Lessons From Canadian Judgments: The Consideration of Culture in Intimate Partner Violence Legal Cases Involving Asian Canadians.

Despite the pervasiveness of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada, research examining IPV in the context of Asian Canadians is scarce. Our study examined whether and how Canadian judges consider culture when determining a sentence in IPV cases involving an Asian offender and/or an Asian victim. We systematically searched for publicly published cases through CanLII. A total of 50 cases met the inclusion criteria. Cultural themes were identified using a direct content analysis approach to capture a priori themes in the literature, as well as identify any other factors considered. Our findings indicated culture was most often considered in only a superficial way (n = 31, 62.0%), where judges only made statements that simply identified the ethnicity of the offender and not how culture may have impacted the case. When examining cases where culture was meaningfully considered there were no prominent culture themes identified (all themes present in <14% of cases). We suggest this may not only reflect the heterogeneity of Asian Canadians, but could also reflect the lack of cultural consideration by the judges. Cultural factors were also rarely considered explicitly as an aggravating or mitigating factor in a case (n = 2; 4.0% and n = 7; 14.0% of the total sample, respectively). The findings reveal the current lack of meaningful consideration of culture in IPV legal cases involving Asian Canadians. We outline how this contrasts the increased attention to the meaningful consideration of culture in the Canadian legal arena and prompt all professionals involved in assessing and managing IPV risk to consider racial, ethnic, and cultural factors in these cases.

Noncompleted Sexual Offenses: Internal States, Risks and Difficulties Related to Crime Commission through the Lens of Sexual Offenders.

The study aims to generate insights from sexual offenders on the influence of internal states and how they perceive risks of apprehension and difficulties in the context of noncompleted sexual offenses, that is when offenders initiated the offense but were stopped or discouraged either before or during sexual contact. Adult males incarcerated for sexually offending completed a self-report questionnaire. Regression models, including interaction effects, were estimated. Two interaction effects were found providing insights into which and how internal states, such as intoxication to alcohol, may influence perceived difficulties related to crime. Future research should promote the investigation of noncompleted sexual offenses, which could provide a real opportunity to generate new or complementary insights for better understanding and guiding prevention initiatives.

Motor timing and the preparation for sequential actions.

Motor timing is essential for performing self-initiated movement sequences. Here, we investigated how sequence rhythm, or the timing for co-ordinating movements within a sequence, contributes to action preparation, compared with other processes occurring during sequence planning. First, we recorded the readiness potential (RP) in a condition of complex sequence rhythm and in condition of high demand on the timing for sequence initiation. We found that sequence rhythm and sequence initiation are independent processes, with sequence initiation contributing to early RP. Second, we compared the RP recorded in a condition of complex sequence rhythm and in a condition of complex sequence order, in which a complex combination of finger sub-movements had to be correctly ordered within a sequence. We found that sequence rhythm and sequence order share common processes occurring late RP. We suggest that the preparation for movement involves independent processes devoted to different aspects of motor timing and sequencing.

Validating the Hamilton Anatomy of Risk Management-Forensic Version and the Aggressive Incidents Scale.

The Hamilton Anatomy of Risk Management-Forensic Version (HARM-FV) is a structured professional judgement tool of violence risk developed for use in forensic inpatient psychiatric settings. The HARM-FV is used with the Aggressive Incidents Scale (AIS), which provides a standardized method of recording aggressive incidents. We report the findings of the concurrent validity of the HARM-FV and the AIS with widely used measures of violence risk and aggressive acts, the Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20V3) and a modified version of the Overt Aggression Scale. We also present findings on the predictive validity of the HARM-FV in the short term (1-month follow-up periods) for varying severities of aggressive acts. The results indicated strong support for the concurrent validity of the HARM-FV and AIS and promising support for the predictive accuracy of the tool for inpatient aggression. This article provides support for the continued clinical use of the HARM-FV within an inpatient forensic setting and highlights areas for further research.