Current Projects

Project Title: (Dis)abling Reports: Mapping the uptake, progress and outcomes of police reports of sexual assault by those with a cognitive impairment.

Principal investigator: Dr Caroline Taylor

Funding Organisation: Australian Research Council (Linkage Grant)

Project Summary: This project examines reporting outcomes of police reports of sexual assault by people with a cognitive impairment. This group is more vulnerable to sexual offences yet less likely to have the report progress completely through the investigative pathways of the police. There exist no studies identifying the decision-making police use when determining the progress of reports. Decisions as to whether a report proceeds or exits the justice system are documented and contained in a restricted police data system. Analysing this data will generate a framework around the decision making applied and map the progress and exit stages of these reports.

Project Title: The effects of maternal attachment, marital satisfaction and sensitivity to infants on Infant’s attachment and adjustment: A longitudinal-structural equation study.

Principal investigator: Assoc Prof Rapson Gomez

Funding Organisation: Australian Research Council (Linkage Grant)

Project Summary: This study will examine how family and attachment factors effect the adjustment of infants at 24 months of age. A longitudinal study, using structural equation methods, will examine how maternal attachment and marital satisfaction when infants are 4 months of age will effect maternal parenting behaviours two months later, and how all three of these measures will effect infant attachment 6 months later. It will then examine how all four of these measures will effect the adjustment of infants 12 months later. The study will have important implications for early intervention and prevention of psychological problems in infants and children.

Industry Partners: Child and Family Services, Ballarat