ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; A CASE OF LEARNING THROUGH EVALUATION?

The aim of environmental monitoring programs is to provide information useful in enforcing existing environmental statutes and helping to detect and prevent future problems. Despite the considerable number of monitoring programs being conducted, information on the quality of the nation's environment remains poor and of little use in supporting environmental policymaking. This paper examines the role evaluation has played in developing an effective nationwide environmental monitoring system. Background information on environmental monitoring programs is provided, followed by a discussion of the evaluations of past programs and recommendations made for improvement. One program in particular, the "Status and Trends" program administered by the National Oceanic and ATmospheric Administration, is examined to explore whether environmental monitoring demonstrates a case of learning through evaluation. "Status and Trends" is based on the experience gained during several of the previous monitoring programs and incorporates many of the recommendations spawned from earlier environmental programs. Whether the program demonstrates a case of learning through evaluation will depend on the ability of the program to evolve as we learn more about environmental quality and out ability to measure it.     

Human rights is not enough: The need for demonstrating efficacy of an ethical approach to interviewing in India

Purpose. The present study compared attitudes about Human Rights (HR) and the advocation of coercive interviewing practices amongst Indian Police Officers, Offenders and a sample from the General Public. Method. 100 Police Officers, 50 Offenders and 50 members of the General Public completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes about the Human Rights of suspects and the use of coercion in suspect interviews. Results. Police Officers and the Public accepted both custodial violence and the use of intimidating interrogation strategies more readily than Offenders. They were also more prepared to suspend Suspects' Human Rights. Further, individuals who scored high on a coercive belief scale (CBS) were particularly inclined to favour custodial violence and suspend Human Rights. In addition, the self‐reported frequency with which Police Officers used intimidating and non‐intimidating interviewing techniques was related to their beliefs about Suspects' Human Rights and the extent to which they perceived intimidating interviewing methods to be useful. Conclusion. Attitudes about effective interviewing strategies may well be embedded within a broad social context. The effectiveness of a Human Rights Agenda requires that officers in India are informed of the effectiveness of ethical interviewing standards and the practical and legal dangers of using inappropriate methods.     

Parentification of Adult Children of Divorce: A Multidimensional Analysis

The goal of this study was to compare the responses of late adolescent and young adult children of divorce and nondivorce on a new multidimensional measure of parentification assessing the extent and fairness of past and present caregiving in one's family of origin. Three-hundred-and-eighty-two individuals participated. Item analyses and internal consistencies of the different parentification scales were initially conducted on one-half of the sample and cross-validated on the other half. The scores of European and African American participants from the validation sample whose parents either divorced before middle adolescence (N = 35) or never divorced (N = 68) were then compared. The divorced group reported providing more emotional and instrumental caregiving and experiencing more unfairness in their families of origin than did the nondivorced group, although the effect for emotional caregiving was moderated by temporal perspective. Evidence that problematic forms of parentification in children of divorce continue into late adolescence and young adulthood has implications for models of understanding and helping these children and their families.     

Aboriginal Affairs: Humanitarian Intervention Then and Now: Dis/Connections and Possibilities

Aboriginal affairs has always been a sore point in Australia. Ever since the first Governor attempted to put in place the Colonial Office's instructions to treat the inhabitants with “amity and kindness” the exercise has been fraught. There is a text‐book version of the changing policy landscape and rote school lessons on the gradual acquisition of Aboriginal rights and freedoms. These go some way to conveying the contested ground, political conflict and personal anguish on which this history was built. Yet, they give the impression of evolution and progress. At the same time, the history wars magnified the fractiousness without carving a pathway through. In this paper I recover an important part of the history, which often goes unremarked. I reflect on the role of humanitarian intervention in this politics. Not only has it been critical to the policy landscape — for good and ill — but there are also historical connections and lineages between then and now, which deserve attention. Closely aligned to a history of human rights in Australia, recovering this history seems more pertinent than ever 1 .     

Supervised, Supported and Indirect Contact Orders: Research Findings

Child contact with non-resident parents has become a key issuein family law and policy. Within the substantial and growingbody of research into how legal systems deal with child contactdisputes, there is little empirical data on the use courts makeof orders for supervised, supported or indirect contact. Thisarticle presents empirical research findings focusing on theuse of these sorts of contact orders in England and Wales. Theresearch involved an examination of 343 court records, 60 follow-upinterviews with parents and ten interviews with judges responsiblefor making the orders. Use of orders for supervised or supportedcontact was relatively common as a short-term measure, whileorders for indirect contact were made only as a matter of lastresort. On the basis of the post-court developments in contactwithin the families in the sample and the parents' largely negativeexperiences of the court system, we conclude that future policydevelopments ought to focus on finding alternatives to court,which would aim to provide assistance rather than adjudicationto the families in dispute.