Motivation for behavior change among sex offenders: a review of the literature

Motivation for behavior change is considered a crucial issue in the treatment of sex offenders. However, there has been no systematic investigation of this issue. The first aim of this review is to draw together the literature related to motivation for behavior change among sex offenders. The second aim is to highlight issues that need to be addressed to facilitate an empirical investigation of motivation for change among sex offenders. It is argued that a better understanding of motivation for change among sex offenders will contribute to enhancing the efficacy of treatment programs for these offenders.

The assessment of motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders against children: an investigation of the utility of the Stages of Change Questionnaire

A better understanding of motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders against children would improve treatment programmes designed to modify sexual offending behaviour. However, investigation of this issue is limited by lack of theoretically and empirically sound measures of motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders. This paper reports on two studies that were conducted to investigate the psychometric properties (validity, reliability, and social desirability) of the Stages of Change Questionnaire, adapted to measure motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders against children. In Study 1, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed for sex offenders against children (n=36) who were on a treatment waiting list. In Study 2, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed for sex offenders against children (n=47) at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, and post-treatment. Both studies supported the validity and reliability of the adapted Stages of Change Questionnaire, and the influence of social desirability upon responding was less than expected. The results of this investigation supported the potential utility of the Stages of Change Questionnaire as a measure of motivation for behaviour change for sex offenders against children.

The internet and competitive advantage : a study of Australia`s four premier professional sporting leagues

Sport and the Internet have shown early signs of a prosperous marriage. Web sites with sport content are among the most popular and well trafficked, with sport followers and web users sharing remarkably similar demographics. In the United States, the sport–Internet union is projected to generate US$6.27 billion in advertising revenue alone on sports-related web sites by 2005. Despite these compelling observations, limited empirical research has been undertaken exploring how to maximise the opportunities for competitive advantage that the Internet can provide to sport organisations. This research was a response to this void, and was undertaken in three stages. Initially, empirical and conceptual Internet literature was reviewed to establish theoretical “best practice”. Secondly, the Internet goals, strategies and practices of the 55 teams competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), National Basketball League (NBL), National Rugby League (NRL), and National Soccer League (NSL) were examined, using a telephone-administered survey. An 87% (N = 48) response rate was achieved. Finally, seven recommendations for closing this gap were made, including the implementation of Internet project teams and the instigation of league forums.

Growth of highly versus moderately trained competitive female artistic gymnasts

Purpose: To investigate whether growth was adversely affected in 137 young competitive female artistic gymnasts involved in different training volumes.

Methods: This was a 2-yr prospective cohort study in which height, sitting height, leg length, weight, skinfolds, and pubertal status were measured in competitive advanced (20–27 h·wk-1) and intermediate (7.5–22 h·wk-1) training level female gymnasts every 6–12 months. Biological parameters of the adolescent growth curve were estimated using the Preece–Baines growth model. Growth rates were estimated for both groups from the mixed-longitudinal data.

Results: Estimated ages at peak height velocity (PHV) (13–13.5 yr) and mean PHV (6.2–6.4 cm·yr-1) for the advanced- and intermediate-level gymnasts suggest that these gymnasts were later maturing and experienced a blunting of the growth spurt relative to reference values for U.S. youth. Comparison of growth velocities by pubertal status revealed that height velocity was lower in the advanced- versus the intermediate-level peripubertal gymnasts, which was due to a significant reduction in sitting height velocity (2.3 vs 3.1 cm·yr-1, P. < 0.05). No marked acceleration in height or sitting height velocity was detected in the advanced-level gymnasts from pre- to peripuberty. Inspection of individual growth rates revealed that over 35% of the pre- and peripubertal gymnasts experienced growth faltering (height velocity less than 4.5 cm·yr-1) during follow-up.

Conclusion: Advanced–and intermediate–training level competitive female gymnasts tend to exhibit an adolescent growth spurt that is similar in timing and tempo to short, normal, slowly maturing girls, but the high frequency of growth faltering suggests that training may alter the tempo of growth and maturation in some, but not all, female gymnasts.

Competitive interactions between the Australian native fish Galaxiasmaculatus and the exotic mosquitofish Gambusiaholbrooki,in a series of laboratory experiments

Competitive interactions between Galaxias maculatus, native to southeastern Australia, and Gambusia holbrooki, an exotic pest, were examined in relation to two types of artificial cover and a food source. Experiments were performed in an 800 l tank using photographic techniques. The relative distance of G. maculatus from cover or food source before and after the introduction of G. holbrooki were compared. Also, the proportions of the species were altered to examine the effects of unequal numbers on dominance behaviour. It was found that G. holbrooki was unable to out compete G. maculatus for either cover or food. The distance of G. maculatus from a food source was seen to increase following the introduction of G. holbrooki, when they outnumbered G. maculatus by 3 to 1. Although the distance from the food of G.maculatus increased following the introduction of G. holbrooki, in all cases the mean distance of G.␣maculatus from cover or food was less than that of G. holbrooki. Significant intra-species competition appeared to occur between G. maculatus and it may be that this competition had a greater effect than the competitive pressure G. holbrooki was able to place on the natives. This study revealed that the exotic pest species, G. holbrooki, could not out compete a small native Australian fish species.

E-Commerce, human resource strategies, and competitive advantage: two Australian banking case studies

Service organizations need to consider in depth the human resource management (HRM) strategies that will enable them to achieve sustained competitive advantage in the e-commerce era. This paper analyzes the HRM strategies developed to accommodate the changing customer service practices associated with B2C e-commerce in the retail banking sector. Based on case study data, it describes how two banks in Australia, one large, the other small, have linked their e-commerce strategies with their overall business strategy, and the extent to which their HRM strategies have helped them to utilize their e-commerce capability to achieve sustained competitive advantage.

The nature of corruption deterrence in a competitive media sector

This paper compares the deterrence provided by a competitive media sector towards government induced corruption with that of a media monopoly in a setting where the media might raise both true as well as false allegations of corruption. It finds that competition’s impact on corruption deterrence is not necessarily better than a monopoly but rather hinges on a delicate balance between government’s kickback from corruption and the media’s potential benefit from exposure. While the paper does identify conditions in which a competitive media sector would improve upon the deterrence provided by a monopoly, it also find conditions under which it would do no better than a monopoly and in some situations its strategic response could be even worse especially when it intensifies effort towards justifying false allegations.

A measure of 'high commitment organisation' performance values in sport management professionals and sport organisations

Many organizations have realized the growing importance of adopting a 'High Commitment Organization' (HCO) approach with a focus on shared values to assist them in meeting their competitive challenges. A survey questionnaire based on the McDonald and Gandz (1992) list of values, employing confirmatory and principal components analyses was used to create scales to (a) explore the importance the sport management professional placed on those values, (b) explore the individual's perception of the importance placed on those values by their employing organization, (c) to compare these hierarchies with the values of the HCO, and (d) to measure the extent of value congruence. Three clear sets of values emerged: Development / Adhocracy (D/A) Values, Humanistic / Clan (H/C) Values and Conformity / Hierarchy (C/H) Values. Findings indicate significant differences between sport management professionals' values and those of their organizations. Employees placed higher importance on (D/A) and (H/C) Values than their organizations, while Sport organizations placed higher importance on (C/H) Values than their employees. There is stronger support by individuals than organizations for the values underpinning the HCO approach. These levels of individual - organizational value incongruence have implications for individual job satisfaction, motivation and organizational effectiveness.

Solving regression problems using competitive ensemble models

The use of ensemble models in many problem domains has increased significantly in the last fewyears. The ensemble modeling, in particularly boosting, has shown a great promise in improving predictive performance of a model. Combining the ensemble members is normally done in a co-operative fashion where each of the ensemble members performs the same task and their predictions are aggregated to obtain the improved performance. However, it is also possible to combine the ensemble members in a competitive fashion where the best prediction of a relevant ensemble member is selected for a particular input. This option has been previously somewhat overlooked. The aim of this article is to investigate and compare the competitive and co-operative approaches to combining the models in the ensemble. A comparison is made between a competitive ensemble model and that of MARS with bagging, mixture of experts, hierarchical mixture of experts and a neural network ensemble over several public domain regression problems that have a high degree of nonlinearity and noise. The empirical results showa substantial advantage of competitive learning versus the co-operative learning for all the regression problems investigated. The requirements for creating the efficient ensembles and the available guidelines are also discussed.

Self-concept and motivation as predictors of actual consumer behaviour

The need to predict consumer behaviour outcomes is considered to be a very important issue for marketers. Isolated individual psychological constructs such as attitudes, motives, personality traits and learning styles have been used to identify their predictive capacity for actual consumer behaviour with varying degrees of success. This paper attempts to test
empirically the predictive power of two constructs, motivation and self-concept, regarding business consumer’s actions in a service context, using an Australian representative sample.

Competitive sorption of intermixed heavy metals in water repellent soil in Southern Australia

In water repellent soil, Cr, Pb and Cu showed higher adsorption intensities than Zn, Cd and Ni did. Soil water repellency is much more widespread than formerly thought. In order to promote fertility and productivity, the irrigation of recycled water onto water repellent soil may be an applied technology to be used in some areas of Southern Australia. Therefore, heavy metals in recycled water potentially enter into the soil. The competitive sorption and retention capacity of heavy metals in soil are important to be determined, especially considering the special geochemical origin of water repellent soil that was caused by waxes on or between the soil particles. Batch equilibrium sorption experiments on Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in their typical proportion in recycled water were conducted in water repellent soil. The sorption intensity, sorption isotherm in the experiments together showed that Cr, Pb and Cu have higher sorption intensity than those of Zn, Ni and Cd in the competitive system. The risk assessment for the application of recycled water onto water repellent soil is definitely necessary, especially for the metal cations with relatively weak sorption.