SUPERVISED ACCESS

This article addresses the question of whether long-term supervised access is an appropriate solution when unsupervised access is unlikely to become possible in the future. The article assesses judicial decisions and theoretical commentary on this issue in light of the opinions and practices of service providers and in light of the best interest of the child standard. The opinions and practices of service providers were gleaned from published materials and from interviews with service providers at supervised access facilities in Vermont and New Hampshire and in Ontario, Canada. The supervised access facilities surveyed for this research were diverse in their practices and experiences but remarkably similar in their approach to long-term supervised access. Outside the scope of the research for this article was the question of whether the opinions and practices of the service providers at the facilities surveyed are representative, and this question requires further investigation .     

SUPERVISED CHILD ACCESS

Responding to demand from separated parents and courts for ways to manage intractable child access disputes, services that supervise parent-child contacts are emerging across the United States and Canada. This article traces the evolution of this new social service, describes programs, and presents practical issues.     

MANITOBA'S ACCESS ASSISTANCE PROJECT

Reported in this article is an innovative access project in Manitoba. This project is ongoing and is designed to strengthen parenting skills and reduce the anger inherent in the breakup of any relationship.     

AN EVALUATION OF SUPERVISED ACCESS II

Two studies examined reactions of family members to supervised access (SA) services. In Study 1, 121 users of SA services were interviewed about their satisfaction. A subsample was interviewed about family relationships and children's well-being, at Time 1 and 5 months later. In Study 2, 29 children attending SA services were interviewed. Results showed that both custodial and noncustodial parents were very satisfied with the centers. There was no evidence that relationships between ex-spouses or their attitudes toward one another improved over a 5-month period. Children attending centers showed a high level of externalizing symptomatology. Children were positive about their experiences, although older children felt that the centers were not well equipped for their age group. Although the aim of centers is to provide a safe place for children, some children still experience emotionally disturbing events. Most children had little understanding about why they were attending centers.     

AN EVALUATION OF SUPERVISED ACCESS III

Although supervised access has become a more frequently used option within the custody and access domain over the last 10 years, no empirical literature has examined supervised access from the standpoint of its effect on the legal system. As part of a large-scale evaluation of Ontorio's Supervised Access Pilot Project, the present study sought the perceptions of the legal community and the courts regarding supervised access centers. A total of 14 lawyers and 13 judges participated in semistructured telephone interviews concerning supervised access cases in general, the function and impact of the supervised access program in their community, and their satisfaction with and recommendations regarding the center. Both lawyers and judges expressed high levels of satisfaction with the centers and believed that their availability resulted in savings to the legal system and reductions in hostility and conflict between parents. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

MAINTAINING RESEARCH ACCESS IN POLICE ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract This paper explores certain of the general problems associated with maintaining research access in police organizations. Among the problems researchers are likely to encounter are difficulties in communicating and winning the acceptance of street-level patrol officers, problems in developing a mutually acceptable field role, and threats of premature termination. The solutions suggested include specific and repeated efforts to inform patrol-level officers of the research, emphasis of the occupational features of the traditional participant-as-observer role, and making specific plans to deal with attempts at premature termination.     

AN EVALUATION OF SUPERVISED ACCESS I

This study describes the Supervised Access Pilot Project, implemented in 14 locations in Ontario, from the perspective of those offering the service and community organizations whose members use the service. Two services were offered: visits and exchanges. The average cost of a visit varied considerably across centers (range $15 to $309), a result that is partly attributable to economies of scale. Centers in large urban centers were more cost-efficient than those situated in small communities. Centers provided neutral and safe circumstances for visiting. Only 1.6 serious rule violations occurred during every 1,000 visits. It was estimated that about 3 out of every 10,000 persons used the service. Intake and safety procedures, essential to the smooth running of the centers, have been outlined. Staff fell that they would benefit from increased training in the areas of conflict resolution and the effects of divorce on family members.     

ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND THE LIMITS OF LAW

This article examines the relationship between persistent demands for "access to justice" and the relatively low yield of court-oriented social reform strategies. Access to justice has a symbolic attraction which is impossible to deny. Access may not insure justice or social reform, but it is an important political resource from which strategic bargaining advantages may flow. But the importance of the right to participate may be inversely related to its utilization. Beyond a certain level, expanded access may be costly. Its deterrent qualities may be diminished, and the legal system, when overloaded, may be unable to insure delivery of justice.     

NETWORK REGULATION: THE MANY FACES OF ACCESS

Telecommunications regulation has experienced a fundamentalshift from rate regulation to increased reliance on compelledaccess, perhaps best exemplified by the Telecommunications Actof 1996's imposition of no fewer than four new access requirements.Unfortunately, each access requirement is governed by a separateset of rules for determining both the scope and the price ofaccess. The resulting ad hoc regime has created difficult definitionalproblems and opportunities for regulatory arbitrage. In thisarticle we propose a system inspired by the discipline of mathematicsknown as graph theory that integrates all of the different formsof access into a single analytical framework. This system separatesdifferent access regimes into five categories: (1) retail access,(2) wholesale access, (3) interconnection access, (4) platformaccess, and (5) unbundled access. It also provides insightsinto how each type of access complicates the already difficultproblems of network configuration and management and introducesinefficient biases into decisions about network capacity anddesign. The approach we propose also provides insights intothe transaction cost implications of the different types ofaccess. Drawing on the Coasean theory of the firm, our approachexamines the tradeoffs between internal governance costs andthe external transaction costs of providing access to offera theory of network boundaries. This framework shows how accessregulation distorts networks' natural boundaries and providesa basis for evaluating whether private ordering through marketswould lead to more efficient network design.     

LEGISLATING FOR PARENTAL ACCESS TO CHILDREN IN CARE

Parental access to children absent in state care is an emotive issue. This article looks at the role of legisiation in recent attempts in Great Britain to improve the situation.     

THE PRO SE LITIGANT'S STRUGGLE FOR ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Just as the growth of pro se litigation is a challenge for the courts, so, too, is the bench and bar's resistance to pro se assistance programs and policies a challenge to court reformers seeking to improve access to justice. Even where progressive courts have been able to implement court-annexed pro se assistance programs, judicial and bar resistance to pro se assistance in the courtroom remains. This paper explores the reasons for such resistance, and argues that pro se litigants have a right to receive—and judges have an obligation to provide—reasonable judicial assistance, particularly in cases involving a represented and an unrepresented party. A set of recommendations is offered which will result in pro se litigants being given more basic legal information than previously provided, better preparation of pro se cases, and a more active judge to ensure that all parties have equal access to justice.     

ASSESSING FOR ALIENATION IN CHILD CUSTODY AND ACCESS EVALUATIONS

In-depth child custody evaluations can be critical in forming an accurate understanding of families in which alienation of children is a concern. By integrating interview and psychological test data of parents and children along with collateral information the evaluator can differentiate an alienated child from children with other forms of parental rejection and can form a thorough understanding of the multiple contributants to the alienation. This comprehensive and integrated understanding is then used to develop a clear and specific intervention plan.     

EXAMINING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CHILD ACCESS AND CHILD SUPPORT

This article examines the connection between fathers' access to children and their maintaining child support. Also examined are various approaches to obtaining compliance with support orders. The effect of various factors on payment of support, such as frequency of contact, remarriage, and the length of time since the separation, is analyzed.     

ASSESSING FOR ALIENATION AND ACCESS IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES

Alienated children in high-conflict (HC) custody cases differ from nonalienated children in HC custody cases. Efforts to assess and differentiate between the children should focus first, on establishing what differences do exist and then on what psychometrics are of most help in the assessment. Five categories of HC children and areas where HC children are all alike and where alienated and nonalienated children differ are reviewed. Psychometrics appropriate for the tasks of research and evaluation are proposed.     

INDEPENDENT LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR CHILDREN IN CUSTODY AND ACCESS CASES

In this article, the author discusses the role of children's representation in custody and access cases, and in particular, considers whether the Stobridge case came to a correct determination of the most appropriate role for children's counsel. The three possible modes of child representation are considered: amicus curiae, litigation guardian, and advocate. The role of amicus curiae is rejected because it does not provide the child with an opportunity to be heard, thus defeating the purpose of representation. The role of litigation guardian is rejected on the basis that the guardian does not advocate the child's interests unless they are consistent with that of the guardian. The author concludes that Stobridge was correctly decided, and that the role of children's counsel in a custody or access dispute in which the children are capable of directing counsel should be that of advocate.     

PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES IN GAINING RESEARCH ACCESS IN POLICE ORGANIZATIONS

“Access” is conceived of as involving passage through two gates: one manned by the top-level authority figures of the organization, and the other by the proposed subjects of one's study. Within this framework, informal contacts, contingent acceptance at successive organizational levels, and self-selection are identified and discussed as the factors most central to an understanding of our successful access into three police organizations and our failures to gain access to two police organizations.