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This article presents an evaluation of the Client Management Classification System (CMC), a method for assessment and differential supervision of offenders that embodies the principle of responsivity. As in prior evaluations of the CMC, probationers whose officers were trained in CMC techniques experienced lower rates of revocation compared with regularly supervised subjects. However, the experimental group incurred similar or higher rates of rules violations and arrests. Of particular interest, the study found that supervision of experimental subjects did not conform to recommended CMC strategies. In combination, these results suggest the possibility that training in CMC successfully heightened officers' understanding of offender motivations and needs, leading them to view probationer misconduct in a more lenient and flexible context--and thereby producing the appearance of favorable outcomes. The findings have implications for the design of evaluations of efforts to implement principles of effective offender treatment in community corrections agencies. (Contains 7 tables and 13 notes.)

Biodiversity in aquatic microbial communities was manipulated to show that ecosystem respiration increases in predictability as biodiversity increases. Biodiversity was also found to improve predictability in terrestrial ecosystems, and affect levels of ecosystem performance. Strong effects continue even after ecosystems develop.

Offers suggestions for building oral communication programs. (FL)

Lenient treatment of juvenile delinquents--based on beliefs concerning the relative lack of seriousness of juvenile crimes--was explored by asking prosecutors in one New Jersey county to rate the seriousness of behaviors of 468 adults and 474 juveniles charged with assault or robbery. More precise measures of seriousness are needed. (TJH)

Preoccupation of criminologists with juvenile-onset criminal careers overshadows the fact that offenders who begin their criminal careers in adulthood comprise a substantial portion of adult offender populations. Little is known about adult-onset offenders, generally, and even less about first-time adult-onset offenders. Using a large sample of adult felons on probation supervision, this study explores differences between first and repeat offenders. With respect to risk factors at intake, timing of rearrest, and frequency and nature of supervision failures over 3 years, first-time adult-onset participants exhibited statistically significant differences in relation to both repeat adult-onset and juvenile persistent offenders, with largest differences occurring in analyses involving the latter. With respect to risk factors at intake and rearrest, events in adulthood played a more dominant role among first-time adult-onset offenders compared with other groups, where criminal lifestyle factors were in greater evidence. The article concludes with a discussion of community supervision practices to prevent the progression of the first-time adult-onset offender’s criminal career, social reforms to assist this group, and avenues for relevant future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To date, no published research has examined the role played by race and ethnicity in revocation decision-making, despite the fact that revocation of community supervision is a source of substantial admissions to prison. Using a large cohort of subjects sentenced to felony probation in a large south central state, we conduct main and indirect effects analyses to test the hypothesis that odds of revocation will be highest for those offenders who are young, male, black or Hispanic, and unemployed. Results coincide with outcomes of recent studies that focus on the interaction of race, age and gender: That harsher penalties attach to individuals who are young, male, and black. In most analyses, Hispanics fared no differently than whites. A further finding is the discounted value of employment for young black males, who received harsher treatment than unemployed white counterparts. The article identifies several directions for investigation of the low value assigned to employment by this group of offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests whether autoecological similarities correctly predict similarities among species' effects. Use of experimentally reconstructed temporary pond communities; Manipulation of six taxa to assess the effects of each on a background community.

Studies of probation and parole officers' attitudes conducted in the 1960s and 1970s indicated respondents' preference for assistance over authority as the most important goal of community supervision. The present research compares results obtained from the 1970s and 1980s applications of the Authority/Assistance Questionnaire and the Correctional Policy Inventory. The findings point not only to increased concern for authority but also to the diminished meaningfulness of the assistance objective. The authors suggest that a new emphasis on surveillance, in which delivery on service is largely a means for monitoring client risk, has “crowded” the rehabilitative ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

1. Female Wistar rats (5 and 11 weeks old) were either left intact or ovariectomized. Animals of each age- and treatment-group were either ad lib.-fed or undernourished for 4 weeks.2. The bodies of all animals were analysed for protein and fat and the weights, lipid synthesis rate and lipoprotein lipase (EC 3.1. 1.34) activity of four fat depots were determined.3. The well-nourished ovariectomized animals of both age-groups gained weight more rapidly than the well-nourished intact animals of the same age, but there was no effect of ovariectomy on body composition, lipid synthesis rate or lipoprotein lipase activity in either the well-nourished or the undernourished animals of either age-group.4. There was a greater efficiency of energy utilization found in the ovariectomized animals than in the intact animals regardless of age or nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Context: Insufficient maternal protein intake has been postulated to cause impaired fuel metabolism and diabetes mellitus in adult mammalian progeny, but the mechanism remains unclear., Objective: To investigate the effect of a maternal low protein whey-based diet during pregnancy and lactation on pancreatic function and skeletal muscle glucose metabolism in the offspring., Animals: Sprague-Dawley rats: 8 mothers and 46 offspring., Design: Female rats were fed throughout pregnancy and lactation with otherwise-complete isoenergetic diets sufficient (20% whey protein; control: n=3) or insufficient (5% whey protein; low-protein: n=5) in whey protein. From weaning all offspring ate control diet., Main Outcome Measures: Food intake and weight gain were measured for both mothers and offspring, and in vitro functional studies of endocrine pancreas and skeletal muscle were performed on offspring at 40 and 50 days of age, respectively., Results: Food intake (P=0.004) and weight gain (P=0.006) were lower in low protein than control mothers during early gestation. Offspring of low protein mothers had significant lower body weight from 5 to 15 days of age, although there was no significant difference in food consumption. Glucose, arginine- and glucose/arginine-stimulated insulin secretion from perfused pancreases isolated from low protein offspring were decreased by between 55 and 65% compared with control values. Studies in skeletal muscle demonstrated no difference in insulin sensitivity between the two groups., Conclusions: Dietary whey protein insufficiency in female rats during pregnancy and lactation can evoke major changes in insulin secretion in progeny, and these changes represent a persistent functional abnormality in the endocrine pancreas.