Probation, credibility and justice

This paper explores the difficulties that arise for probation agencies or those that deliver community sanctions in developing and maintaining their credibility in prevailing ‘late-modern’ social conditions. It begins by questioning the limits of the pursuit and promise of ‘public protection’ as a source of credibility, and then proceeds to examine the emergence of an alternative strategy – based principally on reparation and ‘payback’ – in Scotland, arguing that these Scottish developments have much to say to the emerging debates in England and Wales (and elsewhere) about the ‘rehabilitation revolution’ and the proper use of imprisonment. The paper provides a critical account of the development and meaning of the Scottish version of ‘payback’, linking it to some important philosophical and empirical studies that may help to steer the development of payback away from a ‘merely punitive’ drift. In the conclusion, I argue that probation agencies and services need to engage much more deeply and urgently with their roles as justice services, rather than as ‘mere’ crime reduction agencies

Gravitational Waves from Orphan Memory

Gravitational-wave memory manifests as a permanent distortion of an idealized gravitational-wave detector and arises generically from energetic astrophysical events. For example, binary black hole mergers are expected to emit memory bursts a little more than an order of magnitude smaller in strain than the oscillatory parent waves. We introduce the concept of "orphan memory": gravitational-wave memory for which there is no detectable parent signal. In particular, high-frequency gravitational-wave bursts ($\gtrsim$ kHz) produce orphan memory in the LIGO/Virgo band. We show that Advanced LIGO measurements can place stringent limits on the existence of high-frequency gravitational waves, effectively increasing the LIGO bandwidth by orders of magnitude. We investigate the prospects for and implications of future searches for orphan memory.Comment: 5 pages, 4figure

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Second-chance punitivism and the contractual governance of crime and incivility: New Labour, old Hobbes

The growing application of mechanisms of contractual governance to behaviour that breaches social norms, rather than the criminal law, appears to represent an ethopolitical concern with delinquent self-reform through the activation of technologies of the self. In fact, there is little empirical evidence that the contractual governance of incivility leads to such self-reform. Beneath the ideology of contractual agreement to observe social norms lies what this paper calls a ‘second-chance punitivism’ which operates to crystallise behavioural elements of the Hobbesian social contract, after breach, into a more specific form. The responsibilising and individualising properties of this form of contractual governance set the moral-ideological platform for a retributive punitivism, when the rational agents it creates fail to live up to their image, and are taken to have wasted their ‘second chance’

Duet for life: Is alexithymia a key note in couples’ empathy, emotional connection, relationship dissatisfaction, and therapy outcomes?

Alexithymia is an emotion-related construct involving difficulties identifying, describing, and processing emotion, which hinder the capacity to provide empathy, and the development of emotionally connected intimate relationships. To date, there has been minimal investigation of the impact of alexithymia on community couples’ relationships, no associated examination of clinical couples, and no consideration of therapists’ knowledge of alexithymia as a source of influence in couple therapy outcomes. Studies 1 and 2 investigated alexithymia in 170 community couples and 17 therapy couples, respectively, in association with their empathy provided, empathy received, emotional connection components (i.e., turn toward, turn away, turn against, positive emotional connection), and relationship dissatisfaction. Study 3 examined 61 couple therapists’ knowledge and experience of alexithymia. Alexithymia was assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), which generates a total alexithymia score, and three subscale scores of difficulty identifying feelings (DIF), difficulty describing feelings (DDF), and externally oriented thinking (EOT) (Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994). Empathy provided and empathy received were measured with the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (BLRI MO and OS; Barrett-Lennard, 1986). A scale was developed to assess the emotional connection components. Relationship dissatisfaction was measured with the revised Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI-R; Snyder, 1997). Therapists’ data were gathered via personal interviews. Findings for the community couples indicate that husbands’ and wives’ own TAS-20, DIF, and DDF predicted all of their own outcome variables in the expected positive and negative directions; their EOT predicted decreased empathy provided and increased turn against. Relationally, husbands’ and wives’ TAS-20 and DDF predicted lower empathy provided and empathy received in each other, and DDF also predicted higher partner relationship dissatisfaction. Clinical husbands’ TAS-20, DDF, and EOT were associated with decreases in their own empathy provided. These variables, plus DIF, were related to lower turn away in their wives. Clinical wives’ DIF was associated with their own decreased empathy provided and increased relationship dissatisfaction, and EOT was associated with increased turn away. Wives’ DDF was related to higher turn away in their husbands. Discrepancy analyses with the community couples found that husbands’ outcomes were predicted by discrepancies in TAS-20, DIF, DDF, and EOT, and wives’ outcomes were predicted by TAS-20 partner differences. The discrepancies between the partners predicted their empathy and emotional connection, and the effects varied for husbands and wives. Mediation analyses with the community couples indicate that for husbands, two pathways fully mediated the association between alexithymia and relationship dissatisfaction. One pathway was through lower empathy received, leading to higher turn away. The second pathway was through lower empathy received, leading to lower positive emotional connection. Two partial mediation pathways were found for wives. Comparisons between the community and clinical couples found no significant betweengroup differences on the alexithymia variables; however, a greater proportion of clinical husbands and wives had a high level of total alexithymia. Clinical partners were also significantly lower than community partners on empathy provided, empathy received, turn toward, and positive emotional connection, and higher on turn against, and relationship dissatisfaction. Additionally, clinical partners had significantly greater TAS-20 and DDF discrepancies when wives’ scores were higher than their husbands’ scores. Interviews with couple therapists found that, although therapists recognised the emotionrelated features of alexithymia, the majority of therapists had minimal awareness, or understanding, of the alexithymia construct. The findings are discussed in relational terms and with a focus on their potential to advance therapeutic practise and treatment outcomes for couples. Therapists’ low awareness of alexithymia is emphasised, as is the need to disseminate clinically based education about alexithymia

Reexamining evidence-based practice in community corrections: beyond 'a confined view' of what works

This article aims to reexamine the development and scope of evidence-based practice (EBP) in community corrections by exploring three sets of issues. Firstly, we examine the relationships between the contested purposes of community supervision and their relationships to questions of evidence. Secondly, we explore the range of forms of evidence that might inform the pursuit of one purpose of supervision—the rehabilitation of offenders—making the case for a fuller engagement with “desistance” research in supporting this process. Thirdly, we examine who can and should be involved in conversations about EBP, arguing that both ex/offenders’ and practitioners’ voices need to be respected and heard in this debate

Testing the Matching Hypothesis : Implementing a Minimal Stress Intervention by Matching Writing Task to Emotional Coping Style

The theory of inhibition and psychosomatic disease supports the concept that failure to express emotion is psychologically and physically stressful, and associated with long-term health problems. One aspect of this study was to investigate the discrepancy hypothesis proposing that specific emotional coping styles elicit patterns of discrepant self-report and physiological responses. The major focus of the study tested whether matching therapeutic writing tasks to specific emotional coping styles would significantly decrease stress and somatic symptoms, and whether mismatching such writing tasks to emotional coping styles would not decrease stress and somatic symptoms. Undergraduate students were identified as having an emotional coping style of either expression or repression. Within each expresser and repressor group, participants were randomly assigned to \u27profound\u27 or \u27distractor\u27 writing tasks. This served to both match and mismatch writing tasks to emotional coping styles. Pre-test and post-test measures of stress and somatic symptoms determined the effects of a two week writing intervention period. Data was analysed through a series of 2 x 2 x 2 (Timex Emotion Group x Intervention) split plot analysis of variance (SPANOVA) tests. The pattern of results did not support the discrepancy hypothesis, as repressors were slightly higher on all measures than expressers. Results of the matching hypothesis revealed reductions in stress over time that were not related to the writing tasks. Findings suggested influences of the Hawthorne effect and a placebo effect, whereby empathic acknowledgement and self-disclosure of a senior peer may have led to cognitive and emotional reappraisal, thereby leading to changes in stress related behaviour. Possible avenues for future research and cost effective interventions for universities are discussed

Noncontact GMR measurements of synthetic spin valves using IR reflection spectroscopy

The magnetorefractive effect has been used in infrared reflection spectroscopy to study the magnetotransport properties of synthetic spin valves. This optical noncontact technique shows excellent correlation with the electrical giant magnetoresistance data