Gender Mainstreaming and Global Governance

This article seeks to explain the variable implementation of gender mainstreaming as a `policy frame' over time and across various international organisations (I.O.s). In the years since the U.N. Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing (1995),mainstreaming has been endorsed and adopted by a wide range of international organisations, and we compare the adoption and implementation of mainstreaming in four specific I.O.s: the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union. The rhetorical acceptance of mainstreaming by various international organisations, however, obscures considerable variation in both the timing and the nature of the mainstreaming process within and among organisations. This variation, in turn, can be explained in terms of the categories of political opportunity, mobilising structures and strategic framing, which have been put forward by social movement theorists. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Law enforcement officer seniority and PAI variables in psychological fitness for duty examinations

Sixty-two police officers were administered the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) during employer referred psychological Fitness for Duty Examinations (FFDEs). PAI scores were analyzed as a function of the length of time the officers had worked within law enforcement occupations. PAI subtest scales ARD, ARD-P, ARD-T and DEP scores all produced significant positive correlations between both the amount of time spent on the current police job and the total time served as a police officer within a bivariate Pearsonr correlation matrix. Implications for an understanding of psychometric test results within the FFDE context and the evolution of law enforcement officer personality patterns are discussed. Author Note: At the time this research was done, Beth Caillouet was with Matrix, Inc. She is now a graduate student in psychology. Cary Rostow, Ph.D., is a police psychologist and president of Matrix, Inc., and Robert Davis, Ph.D., is executive vice-president and director of science, research, and development for Matrix, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA.     

A Multilevel Investigation of the Association between School Context and Adolescent Nonphysical Bullying

Although researchers have identified individual-level predictors of nonphysical bullying among children and youth, school-level predictors (i.e., characteristics of the school environment that influence bullying exposure) remain largely unstudied. Using data from a survey of 1,838 students in 21 Boston public high schools, we used multilevel modeling techniques to estimate the level of variation across schools in student reports of nonphysical bully victimization and identify school-level predictors of bullying. We found significant between school variation in youth reports of nonphysical bullying, with estimates ranging from 25-58%. We tested school-level indicators of academic performance, emotional well-being, and school safety. After controlling for individual-level covariates and demographic controls, the percent of students in the school who met with a mental health counselor was significantly associated with bullying (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.06). There was no significant association between school-level academic performance and perceptions of school safety on individual reports of bullying. Findings suggest that prevention and intervention programs may benefit from attending to the emotional well-being of students and support the importance of understanding the role of the school environment in shaping student experiences with bullying.     

Examining the Impact of Proximate Culpability Mitigation in Capital Punishment Sentencing Recommendations: The Influence of Mental Health Mitigators

In spite of the ruling in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), concerns remain that individuals with mental illness and reduced capacity are eligible for the death penalty. When mental illness or reduced capacity is not enough to preclude death-eligibility, these factors are often discussed at the sentencing phase as mitigators. Mitigation remains an under-researched avenue in the sentencing literature, particularly when it comes to the influence of specific types of mitigation. The present study contributes to knowledge on mental health mitigation by examining five mitigators relevant to the mental health and capacity of defendants. Using data from 834 capital sentences in North Carolina, the influence of these proximate culpability mitigators on jury sentence recommendations is examined. Results indicate that acceptance of certain mental health mitigators reduces the probability of death, but acceptance of others is not significantly related to death recommendations. These findings and their implications are discussed.