Exploring the role of locus of control in sex offender treatment

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the concept of Locus of Control (LoC) and its relationship to risk, personality disorder and treatment outcome in sexual offenders. The sample was taken from referrals to a community treatment service for sexual offenders in south-east London. One hundred and eighty-five men completed a measure of LoC at the time of assessment, of whom 74 entered the treatment programme and 39 completed a post-treatment LoC measure. At assessment, child molesters and non-contact offenders had a significantly more external LoC than rapists, and LoC was also significantly associated with cluster A and C personality disorder traits, as well as the presence of traits in two or more personality disorder clusters. LoC was not associated with risk measures or compliance with treatment. Once outliers were removed, a significant change was seen in post-treatment LoC scores, with most change occurring in an increasingly internal direction.     

Risk,reconviction rates and pro-offending attitudes for child molesters in a complete geographical area of London

Abstract

The study reports on all convicted child molesters in an inner city area over seven years, half of whom received a community treatment package. The average time at risk in the community was three years. There were 17 ‘failures’: subjects who were either breached for non-compliance, or reconvicted for general, violent or sexual offences. Historical, rather than cognitive variables appeared to be associated with failure. Key factors were a history of being sexually victimised and previous sexual/violent convictions.     

The Balance Between Student Drug Testing and Fourth Amendment Rights in Response to Board of Education v. Earls

In 1995, the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision in Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton , holding that a school district's random suspicionless drug testing of student athletes for participation in interscholastic athletics did not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In light of the Acton decision and in response to statistics indicating that drug use among students is rising, a number of school districts nationwide implemented mandatory drug testing for students. A 2001 study of the student drug-testing policies of Texas school districts confirmed this trend. The Supreme Court recently revisited the issue of random suspicionless drug testing of students in Board of Education v. Earls , where it upheld the district's policy requiring drug testing of students in any extra-curricular activities. This article examines the effects of the Supreme Court's decision in Board of Education v. Earls on Texas school districts' student drug-testing policies.     

Evaluating HIV/AIDS education programmes in Ugandan secondary schools

Although not part of the national curriculum until 2004, HIV/AIDS education has been taught for some time in Ugandan secondary schools through a variety of extracurricular means, including the media, youth groups, drama, music, and Parent–Teacher Associations. This article identifies and evaluates the integration of HIV/AIDS information into the national curriculum in Ugandan secondary schools between 2002 and 2004, based on the viewpoints of administrators, teachers, and students from 76 schools. While most schools did not include HIV/AIDS as part of the formal national curriculum at this time, the information was disseminated through a range of alternative means. The authors identify the most effective of these, discuss the perceived reactions of various stakeholders regarding HIV/AIDS being taught in secondary schools, and make recommendations for curricular reform.     

Storytelling and fraught histories: Phila Ndwandwe’s Blue Dress

Twenty years after the final hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, researchers are unearthing and examining the stories, discourses and processes that formed the transition from the apartheid to post-apartheid periods. In this paper, I investigate the story of Phila Ndwandwe, killed by the security police in the late 1980s, whose body was the first to be exhumed by the commission. Ndwandwe’s story has been framed through various narrative devices, most prominently by an artwork by Judith Mason colloquially titled the Blue Dress. Tracing the stories constructed about Ndwandwe, I consider the performative and transformative potentials of storytelling and argue for a commitment to listening that resists mere understanding.     

Writing Cartographies of Violence: Nation Building through State Failure

Literacy and literature were central to the birth of the modern nation state. Yet few studies explore the importance of literature in contemporary state construction. In this article, the ongoing importance of literacy and literature in (re)producing the Colombian nation state is studied. Since the colonial era, literacy has conferred the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, first to an elite few and now to the vast majority of people. The democratization of the ability to author the nation has allowed common people to contest and contribute to elite narratives. In this article the content of competing stories of the nation state is analyzed. It argues that these writings have had contradictory effects, successfully consolidating national identity as a nation swathed in violence while undermining the state by revealing its inability to provide security for the majority of its citizens.     

Motivations and obstacles to networking in a university business incubator

Business incubators strive to develop robust business and social networks to bring value to their resident companies in the form of intellectual and material resources. Yet, information about what motivates resident companies to participate in networking activities and the obstacles they face in trying to build effective networks is limited. This study employs a communication perspective to examine the process of incubation in an award-winning university business incubator. Using a combination of network analysis and in-depth interviews, the case study reveals the nature of communication in the internal network of 18 resident companies and the incubator administrators. Despite being on the cutting edge of innovations in technology use, study findings reveal face-to-face interaction in the incubator is predominant. The physical proximity of resident companies at the incubator influences who they talk to the most, suggesting incubator site design is important in creating an entrepreneurial environment. The case study also indicates resident company motivations for networking include a strong desire for social support to help manage stress, security of membership in an in-group, and increased access to material or information resources. The primary obstacles residents face to participating in networking and building relationships with each other include extreme time limitations during the early start-up phase, lack of ongoing information about other residents, and lack of trust related to keeping information about innovations and funding sources secure. Implications of these findings and recommendations for incubator managers for building successful and sustainable communication networks conclude the article.