In a wide range of counselling situations, including those involving offenders, researchers have bemoaned the lack of consensus about outcome. Some researchers have argued that a lack of consensus is due to the fact that the different sources retain unique points of view, which can never be amalgamated into a common outcome. The current paper argues that, while sources will have their own unique perspective, it is possible to develop a meaningful consensus, if it is done very carefully. The factors which need to be taken into consideration are: measuring different outcomes; the different interpretation of the question by each source; and bias. An important outcome in correctional settings is an offender's current level of criminality, or likelihood of reoffending. It was hypothesised that the 12 Probation and Parole Officers' predictions about the likelihood of recidivism of 368 offenders would correlate with fresh charges recorded within 12 months by the Magistrates Court. This hypothesis was supported. It was also hypothesised that the Level of Service Inventory - Revised (LSI-R) would also correlate with fresh charges and that the former correlation would be different to the latter. While the LSI-R did correlate significantly with fresh charges, the predictions of the Probation and Parole Officers were not significantly different. The use of correlation coefficients to assess predictive validity has been criticised as they are affected by base rates of offending and selection ratios of offenders to high and low risk categories. However when a more appropriate statistical tool, the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) was employed, the results were not substantially different. The predictive abilities of offenders was also tested against the same criterion and Intersource Agreement on the Prediction Recidivism were found sorely wanting, failing to correlate with fresh charges or any of the other predictive measures. It is argued that the offenders failed to predict accurately because of bias and/or poor ability to predict their own behaviour. The ability of the Probation and Parole Officers to predict reoffending to a much greater level than usually recorded in the criminological literature was ascribed to the higher level of information about their own predictive abilities, through a natural feedback mechanism which does not usually apply to professionals making clinical predictions about recidivism, and to training in predictors of reoffending which they received when they were trained in the administration of the LSI-R. It was also found that the ability of the LSI-R to predict recidivism was improved by incorporating offender age through linear regression. Suggestions were made for improving consensus among sources in counselling outcome studies. In particular, it was noted that sources do not necessarily interpret the question in the manner the researcher desires and it may be necessary to test the subjects' ability to distinguish between similar questions when this distinction is important.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / Vita. Appendices: leaves 192-211. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-227).

Forskning har visat att människor i allmänhet har positiva attityder till polisen. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka ungdomars attityder till den svenska polisen. Det undersöktes om polisens olika grad av våldsamt agerande påverkade deltagarnas uppfattningar och om attityderna skilde sig gentemot kvinnliga respektive manliga ordningspoliser. En egenkonstruerad enkät innehållande fyra olika berättelser delades ut i tre gymnasieskolor. Deltagarna var 88 unga kvinnor och 42 unga män som studerade på föreläsningsbaserade program. Resultatet visade att de flesta deltagare hade en positiv attityd. Resultatet visade även att ju mer våldsamt agerande desto mindre professionell, hänsynstagande och mer känslostyrd uppfattades polisen som. Det fanns inte någon skillnad mellan attityderna till kvinnliga respektive manliga poliser. För hänsynstagande och affekt visade dock resultatet en tendens till en interaktionseffekt mellan polisens kön och våldsamhet. Detta kan bero på att det fortfarande kan finnas stereotypa könsuppfattningar hos deltagarna för vissa attribut hos polisen.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-258). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Warfare Systems Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Arquilla, John. Second Reader: Iatrou, Steve. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 27, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Weapons of mass distruction, NES National Election Studies, public opinion, Vietnam war, Iraq war, President Johnson, Presisent Bush. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-94). Also available in print.

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-168).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 298-300).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-258). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-168).

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, Ill., 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-54).