disavowed the words used by prosecutor Robert Colover at Snaresbrook crown court as “inappropriate”. That’s far too mild, almost offensively so. Colover told the court: “The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced.” His Honour Judge Nigel Peters said in his judgment: “On these facts, the girl was predatory and was egging you on. That is no defence when dealing with children but I am prepared to impose a suspension.” This should go without saying, but in an encounter between an adult man and a girl of 13, the child is not the predator. Regardless of whether she has been sexualised, she is a victim.

I hadn't thought a great deal about this case before I came into contact with a real predator last night. Popping up in the middle of a conversation on Twitter about my bullying piece, someone called “the OSC” revealed himself (or, less likely, herself) to be a fervent defender of paedophiles. Not only does this individual have a Twitter account dedicated to obsessively pushing distorted views about children, he also has a blog. One which has been relentlessly updated since April 2012. I've since discovered that OSC stands for "Online Sex-Offender Community".

I’m flagging up this particular example not because it is rare or unusual but because there is a whole network of these sites and accounts across the web. Those who identify themselves as part of the Online Sex-Offender Community are brazen. Their behaviour justifies the scepticism I and many others have shown towards David Cameron’s internet filtering proposals.

One of the measures put forward the Prime Minister and his dotty surrogate on the issue, Claire Perry, is a pop-up to tell those who seek child abuse images that they risk their jobs, their lives and their families by doing so. The existence of sick individuals such as the OSC, operating in the open on social networks, puts paid to the notion that these people can be shamed. Among the OSC’s messages about the Wilson case there are several references to the girl as a “Lolita”.

The existence of these dangerous individuals is the reason we need to spend more money on traditional policing and investigations. It’s also why charities such as The Lucy Faithful Foundation, which works to prevent abuse and deal with offenders and potential offenders, are so important. The brashness of the OSC is yet more evidence that desperately clutching at technical solutions is not the way to deal with this evil.

Tags: abuse, Claire Perry, David Cameron, internet filters, pedophiles, Twitter"

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/micwright/100009639/a-13-year-old-sexual-predator-no-i-encountered-the-real-deal-last-night

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More to follow; an ongoing project, including the other, oft-quoted, scurrilous 'sources'.

What A Fool Believes ...



Sunday, 30 March 2014

Curing The Incurable - Or, Not Even Trying, If You Are A Bigot


 What a Bourke
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Dr Mike Bourke 

Practice Profile: Champion of the innocent

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/bourke.aspx

Expert Interview with Dr Mike Bourke

http://mentorforensics.com/expert-interview-with-dr-mike-bourke/

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Dr Bourke Wriggling Like A Worm

http://www.ussc.gov/Legislative_and_Public_Affairs/Public_Hearings_and_Meetings/20120215-16/Testimony_15_Bourke.pdf

On Hernandez ...

The Butner Study Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders 

http://cakidscoalition.com/uploads/3/0/0/8/3008529/butnerstudy_-_correlation_btwn_users_and_abusers.pdf

Then again ... 

THE BUTNER STUDY: A Report on the Fraudulent Execution of the Adam Walsh Act by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) 

http://rsoresearch.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/butner_study_debunking_kit.pdf

Is There a Link Between Child Pornography and Child Molestation? 

http://www.protectingyourfuture.info/is-there-a-link-between-child-pornography-and-child-molestation

Have You Learned Nothing?

http://therealosc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/have-you-learned-nothing.html

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2014

SMART: Chapter 4: Internet-Facilitated Sexual Offending


Notes

"(3) The Butner Redux study by Bourke and Hernandez (2009), which is often cited in court proceedings pertaining to online offenders, was a statistical outlier in the Seto, Hanson, and Babchishin (2011) meta-analysis. This indicates that the study found an unusually high prevalence of contact offending history: 24 percent of the sample of 155 child pornography offenders had a known history of contact offending prior to treatment; however, following treatment (and polygraph examination for approximately half of the sample), 85 percent admitted to contact offenses or had an official contact offense history."

http://www.smart.gov/SOMAPI/sec1/ch4_internet.html

Friday, 28 March 2014

On Persecution And Colleges

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20 March 2014 Last updated at 11:35

Sex offender expelled from Dundee and Angus College

"A convicted sex attacker managed to enrol on a college course despite being banned from contact with teenagers.

CD was banned from unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 17 after sexually assaulting a young woman while driving a taxi.

But he won a place at Dundee and Angus College alongside 16-year-old girls without disclosing his criminal past."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-26664221

20 March 2014 8.00am.

Convicted sex offender thrown out of Dundee college

"A convicted sex offender has been expelled from a course at Dundee & Angus College which he secured without revealing his criminal record.

CD was able to mingle with 16-year-old female students despite being on the sex offenders register and banned from having unsupervised contact with teenagers under 17.

His presence at the Gardyne campus in Dundee, where he had enrolled on a computer course, came to the attention of his victim’s family. D was convicted of the offence in 2012."

http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/news/local/convicted-sex-offender-thrown-out-of-dundee-college-1.276226

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Thursday, 27 March 2014

Ineqeuity


Never was a truer word said ...
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Yes, We Do Have 'Child Porn', Here, Too

http://therealosc.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/yes-we-do-have-child-porn-here-too.html 

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Watching The Digital Digital Detectives ...

Jim Gamble criticises government over online abuse images


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn12eQPTTYQ

Monday, 24 March 2014

Ineqe - Bullshit and Profit ... It's That Time Again


 No Expense Spared

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Ineqe Safe & Secure @ineqegroup https://twitter.com/ineqegroup

Jim Gamble @JimGamble_INEQE https://twitter.com/JimGamble_INEQE

#glimpsecsa https://twitter.com/search?q=%23glimpsecsa&src=hash

https://ineqe.com

https://ineqe.com/glimpse-2014

https://ineqe.com/glimpse-csa-edinburgh

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Emma Jackson 

Exploited by Emma Jackson 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16127181-exploited

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sexual-Abuse-Emma-Jackson-Books/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A759248%2Cp_lbr_books_authors_browse-bin%3AEmma%20Jackson

The End of My World: The Shocking True Story of a Young Girl Forced to Become a Sex Slave

http://www.amazon.co.uk/End-My-World-shocking-Shocking/dp/0091930529

Sunday 31 January 2010

'They like us naive': How teenage girls are groomed for a life of prostitution by UK gangs

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/they-like-us-naive-how-teenage-girls-are-groomed-for-a-life-of-prostitution-by-uk-gangs-1880959.html

December 2010

Gangs, Girls and Grooming: The Truth

http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/3576/full

Tuesday 8 January 2013

HOUSE OF COMMONS ORAL EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE Home Affairs Committee: Localised Child Grooming

"EMMA JACKSON and Mr JacksonACKSON

Evidence heard in Private Questions 743 - 798

Emma Jackson: I am 23 now. I was groomed at the age of 12, and that started in Meadowhall, which is a local shopping centre. I used to go on the weekends with my friends.

Back then that was the place where children went on a weekend and they hung out.

They have the children’s arcade, and we used to go in there. I got targeted by young boys who were a couple of years older than me, so they were not grown men.

Q746 Chair: How old would they have been?

Emma Jackson: They would have been 13, 14, and I would have been 12."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhaff/uc182-x/uc18201.htm

Posted on May 14, 2011 

THE END OF MY WORLD BY EMMA JACKSON

http://kevin-morris.co.uk/2011/05/14/the-end-of-my-world-by-emma-jackson

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Child 'Protection' Industry Circle Jerk In Full Swing - But, What's This All About, Mark Williams-Thomas?

http://therealosc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/child-protection-industry-circle-jerk.html

Back to today .. 

Mark Williams-Thomas @mwilliamsthomas https://twitter.com/mwilliamsthomas
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Catriona Laing @CatrionaL123 https://twitter.com/CatrionaL123
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NTA

http://www.noreentehrani.com 

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