Advisory agencies in Canada: an introduction

Abstract. This paper reports the results of a sample survey of the members of 76 Canadian federal and provincial advisory agencies. These agencies serve as as entities wherein the widespread interests of the public on a particular policy issue area may be aggregated. The paper introduces the subject, reviews some of the American experience with such agencies, and introduces findings from this Canadian study both about members' attitudes toward their agency and the work of their agency, and about the members themselves. The study finds that such agencies constitute another level at which interest accommodation occurs. It also suggests that as the level at which advice is rendered increases the belief in the seriousness and importance of the work increases. As for the members, the study concludes that they represent more of an educated elite than perhaps would be assumed to be the case with citizen participatory bodies. The study concludes that advisory agencies seem to have a useful role in the administrative-policy process, at least insofar as members are concerned. Summary : There would appear to be little doubt that insofar as participants are concerned advisory agencies, appointed with sufficient solemnity and liaising with sufficiently senior policy-makers, are considered worthwhile components of the policy process, especially where matters of economics are concerned. We shall turn now to the members themselves.     

Work-Family Conflict and Intimate Partner Violence in the South Korean Military: Mediating Role of Aggression and Buffering Effect of a Counseling Resource

The objective of the current study was to identify the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC) and intimate partner violence (IPV) among military personnel, and verify the mediating role of aggression and buffering effect of a counseling resource. A total of 293 married Korean Air Force personnel were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire; their responses were analyzed with a structural equation model. The major findings were that 36.9 % of respondents have perpetrated IPV, the prevalence of verbal violence was 33.4 % and physical violence was 16.0 %. Aggression mediated the important part of the association between WFC and IPV. Also, presence of a counseling resource attenuated the relationship between WFC and aggression. The findings suggest that it is necessary for the military to build a personnel counseling system to prevent spouse abuse, develop professional counseling services, and accurately identify aggression tendencies among military personnel.     

Psychopathy,expert testimony,and indeterminate sentences: Exploring the relationship between Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised testimony and trial outcome in Canada

Purpose. Psychopathy, as measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised (PCL‐R), has the potential to inform judges attempting to preventatively detain Canada's highest risk offenders. However, studies examining the stigma of the psychopathy label give reason to exercise caution when expert witnesses introduce PCL‐R scores into their testimony. Methods. Judges' written or oral judgments were gathered from a publically available database in Canada. Dangerous offender hearings (N = 136) were examined to determine how factors within expert witness testimony were related to sentences of indeterminate or determinate length. Results. Results show a trend for PCL‐R scores to be related to trial outcome. Specifically, psychopathy diagnoses were correlated to experts' ratings of treatment amenability which were in turn related to trial outcome. In addition, experts tended to show partisan allegiance in the way they scored offenders on the PCL‐R. Conclusion. Discussion advocates a measure of caution when using PCL‐R testimony in an adversarial court context. Further research clarifying the role psychopathy plays in court decisions is also encouraged.     

Data retention

Use of our mobile communication devices tells a good deal about us. It is often the case that what number calls what number, at what times and frequencies and, in the case of mobile phones from and to what geographical locations can be as revealing to law enforcement and national security agencies as the actual contents of messages. Inevitably, though, this may involve the processing of data concerning millions of people who have no inclination to engage in unlawful conduct. Establishment of a legal regime for data retention that balances the claims of law enforcement agencies to prevent and detect criminal and terrorist activities has proved to be a difficult task. A number of legal challenges have been brought before the British and European Courts and this note seeks to consider and place in context the recent litigation involving the legality of the United Kingdom's Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (Watson and Others v. Secretary of State [2018] EWCA Civ 70).     

Correlates of syllogistic reasoning skills in middle childhood and early adolescence

Sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, and college students, were given a preliminary test of categorical syllogistic reasoning ability. In a subsequent session, subjects were given other categorical syllogisms and asked to depict as many of the possible relationships between the A, B, and C terms of the syllogism as they could. The number of possible relationships, and the time it took to decide if other relationships were possible, did not differ among the noncollege groups. The results indicated, however, that the correlates of reasoning proficiency differed for those subjects younger and those older than about age 13.Support for this research was provided by the Spencer Foundation, whose generosity is greatfully acknowledged.Received the Ph.D. in Psychology and the M.S.E. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and has research interests in the areas of formal and everyday reasoning, the development of reasoning skills, decision making, and conceptual development.Received the Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and has research interests in the areas of language acquisition, conceptual development, and the development of reasoning skills.     

De Clérambault's Syndrome (Erotomania) and claims of psychiatric malpractice

De Clérambault's Syndrome or Erotomania was originally described as a delusional disorder in which a woman believes that an older man of higher social status is passionately in love with her. The patient's relentless pursuit of the delusional love object, often with escalating intrusiveness, may eventually involve threats or overt acts of retaliation, in response to repeated rejection, unrequited love, or alleged betrayal. Cases from the literature are reviewed in which the delusional romantic attachment involves the patient's psychiatrist or another medical specialist. The authors present a case involving a patient suffering from erotomania who develops a delusional fixation on her psychiatrist and, after her advances are repeatedly rejected, sues him for malpractice, alleging she had a sexual relationship with him in the course of treatment. The implications of the litigious paranoid, who uses the legal system to act out delusional concerns and retaliatory fantasies, are discussed. This is the first known case of an erotomanic patient claiming malpractice on the grounds that her psychiatrist had a sexual relationship with her.     

Streetwork at the crossroads: An evaluation of a street gang outreach intervention and holistic appraisal of the research evidence

Spurred by the success of public health violence interventions, and accelerated by policy pressure to reduce violence without exacerbating overpolicing and mass incarceration, streetwork programs—those that provide anti-violence services by neighborhood-based workers who perform their work beyond the walls of parochial institutions—have positioned themselves as the most important non–law-enforcement violence prevention option available to urban policy makers. Yet despite their importance, the state of the field seems difficult to interpret for academics and practitioners alike. In this article, we make several contributions that bring forth new findings and deliver new perspectives on streetwork as a violence reduction strategy. First, we offer an extended analytic review of the streetwork evaluation literature that connects the study of contemporary public health violence interventions to a preceding tradition of criminologically inspired streetwork studies. Second, we present the results of an impact evaluation of StreetSafe Boston (SSB)—a multiyear streetwork intervention that served 20 Boston gangs. We find that the SSB intervention had no detectable effect on violence among the gangs that it served. We conclude by offering a framework for understanding a field at multiple crossroads: past and present, proclaimed successes and failures, help and harm.