People with intellectual disabilities face an exceptionally high risk of being victims of sexual abuse and thereby becoming involved in the criminal justice system. Coping effectively with this system is enough of a challenge for those without disability, but it is far more difficult for the intellectually disabled. As a result, greater attention needs to be paid to their needs. From the opposite perspective, dealing with people with intellectual disabilities is a challenge for experts in forensic and criminal law practice. This short report presents the background, design, and preliminary findings of a study examining how far the police, judges, prosecutors, forensic-psychiatric experts, forensic-psychological experts, and social workers are able to ensure that victims with intellectual disabilities experience procedural fairness by taking their particular needs into account in everyday criminal proceedings.

This is a repository copy of Forio: a Swiss treatment program for young sex offenders with intellectual disabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an extensive impact on the global higher education sector. In a written survey, staff and students at the Lucerne School of Social Work reported how they had coped with the challenges to their teaching or respective learning situation. The initial survey was conducted during the lockdown in spring 2020, and the follow-up survey was performed in the period of relaxed sanitary measures in summer 2020. During the first wave of the survey, 51 employees and 225 students participated. In the follow-up survey, 28 employees and 117 students partook. Findings indicate that the increased workload created by the transition was stressful for both staff and students but overall was handled well. Staff and students who felt supported by the university management experienced less psychological distress. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been an effort to develop hybrid forms of teaching. Because the social work curriculum contains building blocks that are difficult to implement in the form of distance learning, the transition posed challenges for both staff and students. During times of transition, university management must carefully assess the support needs of staff and students and take appropriate action.

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