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To ensure health, social and criminal justice services are suited to the complex and dynamic needs of people with learning/intellectual disabilities (LD) at risk of offending, it is important to systematically analyse the needs and characteristics of this population. This study aimed to analyse the patterns of referrals to a single community forensic LD service before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A structured audit was conducted on all referrals to the service (n = 37) across a three-year period (May 2019 – end of July 2022).

The majority of the overall sample were male (36, 97%) and Caucasian (24, 65%) with a mean age of 32.9 years and mild LD. The most prevalent current offending type was sexual offending (17, 44%), whereas the most prevalent historical offending type was violence (17, 35%). The most common service/function offered by the service was advice and consultation to other professionals and agencies (10, 19%). The service user and forensic/legal characteristics measured did not differ significantly before and during COVID-19.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the project is the first to systematically analyse and compare community forensic LD service referral patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also provides an example of how a structured audit tool can be used to benefit individual services and the wider literature on assessing the needs and characteristics of adults with LD who live in the community and are at risk of [re]offending.

There is growing evidence examining mindfulness-based interventions (MI) for people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). As discussed in this paper, MI may be particularly suited for people with ID given high rates of difficulties in identifying and regulating emotions and as this approach may rely less on cognitive ability compared to other therapies. This study aims to assess the acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a six-session MI group [the Coping Well Group (CWG)] delivered within routine clinical practice.

Six separate cohorts (n = 25) of adults with ID attended CWG. Quantitative data were collected from service users, including a pre- and post-quality of life (QoL) measure and qualitative data from group facilitators.

Roughly one-half (53%) of service users invited to the group attended at least one session, with low levels of dropout observed among group attendees. A significant improvement in QoL was reported demonstrating a small effect (d = 0.46, p = 0.022) after attending the group. Most service users (72%) were referred to the CWG for help managing difficult emotions. One-half (44%) of attendees required individual therapy after attending the group. Limitations of the evaluation and potential future research are discussed.

The current evaluation contributes a practice-based service evaluation of an MI group for people with ID and mental health difficulties to the currently limited evidence base. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to investigate the impact of group psychological interventions collecting data across cohorts and assessing QoL, a more general measure of well-being than has been used previously.

The UK is a leader in the implementation of surface mount technology, and SMARTEX '91 sponsored by the SMART Group is one of only a few shows organised worldwide which is dedicated solely to this field. Perhaps it was not surprising then that this year's three‐day event proved a great success.

This paper aims to uncover the assumptions and concerns driving public debates about Google Glass and police body cameras. In doing so, it shows how debates about wearable cameras reflect broader cultural tensions surrounding race and privilege.

The paper employs a form of critical discourse analysis to discover patterns in journalistic coverage of these two technologies.

Public response to Glass has been overwhelmingly negative, while response to body cameras has been positive. Analysis indicates that this contrasting response reflects a consistent public concern about the dynamics of power and privilege in the digital economy. While this concern is well-founded, news coverage indicates that technologists, policy makers and citizens each hold assumptions about the inevitability and unvarnished beneficence of technology.

Since this qualitative approach seeks to discern broad emergent patterns, it does not employ a quantifiable and reproducible coding schema.

The article concludes by arguing that grassroots action, appropriate regulatory policy and revitalized systems of professional journalism are indispensable as the struggle for social justice unfolds in the emerging digital economy.

These debates represent a struggle over what and how people see. Yet public discourse often glosses over the disadvantages of technological change, which impacts who is able to amass social power.

This comparative approach yields unique conceptual insight into debates about technologies that augment ways of seeing.

The spread of COVID-19 is not just a health crisis. The pandemic has taken a geopolitical dimension. The health crisis amplified the competitive dynamics between the USA and China, affected the provision of global public goods and injected instability into the global order. In line with the geopolitical zero-sum thinking, both the USA and China have sought to capitalize on the crisis to boost their international profile. Instead of working together to mitigate the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, the two powers fear that the other will exploit the current situation to accrue political, economic or military gains that will give it an edge after the pandemic subsides. The spread of COVID-19 has set off a “battle of narratives,” in which China and the USA are accusing each other of failing to rise to the challenge. The world seems to be falling into a “Kindleberger Trap,” in which the established power is unable to lead while the rising power is unwilling to assume responsibility. The COVID-19 crisis is occurring amid the collapse of global cooperation. The USA, the traditional leader of international collective efforts in times of crisis, has abandoned its role entirely. The lack of leadership at the global level during an international crisis may cause the breakdown of the international order.

This paper examines the US-China competitive dynamics through the lens of the work of Charles Kindleberger, which both liberals and realists regard as foundational when examining the dynamics of global crisis management. This paper also uses the meta-geopolitics framework to determine the ability of both China and the USA to respond to the current COVID-19 crisis and its implications for their power and standing in the international system.

This paper concludes that the only way to escape the Kindleberger trap is “to embed Sino-American relations in multilateralism.”

As rivals, both the USA and China are seeking to capitalize on the crisis to boost their international profile. This paper probes how China and the USA navigated the ongoing COVID-19 crisis to determine whether or not they are currently in a “Kindleberger Trap,” using elements of the meta-geopolitics framework of analysis, namely, health issues, domestic politics, economics, science and international diplomacy. Using the meta-geopolitics framework will help us determine the ability of both China and the USA to respond to the current COVID-19 crisis and the implications of that on their power and standing in the international system.

In our overview of the issues involved in inflation accounting we concentrated on two major problems, fixed assets and stock (which were analysed in depth in chapter two). We explicitly omitted any analysis of the other significant group of items in most balance sheets, monetary items; they are the liquid or near liquid assets and liabilities which a firm possesses such as cash, debtors, creditors, loan capital and so on. Agreement amongst accountants on how inflation affects monetary items is even more remote than agreement on fixed assets and stock. We have seen that the reformers of historical cost support one or other of two rival methods, current purchasing power or current cost accounting. Although the issues surrounding the treatment of monetary units are affected by whichever method is selected for the conversion of the main accounts (CPP or CCA), one cannot really polarise the discussion on monetary items so easily because, of the methods proposed so far for dealing with them, there has been a considerable element of overlap between the various treatments. This essay attempts to set down the main strands of the argument—it avoids deliberately the more esoteric topics of the debate which are explored by a few of the later contributors.

It has been at least twenty years since I was first alerted to the notion that my interest in a research topic arises from my unconscious. More recently, feminist theorists have developed the insight by arguing that integration of experience is helpful in defining research questions, as a source of data, to test findings and, in the words of Jean Bethke Elshtain, in assisting them to be less removed from the ‘wellsprings’ of their own ‘thought and action’. My aim in this article is to reconnect my experience with constructions of teachers in Australian children’s literature and to explore ways in which they are imagined in the literature. In my initial foray into this topic, I used Maurice Saxby’s historical review of Australian children’s literature as a guide for data gathering. This linear, chronological approach, while probably a helpful place to start, is not one I can sustain with any passion. In this article, I am returning to my experience to find a starting point, acknowledging that history is a ‘process of intellectual production as well as discovery’

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation exit option, which is one of the most important tactics available to any third party mediator.

The paper analyzes a crucial intermediary channel between the Irish Republican Army (hereafter IRA) and the British Government utilizing unique material from the private papers of the intermediary, Brendan Duddy, including diaries that cover periods of intensive communication, extensive interviews with the intermediary and with participants in this communication on both the British Government and Irish Republican sides as well as recently released official papers from the UK National Archives relating to this communication.

The study reveals how the intermediary channel was used in order to get information, how the third party and the primary parties traded in asymmetries of information, and how the intermediary utilized the information advantage to increase the credibility of his threats of termination.

The study outlines an avenue for further research on the termination dynamics of mediation.

Understanding the conditions for successfully using the exit‐option is vital for policy‐makers, in particular for peace diplomacy efforts in other contexts than the Northern Ireland one.

The paper challenges previous explanations for why threats by mediators to call off further mediation attempts are successful and argues that a mediator can use the parties' informational dependency on him in order to increase his leverage and push the parties towards settlement.

The authors’ contention in this paper is that the expression of subsidiary strategy in IB literature has become fragmented and incomplete. Therefore, this study aims to propose a rethink on how IB scholarship approaches the important issue of subsidiary strategy by holistically examining the discrete and integrated set of activities, choices and decisions that constitute the subsidiary strategy process for, in this context, assuming a competence-creating role within the multinational enterprise (MNE).

A conceptual model is designed to illustrate the holistic process of subsidiary strategy from assigned to assumed role and how a subsidiary can navigate a pathway to elevated performance and survival.

The paper identifies the key integrated elements that constitute a holistic strategic process that can enhance a subsidiary’s standing within the MNE and maximise its survival prospects.

Particular focus is placed on subsidiaries that strategise to advance their internal corporate role to competence creator via upgraded knowledge capabilities.

This paper offers a roadmap for IB scholars to contribute to a future discourse around the subsidiary strategy process for assuming a competence-creating role.

The purpose of this paper is to review a case of a man with a mild learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder who successfully appealed against a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards authorisation under English law.

The authors wanted to identify the factors contributing to the individual’s deprivation of liberty and subsequent successful appeal. The authors examined the accounts from the experts involved on each side of the case including different views on the person’s capacity to make certain decisions. The authors examined several of the individual’s psychological and psychiatric assessments. The authors interviewed the individual on two occasions: once during the appeals process, and following his successful appeal.

The authors identified several reasons as to why the individual was successful in appealing against the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. First, the individual was able to seek legal support to appeal independently. Second, experts involved on each side of the case had differing opinions regarding capacity to make certain decisions. Third, the indication for the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards was subsequently declared not valid. Finally, the authors found that the quality of life and psychological well-being for the individual improved following removal of restrictions.

The authors highlight the wider issues relating to an individuals’ rights to challenge authorisations in the Court of Protection as well as to future considerations and directions of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards legislation in light of evolving case law.

The authors highlight the importance of empowering patients in matters relating to their care and treatment, as well as protecting their human rights, dignity and autonomy.

The authors examine the barriers to challenging Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards authorisation and the ever-evolving Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards process.