BRINGING PEACE TO THE LATINO COMMUNITY

This study addresses the need for a parent education program for divorcing and separating parents in the Latino community. It is intended to identify special needs and issues that may affect the implementation of such a program and proposes a framework as to how such issues might be addressed and met. This study is based on the implementation of the PEACE (Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness) program, an existing parent education program in New York State. This study will explore how the program may need to be adapted or modified to serve adequately and effectively the Latino community.     

A mixed methods study of participant reaction to domestic violence research in Jordan

Research on domestic violence against women has increased considerably over the past few decades. Most participants in such studies find the exercise worthwhile and of greater benefit than emotional cost; however, systematic examination of participant reaction to research on violence is considerably lacking, especially in the Middle East region. This study begins to fill this gap by examining women's reactions to domestic violence research in Jordan and whether a personal history of violence is associated with unfavorable experiences. This sequential exploratory mixed methods study included 17 focus group discussions (FGD) with women in Amman followed by a survey conducted in reproductive health clinics throughout the country (pilot n = 30; survey n = 517). Open coding was used to identify the theme related to participant reaction in the FGD data. This construct was further examined by the subsequent survey that included dichotomous questions inquiring whether the respondent thought the study questions were important and whether they were angry or felt resentment as a result of the survey. One open-ended question on the survey provided additional qualitative data on the theme that was combined with the FGD data. Themes identified in the qualitative data pertained to expressions of gratitude and comments on the survey's value. Findings of this study indicate that Jordanian women's responses to the research process are similar to women currently represented by the extant literature in that a vast majority of its participants felt that the study was important (95%) and it did not evoke anger or resentment (96%). Many even found the study to be useful to them personally or to society. Among those who had a negative emotional reaction, most still found the research to be important. This study's findings highlight the safety and potential benefits of ethically conducted violence research.     

Child sexual abuse: an Italian perspective

The problem of child sexual abuse is a growing reality in Italy. The experience of over 200 children seen by the SVS (Soccorso Violenza Sessuale) Centre in Milan (the first Italian large-scale study) may give more information on the European situation. This study is a retrospective study based on information contained in the files of children beneath the age of 14 seen at the SVS Centre between May 1996 and May 2003, who arrived with a suspicion of child sexual abuse. Over 80% of all cases fell within the normal-aspecific category according to Adams' 2001 classification. This first Italian survey, though not based on substantiated cases but only on cases of suspected sexual abuse, supplies a perspective on a large northern European city such as Milan. Data seem similar to those published in other non-European studies, particularly as regards clinical signs observed. Thus, the results of this study, with all their limitations, start to give a perspective on the frequency and type of child population reaching this Italian center, what the scenarios are, what signs the children present and how infrequent it is to find clinical anogenital signs concerning for sexual abuse.     

Estimation of Age Using Alveolar Bone Loss: Forensic and Anthropological Applications

The objective of this study was to utilize a new odontological methodological approach based on radiographic for age estimation. The study was comprised of 397 participants aged between 9 and 87 years. A clinical examination and a radiographic assessment of alveolar bone loss were performed. Direct measures of alveolar bone level were recorded using CT scans. A medical examination report was attached to the investigation file. Because of the link between alveolar bone loss and age, a model was proposed to enable simple, reliable, and quick age estimation. This work added new arguments for age estimation. This study aimed to develop a simple, standardized, and reproducible technique for age estimation of adults of actual populations in forensic medicine and ancient populations in funeral anthropology.     

Conducting Criminological Fieldwork in China: a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Guanxi</Emphasis> Approach?

Conducting criminological fieldwork in a non-Western society remains a fascinating and mysterious enterprise. Among existing studies, very few have systematically examined the process and dynamics of conducting fieldwork in the Chinese criminal justice context. This study, based on the author’s own experiences, reflects on the key stages in such fieldwork, including obtaining access to research, interviewing and observing, and addressing ethical concerns. At its core, the study seeks to examine two key dynamics, guanxi and mianzi, focusing on how they work and the ways in which they can shape the outcomes of fieldwork. This study serves as a preliminary step in the hope that future research that endeavors to develop indigenous criminology in China will provide a proper theoretical framework and a more systematic examination.     

Attitudes toward Rape Victims - an Empirical Study of the Attitudes of Danish Website Visitors

This study of the effects that supervision has on offenders in Denmark is based on the opinions of the offenders themselves. The special methodological problems of a study of this kind are discussed. Most clients say they benefit from supervision and many feel that supervision helps them in trying to live a law-abiding life. This surprising finding is explained primarily by the position of supervision as an extension of the common social security system, which often cannot cope with multi-problem offenders. The study, furthermore, underlines a basic but mostly disregarded condition for achieving success in helping and treating offenders: the relationship between offender and helper.     

Decision Making in a Hybrid Organization: A Case Study of a Southwestern Drug Court Treatment Program

This article presents a case study of decision making in a drug court located the southwestern United States. This study seeks to fill a gap in research on decision making by attending to the ways that drug court officials navigate the demands of a court that is dedicated to both therapy and criminal justice. This analysis differs from previous research by viewing the drug court as a “hybrid organization” and asking how the staff members interact in the decision‐making process. Additionally, this research provides an opportunity to investigate the concerns over collaborative decision making raised by critics. The data from this case study reveal that as a hybrid organization, the drug court staff often divides along institutional lines by allowing the counseling staff to manage treatment and the judge to manage punishment. When tensions arise, they are resolved by the structure of the court, which is hierarchical rather than collaborative.     

Using accumulated degree-days to estimate the postmortem interval from decomposed human remains

Forensic anthropologists often rely on the state of decomposition to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI) in a human remains case. The state of decomposition can provide much information about the PMI, especially when decomposition is treated as a semi-continuous variable and used in conjunction with accumulated-degree-days (ADD). This preliminary study demonstrates a supplemental method of determining the PMI based on scoring decomposition using a point-based system and taking into account temperatures in which the remains were exposed. This project was designed to examine the ways that forensic anthropologists could improve their PMI estimates based on decomposition by using a more quantitative approach. A total of 68 human remains cases with a known date of death were scored for decomposition and a regression equation was calculated to predict ADD from decomposition score. ADD accounts for approximately 80% of the variation in decomposition. This study indicates that decomposition is best modeled as dependent on accumulated temperature, not just time.     

The design of "the first experimental study exploring DNA interpretation"

This letter explains why a recent study purporting to show that exposure to domain-irrelevant information caused DNA analysts to misinterpret a complex mixture does not warrant this conclusion on the basis of the data from the study.     

Korean version of the notification policy on sexual offenders: did it enhance public awareness of sexual crimes against minors?

This study reviewed the public notification policy of sexual offenders against minors in South Korea as compared to community notification programs in the United States. The study then examined the policy's impact on increasing the general public's awareness of such sexual crimes. This is based on the assumption that heightening public awareness can be a starting point in combating such crimes. Results of the data, drawn from a sample of 1,409 Koreans across the nation, showed that the notification policy enhanced public awareness. Factors related to this increase in awareness were people's concern about or familiarity with the policy and people's experience in identifying the existence of known sexual offenders in their communities. Based on the results of this study, strategies for enhancing public awareness of sexual crimes on minors were formulated. The need to develop treatment programs for sexual offenders was likewise highlighted.     

The Fight to Globalize Labor: Understanding the Role of Activists in the Spread of International Norms

International relations scholars have traditionally focused on state-centered accounts of international legal norm development between nations while sociolegal scholars have focused on Weberian notions of occupational authority. This study advances a constructivist sociolegal approach emphasizing activist action as playing a unique role in shaping international norms. Specifically, this study investigates labor activists' intervention in U.S. bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) to examine why labor activists chose to initiate FTA disputes as a social movement tactic and how strategic interaction with international legal systems has helped them institutionalize and proliferate the International Labor Organizations' core labor standards. Through semi-structured interviews with legal, union, and government officials, alongside a content analysis of cases filed under the U.S. FTA system, this study shows the role activists played in advancing “globalized” standards in international law. This study finds that activists spread norms through a gradual mechanism of accretion, which focuses on the creation of standards and international legal standing over the individual outcomes of any given case.     

PRACTICE ISSUES, STRATEGIES, AND MODELS

A recent Canadian study begins to address the lacuna in family mediation process research identified by Kelly. This study generated important data previously not available on a broad range of issues and concerns regarding the process and practice of family mediation and the extent of variability of current family mediation practice. The study focused on where family mediators position themselves in relation to salient issues and debates in the field; the interventions, methods, procedures, techniques, and strategies they find most useful and effective in their work; and the theories that guide them in their practice and the models of practice that they use. This article reports the key findings of the study and begins to discuss the implications of the research for mediation practice and sociolegal policy.     

The Psychological Impact on Police Officers of Being First Responders to Completed Suicides

When a suicide is completed, police officers are often among the first responders. Little attention has been paid to the emotional and psychological impact on the police officer in this specific situation. This study examines the effects encounters with completed suicides have on the emotional and psychological well-being of the police officer. This is a qualitative study, which intends to bring alive the feelings, thoughts, actions, choices, and challenges of police officers who have encountered completed suicides as imparted through participants' stories. Interviews were done with eight police officers. In addition, interviews were done with a coroner, a police chaplain, and a police psychologist to add some unique perspectives to the police officers’ experiences of encountering completed suicides. Interviews were done in a semi-structured, focused format involving an ongoing fine-tuning of questions. The overarching finding reveals the central role played by police culture in shaping how police officers come to perceive this experience, and how they subsequently choose to mediate it. This study identifies ten strategies police officers use to mediate this experience, and discusses the possible psychological consequences of employing each strategy.     

Race, concentrated disadvantage, and recidivism: A test of interaction effects

This study sought to explore if the structural characteristics of a community (specifically what sociologists term concentrated disadvantage) interact with race in predicting recidivism. The literature on recidivism stresses the effects of individual factors. This study considered whether effects of the community in which an ex-prisoner lives should be further explored. Of particular interest was the possibility of interaction between concentrated disadvantage and race. Results showed that race strongly predicts recidivism (Blacks being much more likely to recidivate than Whites). This remained the case in spite of multiple controls accounting for racial differences. Neither concentrated disadvantage nor the interaction between it and race had significant effects on recidivism. The study considered what might account for the lingering racial effect, and why the community does not affect the likelihood of recidivism.     

法理学三十年之法的价值问题研究述评

自改革开放以来,中国法理学已走过三十年的成长历程,法的价值问题是中国法理学的重要研究内容之一。对三十年来法理学界关于法的价值研究的三个主要方面进行了述评,一方面使我们对学界同仁的研究成果有一个总括性的了解,看到中国法理学人的学术贡献;另一方面,通过对研究中存在问题的展示,使我们认识到法的价值问题探讨的多维性、复杂性。促使我们将该项研究推向深入。     

Client violence and its negative impacts on work attitudes of child protection workers compared to community service workers

This study investigated the prevalence of client violence toward child protection workers and its negative impacts on the work attitudes of those workers compared with community service workers in South Korea. This study is based on the assumption that child protection workers are more vulnerable to violence than are community service workers because of the unique characteristics of the roles they play. Results of the data, drawn from a sample of 413 child protection workers and community service workers, found that client violence was more prevalent against child protection workers and that the negative impacts of this violence on work attitudes were more clearly highlighted for child protection workers. Based on the results of this study, implications for preventing client violence and lessening its negative impacts on work attitudes of child protection workers were identified.     

Examining social cohesion and victimization in a Malaysian multiethnic neighborhood

The ecological theories linking neighborhood characteristics to victimization have rarely been tested in Asia. This article examines three conceptual models of social cohesion (collective efficacy, sense of belonging and feeling of morale) that are designed to explain the residents' victimization in Malaysia. This study focuses on the effects of social cohesion on crime using a sample of 294 ethnically diverse residents living in a high-crime neighborhood. The study shows the relevance of all three conceptual models in predicting victimization for both males and females. The findings indicate that a greater sense of belonging and feeling of morale among the neighborhood residents is significantly associated with lower levels of victimization. Contrary to the literature, the collective efficacy measure was associated with higher reported victimization. Our model also links social cohesion measures to neighborhood racial heterogeneity, a finding that adds knowledge to the study of ethnic diversity and crime–community relationships.     

Family role in the reintegration process of recovering drug addicts: a qualitative review of Israeli offenders

In an outcome evaluation of recovering addicts who participated in a prison-based therapeutic community, 39 clients, a nonrandomized subsample, are interviewed about their rehabilitation and reintegration experience. This study focuses on the family as the main source of support and as an agent of change for the recovering drug addict. Although many studies show marriage and family to be positively related to successful reintegration and rehabilitation, clients in this study report families as having a negative effect on the rehabilitation and reintegration process. This is especially true among those who reunite with their spouse. The findings are discussed in regard to role expectations and support mechanisms, and suggestions are made for further research.