Parole Work in Canada: Tensions in Supervising People Convicted of Sex Crimes.

Internationally, parole work is loaded with tensions, particularly when supervising a people convicted of sex crimes (PCSCs) who, due to their criminal history, are stigmatized and occupy the lowest rungs of the status hierarchy in prison and society more broadly. Drawing on analyses of interview data from federal parole officers (n = 150) employed by Correctional Service Canada, we interpret their perceptions and feelings about overseeing re-entry preparations and processes for the PCSCs on their caseloads. We unpack the "tensions" imbued in parole officers' internal reflections and negotiation of complexities in their efforts toward supporting client's rehabilitation efforts, desistance from crime while negotiating external factors (e.g., the lack of available programming), and being responsible for supervising PCSCs. We highlight facets of occupational stress parole officers experience, finding PCSCs may be more compliant when under supervision but may also require more of a parole officer's resources, including time and energy. We put forth recommendations for greater empirical nuance concerning parole officer work and their occupational experiences and beliefs about PCSC, particularly as related to parole officer health.

CrossFit and "Cancel Culture": Probing Practitioners' Responses to the "Canceling" of Greg Glassman.

In this article, we explore the responses of crossfit practitioners to the 'canceling' of Greg Glassman in the aftermath of racist tweets and comments made in response to the killing of George Floyd. We draw on 50 interviews with crossfit practitioners to understand how they interpret and respond to the 'canceling' of Greg Glassman and the disavowal of CrossFit by prominent CrossFit athletes and organizations. We probe how athletes, regardless of levels of involvement, in the wake of Glassman's comments respond to the refiguring of the sporting community of CrossFit. A cancel culture continuum from affirmation to rejection emerged from the interview data that typified their views of cancel culture, Greg Glassman's removal from CrossFit HQ, and the current state of the sport. We conclude with a discussion of the phenomena of canceling or cancel culture and reflects on crossfit as a sport in light of the Glassman affair.

Conceptualizing violence in nursing home policy: A citizenship perspective.

Violence is a pervasive, yet often hidden, issue within nursing homes, affecting residents, family members and care workers. Critical exploration of embedded understandings of violence within public policies can provide important insights into how violence is viewed and addressed in nursing home environments as well as the implications of violence for different groups and alternative ways of framing and addressing violence. To this end, this study explored how violence is conceptualized within 45 nursing home policy texts from two Canadian provinces - Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Using a critical policy analysis approach and a citizenship lens, we identified four dominant constructions of policy 'targets' associated with specific rights and conceptualizations of violence. Policy documents construct residents as either vulnerable and in need of protection or as challenging and requiring behavior management. Care workers are constructed as either clinical risk managers, responsible for mitigating violence, or as employees with rights and responsibilities. Overall, violence prevention policies governing nursing homes are fragmented and convey conflicting conceptualizations of violence, associated with divergent rights and responsibilities. Our findings highlight the need for comprehensive violence prevention policies that affirm the rights of nursing home residents and care workers alike.

"Uncivilized children" or "victims of dementia": Interpretations of aggression in older assisted living tenants.

This study explores interpretations of interpersonal aggression involving older adults, through an analysis of semi-structured interview data from 13 assisted living (AL) tenants and 19 AL service and/or care workers. Differing relations (tenant-tenant and tenant-worker) shape the kinds of tenant actions experienced as problematic and/or aggressive. Tenants and workers invoke communal living, aging, and dementia as explanatory frames, in part to mitigate victimization experiences through normalization and neutralization. This was more prominent among workers, who are less able to enact empowering responses as they sought to keep working in difficult circumstances. Structural constraints, and the power and social hierarchies that contribute to victimization, generate interpretive responses that obscure fulsome and contextualized understandings of the problem while further reinforcing oppressive discourses including a sense of the inevitability of aggression in older adults-especially those living with dementia.

Cette étude explore les interprétations de l'agression interpersonnelle impliquant des adultes plus âgés, à travers une analyse des données d'entretiens semi-structurés de 13 locataires de résidences assistées (RA) et de 19 travailleurs de services et/ou de soins RA. Des relations différentes (locataire-locataire et locataire-travailleur) façonnent les types d'actions des locataires vécues comme problématiques et/ou agressives. Les locataires et les travailleurs invoquent la vie en communauté, le vieillissement et la démence comme cadres explicatifs, en partie pour atténuer les expériences de victimisation par la normalisation et la neutralisation. Ce phénomène est plus marqué chez les travailleurs, qui sont moins à même d'adopter des réponses autonomisantes lorsqu'ils cherchent à continuer à travailler dans des circonstances difficiles. Les contraintes structurelles, ainsi que le pouvoir et les hiérarchies sociales qui contribuent à la victimisation, génèrent des réponses interprétatives qui obscurcissent les compréhensions complètes et contextualisées du problème tout en renforçant les discours oppressifs, y compris le sentiment de l'inévitabilité de l'agression chez les personnes âgées - en particulier celles qui vivent avec la démence.

CCWORK protocol: a longitudinal study of Canadian Correctional Workers' Well-being, Organizations, Roles and Knowledge.

INTRODUCTION: Knowledge about the factors that contribute to the correctional officer's (CO) mental health and well-being, or best practices for improving the mental health and well-being of COs, have been hampered by the dearth of rigorous longitudinal studies. In the current protocol, we share the approach used in the Canadian Correctional Workers' Well-being, Organizations, Roles and Knowledge study (CCWORK), designed to investigate several determinants of health and well-being among COs working in Canada's federal prison system. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: CCWORK is a multiyear longitudinal cohort design (2018-2023, with a 5-year renewal) to study 500 COs working in 43 Canadian federal prisons. We use quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments (ie, surveys, interviews and clinical assessments) to assess participants' mental health, correctional work experiences, correctional training experiences, views and perceptions of prison and prisoners, and career aspirations. Our baseline instruments comprise two surveys, one interview and a clinical assessment, which we administer when participants are still recruits in training. Our follow-up instruments refer to a survey, an interview and a clinical assessment, which are conducted yearly when participants have become COs, that is, in annual 'waves'. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: CCWORK has received approval from the Research Ethics Board of the Memorial University of Newfoundland (File No. 20190481). Participation is voluntary, and we will keep all responses confidential. We will disseminate our research findings through presentations, meetings and publications (e.g., journal articles and reports). Among CCWORK's expected scientific contributions, we highlight a detailed view of the operational, organizational and environmental stressors impacting CO mental health and well-being, and recommendations to prison administrators for improving CO well-being.

Aggression and Older Adults: News Media Coverage across Care Settings and Relationships.

Systematic, in-depth exploration of news media coverage of aggression and older adults remains sparse, with little attention to how and why particular frames manifest in coverage across differing settings and relationships. Frame analysis was used to analyze 141 English-language Canadian news media articles published between 2008 and 2019. Existing coverage tended towards stigmatizing, fear-inducing, and biomedical framings of aggression, yet also reflected and reinforced ambiguity, most notably around key differences between settings and relations of care. Mainstream news coverage reflects tensions in public understandings of aggression and older adults (e.g., as a medical or criminal issue), reinforced in particular ways because of the nature of news reporting. More nuanced coverage would advance understanding of differences among settings, relationships, and types of actions, and of the need for multifaceted prevention and policy responses based on these differences.

Stories of violence and dementia in mainstream news media: Applying a citizenship perspective.

In this article, we analyze how mainstream news media frames violence in relation to dementia and the consequences of different frames for people living with dementia and their carers. Conceptually, the goal is to bring literature on citizenship and aggression into dialog with each other. Empirically, a total of 141 regional and national English-language mainstream Canadian news media articles (2008-2019) with a focus on dementia, violence, and aggression were analyzed. Analytically, we examine how different actors are portrayed as victims or perpetrators; how their histories (identities, belonging, and exclusion) are told; how dementia is used to explain events; and what types of expert knowledge and authorities are introduced to make sense of stories of violence in relationships of care. Our analysis points to the implications of media narratives for people with dementia as well as carers and researchers seeking to address stigma and call for change.

Responding the "Wrong Way": The Emotion Work of Caring for a Family Member With Dementia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although it is generally acknowledged that the changing behaviors of some people living with dementia can be emotionally exhausting for family members, there has been little research on how carers actually interpret and manage their emotional responses when interacting with persons with dementia in context and over time. Applying the concept of emotion work, this analysis examines when and where carers feel they are responding "the right way" to their kin and when and where they resist normative emotions around family care. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Semi-structured qualitative interviews (N = 20) and diaries (N = 11) were conducted with, and collected from, family carers in Manitoba, Canada to explore how they negotiate their emotions and emotional displays when caring for a family member whose behaviors are changing. RESULTS: Carers expressed feelings of frustration, anger, and resentment and identified putting on a positive attitude, putting the person with dementia first, protecting the person with dementia, and avoiding conflict and arguing as the "right way" to respond to these feelings. They identified challenges responding the "right way," however, in relation to household chores, and situations that also involved isolation, fear, verbal aggression, and fatigue. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Programs and policies must recognize the complex emotion work of family carers. There is a need for more nuanced education materials, support with household tasks, inclusion of carers' emotional needs in transition planning, and support for carers to exit the caring role when necessary.

Collaborative policing: networked responses to child victims of sex crimes.

BACKGROUND: In response to child victims of sex crimes, Canadian police agencies are required to work collaboratively with child victim oriented community organizations. Such collaborations involve the navigation of potentially competing objectives of partner agencies. OBJECTIVE: In our research, we examine police interpretations of collaborative responses to child victims of sex crimes in order to assess the challenges and benefits of police and community partnerships. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We conducted 52 semi-structured interviews and focus groups with police officers working on one of different ten police service organizations across Canada in order to unpack the joint responses of police and community partner agencies to child victims of sex crimes. METHODS: We coded and analysed focus group and interview transcripts for emergent themes pertaining to police interpretations of their collaborations with governmental and non-governmental organizations when responding to child victims of sex crimes. In focusing on the management and sharing of information, the complexities and practicalities of joint responses to child sexual abuse are revealed. CONCLUSION: Collaborative tensions, such as differing mandates and blurred boundaries, were present in all participating policing agencies, but police working in and alongside CACs were more likely to recognize that the safety and best interest of children was a shared goal across partner agencies. Operating in successful partnership requires clearly demarcated roles and mutual understanding and respect between both police and partnerships agencies.

Fear, Defensive Strategies and Caring for Cognitively Impaired Family Members.

One topic rarely addressed in the literature on older adults and interpersonal violence is the violence that can be experienced by family carers in relationship with a person living with cognitive impairment. This violence tends to remain hidden and is rarely framed as intimate partner violence. We examine how situations of intimidation and violence invoked fear in family carers and how they interpreted and reacted to these circum- stances. Interview and diary data were collected from family members who had previously or were currently experiencing some form of aggression in caring for someone with cognitive impairment or dementia. Drawing on discussions of fear and applying the analytic lens of defensive strategies, we explore how these carers responded to situations of intimidation and violence.

Using a Flexible Diary Method Rigorously and Sensitively With Family Carers.

Health and social science researchers are increasingly interested in the range of new possibilities and benefits associated with diary methods, particularly using digital devices. In this article, we explore how a flexible diary method, which enables participants to choose the device (i.e., paper notebook, tablet, or computer) and medium (i.e., text, photographs, sketches) through which they narrate their experiences, can be used to promote sensitive and rigorous research engagement with family carers to people with dementia. We used a diary interview method with 10 carers over the course of 6 weeks to explore how they experience and interpret the changing behaviors of their cognitively impaired kin. We reflect on how the quality of diary data can be enhanced alongside the ethical dimensions of research with carer populations, through different forms of diary keeping, regular interaction with participants, reflexive practice, and follow-up interviews.

'It's just a social thing': drug use, friendship and borderwork among marginalized young people.

This article joins a growing chorus of researchers who doubt the utility of the concept of peer pressure for explaining young people's initiation to and use of drugs. Drawing on interview data with 45 patrons of a youth drop-in centre in Ottawa, Canada, we argue that drug use is more intricately woven into friendship - affective relationships of trust and intimacy, belonging and sharing - rather than simply part of the unidirectional pressures some young people put on others to fit in to a subculture. Marginalized young people's narratives show that drugs and alcohol furnish them with a relatively inexpensive pastime to share with friends, introducing opportunities for intimacy that are otherwise difficult to attain at the individualistic and isolating margins of neoliberal cities. We demonstrate how young drug users draw boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable relationships to drugs and alcohol, articulating an important sense of belonging to a superior group of drug users. Through this 'borderwork', they solidify the bonds they share with the people with whom they smoke cannabis and drink alcohol.