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.     

Selling the technology-transfer function

Throughout the federal system, agency technical directors, laboratory managers, and laboratory scientists are faced with a combination of increasing opportunities and external interests in facilitating the transfer of federal technology to civil use. But this process is unlikely to be significantly strengthened or provided with the needed continuity of effort without a more organized and conscious effort to sell the technology-transfer function as one that is important to the US economy. This effort should no be limited to convincing industrial leaders and their laboratories. It needs to involve a more diverse leadership, including the media, professional and trade associations, and public interest groups. It also must be directed internally within federal agencies, to the laboratory management therein, and even to the bench-scientist level. Oftentimes the increased technologytransfer activity that one sees in federal agencies and laboratories belies the fact that there remains a good deal of confusion, misinformation, and lack of interest on the part of laboratory management, intermediate managers, and scientists concerning the value and importance of technology transfer to both the American economy and to the laboratories.     

Technology management

A recent assessment by the American Computer and Business Equipment Manufactures Association predicted that by the turn of the century three out of every four jobs in the industrial world and an increasing proportion in developing countries are likely to involve the use of VDUs. Richard Dedman and Gary Freer examine the legal implications of this development for employers, manufacturers and suppliers.     

Criminal personality profiling

In this work we examine outcome and process differences in criminal personality profiling among groups of profilers, detectives, psychologists, and students, using closed police cases—one sex offense and one homicide. Two major questions guide this research: (1) Are professional profilers more accurate than nonprofilers in generating personality profiles and correctly identifying offender features from crime scene details? and (2) Is the process that the profilers use qualitatively different from that of the nonprofilers? In the written profile task, the task that is most representative of what profilers actually do, profilers write richer, more detailed, and more valid profiles than the nonprofilers for both the sex offense case and homicide case. An analysis of correct responses concerning the known offender for the sex offense case revealed that the profilers scored significantly better than the other three groups in a variety of measures; similar results were not revealed for the homicide case. Profilers, however, do not appear to process this material in a way qualitatively different from any other group.