Is sexually abusive behaviour in personality disordered inpatients analogous to sexual offences committed prior to hospitalization?

Abstract

Sexually abusive behaviour by personality disordered patients presents a serious threat to the integrity of staff–patient relationships and the safety of other residents. The occurrence of such behaviour is also problematic for the offending patient, as it may impact on perceived treatment needs and their access to the community. This paper reports on a study of sexually abusive behaviour in a high security psychiatric hospital. It also examines the relationship between these behaviours and patients’ history of sexual offending. The results showed a high frequency of low-severity sexually abusive behaviour and no significant associations between sexually abusive behaviour during hospitalization and sexual offence history. These findings imply that low-severity sexually abusive behaviour within secure settings may be determined, partly, by environmental conditions. This sexual abuse may also be functionally dissimilar to severe sexual abuse perpetrated in the community. The meaning and determinants of sexual abuse within secure settings must be scrutinized carefully and comprehensively before they are considered analogous to previous sexual offences.     

Ethnicity,Concentrated Minority Disadvantage,and Perceived Risk of Victimization

Abstract

There has been little systematic research on how the characteristics of locales condition the relationship of ethnicity to crime-related attitudes, and none of it has examined southwestern Hispanics. Addressing these issues, this investigation examines the effects of ethnicity and concentrated minority disadvantage on confidence in the police and perceived risk of victimization. Data collected in telephone and personal interviews in El Paso, Texas, were analyzed using OLS multiple regression. The analyses show that Hispanics residing in the locales with the greatest concentrated minority disadvantage expressed less confidence in the police than did Hispanics residing in other areas and, irrespective of locale, Anglos. People residing in areas of concentrated disadvantage perceived greater risk of victimization than did those who resided elsewhere. In addition, confidence in the police was related negatively to perceived risk of victimization. These findings indicate that concentrated minority disadvantage has an important influence on crime-related attitudes.     

Weapons in an Affluent Suburban School

Abstract

This is an exploratory study designed to describe the self-reported violence and weapon carrying behaviors of suburban teenagers from a largely affluent community in the San Francisco Bay area. The paucity of research on the weapon carrying behaviors of suburban adolescents suggests this is a population for which issues related to violence have been ignored. However, the school shootings that have occurred across the United States in recent years have forced a shift in attention to this population. The results of this investigation indicate the weapon carrying behaviors of suburban and urban adolescents are similar with distinct profiles emerging for males and females.     

Building a Foundation Against Violence

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of the Too Good for Violence Prevention Program (TGFV), a multifaceted interactive intervention. Grounded in Bandura's Social Learning Theory, the TGFV curricula focus on developing personal and interpersonal skills to solve conflict non-violently and resist social influences that lead to violence. Participants were 999 third grade students and 46 teachers in ten elementary schools. The schools were matched on student characteristics and academic performance and assigned to treatment or control conditions. Teachers and students completed checklists assessing students' behaviors prior to, following, and 20 weeks after program delivery. Results show that treatment students, as compared to control students, were perceived by teachers as evidencing more frequent use of personal and social skills and of prosocial behaviors after program delivery. Student survey data show that treatment students, as compared to control students, evidenced more positive scores in the areas of emotional competency skills, social and resistance skills, and communication skills after program delivery. The benefits of the TGFV program continued to be observed at the 20-week follow-up.     

Bullying in Schools Towards Sexual Minority Youth

ABSTRACT

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning and inter-sex (GLBTQI) youth, and those perceived to be GLBTQI, face extensive verbal and physical bullying in schools. Although increasing attention has been made at examining the safety concerns of sexual minority (GLBTQI) youth, there remain important gaps in the literature as well as significant sampling limitations. This article seeks to identify and respond to research gaps by: (a) reviewing existing literature about the causes and risk factors associated with homophobic bullying; (b) reviewing existing literature about the consequences associated with the victims of sexual minority bullying; (c) identifying the limitations to research procedures and methodologies that have been used to investigate this topic; and (d) proposing a research agenda for future investigations of homophobic bullying in schools.     

浅析胜利油田物资采购合同法律风险防控

物资采购是企业经营和发展中重要的组成部分,但随着企业内外部环境的不断变化,物资采购中存在的法律风险却掣肘企业的发展。有效识别和评估企业物资采购中的法律风险,强化物资采购全过程监督和风险防控,对确保企业稳健经营至关重要。对合同签订中风险及防控存在的问题进行有效分析,提出今后工作中的防控措施,可使企业避免物质采购过程中的损失从而提高企业的经济效益。     

我国知识产权质押法律风险及防范

从制造型经济向创新型经济转变的过程中广大的中小型企业无疑是一支不可小觑的力量,由于自身资金的匮乏使其在资金方面更加倚重于金融机构的借贷。中小型企业所拥有的最大财富是知识产权而非不动产,知识产权质押融资由此成为主要的融资方式。知识产权质押作为一种相对新型的融资方式区别于传统的以不动产为抵押物向金融机构融资的方式,在发达国家或地区已经成为一种普遍的融资方式,但是在我国知识产权质押的融资方式却没有得到广泛的应用。造成这一现象的根本原因在于知识产权质押所固有的法律上的风险,因此本文将全面分析知识产权质押法律风险,并在此基础上构建有效规避风险的防范机制。     

Competition and cooperative practices in Sino-Japanese energy and environmental relations: towards an energy security ‘risk community’?

Abstract

This article reexamines the conventional wisdom that characterizes Sino-Japanese energy relations as predominantly competitive, but views Sino-Japanese environmental relations as essentially cooperative. Using sociological theories of risk, it is argued that Sino-Japanese cooperation is more likely in both the energy and environmental areas when common risks are perceived and relative gains are minimized. Despite their many conflicting strategic, political, and economic interests, as energy importers who are vulnerable to supply interruptions in the Middle East and competitors for global energy supplies, China and Japan share common risks to their energy security. Consequently, there actually may be increasing opportunities for China and Japan to address their common concerns through bilateral and multilateral cooperative practices, such as common positions on pricing or energy conservation initiatives. Although one would expect China and Japan to highlight their mutual interests in tackling environmental problems such as air pollution, in fact relative gains often impede cooperation. Japan increasingly views China as an economic competitor and is reducing environmental aid, while China continues to set a priority on economic growth, which sets limits on the use of costlier Japanese green technologies. By examining a selection of scholarly articles, reports and newspaper articles by Chinese and Japanese analysts, as well as material from interviews in Beijing and Tokyo in May–June 2007, the paper shows how environmental and energy issues in Sino-Japanese relations may be framed as threats, requiring counter-measures, or common risks, which can be addressed through cooperative practices. Lastly, the paper discusses the possibility of the development of an energy security ‘risk community’ as cooperative practices develop between China and Japan. Nonetheless, conflicting political interests, strategies, and self-images, accentuating relative gains, may provide obstacles to their cooperation in both energy security and environmental protection.     

Mobilizing the self-governance of pre-damaged bodies: neoliberal biological citizenship and HPV vaccination promotion in Canada

Nikolas Rose and Carlos Novas use the term biological citizenship broadly to describe the increasing connectivity of biological categories of citizens' identities. In line with Rose and Novas, social scientists use biological citizenship today to describe the emergence of citizens' rights to protection and their increased mobilization around biology as a claim to active citizenship. In this article, I critically engage with the conception of biological citizenship forwarded by Rose and Novas, and detail the ways in which this concept is more complex and less emancipatory than is often assumed – especially in today's neoliberal age. Drawing on the example of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination promotion in Canada, I elucidate the intricacies and complex techniques that are often involved in citizenship projects. Specifically, I position HPV vaccination biocitizenship as a biopolitical tool, and pay close attention to the forms of knowledge, practical mechanisms, and types of authoritative bodies that frame biological risks for HPV and bioidentities in gendered ways. It is hoped that, through this example, the scope of biocitizenship can be expanded to encompass more than the rights and entitlements of citizens in relation to their biologies. I conclude by offering insights into theorizing emerging neoliberal biocitizenship projects today.     

Financial systems,corporate control and capital accumulation

The rise of financial markets, backed by the revolution in information technology,has been one of the pillars of the new economy. Asset price inflation, financed by debt, has now become the driving force in capital accumulation and equity-linked markets for corporate control have significant effects on both corporate strategic management and the growth of the business sector. This paper develops a model to study these relationships. One component of the new circumstances is that an active market for control forces firms to boost their share price in response to the threat of take-over and, to maintain a minimum return on equity, they have to distribute dividends or buy back shares. As a consequence, the share of profits dedicated to financing internal growth is reduced, corporations increase their indebtedness and thereby become constrained by banks. The interplay of these multi-dimensional pressures delivers a straightforward, but nonetheless important lesson: everything else being equal, the more active the market for control, the lower the growth rate.