Juvenile sex offenders charged with their first sexual offense were compared with recidivist juvenile sex offenders who had been charged with more than one sexual offense on a number of factors related to sexual offending. Participants were 70 male juvenile sex offenders, aged 13-21 years who were awaiting court disposition. Negative family history, negative family characteristics, school and learning problems, social skill deficits, deviant sexual experiences, deviant sexual fantasies, and cognitive distortions were assessed for their direct and mediating roles in recidivism. Path analysis indicated that poor social skills, learning problems, and deviant sexual experiences were causally related to recidivism of sexual offending. Poor social skills were directly related to recidivism, whereas cognitive distortions and deviant sexual fantasies mediated the role of learning problems and deviant sexual experiences. There was a significant association between deviant sexual experience and learning problems. The findings support the role of cognitive distortions and deviant sexual fantasies in recidivist sexual offending for this sample. The causal role identified for poor social skills and learning problems in recidivism for sexual offending has implications for treatment and therefore deserves further attention.

Nurse leaders must use behaviors that foster effective teams. The purpose of this study was to determine the behavioral style by 3,396 nurse leaders who attended leadership and communication continuing education courses. Sessions included identifying behavioral style preferences using the DiSC® Personal Profile Instrument. Of the four behavioral dimensions, Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, 73% scored highest in Dominance and Conscientiousness. The remaining 27% scored highest in preferences for Influence and Steadiness. Nursing leaders may benefit from awareness of differences in behavioral style preferences to enhance communication and team effectiveness, as well as improve satisfaction among team members.

The paper represents reflections on the experience of a week spent as part of the Scientific Advisory Committee of CASSE (Creating a Safe Supportive Environment), as a guest of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Aboriginal Corporation (CAACAC). The reflections were based on a methodology of "psychoanalytic observation" processed with reference to the ideas of Bion, Ogden, Bolognini, Fairbairn and Scharff and Scharff. A key reflection concerned the significance of the rupture of the traditional cultural container to the current provision of mental health services. A further reflection was on the importance of the functioning of the CASSE/CAACAC reconciliation-based partnership and how this might be enhanced by integrating Scharff and Scharff's (1991) dyadic version of Fairbairn's "Endopsychic Model" and Bion's concept of the container-contained relationship into a theoretical framework about its functioning. At the level of delivery of mental health services the importance of a focus on the commonalities between the Aboriginal and psychoanalytic worldviews is stressed.

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