Some Questions About the Reverse Tariff

Summary The modified version of the reverse tariff theory, developedby Pauline Hardiker, claims that a matrix combining risk andneed is implicit in the recommendations made to courts by probationofficers. This version of the theory is criticized on threecounts. (i) A number of counter-examples are examined: someof them imply factors other than risk and need which probationofficers take into account; others illustrate types of recommendationwhich, relative to the theory, have an anomalous form; (ii)it is suggested that, in any event, Hardiker does not have anadequate theory of how ‘need’ and ‘risk’are combined; (iii) it is argued that, given the evidence onwhich it is based, the reverse tariff model cannot have thestatus which Hardiker appears to claim for it.     

Satanist abuse and alien abduction: A comparative analysis theorizing temporal lobe activity as a possible connection between anomalous memories

Correspondence to John Paley, Principal Research Fellow, University of Luton, Institute for Health Services Research, The Spires, Adelaide Street, Luton LU1 5DU, UK Summary This paper compares two sets of scarcely believable reports:those of satanist abuse survivors and those of people with apparentmemories of alien abduction. There are striking parallels betweenthe two phenomena, which are explored in some detail. Whilstthe comparison may be unexpected, and will no doubt provokescepticism in some readers, the similarities are difficult toignore; and I suggest that they give rise to unavoidable questionsabout the nature of both kinds of experience. The paper thereforeconcludes with a sketch of some neurophysiological and psychologicalresearch which may help to account for them.     

Social Work and the Sociology of Knowledge

John Paley. Department of Social Policy, School of Policy Studies, Cranfield Institute of Technology, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL. Summary The research literature on social workers' use of theory suggeststhat social work, conceived as a form of knowledge in action,is amenable to a sociology of knowledge approach. This papertries to illustrate the relevant parallels, and uses both empiricaland philosophical themes in the recent sociology of scienceto identify a strategy for social work research.