bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Party Policy and Cabinet Portfolios in Japan, 1996
Authors: Kato Junko , Laver Michael
Published: March 2007

This research note report the results of an expert survey of party policy positions and the relative importance of different cabinet portfolios in Japan at the time of the 1996 general election. The survey replicates earlier expert surveys conducted in a wide range of democratic systems by Laver and Hunt (1992), but uses a survey form adapted to the specific Japanese context, translated into Japanese, and administered from a Japanese academic institution. The results provide raw data that can be used as input to a range of different models of party competition and government formation.
Patterns of Representation and Competition
Authors: Munck Gerardo L. , Bosworth Jeffrey A.
Published: March 2007

Taking the military government led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973-90) as the immediate background for an understanding of political parties in Chile's current politics, this article pursues three related goals. First, it identifies the most important elements of continuity and change between the pre- and post-Pinochet periods, drawing attention to positive elements, such as the tripartite division of the party system, the institutionalized nature of parties, and the reduction of ideological polarization, but also to negative elements, such as the increased distance between parties and societal interests, the weakness of social actors, the unelected nature of a significant number of senators and the skewed electoral law. Second, it explains why certain elements of Chile's parties and party system have changed while others have not. Third, it spells out the significance of these elements of continuity and change in terms of their impact on the extent to which parties are representative of societal interests and the nature of competition that characterizes the party system.
Sporting Excellence: A Family Affair?
Authors: Kay Tess
Published: March 2007

This paper examines the central role played by the family in the development of children’s sports talent, with particular emphasis on the practical ways in which families support children’s excellence in sport. The paper reviews research on the impact that families have on young people’s sports careers, then draws on a recent empirical study to examine the other side of this relationship–how the family is affected by delivering this level of support. Interviews with 20 families from three sports (swimming, tennis and rowing) are used to investigate how family units provide support for young performers, and how they are affected by doing so. The findings showed that, in addition to providing essential financial resources, families’ abilities to accommodate the activity patterns required by the sport are critical to children’s participation. The implications of these findings are then considered in the context of recent social and economic trends in Britain that are widely considered by social policymakers to be contributing to change in the conduct of family life. It is shown that a number of these factors are also likely to affect families’ abilities to support children’s sport talent. Evidence of growing polarization in family situations is reviewed, and the implications for promoting broader access to sport and the development of talent are discussed. The paper concludes that the published data on major socioeconomic and demographic trends have value to the sports policymaker and may enhance the effectiveness of sports policy interventions. In the case of talented child sports performers, they may assist in the development of policies that allow children from diverse family circumstances to realize their sports talent and so contribute to their broader social inclusion.
Dance Movement Therapy in the UK: A Field Emerging from Dance Education
Authors: Karkou Vassiliki , Sanderson Patricia
Published: March 2007

Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) in the UK is derived from dance education, as well as other associated fields. Although DMT is growing in terms of numbers of practitioners and client populations, only very limited information is available concerning the theoretical bases and principles underlying the practice of DMT, as well as the backgrounds of therapists. A nationwide study was therefore undertaken at the University of Manchester, UK (1994–8), which aimed at describing the field of DMT, as well as other Arts Therapies (ATS), as fully as possible. A questionnaire was constructed, based on preliminary ‘in-depth’ interviews with leading arts therapists, five of whom were dance movement therapists, and distributed to all registered members of the ATS associations: 41 dance movement therapists returned completed questionnaires. Results showed the occurrence of high professional qualifications among practitioners as well as a range of backgrounds, including education. A number of theoretical influences and principles was also revealed, deriving from psychoanalytic and developmental theories as well as from DMT traditions, reflecting an overall eclectic approach to movement and therapy. The article also discusses the relevance of DMT to education, teachers and children.
Gender Stereotyping and Physical Education
Authors: Waddington Ivan , Malcolm Dominic , Cobb Jason
Published: March 2007

This paper presents the findings of a survey of physical education (PE) teachers, the central object of which was to examine teachers' involvement in, and attitudes towards, the teaching of the six areas of activity contained in the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE). A total of 207 questionnaires was issued to heads of departments and teachers of PE in secondary schools in the county of Nottinghamshire in England, of which 84 were returned. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data indicate that the attitudes and actions of many PE teachers continue to reflect gender stereotyping, with marked tendencies for male PE teachers to perceive dance as a 'female-appropriate' activity and female PE teachers to perceive outdoor education as a 'male-appropriate' activity.
Positioning and Defining Physical Education, Sport and Health in the curriculum
Authors: Penney Dawn
Published: March 2007

This paper reflects upon the identities of, and relationships between, physical education, sport and health as expressed in recent curriculum developments in England and Wales and Australia. Attention is drawn to notable contrasts between developments in terms of the definitions provided for physical education and health, but also similarities in the practices emerging in schools and critically, in the broader contexts in which these developments are set. The influence of the public and political privileging of particular definitions of sport, physical education and health is highlighted in considering their present and future identities in schools.
An Ecological Perspective on Physical Education
Authors: Hastie Peter , Siedentop Daryl
Published: March 2007

This paper reviews the use of the classroom ecology paradigm in teaching research in physical education. The review traces the development of a research program beginning in the United States at the Ohio State University, through the development of more sophisticated techniques, to answer the following key question:‘Why do some physical education classes seem so remarkably alive with learning potential and others seem so devoid of that very characteristic?’The classroom ecology paradigm examines the collective life of teachers and students as interaction among three interrelated systems (managerial, instructional, and student social) in which change in one system has distinct repercussions for the development of the others. Central to this representation is the issue of accountability, and this review provides a longitudinal account of research relating to this feature of the paradigm.The major findings of this review present a picture of physical education in which considerable negotiation takes place within many classes, where teachers trade off a reduction in the demands of the instructional system for cooperation in the management system.What accountability remains focuses primarily on orderly management, student cooperation, and at least minimal effort in activity tasks.Lack of alignment between unit objectives,practice tasks, and accountability measures accounts for typically poor student performance. Instructional ecologies at the elementary school level are more rigorous than at the secondary level. Finally, this review provides suggestions for future research in physical education, urging a focus more on student responses than teacher actions in our efforts to understand instructional effectiveness.
The Social Construction of the Physical Activity Field at the School/University Interface
Authors: Macdonald Doune , Kirk David , Braiuka Sandy
Published: March 2007

While some bodies of literature address the construction of school physical education and others the construction of university study of physical activity (e.g. physical education, human movement studies), little attention has been paid to the interface between these sites.This is somewhat surprising given the significant growth and popularity of the physical activity field in universities and that together they form a cyclical relationship in that the university disciplinary knowledge is central to physical education teacher education.This paper introduces aspects of the production, reproduction, adaptation, and modification of educational discourse as students move from school physical education into human movement studies. In doing so, it will highlight dominant dimensions of the regulative discourse, the strengths and weaknesses in the classification and framing of knowledge within school and tertiary programmes, and introduce a relatively unique line of research into the construction of educational discourse in school subjects.
Participatory Evaluation of Development Assistance
Authors: Rebien Claus C.
Published: March 2007

This article addresses two issues: the theoretical strengthening of the participatory evaluation concept, and the strengths and weaknesses in practice of this approach. It demonstrates how participatory evaluation can be strengthened conceptually and theoretically if based on fourth-generation evaluation and Giddens's structuration theory. Through an analysis of two evaluations in Zambia and Swaziland, strengths and weaknesses of applying the approach in practice are illustrated. The analysis includes elements from Foucault's theory on power, and from theories about decision-making and learning from political and organizational science. It concludes that, using a participatory evaluation approach, interaction and thus learning processes among stakeholders are initiated and facilitated, and that this benefits the ongoing project-implementation process. The characteristic asymmetrical relationship of power between donor and recipient is potentially ameliorated, allowing the less powerful a greater influence on the evaluation and the ensuing implementation process.
When Two Worlds Collide
Authors: Smith Alison , Preston Diane , Buchanan David , Jordan Simone
Published: March 2007

This paper outlines and discusses issues arising from a specific evaluation project. The project brief was to conduct a communications audit of a UK National Health Service trust hospital, focusing particularly upon the interface between junior doctors and other professional groups within the hospital. The experience of conducting the research and operating as management evaluators within a medical research environment is also discussed. The stages and mechanics of designing, conducting and reporting the research are outlined. Apart from the political issues, there are several challenges involved in undertaking non-medical research in a medical setting where the work environment is only slowly coming to terms with adapting a more managerial philosophy whilst being, traditionally, hostile to managerialism. These issues are discussed, the perspectives of the team members (both hospital based and university based) are explored and learning points for future projects are outlined.
`A Dubious Equality': Men, Women and Cosmetic Surgery
Authors: DAVIS KATHY
Published: March 2007

Until recently, cosmetic surgery was associated almost exclusively with women. However, men appear to be altering their appearance in increasing numbers. Both the media and the medical profession have seized upon this phenomenon as just one more example of the growing equality between the sexes, arguing that it is just a matter of time before men are having just as much cosmetic surgery as women. In this article, I take issue with the notion of the `new' sexual equality in the realm of appearance and women and men's involvement in the practice of cosmetic surgery. To this end, representations of the male cosmetic surgery patient in the media and in medical texts will be analyzed. Drawing upon contemporary theories of masculinity, I will show why, contrary to popular belief, we have every reason to expect that cosmetic surgery will remain a predominantly feminine practice.
Body, Mimesis and Childhood in Adorno, Kafka and Freud
Authors: CONNELL MATT F.
Published: March 2007

The viscerally Freudian elements of Adorno's use of the concept of mimesis interweave with readings of Kafka in which certain thoughts about childhood play an important role. The first section of this article links biological mimicry with critical theory and art: both mimic what they criticize, while also conserving a repressed and childlike mimetic relationship with otherness and sexual difference. Adorno criticizes both the civilized repression of the mimetic impulse and its subsequently distorted return, a dialectic neglected by direct appeals to mimesis. Good art tries to extricate itself from these distortions. Conversely, the second section of this article explores Adorno's suggestion that fascistic psychology is a refuge for a twisted mimesis of mimesis, which gratifies the worst side of repressed nature while ideologically appealing to the best. Anti-Semitic humour shows how the fascist mimics his own aggressive fantasy of natural law, while secretly envying the closeness to nature he thinks he detects in other races. The final section uses Freud's theories on sympathetic and sadistic comedy to unpack Adorno's readings of Kafka and Mörike. Adorno's critical recuperation of mimetically childlike moments of ridiculousness in art clarifies his differentiation of the varieties of mimesis, as well as countering the gloomy stereotype of the humourless intellectual. But the black side of Adorno's use of laughter dialectically maintains his commitment to painfully remembering the victims of history.
Parenting in the USA: Growing Adversity
Authors: Long Nicholas
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on a discussion of selected social and economic stressors facing an increasing number of US families. The specific stressors discussed are violence, poverty and single-parent families. Such stressors have both a direct and an indirect impact on children. It is asserted that parenting (including parental functioning) is a primary mediating and/or moderating variable in regard to the indirect impact these stressors have on many children, especially young children. It is recommended that programs targeting the impact of adversity on children should take a broad ecological approach including a focus not only on the children but also on their parents.
Engaging Children - How?: A Paediatrician's Perspective
Authors: Bush Andrew
Published: March 2007

This is a personal practice paper on communication with children. The requirements for success include setting up the right environment and ensuring privacy. Although parents' views are important, children deserve time and space for their own voices to be heard. Age-appropriate communication and absolute honesty are essential. Strategies that I have found useful are discussed, together with their considerable limitations. Despite every care, humbling failure is frequent, as in all aspects of dealing with children. One then has to forgive oneself, learn what lessons one can, and start again.
Maternal Representation Reassessed
Authors: Larney Berinda , Cousens Penelope , Nunn Kenneth Patrick
Published: March 2007

This article reports the possible clinical implications of an empirical examination of mental representations, in particular that of maternal representations before and after the birth of a first child. The study investigates maternal representations including the mental organization of perceptions, thoughts and feelings of priminparous women during the third trimester (seventh month) of pregnancy and four months postbirth. We focus on the representations that a woman has of herself, her baby, of her partner, herself as mother and her own mother during pregnancy and the impact of a major life event, namely the birth of the child on those representations.
The Use of Secure Accommodation for Adolescent Girls who Engage in Severe and Repetitive Self-Injurious Behaviour
Authors: Epps Kevin
Published: March 2007

Among the small number of girls detained in secure accommodation, severe and repetitive self-injurious behaviour (SIB) appears to be a significant problem. Effective management programmes must consider access to objects used for SIB, staff supervision, use of physical restraint and search procedures, consent to medical treatment, and effects on the peer group. Intervention programmes should be based on an analysis of the meaning and function of self-injury in individual cases, using information obtained through behavioural observation and interview. The effect on staff team behaviour and the extent to which SIB provides rewarding consequences require particular attention. Interventions to address associated emotional and psychological problems, such as the effects of childhood sexual abuse, are often not feasible within secure settings due to time factors and the reluctance of some girls to engage in therapy. Progress that is made in secure settings is often not maintained upon transfer to open settings due to insufficient service integration and a lack of time available for the generalization of behavioural change. Research is needed into outcomes and into the effectiveness of intervention programmes in secure settings. Only then will it be possible to make a realistic cost-benefit analysis of placing self injurious girls in secure settings.
Assessment of the Quality of Life of Children
Authors: Titman Penny , Smith Marjorie , Graham Philip
Published: March 2007

Quality-of-life measures in adults have received increasing attention in recent years and have been used for a number of different purposes and in varied circumstances. In health care particularly, they have been used as a useful addition to other outcome measures, and there are now several measures that are widely used. There are fewer available measures for clinicians working with children, and none that is widely used. Most of the existing measures for children utilize an adult model of quality of life. The rationale and need for quality of life measures for children are reviewed, and special issues relevant to the measurement of quality of life in children are discussed. The article also contains descriptive reviews of some of the available measures for children. We conclude that problems in existing measures must raise concerns about the practical implications of their use in making health-policy decisions or in allocating resources, though they show promise for use in the evaluation of treatments.
Health Beliefs and Myths in Child and Adolescent Practice
Authors: Hardwick Peter
Published: March 2007

Health and illness beliefs - sometimes more aptly described as myths - frequently contribute to stuckness and dysfunction in families coming to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. This article examines the influence of some commonly presenting medical beliefs/attitudes on family and individual functioning. Misperceptions and myths about illness, although particularly common in children, are probably underrecognized and thus are given special emphasis. An attempt is made to explore the origins of dysfunctional health beliefs in terms of culture, previous family and medical history, and problems in relationships with health professionals. Details are given of some ways to tackle these beliefs in therapy employing systemic and cognitive approaches. These include the use of curiosity, scientific partnerships, the `as though' technique and genograms. A step towards prevention would be better training in psychological aspects of medicine for health professionals in all specialities, in addition to improving education for the public in health matters.
A Clinical Model for Parenting Juvenile Offenders: A Comparison of Group Care Versus Family Care
Authors: Chamberlain Patricia , Moore Kevin
Published: March 2007

Treatment foster care, an intervention model that offers an alternative to group residential care for serious chronic juvenile offenders is described along with results of a study comparing outcomes for boys who participated in treatment foster care (TFC) and group care (GC) placements. The TFC approach is an extension of the parent-mediated treatments that have previously been shown to be effective in working with children with aggression and antisocial behavior problems. In TFC, community families were recruited and trained to provide placements for study boys. One boy was placed per home. GC boys were placed with 6-15 others with similar delinquency problems. For boys in both conditions, they and their adult caretakers participated in an assessment 3 months after initial placement. The assessment was designed to evaluate key treatment process variables thought to predict later outcomes: the extent to which the boy was well supervised, the level of consistent discipline he received, the extent to which he associated with delinquent peers, and the quality of the boy's relationship with his adult caretaker. Results on these variables are presented, as are results on outcomes: subsequent arrests, program completion rates, rates of running away from placement and number of days incarcerated in follow-up. A brief case study is included to illustrate the TFC treatment approach.
Translating Parenting Research into Clinical Interventions for Families of Adolescents
Authors: Liddle Howard A. , Rowe Cynthia , Dakof Gayle , Lyke Jennifer
Published: March 2007

The contributions of parenting to the adolescent's psychosocial development have become the focus of increased attention by researchers and clinicians alike. Although parents face the difficult challenge of providing increasing levels of autonomy to the maturing adolescent while peers become more central to the adolescent's life, parents continue to exert significant influence throughout this developmental stage. Significant progress in this research specialty has been highlighted by researchers, assisting in the specification of developmentally sensitive interventions for problem adolescents. We review selective, clinically relevant research on parenting during the adolescent transition in order to demonstrate how interventions can be informed by basic developmental research. The clinical implications of parenting within the adolescent developmental research are emphasized throughout the review. A particular intervention module, a parental reconnection intervention, which has been used in the context of a family-based intervention, Multidimensional Family Therapy is described as a prototype of an empirically based treatment component.
Children with Failure to Thrive, Epilepsy and STI/AIDS: Indigenous Taxonomies, Attributions and Ritual Treatments
Authors: Eisenbruch Maurice
Published: March 2007

International child mental health has few anthropological signposts. In most developing countries, there are no child mental health professions. Instead, the traditional healers deal with routine physical and emotional disorders. In an effort to better understand how Cambodian families feel about sick children, three child-hood conditions were considered. (1) The `good' or `bad' mother, through traditional diagnosis and treatment of repeated failure to thrive and dying babies; (2) mother-child bonding and interaction, through notions of the `preceding mother' as a cause of childhood epilepsy and techniques to break the child's bonds with its previous life; (3) genetics and inheritance of illness, through the understanding of the transmission from ancestors and parents to children of illnesses such as lameness, intellectual slowness, leprosy, furunculosis and STI/AIDS. Participant observation was carried out with 921 male and female traditional healers (kruu, monks, Buddhist ritual assistants, mediums and traditional birth attendants) from all provinces of Cambodia. Where possible, their diagnostic techniques and therapeutic rituals with infants and children were recorded. The healers' knowledge of local taxonomy, aetiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment, showed up powerfully the popular beliefs about the main conditions affecting children in Cambodia. The results also helped to identify the Cambodian logic of the child's mind and body; time, epigenesis and child development; cause-and-effect; and gender, guilt and responsibility for childhood illness. This information can improve the clinical management of troubled children of immigrants from Cambodia and neighbouring countries. It questions the headlong rush in the Asia-Pacific region to `modernize' child psychiatry at the expense of local systems. Beyond this, it will shed light on the cross-cultural psychobiology of child development.
Racial Differences in Physical and Mental Health
Authors: Williams David R. , Yan Yu  , Jackson James S. , Anderson Norman B.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the extent to which racial differences in socio-economic status (SES), social class and acute and chronic indicators of perceived discrimination, as well as general measures of stress can account for black-white differences in self-reported measures of physical and mental health. The observed racial differences in health were markedly reduced when adjusted for education and especially income. However, both perceived discrimination and more traditional measures of stress are related to health and play an incremental role in accounting for differences between the races in health status. These findings underscore the need for research efforts to identify the complex ways in which economic and non-economic forms of discrimination relate to each other and combine with socio-economic position and other risk factors and resources to affect health.
A Cross-sectional Survey of Menopausal Status, Symptoms and Psychological Distress in a Community Sample of Australian Women
Authors: Slaven Lorraine , Lee Christina
Published: March 2007

While many researchers assume the menopause to be an endocrine deficiency disease, others argue that menopause is normally non-traumatic, associated with few and minor symptoms. An Australian sample of 304 female volunteers (128 pre-menopausal, 35 peri-menopausal, 80 post- menopausal and not taking hormone replacement therapy, 61 post-menopausal and taking hormone replacement therapy) completed the Women's Health Questionnaire and the Profile of Mood States. There were differences among the groups on some symptoms, although the only difference between the post-menopausal groups was on vasomotor symptoms. There were no between-group differences in depression, anxiety or mood states, nor did demographic variables affect these measures. There was no evidence that post-menopausal women experienced increased psychological distress, supporting the hypothesis that menopause is not particularly distressing for normal women.
Young Women's Accounts of Sexual Activity and Sexual/ Reproductive Health
Authors: Woollett Anne , Marshall Harriette , Stenner Paul
Published: March 2007

The accounts of sexual activity and sexual health from group discussions with young women living in a variety of ethnic communities in East London, UK, were examined. Thematic decomposition was employed to explicate a number of themes: sex as technical knowledge; sexual intercourse as intimacy; naturalizing sexual activity as part of adolescent development; constraints on being sexually active and relations with young men; and constructions of young women's sexual activity within the family. These themes are discussed in terms of the salience of various complex and sometimes contradictory meanings of sex for young women, the social and cultural contexts in which young women are sexually active and seek to negotiate 'safe sex' and the implications for sex and health education addressed to young people.
The Tree, the Tower and the Shaman
Authors: Butler Beverley
Published: March 2007

This paper, 'The tree, the Tower and the Shaman', is a bricolage of comment, analysis, critique, oral testimony and myth, the 'subject' of which is the material culture of one specific urban landscape - Claremont Road. My text explores the ways in which a study of material culture offers us an insight into the cultures of resistance that inhabited this particular space in protest against the British National Roads Programme, and similarly, the impli cations of these findings for subsequent critiques of museology, space and 'everyday life'. Claremont Road, whilst functioning as a critique of the 'auto'-(mobile) culture, also functioned as an auto-critique of both the domi nant museum culture and of 'traditional' definitions of material culture. I posit that the culture of resistance created at Claremont, the people who inhabited the space and the rituals performed here functioned as an 'auto' critic of everyday life, and that the art, the artefacts and the landscape itself were purposefully (re)-created to 'display' and to confront this potential. Thus the Claremont Road experience offers an insight, a clarity: a parody, an inversion and a subversion of 'ordinary' perspectives; with this co existed/co-exists alternative visions. What emerges from this study are the various, often competing, ways of seeing and experiencing the urban environment, materiality, democracy, partisan politics, social identities, ritual performance, time, place and everyday life. The 'common ground' or praxis is located in the transforming potential of 'contact'.
A Design for Life
Authors: Last Jonathan
Published: March 2007

The 'art' discovered by James Mellaart at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey has generated enormous interest, scholarly and popular, over the last 30 years. This paper presents a critique of previous approaches to what is one of the best-known bodies of iconographic evidence in the archaeo logical literature, arguing that these interpretations fail to address the intimate, domestic context of the murals and mouldings. Instead they should be understood in terms of the routinized practices occurring within the same architectural spaces, which reflect their past interpretations and embodied experience. This mode of archaeological interpretation is developed in relation to the methodology adopted in new excavations at Çatalhöyük during 1995-7.
Is There a Link between Engineering and Autism?
Authors: Baron-Cohen Simon , Wheelwright Sally , Stott Carol , Bolton Patrick , Goodyer Ian
Published: March 2007

Autism is a severe childhood neuropsychiatric condition with a substantial genetic component. At the cognitive level children with autism are impaired in the development of their folk psychology, seict while they are normal or even superior in the development of their folk physics. We predicted that if their parent shared this cognitive phenotype, then they should be over-represented in engineering as an occupation. This prediction was confirmed. Both fathers and grand-fathers of children with autism were found more than twice as often in the field of engineering, compared with fathers and grandfathers of other children. This link between autism and engineering may throw light not only on autism itself, but ultimately on the genetic basis of two essential human abilities: folk psychology and folk physics.
Native Savant Talent and Acquired Skill
Authors: Pring Linda , Hermelin Beate , Buhler Michael , Walker Iain
Published: March 2007

The paper represents an attempt to evaluate the effect of professional art training on savant artistic ability, and focuses on the work of the artist Stephen Wiltshire. It was undertaken jointly by two of Stephen's own tutors at art school and the two principal authors. The context of the research was, by its nature, not experimental but attempted to look at possible artistic and technical developments in relation to characteristics of autistic savant abilities. Savant ability has often been regarded as a fixed entity which cannot be accounted for solely in terms of continuous practice. There have however been few reports of the effect of expert tuition. As the young savant artist investigated here had previously almost exclusively used line drawing, and had rarely employed tonal values (shading), this dimension was focused upon as giving a possible indication of the effectiveness of teaching. In addition, structured interviews concerned with a detailed analysis of Stephen's work showed that although there was considerable progress during his college attendance, autism also appeared to set limits to Stephen's artistic development in regard to artistic intentions and subject agenda.
Gains in Literacy through the Use of a Spcially Developed Multimedia Computer Strategy
Authors: Tjus Tomas , Heimann Mikael , Nelson Keith E.
Published: March 2007

The present study investigates the use of a specially developed multimedia program for enhancing language and reading development in children with autism. Thirteen children with autism(mean chronological age 9:8 years, mental age 7:3 years and language age 5:2 years) participated in the study. All the children used the program as a supplement to their ordinary reading and language training. A quasi-experimental design that included measures of reading and phonological awareness during baseline, treatment, and follow-up phases was used throughout. Highly significant gains were observed for both reading and phonological awareness during the treatment phase. A significant effect was also observed for phonology at follow-up, but not for reading. A response time index also revealed that reading became more rapid following intervention. It is concluded that the intervention improved reading and language development and that children with autism with various cognitive abilities might benefit from a strategy that combines a motivating multimedia program with focused and positive interactions with the teacher.
Case Study
Authors: Lynch Susan
Published: March 2007

After 1 year of treatment using intensive behavioural methods a 7-year-old girl with autism has shown improvement, particularly in language. From being unable to repeat one sound, the child can now say over 150 different words and sounds and match words to objects. She is able to make her needs known orally, and her attention and concentration have increased greatly. She is able to obey requests. Self-stimulating behaviour has decreased. She is affectionate and happy the majority of the time. The Option method was used during the previous 2 years but it is suggested that the improvement results from the current treatment. A video has been made which illustrates the various methods of teaching and tracks the improvement of the child over the last 2 years. This paper reviews the methods used in the treatment.
Orthodoxy and Advocacy in Criminology
Authors: WADDINGTON P. A.J.
Published: March 2007

In his belated riposte to my critique of the `critical consensus' (P.A.J. Waddington, 1991), David Waddington (1998) seeks to defend the conceptual adequacy and methodological integrity of that position, and especially his own `flashpoints' model (D. Waddington et al., 1987, 1989). In this reply, I demonstrate that not only is his defence unconvincing, but my original critique can be further developed. Conceptually, the notion of `precipitating incidents' is inevitably applied ex post facto, but also compresses complex patterns of interaction into a single, arbitrary incident and, furthermore, relies upon an impoverished notion of the crowd. Methodologically, lack of equivocation and hesitancy are no substitute for careful and systematic recording of what occurs. The `critical consensus' remains not only value-ladened, but advocacy. Moreover, it illustrates a characteristic feature of social movements/moral entrepreneurs: the attempt to `frame' events so as to cast claimants as `victims'. Indeed, there seem to be good grounds for regarding the `critical consensus' as simply part of a wider social movement that received political impetus from the riots of the early 1980s.
The Sociology of Corporate Crime: An Obituary
Authors: SNIDER LAUREEN
Published: March 2007

This article makes three arguments: first, that the brand of state regulation known as corporate crime has basically disappeared; second, that it has been argued into obsolescence through neoliberal knowledge claims advanced through specific discourses by powerful elites; and third, that the acceptance of these knowledge claims cannot be understood without examining their relationship to the corporate counter-revolution that has, over the last two decades, legitimized virtually every acquisitive, profit-generating act of the corporate sector, transforming the developed (and developing) world.
The Remarkable Persistence of a Flawed Theory:
Authors: COSTELLO BARBARA J.
Published: March 2007

Cultural deviance theorists' standard response to theoretical critiques is that the critics have not carefully read the original sources, resulting in a misunderstanding of the perspective. In response to my recent critique of the cultural deviance perspective, Matsueda (1997) follows this standard practice. He claims that my critique is based on false premises, thereby obviating the need to respond to my argument that cultural deviance theory is logically untenable.

Anticipating such reactions, I adopted the strategy of relying heavily on direct quotes from cultural deviance theorists' original works to support my arguments (Sutherland, 1947; Akers, 1973, 1996; Matsueda, 1982, 1988; Sutherland, Cressey, and Luckenbill, 1992). But because Matsueda did not sufficiently use the same strategy, many of his points are unconvincing. Here I provide additional evidence supporting my original positions, and demonstrate that many of Matsueda's responses to my critique create additional logical and empirical problems for the theory.
The Ecological Impact of Illicit Drug Cultivation and Crop Eradication Programs in Latin America
Authors: DEL OLMO ROSA
Published: March 2007

The interaction between the international drug trade and enforcement inspired drug war generates many negative consequences. One of the most significant yet under-emphasized of these is the impact on the environment. Placing this issue on the agenda for a green criminology, this article describes the history, politics and ecological impact of the use of herbicides and other chemicals in drug-crop eradication programs. It also draws attention to the environmental problems caused by the disposal of chemical wastes produced in the manufacturing of drugs. Further research is needed on these subjects and criminologists and other specialists from beyond Latin America should be contributing to this.
Violence, Masculinity and Evolution:
Authors: POLK KENNETH
Published: March 2007

While considerable research exists demonstrating that forms of violence such as homicide are fundamentally masculine in character, few satisfactory explanations have emerged in criminology regarding why it is that males account for so much violence. Wilson and Daly are an exception to this observation, and their theoretical work is focused precisely on the issue of the masculinity of violence. Their explanation is grounded in evolutionary psychology which argues that aggressive and violent masculinity evolved as a feature of reproductive success in ancestral environments. The present article argues that the concepts developed by these writers are rich in their potential for use in empirical research, much more so than the concepts and ideas that are part of either traditional methods of studying violence (such as the use of concepts like `relational distance'), or current theories of violence such as those proposed by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), or by Katz (1988). At the same time, we have just begun to explore the nature of evolutionary arguments about violence, especially in terms of how these might account for variations between different cultures, and cultural variations over time.
Social Realities of Loss and Suffering Following Mastectomy
Authors: Crouch Mira , McKenzie Heather
Published: March 2007

This article draws on personal accounts of women’s thoughts and feelings following mastectomy. The analysis of the material obtained in multiple, focused interviews has revealed two major themes in these accounts: on the one hand, the loss of bodily symmetry (one of the basic cultural criteria of physical beauty) was deeply felt; and on the other, peace of mind (a characteristic of psychological beauty) was permanently disturbed by the fear of the recurrence of cancer and the possibility of death. While the asymmetrical body is a potentially (socially) visible problem of presentation and representation, the fear of recurrence is a fear of the workings of the body that are not visible and not knowable. A woman who has had a breast removed will concern herself, usually in isolation, with her secret unpredictable interior. This fear will be her very own preoccupation, not only because in our society death and disease are deemed threatening and ugly – but also because the uncertainty of the health-status of a woman following mastectomy is socially (as well as medically) veiled by discourse which assumes that she is ‘well’. Though a woman may feel well, she fears that her body may not be well; yet her fear is necessarily silenced through both social denial and incongruity with experience. The article explores in some detail the nature of the stress that inevitably results in this ill-understood, complex situation.
Cancer in the News: Religious Themes in News Stories about People with Cancer
Authors: Seale Clive
Published: March 2007

The prevalence of religious themes in 258 news stories of 382 people with cancer is reported in a study of the anglophone press. Such themes are rare, even in news reports from the USA, where other indicators suggest a high level of religiosity in the population. For the 35 people where religious themes are present, religion is portrayed as a marginal set of beliefs. Thus religious belief is associated with membership of a minority ethnic group, outmoded traditional authority, a matter of last resort after medicine has failed, or as childlike. Nevertheless, people with cancer are portrayed as preoccupied with issues of responsibility and moral character that have traditionally been addressed in religious discourse. The view that these preoccupations are addressed by depicting cancer as a psychological journey is considered.
Sex Education as Disciplinary Technique: Policy and Practice in England and Wales
Authors: Thorogood Nicki
Published: March 2007

The education of young people about `sex' remains a contentious area. It is suggested that this is because of the socially symbolic nature of sex and the necessary policing of the boundaries of heterosexuality. It is argued that sex education is a technique of governance. Forms of Sex Education are considered in relation to legislation over the last two decades and two models of sex education are proposed, that of `restricted information' and of `empowerment'. This latter seeks to challenge the normativity of functional sex education and to validate the experience of the `sexual other'. It is suggested that by so doing these alternatives also become subject to regulation and monitoring.
The Boy Scouts and the `Girl Question'
Authors: Pryke Sam
Published: March 2007

This article examines the attitude of the early Boy Scouts movement to sexual relationships between boys and girls. The Scouts were founded by Baden-Powell in 1907 to try and reverse the perceived physical and moral deterioration of British youth. Though he was not involved with the subsequent `girl problem', the episode was in keeping with his attempt to instil order and respectability in British youth, especially the working class. Going further than other Edwardian youth organizations, a number of Scoutmasters proposed that girls were unsettling and distracting boys and contributing to the decline of the nation. In part they perceived the Scouts and the Guides as a means to constructively occupy British youth, given the temptation of `walking out'. Although the attempt to stop boys and girls going out with each other was abandoned by the Scout Association in 1917, Baden-Powell took up the issue of heterosexual relationships in his writings of the early 1920s. His advice to boys recognized sexual pleasure but warned of the dangers of certain `girls' and counselled against pre-marital sex. The article concludes by reiterating what the episode reflected: class snobbery, fears surrounding the city, the invention of adolescence, a fear of female sexuality, eugenics and social purity.
HIV Prevention Rationalities and Serostatus in the Risk Narratives of Gay Men
Authors: Davis Mark
Published: March 2007

This article examines the rationalistic aspects of HIV prevention discourse. Self-protection, altruistic and egalitarian rationalities are examined from the perspectives of self-regulation, surveillance medicine and risk identity. These themes are examined through 16 in-depth interviews with HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men in relation to the (dis)order produced in risk administration. The analysis exposes some contradictions, the unequal relations of HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men and links with notions of risky sex such as `barebacking'. Some implications are identified, including the need for critical reflexivity in HIV prevention and an engagement with practices of resistance.
Defiance or Defilement? Undressing Cross-dressing in Martinique's Carnival
Authors: Murray David A.B.
Published: March 2007

During the four days of street parades in Martinique's Carnival, a large number of male spectators and parade participants dress and act as women. The vast majority of these men are self-described heterosexuals, and their behaviour is all the more perplexing given the homophobic and generally rigid definition of masculinity in Martinique. This paper explores various interpretations of the meaning of cross-dressing. I argue that the meaning of Carnival cross-dressing is dependent on a nexus of particular historical, cultural and gendered forces which do not align to form a singular socio-cultural paradigm but rather exist in a shifting relationship dependent upon speaker and context.
`That's Like my Life': Researching Stories of Non-heterosexual Relationships
Authors: Heaphy Brian , Weeks Jeffrey , Donovan Catherine
Published: March 2007

The article considers key methodological issues that have emerged in a study of the structure and meaning of non-heterosexual (lesbian, gay, bisexual or `queer') relationships. Despite an increasing public profile, the developing patterns of `families of choice' remain under-researched, and give rise to important theoretical questions about identity, intimacy and sexuality. The authors discuss the problems of accessing a `hidden' population, non-heterosexuals' motivation for being researched, and the difficulties of defining sexual identities. A focus on interviewing highlights the complex nature of the concepts and vocabularies that we employ to make sense of relationships, the elements at play in the formation of interview accounts of intimate life, and the issue of boundaries in research on the intimate. The article concludes by considering the validity of respondents' accounts of their lives, and the research narratives that result.