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The purpose of this paper is to investigate outcomes associated with a training designed to improve interactions between first responders and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Authors examined the responses of a group of first responders (N = 224) who completed a survey before and after a training to assess their (a) knowledge of ASD, (b) confidence for working with individuals with ASD, (c) comfort responding to a call and (d) ratings of the training they received.

Findings indicated first responders demonstrated more knowledge of ASD, increased confidence for working with individuals with ASD and improved comfort when responding to a call.

This preliminary report serves as initial evidence of the importance of rigorous work examining trainings designed to improve interactions between first responders and individuals with ASD.

The results of this study justify continued rigorous research on the effectivness of ENACT, as a training designed to improve knowledge and comfort of first responders who work with individuals with ASD.

This study fills an identified need for research on trainings designed to educate first responders about ASD.

Not only is the prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) rising, but there has been increased attention in the media focused on interactions between autistic individuals and police officers. Research suggests that police officers report concerns regarding how to appropriately support autistic individuals during interactions due to a lack of training opportunities or general knowledge of ASD. To contribute to this emerging research, the aim of the present study was to examine what makes police officers feel more or less confident when working with autistic individuals of all ages in the capacity of their job.

In the present study, police officers' responses (N = 317) to open-ended questions were analyzed using thematic analysis to understand what makes police officers feel more and less confident when interacting with someone with autism.

Analysis yielded several major and minor thematic categories, which were combined into three major factors including (a) effective training, (b) malleable factors and (c) fixed factors.

The findings of this study provide novel insight into police officer confidence to communicate and interact with autistic individuals. This research utilized the voices of police officers to identify areas of need and themes relating to officer confidence. The findings can be immediately used to inform research and practice and to improve relationships between first responders and the autistic community.

Navigating the banking world may be overwhelming and intimidating for autistic people due to the generally poor accessibility of banks. Banks around the world are starting to improve the accessibility of their services and products to meet the needs of autistic customers better. However, no empirical research has explored autistic adults’ banking experiences and needs. This study aims to determine what banks can do to make banking more inclusive and accessible for autistic people through understanding the banking experiences of autistic adults living in Australia and identifying the factors that shape these experiences.

In total, 57 autistic adults aged 18–67 years (M_age = 33.00, SD_age = 11.03) and 29 caregivers of autistic adults aged 32–70 years (M_age = 52.24, SD_age = 7.88) completed an online survey about the banking experiences of the autistic adults. In addition, 14 of the 57 autistic adults were interviewed.

Almost all autistic participants had a bank account, and online banking was the preferred way of banking for most autistic adults. The factor most often raised by participants that influenced the banking experiences of autistic adults was supportive and helpful bank staff. Other identified factors included autistic adults’ lack of financial and banking knowledge and banks’ poor understanding of autism. The majority of autistic adults felt that banks could become more autism-friendly and provided suggestions.

Given that most autistic adults are likely to access financial products and services, banks must become more autism-friendly to cater to the diverse needs of autistic customers. Recommendations for how financial institutions can become more inclusive were provided.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first detailed examination of the banking experiences of autistic adults. Practical implications of the research were also provided.

Many autistic adults experience unemployment, which may impact their financial circumstances. However, no research has examined their personal financial circumstances. Therefore, this study aims to examine the self-reported income, savings and debt of autistic adults living in Australia, as well as the demographic associates and predictors of income and savings.

Sixty-four autistic adults aged 18–67 years (M_age = 32.78, SD_age = 11.36) completed an online survey containing questions relating to their financial circumstances and the autism spectrum quotient-short.

Overall, the authors found that many autistic adults are financially disadvantaged. The mode of income levels was below AU$25,000, which is substantially lower than the mean annual Australian full-time income of AU$89,123. Higher savings was associated with not having any debt or having a greater ability to repay debt. Autism traits were positively associated with income levels. As predicted, being employed was associated with and predicted higher income. People who were employed were four times more likely to have a higher income than unemployed individuals. The authors did not find a relationship between having a co-occurring mental condition with income or savings. The authors also did not find a significant association between employment status and savings.

These research findings have implications on how we can improve the financial circumstances of autistic adults and provide additional evidence for the importance of increasing employment opportunities for autistic individuals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the personal financial circumstances of autistic adults.

This chapter delves into the experiences and social worlds of women previously sentenced to capital punishment and now imprisoned in the Philippines. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observation, the pathways of 27 women previously on death row are presented. Narratives reveal multiple constraints stemming from gendered familial, relational, and economic responsibilities, vulnerability to gendered control and violence, poverty or financial precarity. These gendered inequities were compounded by structural barriers in the context of a low-income, postcolonial nation with entrenched corruption. The women’s stories reveal four pathways to criminalization: (1) responding to violence; (2) economic precarity; (3) drug abuse; and (4) guilt by association and corrupted justice. The research reported in this chapter enriches feminist criminological knowledge on gendered pathways to criminalization by adding the voices of women in the Philippines to a now growing body of Southeast Asian scholarship. In line with previous studies, findings reveal the ways in which women come into conflict with the law because of choices made within constrained social circumstances.

In 2013, the television programme Hannibal debuted on television. Taking characters and narrative from three novels by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon (1981), Silence of the Lambs (1989) and Hannibal (1999)) over three seasons, the audience got to spend time with Dr Hannibal Lecter. Appearing 32 years after the first book and 27 years after Hannibal’s first screen appearance, much has changed in Dr Lecter’s world and the most interesting of these changes is the gender of characters.

In Red Dragon, Dr Alan Bloom and Freddy Lounds are men, and in the television series, they are women. This chapter argues that another change in genders occurs as Will Graham replaces Clarice Starling as the person Lecter seduces. It also introduces a female psychiatrist for Dr Lecter. These changes alter the presentation of the specific characters but also that of the overall narrative arc of the television series.

This chapter will identify and evaluate these shifts in gender and consider how these changes impact the viewer experience. The change of the familiar to the unfamiliar is uncanny, and it is this argument that adds to the presentation of Will and Hannibal as figures of horror and increases audience anxiety and fear.

This paper aims to evaluate children’s literature that focuses on body size issues for elementary readers.

The paper used an evaluative tool based on three categories: content, audience and other considerations.

The evaluative tool was used to evaluate six children’s books identified as critical literature supporting body image. The books evaluated focused on body image but were also tied to other themes such as body positivity, body neutrality, self-love, acceptance, diversity and inclusivity. All books acknowledged and celebrated the uniqueness of varied body types.

Because of the number of books evaluated, the evaluative results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to evaluate other critical children’s literature focused on body image.

The paper offers recommendations for parents, teachers and schools.

This paper encourages the need for parents, teachers and schools to help children embrace body positivity and neutrality so that they would love their skin.

This article aims to share findings from a youth-informed study with interracial anti-racist youth activist groups in two urban high schools.

The study used mostly critical ethnographic methods.

The findings showed that the agency of youth activists amplified their literacies of love and resistance, organizing, critical teaching, and knowledge. More research is needed in English education related to youth organizing activities across contexts as youth organizing work is largely unknown or underused by educators and schools.

Overall, this research supports humanizing collectives that amplify the literacies of youth and position youth-centered education for liberation.

This paper aims to examine how evangelical teachers’ religious identities influence their interpretation and teaching of texts in high school English Language Arts classrooms. Further, this paper examines how evangelical teachers make choices about how to balance the demands of their religious and teacher identities as they interact with texts in their own classrooms.

Using Derridean deconstruction of the concept of ethical decision-making, the author uses critical discourse analysis to examine a conversation between two evangelical teachers as they talk about the tensions they feel as they teach The Crucible with their high school–aged students.

The findings show evangelical teachers’ religious and teaching identities were in tension across three themes: literary analytic frameworks, authorial intent and eternal truths and evangelism and fellowship.

By highlighting how evangelical teachers’ religious and teaching identities influence their classroom decisions, teaching practices and textual interpretations, this study offers another pathway through which teacher educators and researchers might examine the connection between teachers’ religious and teaching identities with the intent to invite more complexity into literary analysis.

The recent wave of protests on courts and fields all over the world has brought increased attention to the potential of sport to address social justice. Basketball in particular has been the subject of both celebration and outrage. Building off the theorizing of sport as a contested space, we examine the work of three artists/artist collectives; Abigail Smithson, Maria Molteni and New Craft Artists in Action, and Noah Cohan and John Early of Whereas Hoops, who have all directly engaged with the basketball court as a site filled with cultural meaning and struggle. All three of the respective bodies of work were developed in the past 10 years and emerge from the heightened social and racial tension of the time, as well as the increasingly apparent link between sports, politics, and race within our larger society. Examining the work reveals the importance of the basketball court as a site simultaneously of celebration, play, surveillance, policing, community, history, cultural exchange, and racialization. We explore the potential for artists to engage with and transform sport spaces through an edited group interview, giving the artists the chance to reflect on their practices as well as the limitations of working as an activist and artist in the realm of sports in their own words. Through conversation, the chapter focuses not just on finished pieces of art but also on the process of making the work in the ever familiar and culturally rich environment of the basketball court.