Community concern about sexual offending places continued pressure on correctional services to refine treatment and reduce re-offending. While cognitive processes have been identified as a key element in the development and maintenance of sexual offending, more research on the precise nature of these processes is required. The current study, based on Ward and Siegert’s Pathways Model, involved 100 male offenders of various types: 25 intra – familial sex offenders against children, 25 extra-familial sex offenders against children, 25 sex offenders who chose adult victims, and 25 convicted of non-sexual offences. There was also a control group of 25 non-offenders. The quantitative data, derived from a series of questionnaires concerning childhood and sexual experiences, provided evidence that the two types of child sex offender differed from the other groups with respect to their expectations of sexual behaviour among children, their experience of sexual abuse and neglect as children themselves, and, paradoxically, their current high self-esteem. In addition, scripts relating to hypothetical consenting adult sexual relations and sexual contact with a child were collected from the 50 sex offenders against children. The script content suggested that, compared with intra - familial offenders, extra-familial offenders had notably unrealistic, naïve and romanticised scripts for adult relationships and more sophisticated scripts for offences against children. The latter suggested that scripts might serve as a mediating function in offending behaviour and that offenders acquired a degree of task domain expertise. Despite some inherent problems undertaking research with the sex-offender population, the findings confirmed that sex-offenders do not constitute a homogenous group and that the pathways model offers a unique perspective on how males become and develop their capacity as sex-offenders, how they sustain a positive view of themselves, and how they continue to commit offences. Finally, the model was considered in terms of its capacity to suggest ways to better target treatment efforts to specific groups of sexual offenders to further reduce their rate of recidivism / Doctor of Psychology (Clinical)

This exegesis explores the sacred, holy and commercial aspects of spring water as revealed by an exploration of the relationships of Indigenous Australians and non–Indigenous European Australians to spring water. As a non–Indigenous Australian migrant, my knowledge of Indigenous Australian spiritual and cultural matters was limited, as was knowledge of Indigenous Australian history, both pre- and post-European settlement. As a migrant, I have many memories and experiences of spring water at European wells, springs and places of pilgrimage where healing, both physical and spiritual was sought. In childhood, I enjoyed reading the many myths and legends that surround the magical, mysterious and often invisible resource of spring water. Realising that my current knowledge of spring water relied more on folklore and anecdotal information than on fact, I decided that the topic of spring water offered worthwhile opportunities for research. [...] The availability of spring water is being challenged on more than one front. This research explores and investigates the abundance of (particularly) art references to spring water in Indigenous Australian culture and traditions, while noting the dearth of art references relating specifically to spring water in non-Indigenous Australian culture; although an abundance of art references to water in general is revealed. In the latter context, references to art depicting aspects of the hydrologic cycle have been substituted and explored. / Master of Arts

Whilst the notion of the ‘Reflective Space’ could arguably encompass many conceptual positions and propositions, for the purposes of this research investigation the ‘Reflective Space’ referred to in the title of this exegesis will focus upon what I consider as an emerging and growing consciousness of the natural world. As a theoretical and conceptual construct, the investigation considers how this growing consciousness can be seen to be expressed through the medium of representations of the Australian landscape. This work considers a number of contemporary theoretical positions and a number of relevant social and political questions; it also acknowledges that within such spheres of reflection, the issue of being sustainable in relation to our interactions and perceptions of this natural world looms as perhaps one of the most pressing of our time. While it will be acknowledged that the depiction of landscape enjoys a long-standing tradition within the Australian cultural mind, the suggestion will be made that certain aspects of these visualisations can be seen to be ‘reflective’ of a visual, cultural and physical degradation, and indeed even an apprehension of the physical ‘space’ that is represented as landscape. The investigation considers and reflects upon what can be observed as contentious and ambivalent attitudes expressed towards landscape perceived through works of art. Strategies for adopting a perceptual visual ethic grounded within the concepts and principles of sustainability will be presented for consideration. By applying such modes of interpretation to perceptions of land and landscape depiction, new appreciations for the cultural ‘space’ that is landscape will be developed. Such understandings will consider and reflect upon the temporal nature of our natural world. The thesis is this: that to be able to think and act in a sustainable fashion in relation to our environment, our perceptions and interpretations of visualisations of landscape must include a recognition that the land is a ‘temporal’ space, in which past and possible futures are immanent in the present. / PhD (Visual Arts)

Univ., Diss.--Ulm, 2008.

Univ., Diss.--Hamburg, 2007.

Universiẗat, Diss.--Münster, 2008.

Pontificia Universidade Católica, Diss.--São Paulo, 2005.

Calif., Univ. of California, Diss.--Berkeley, 2004. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich.

University, Diss.--St. Gallen, 2007. / Auch als: Schriftenreihe innovative betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung und Praxis ; 211.

Humboldt-Univ., Diss.--Berlin, 2004.