Official Visitors Research Articles

Receiving Visits and the Relative Timing of Inmates’ Infractions: Investigations into how Inmates’ Behavior Change Before and After Visits in Dutch Prisons

Objectives This study tests the relative timing of inmate infractions in the weeks before and after a visit. Method Our sample is a cohort of 823 male inmates who participated in the Dutch Prison Visitation Study (DPVS) (2017) and had visitation and misconduct data. Using two-level random effects logistic regression models, we examined week-to-week associations between infractions and prison visits, including visits from partners, family, friends, and official visitors. Results The probability of an infraction is comparable to average levels in anticipation of visits, increases up to 18 percent in the weeks immediately following visits, and then returns to baseline levels. This pattern is found for contraband infractions, but no effects were found for aggressive infractions. Strongest effects were found for family and official visits. When inmates are visited frequently, the risk of infractions postvisit is similar to average levels. Conclusions The findings show that visits can have harmful effects on inmate infractions. These effects seem to stem from increases in contraband infractions. More research is needed to further understand the mechanism behind visits’ effects.

Xu Mi’s Network: A Different Perspective on Early Higher Clarity Daoism

This paper explores the official and social connections of Xu Mi 許謐 (303-376), one of the founders of the Shangqing 上清 or Higher Clarity movement in Daoism, with the aim of developing a clearer narrative for what was occurring in his social network in the 360s, around the time that his spirit-medium Yang Xi 楊羲 (330-386) was having his visions. Although certain aspects of these connections have been explored by scholars such as Yoshikawa Tadao (1998) and Kamitsuka Yoshiko (1999), among others, these do not fully explain how a relatively minor official like Xu Mi, together with Yang Xi, could attract a steady stream of highranking official visitors seeking advice, medicines, and scriptures, as described in the eighth fascicle of Zhen’gao . This paper examines the life and extensive connections of Xi Mi’s older brother Xu Mai 許邁 (b. 301), as well as both Xu Mai and Yang Xi’s connections with Sima Yu 司馬昱 (320-372) when the latter was still Prince of Kuaiji 會稽 before becoming Emperor Jianwen of Jin 晉簡文帝 (r. 372). It also examines a hitherto overlooked historical record of Xu Mi’s participation in a court debate, which illustrates one way in which Xu Mi was attempting to give support to the Sima family. With this background, the paper then analyzes the list of Xu Mi’s visitors. A recent archaeological discovery also sheds new light on a connection between two of these visitors. This paper concludes that Xu Mi’s visitors were drawn to his home after Yang Xi, during his brief service under Sima Yu, had convinced them of his abilities through a very public demonstration of his spiritual powers. Furthermore, several of these visitors were already putting the new Higher Clarity teachings into practice when they asked for assistance.

Food and image on the official visitor site of Houston, Texas

Abstract Destination image, referring to the beliefs, attitudes, ideas, and impressions that potential tourists hold about a destination, plays an important role in tourists' decision-making process. Images of a destination come from various sources that target different audiences and serve different purposes. Media sources aimed at a general audience can generate interest in a destination. Non-visitors become potential first-time visitors when they actively seek information from destination-marketing organizations intended to persuade potential visitors in their decision-making process. Thus, media attention represents an opportunity for destinations to develop their image. In recent years, Houston, Texas has gained national recognition in popular media as a food destination. The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau (GHCVB) expands upon this image through the content of the official visitors website. In this research, content and narrative analyses are used to examine the 16 webpages featured under the website's ‘restaurants’ header. In addition to providing logistical information about eating and drinking in Houston, narratives of local loyalty to an area's restaurants are used to create an attraction for visitors looking for a distinctive local experience, certify the quality of the experience, and offer insight into the nature of the destination. This local perspective has potential applications for other destinations seeking to re-create their image in light of the increased media attention on food.

An exploratory study of the differences in prior travel experience and tourist information sources

The information search of potential travelers is an important component of tourism. Essentially, it is how travelers learn about tourism destinations, which affects their decision whether or not to visit. The primary purpose of this visitor inquiry study is to group inquirers based on their prior travel to the study destination and total travel. Then, the study examines differences across the different groups of travelers based on prior travel experience and the usefulness of various information sources. Results reveal differences between prior travel experience groups and the importance of previous trips to the study destination, relatives, and official visitors guide as sources of information. Implications for convention and visitor bureaus are discussed.

Limits of Impartiality

Through a case study of the first International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation to Australia and its services to civilian internees, this article explores the question: Is impartial humanitarianism more successful than non-impartial services? To answer this question the article analyses the different needs of pro-Nazi and Jewish Germans, the latter being denied recognition as citizens by the National Socialist regime, and compares the work of the ICRC delegates with that of the Swiss government as protecting power and Australian Supreme Court judges acting as official visitors. The article concludes that in a complex web of transnational structures and agencies, the ICRC delegates as intermediaries between the internees’ home nation and the interning nation faced specific and unique impediments and opportunities.This article has been peer-reviewed.

Graham Mooney, Jonathan Reinarz (eds), Permeable walls: historical perspectives on hospital visiting, Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine, Clio Medica 86, Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, 2009, pp. vi, 352, €70.00 (hardback 978-90-420-2599-8).

Graham Mooney, Jonathan Reinarz (eds), Permeable walls: historical perspectives on hospital visiting, Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine, Clio Medica 86, Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, 2009, pp. vi, 352, €70.00 (hardback 978-90-420-2599-8).

Are consumers on community treatment orders informed of their legal and human rights? A West Australian study

The human and legal rights under the Western Australian Mental Health Act (1996) of involuntary patients on community treatment orders (CTOs) include being provided with information by clinicians about the treatment expectations of the order, the procedure for review of status by the Mental Health Review Board, access to the Council of Official Visitors, and the opportunity for a second opinion about their psychiatric condition. To date, there has been no specific research in this area. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted in Western Australia where consumers on CTOs were asked to provide feedback as to whether they were informed of these legal rights. A questionnaire was distributed which asked eight questions related to being informed of these rights. The results indicated that from the consumer's perspective, the process of providing them with information about their rights was only partially met. Most consumers were informed about first appointments, their right to a review by the Mental Health Review Board, and provided with the appropriate legal form. However, in relation to what it means to be on a CTO, access to the Council of Official Visitors and the right to a second opinion, information was not being provided to the majority of consumers. The findings suggest that mental health clinicians need to make significant improvements in providing information to consumers. This level of consumer engagement could have beneficial results for the development of therapeutic relationships which in turn may lead to improved compliance with the CTO and better health outcomes for the consumer.

A Review and Evaluation of 2002 State Visitors' Travel Packets: A Fifty State Study

ABSTRACT Official state visitors' travel packets were collected and analyzed in terms of strategic contributions to marketing communications goals. It was recognized that some states capitalized on the opportunity to obtain useful information and/or to make a favorable first impression during the potential tourist's inquiry phone call, although most did not. The majority of the distributed state visitors' packets were lackluster and collectively homogeneous. Slogans were found to be an underutilized tactic. The sponsorship of back covers was addressed. Noting the importance of the visitors' travel packet in terms of accomplishing marketing communications objectives, a call for accountability from the states was stressed.

Humanitarianism or Counterinsurgency?

The international to protect was born into a political climate which threatened its demise. The September 2005 millennium summit commitment of world leaders accepted responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter, to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.1 It came after almost two decades of a spreading global concern with peace, conflict, and human security-a global concern reflected in the increase in resolutions, treaties, money, and operations aimed at protecting civilians. The to protect imbued state sovereignty with a legitimacy derived from a state's ability to provide human security. But it has entered the pantheon of international norms at an historical moment in which the United Nations security council is still unable to transcend state interests in the name of humanitarianism. Two years earlier, the council had failed to either authorize or prevent the US-led invasion of Iraq. Even as world leaders met at the millennium summit in New York, the council found itself incapable of getting beyond Chinese opposition, based on its support of the regime in Khartoum, to the authorization of meaningful military intervention to stop an apparent genocide underway in Sudan's Darfur region.It is not news that the to protect has yet to be matched by a willingness to intervene to protect. This failure has been all too apparent, particularly to those most affected. In Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to name a few places, the member states of the UN have been incapable of bringing the political will, resources, and organization capacity to bear at the right place and at the right time. There is, on the other hand, some recent evidence that international responses to conflict, when they happen, have been effective. It seems possible that the post-Cold War experiments in humanitarian assistance and protection, conflict resolution, and peace-building are saving lives.2 Yet a formula for the use of international force in defence of human security remains elusive, both because of the changing nature and conduct of war and because of shifts in the international politics of multilateral interventions. Together, these pose real challenges to the governance of the use offeree by the international system.IRREGULAR WARS. IRREGULAR STATESIn early 1995, Yassir Arafat played dinner host to a group of senior European diplomats at his new, makeshift office near the beach in Gaza City. He had arrived in mid-1994 and, ever since, a steady stream of official visitors had made the pilgrimage to Gaza eager to show their support to the peace process launched by the Oslo accords.On this occasion, Arafat was particularly gracious. His guest, the minister of development from a European country, had pledged a lot of money to the nascent Palestinian Authority and was a staunch supporter of the state building project at the heart of the Oslo process. So staunch, in fact, that the host government had been paying the bills of the Palestinian ambassador to its country for some time.At one point during the dinner, Arafat turned to his guests, smiling, and asked whether the host government would continue to care of my as he put it.How shall we take care of him, Abu Ammar? asked one of his guests cheekily. Like this? he said, pointing his index finger at the luckless ambassador, thumb up, playfully mimicking a pistol, Or like this? he asked rubbing the same thumb and forefinger together in the universal sign for money.Arafat didn't miss a beat: I usually find it best to do both.3At the time, indeed throughout his career, Arafat had been doing a lot of both. Arafat's construction of a national security state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was based on guns and money as they key components of political power, particularly in the form of jobs in the security forces for his unemployed political cadres. …

Vietnam's Post-Cold War Diplomacy and the U.S. Response

As a result of the decision in 1986 to undertake a policy of renovation (doi moi) to jumpstart the economy,' The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) has been engaged in a process of normalizing its commercial and diplomatic relations with most of the world. The SRV is officially recognized by more than 100 countries, but throughout the 1980s these ties contributed little to the nation's development prospects. Such funds as were raised came largely from CMEA (Committee of Mutual Economic Assistance) and Swedish sources for pilot projects and from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for international voluntary action, charity, and humanitarian relief work. Vietnamese leaders made few significant trips abroad and generally received high-level official visitors only from such states as Iraq, Iran, and Libya or from former communist allies. Support for U.S. opposition to allowing Vietnam access to international financial assistance of any substantial sort was rock-solid, but in mid-1990 Vietnamese fortunes began to change.

A survey of small factories.

This survey was undertaken by a group of doctors, nurses, and lecturers in the Department of Public Health of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as part of the teaching programme for the Diploma in Public Health. Fifty small factories in an area of a metropolitan borough were invited to answer questions concerning their industrial processes, their labour force, their premises, their first-aid provision, and the visits they received from officials of local and central government. Forty-eight of these factories responded and observations were made by teams of three recording independently of each other in 45. A variety of industries was represented in these 48 firms, half of which employed less than 10 workers. The working environment, in respect of sanitary arrangements, cleanliness and tidiness, lighting on stairs and passage ways, was considered to be unsatisfactory in many firms. Some instances of inadequate safeguards of machines were seen. The accident rate was found to be rather less than the computed national rate for manufacturing industry in 1956. First-aid equipment and workers were also considered to be deficient in a number of instances. In case of accident and for the treatment of minor ailments most firms made use of a local casualty and out-patient department of a general hospital. This service was considered quite adequate. Many firms had not been visited by the Factory Inspector or his deputy during the previous year. Rather more had received visits from the local authority health inspectors. Many firms expressed confusion about the duties and functions of their various official visitors. The conclusions drawn from this limited enquiry were that the working conditions in small factories are often unsatisfactory; that in areas such as the one surveyed it is unrealistic to think in terms of development of an industrial health service similar to those operating in Slough and Harlow; and that the greatest impact on environmental conditions might be made by an improved and simplified system of inspection especially adapted to the needs of the small factory.

Miss Kingsley's Travels in Africa1

THE record of Miss Kingsley's wanderings in West Africa has been deservedly praised by many reviewers. It contains most of the elements which combine to secure success for a book of travel. The land it deals with is familiar by name to all, but it is practically an unknown land; for few visit it except in an official capacity, and few of the official visitors have the inclination, or it may be the permission, to speak openly of what they have seen. Miss Kingsley has a sprightly manner and a thoroughly unconventional literary style, as beseems a lady travelling in a land so unfrequented of the tourist. The sparkle is, perhaps, too sustained to be altogether natural, and the reticence regarding her own sufferings, which must have been considerable, may perhaps lead readers to under-estimate the difficulty and dangers of her exploits. The book stands alone as a vivid picture of West African life by a writer whose point of view is as nearly impartial as we can ever hope to see. Miss Kingsley is an enthusiastic collector, but not exactly a scientific person; she is sympathetic simultaneously with the cannibal tribesman, the missionary, the trader, and the official, and in her whole book she does not say an unkind word of any one she met. As is usual with the writings of ladies who have travelled, her book is in many respects more outspoken than a man would have made it, while stopping as far short of ethnographic fulness as is necessary in a popular work. The descriptions of tropical nature on the beach and the mountain, in the swamp and the forest, are occasionally brilliant in their pictorial strength.