1,720,963 research outputs found
Facilitating disclosure of child sexual abuse victims in the middle childhood : a forensic interview protocol for social workers
Get PDFThesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2007.This study focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of a research-based legally defensible forensic interview protocol for social workers in South Africa in order to improve the social worker's knowledge, understanding and skills regarding forensic assessment interviews in the field of child sexual abuse. The motivation for the study has its origin in the fact that current legislation in South Africa requires that all cases of alleged sexual abuse have to be reported to either social workers or the South African Police Service. Social workers often find themselves having to deal with allegations of sexual abuse, and are faced with the challenging task of conducting assessment interviews, where the result of such interview will be a determining factor in the final outcome of the legal proceedings. The research problem is that there is currently no national research-based forensic interview protocol for social workers in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was followed. Applied research was used to address immediate problems that are encountered by professionals in practice. Intervention research was used as research methodology. The quasi-experimental design was applied where a comparison of two groups were done. The hypothesis formulated for this study is: If this interview protocol will be applied in cases of alleged sexual abuse against children of the middle childhood, it would facilitate the disclosure in a more legally acceptable and defensible manner. An interview protocol with seven definite phases was developed. A self-developed checklist consisting of 119 fundamentals compiled from comprehensive literature study, consultations with experts and extensive experience of the researcher, was used as a measuring instrument. The researcher applied the newly developed interview protocol with ten girls (experimental group) in the middle childhood who have allegedly been sexually abused. The interviews were audio-recorded and evaluated by means of the self-developed checklist. An independent social worker also interviewed ten allegedly sexually abused children (comparison group) of the same age and gender as the experimental group. This social worker, however, made use of her own interview protocol. She represents the social workers in South Africa. The interviews were also audio-recorded and evaluated by means of the self-developed checklist. An independent professional person coded a sample of 50% of all interviews. All data were submitted to the Department Statistics of University of Pretoria who has done the statistical analysis. In chapter two the phenomenon of child sexual abuse is discussed and aspects that interviewers need to take in consideration were highlighted. In chapter three all aspects of child development are discussed. Developmental issues which need to be accommodated during forensic interviews are explored. Chapter four focuses on interview techniques in the forensic context, and international guidelines on forensic interviews were explored. This information was used to develop the proposed forensic interview protocol. In chapter five the proposed seven-phase forensic interview protocol was discussed. In chapter six all the data that was collected was quantified, analysed and interpreted with the assistance of the Department of Statistics of the University of Pretoria. The statistical analysis showed that in five of the seven phases a statistically significant difference was found between the experimental and comparison groups. The results suggest that the seven-phase forensic interview protocol was successfully implemented, and could be considered a new development and thus a contribution to the social work profession. However further research with a larger sample of children is needed. Conclusions and recommendations (chapter 7) of this study are put forward in accordance with the process that was followed in developing and implementing the interview protocol which would assist social workers when dealing with alleged victims of child sexual abuse.Social Work and Criminologyunrestricte
RISK-LADEN WORKING LIVES OF CHILD PROTECTION SOCIAL WORKERS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Get PDFThis study reports on the findings of semi-structured interviews with ten social workersemployed by designated child protection organisations in Gauteng, South Africa to explore their lived experiences of workplace risks and subsequent negative outcomes. Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews yielded risk factors embedded in the socio-ecological model, namely intrapersonal (personality traits and the dichotomy of human vs. professionalism); interpersonal (unsupportive supervisors; lack of co-operation among professionals); institutional (challenges unique to child protection social work); community (unrealistic expectations from communities); societal / public policy (lack of funding and resources, political interference). A discussion follows and the way forward is deliberate
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Requirements for evidence by a forensic social worker as set by the Supreme Court of Appeal
No full textIn South Africa, complainants of child sexual abuse are often referred to forensic social workers from whom it is expected to conduct interviews and compile reports in an attempt to corroborate or refute the allegations made by the child complainant regarding sexual abuse. In some instances the forensic social worker is called to testify in court as an expert witness. Great uncertainty exists in practice concerning the interviewing methods to be utilized, what the requirements of the court are in this regard and whether the testimony of forensic social workers can be used to corroborate the allegations of the child complainant. Until recently case law was silent on these specific matters. It is the authors submission that a breakthrough has been made in a recent Supreme Court of Appeal case, De Sousa v The State 2014 (769/13) ZASCA 142, during which the expert testimony of a forensic social worker was acknowledged by the Supreme Court of Appeal. An analysis of this case is presented and the requirements met by her are pointed out. These can serve as guidelines for expert testimony given by forensic social workers, which could be accepted in court. Some recommendations for research and practice are proposed. http://journals.co.za/content/carsa/16/2/EJC180367http://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC18036
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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