Sex offender community notification: examining the importance of neighborhood meetings

Within the last decade, federal and state laws have been passed authorizing or requiring the notification of local residents that a convicted sex offender will be released and living in their neighborhood. The community meeting method of notifying neighborhood residents, although the subject of extensive news media attention, has been largely overlooked by empirical researchers. This study focuses on the experience of residents who attend such meetings and how that experience factors into a collective response on the part of the community. Data are derived from attendee surveys and recorded observations taken at all community notification meetings held throughout Wisconsin during a nine month period. The findings suggest that community notification meetings, if properly conducted, can perform an important role in managing the behavior of known sex offenders in the community. However the decision to notify and involve the public in an informal network of neighborhood surveillance may come at the cost of increased community anxiety. This anxiety is related to how the attendees were notified of the meeting, how clearly the purpose of the meeting was conveyed, and how organized the meeting appeared to the audience. Suggestions on how to more effectively utilize the community meeting method of notification are presented.     

Bulimia nervosa: a descriptive and therapeutic study

This study examined a sample of 24 Ss who met strict criteria for a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa. Assessments were made on: (1) demographic characteristics, (2) eating attitudes and behaviour and (3) personality measures. The effectiveness of two types of therapeutic intervention (cognitive-behavioural group therapy vs cognitive-behavioural group therapy plus specific behavioural instruction) was examined in a baseline, therapy intervention, follow-up design.The group was characterized prior to therapy by high N, Depression and Anxiety and low Self-esteem scores compared with control group data. Following therapy, Depression and Anxiety scores were significantly lower and Self-esteem scores higher, whereas N scores remained high. Binge-purging frequencies were significantly reduced in some of the Ss but the reduction could not unequivocally be attributed to the therapeutic interventions. The pattern of results suggested that bulimia nervosa (defined by a binge-purging pattern in association with high neuroticism) should be distinguished from bulimia (defined by a binge pattern not related to purging or high neuroticism) and that DSM-III should be revised to reflect this distinction. A theory is advanced to account for the rapid association of binging and purging in Ss high in neuroticism but not in Ss low in neuroticism.     

Correctional institution based sex offender treatment: a lapse behavior study

The correctional community has engaged in a surge of sex offender treatment programs, both within the confines of the correctional institutions as well as at the community level. While there has been an increase in efforts to assess the effectiveness of these programs the research has been hampered by inconsistency in appropriate outcome measures. The present study addresses these shortfalls, while focusing on the early behavioral lapse indicators. The study focuses on the premise that not all sex offenders lapse in similar manners, and that those with adult and statutory victims would show more impulsive-criminal trends in lapse behavior when compared to those with child victims. The results support the premise on several variables, but not on sexual deviancy.     

The end-of-session message in systemic family therapy: a descriptive study

A retrospective case note review was conducted with the aim of describing the end-of-session messages conveyed during Milan-style systemic family therapy. Fifty consecutive families treated in an adult family clinic were included. A classification of messages was developed; for each type of message the mean number per therapy session was calculated and the rates compared both within and between four systemic categories of family. 'Supportive/engaging' messages were given more frequently than 'hypothesis-related' messages in each systemic category and this difference was most marked in families with grief as the central issue. More 'acknowledgement' messages were used in the 'grief' group than in the 'separation/individuation' group. 'Hypothesis-related' messages were used more often in the 'separation/individuation' group than in the 'grief' group. We discuss possible reasons for the observed patterns and compare different ways in which the message can be conceived and implemented.     

Women as managers: Toward second generation research

A review of women in management research indicates that most studies are concerned with theoretical issues and their implications. This article asserts that the current position of women in management is unstable and might be greatly assisted by an increase in action-oriented research. Such second generation studies can build on the theoretical work, but focus most importantly on the needs of present and potential women managers, investigating the means by which their success may be brought about. Specific research suggestions are offered concerning investigation of the relative task effectiveness of women and men, the career strategies most useful for women managers, the validation of specialized training programs for women, and the institutional qualities most favorable to women.     

Warning signs for suicide on the Internet: a descriptive study

The issue of suicide warning signs on the Internet is considered. In addition to reviewing some of the relevant conceptual issues about warning signs, a random sample of Internet sites was selected and reviewed. Warning signs were grouped and agreement across sites was examined, with results confirming broad disparity in what is presented to the public. The implications of a lack of consensus on warning signs for suicide are discussed.     

Black adolescents: a descriptive study of their self-concepts and academic achievement

This study was designed to determine the relationships among global self-concept, self-concept of academic ability, and academic achievement of black American adolescents. The subjects were 211 tenth-grade students in five public high schools in the Pacific Northwest school district who volunteered to participate in the study. Global self-concept was measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), self-concept of academic ability by the Brookover Self-Concept of Ability (General) Scale, and academic achievement by the California Achievement Test (CAT). The major statistical tools were the Pearson product-moment correlations and Fisher Z statistic. In all of the tests the decision was made to reject the null hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. No significant relationship was found between global self-concept and academic achievement, although the relationship between self-concept of academic ability and academic achievement reached significance. The relationship between self-concept of academic ability and academic achievement correlated more strongly than the relationship between global self-concept and academic achievement. These results suggest that the enhancement of global self-concept might not be a potent intervention for academic improvement for black adolescents.     

Sex differences in the occupational choices of second graders

A questionnaire was administered to 61 second graders. Sexual differences in occupational choices were apparent. Boys chose twice as many occupations as girls. Of 29 occupations selected as “most desirable,” only one was mentioned by both boys and girls. Of 37 occupations selected as “least desirable,” only two were mentioned by both sexes. More boys than girls knew their father's occupation. Although 76% of the girls knew their father's occupation, they did not select that occupation for themselves. A series of hypotheses based on the above data was generated.     

Complementarity meets general relativity: A study in ontological commitments and theory unification

The apparent underdetermination of the formalism of quantum field theory (QFT) as between a particle and a field interpretation is studied in this paper through a detour over the problem of unifying QFT with general relativity. All we have at present is a partial or approximate unification, QFT in non-Minkowskian spaces. The nature of this hybrid and the problem of its internal consistency are discussed. One of its most striking implications is that particles do not have an observer-independent existence. We trace the ways in which physicists reacted to this at first highly implausible ontological consequence. We conclude that quantum fields rather than particles are after all the basic entities in QFT.I should like to thank Professors Jürgen Audretsch, Paul Teller and Dr. Martin Carrier for helpful comments.     

After images and pain tolerance: a descriptive study on their interrelationship

After images are based on physiological processes, they can also be treated as subjective phenomena with a psychological meaning. This statement also applies to pain. The basic working hypothesis of this study concerned the relationship between the two phenomena. Forty-one respondents (23 females, 18 males, age range 20-45 years) were given the Cold Pressor Test and the Serial After Image Technique. The data analysis was done by means of cross-tables and an exploratory optimal scaling program (OVERALS). Three pain tolerance groups (low, medium, high) could be differentiated fairly well on the basis of the after image characteristics of the respondents. Pain intolerant respondents more frequently had small and "immature" after images, whereas highly pain tolerant respondents had more large and "mature" after images. The implications of these results for a bio-psycho-social theoretical frame of reference for pain are discussed.     

Sex differences in semantic language processing: a functional MRI study

Predictions based on two models of sex differences in cerebral organization of language were compared by examining fMRI patterns of 10 females and 9 males during a semantic processing task. Both groups displayed activation of left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left superior temporal gyrus (STG), and cingulate. Females, but not males, showed bilateral IFG and STG activation. Further analyses revealed females had less diffuse left activation and greater right posterior temporal and insula region activation than males. Results support both an interhemispheric and an intrahemispheric model of sex differences in language, suggesting that the models may not be mutually exclusive.     

Geographical offender profiling: Dragnet's applicability on a Brazilian sample

Even though geographical offender profiling is already widely used and researched in countries such as England, Canada, and United States, it is still severely overlooked in Brazil, as there are no researches on the subject using a Brazilian sample. Therefore, the present paper aims to start filling this gap by analysing the applicability of the geographical offender profiling and Dragnet on a sample of Brazilian serial killers. In order to achieve this objective, the authors collected data through police records on 15 serial killers that were active between June 2009 and June 2015, in the city of Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil. As a result, the circle hypothesis was confirmed, considering that 66.7% of the sample fell into the marauder category. Interestingly, the Dragnet's result accurately informed the area that contained the offender's base in the same cases in which the offender acted according to the marauder model. Also, other important correlations were found such as the influence of age, intelligence, resourcefulness, and method of approach on the distance travelled to commit a murder. Those results show that the geographical offender profiling can be effectively applied in Brazil and thus is a valid investigative tool to aid police officers in serial crimes investigations.