Understanding the Authoritative Parenting–Early Adolescent Tobacco Use Link: The Mediating Role of Peer Tobacco Use

Eighth-grade students (N = 156) completed questionnaires in which they reported on their perceptions of parents' warmth, structure, and psychological autonomy granting (used to create an index of authoritative parenting) and their own levels of tobacco use. Adolescents were also asked to list the names of other students at their school with whom they spent time (friends). Independent reports obtained from these friends were used to form an index of the mean level of tobacco use among each adolescent's friends. Higher levels of authoritative parenting were associated with lower levels of tobacco use among target adolescents. The association between parental authoritativeness and adolescent tobacco use was mediated by levels of tobacco use among peers. An amplification effect was observed in which adolescents were particularly unlikely to use tobacco products when they both received authoritative parenting at home and were members of non-tobacco-using peer groups.     

Attachment styles and psychological profiles of child sex offenders in Ireland

When 29 child sex offenders, 30 violent offenders, 30 nonviolent offenders, and 30 community controls were compared, a secure adult attachment style was 4 times less common in the child sex offender group than in any of the other three groups. Ninety-three percent of sex offenders had an insecure adult attachment style. Compared with community controls, the child sex offender group reported significantly lower levels of maternal and paternal care and significantly higher levels of maternal and paternal overprotection during their childhood. Compared with all three comparison groups, the child sexual offenders reported significantly more emotional loneliness and a more external locus of control. With respect to anger management, the child sexual offenders' profile more closely approximated those of nonviolent offenders and community controls than that of violent offenders.     

Age Differences in Lineup Identification Accuracy: People Are Better with Their Own Age

Previous research has reported that young adults are better at eyewitness face recognition than are older adults. However, these studies have used young adults as culprits and fillers. We explore how the relative ages of the witness and the culprit influence eyewitness accuracy in 2 experiments. In the first experiment, young (18–25 years old) and older (35–55 years old) adults each saw 4 crime videos. In 2 the culprit was a young adult and in 2 the culprit was an older adult. Participants were more accurate at identifying the culprit when viewing culprit present lineups comprising people of their own age: an own age bias analogous to the own race bias. In the 2nd experiment, using a similar procedure, young (18–33 years old) and older (40–55 years old) adults viewed both culprit present and culprit absent lineups. The results of the first experiment were replicated for the culprit present lineups. However, no own age bias was found for the culprit absent lineups. Implications for police procedures dealing with cross-generation identifications are discussed.     

The processing and disposition of incompetent mentally ill offenders

Pretrial hospitalization of mentally ill offenders has been increasing in recent years and a number of abuses have been noted with respect to competency to stand trial. This is a report on 431 male felony defendants who were found incompetent to stand trial, hospitalized, and returned to court for a final disposition. Approximately one-half of those brought back to the court gained release to the community, with one-half continuing to be held in a hospital or a prison, and with 70% continuing in treatment in one setting or another. Disposition was significantly related to race, criminal history, severity of charges, and the recommendations of mental health professionals. Offenders were found to have spent unnecessarily long periods of time in jail and in the hospital awaiting court processing, raising questions about the fairness and efficiency of current procedures.     

A Moving Target: Reasons Given by Adolescents for Alcohol and Narcotics Use, 1984 and 1999

Previous studies have investigated adolescents' reasons for alcohol and narcotics use, but have tended to neglect changes in the reasons over time. This study investigates the reasons given by Finnish adolescents for their own alcohol use, and for the use of alcohol and narcotics by others. In 1984, a questionnaire on reasons for alcohol and narcotics use was administered to a sample of adolescents aged 14–16 (N = 396). The questionnaire was administered again to a similar sample (N = 488) in 1999. An increase was found in reasons involving inner subjective experiences, referring to the good feeling and fun resulting from alcohol and narcotics use. In addition, the goals of alcohol consumption were increasingly perceived as drinking to get drunk, and for its own sake. The results suggest that adolescents' attitudes have become more liberal towards alcohol and narcotics use, and that prevention campaigns may be aiming at a moving target of culturally held opinion.