Commentary on Foubert, Godin, & Tatum (2010): the evolution of sexual violence prevention and the urgency for effectiveness

Foubert, Godin, and Tatum describe qualitative effects among college men of The Men's Program, a one-session sexual violence prevention program. This article and the program it describes are representative of many sexual violence prevention programs that are in practice and provide an opportunity for a brief discussion of the development and evaluation of sexual violence prevention approaches. In this commentary, we will focus on two considerations for an evolving field: the adherence to the principles of prevention and the use of rigorous evaluation methods to demonstrate effectiveness. We argue that the problem of sexual violence has created urgency for effective prevention programs and that scientific and prevention standards provide the best foundation to meet this need.     

A Dyadic Approach to Understanding the Relationship of Maternal Knowledge of Youths’ Activities to Youths’ Problem Behavior Among Rural Adolescents

Most studies that explore parental knowledge of youths’ activities utilize parents’ and youths’ reports separately. Using a sample of 938 rural early adolescents (53% female; 84% White), we explore congruence between mothers’ and youths’ perceptions of maternal knowledge and its association with youth problem behaviors (delinquency, substance use, and attitudes towards substances). Maternal overestimation of knowledge (compared to youths’ ratings) was positively associated with delinquency and negatively associated with healthy drug attitudes. Significant differences in problem behaviors were found between four groups created based on mothers’ and youths’ level of knowledge (High Youth and Mother, High Youth/Low Mother, Low Youth/High Mother, and Low Youth and Mother). The High Youth and Mother group demonstrated less substance use and healthier drug attitudes than the Low Youth and Mother group. The Low Youth/High Mother group had significantly higher levels of substance use and delinquency than the High Youth and Mother group. Intervention implications are discussed.     

Spatial displacement and diffusion of benefits among geographically focused policing initiatives: a meta-analytical review

Objectives  

To undertake a systematic review of the extent to which geographically focused policing initiatives appear to displace crime (simply relocate it to other places) or diffuse benefits (lead to reductions elsewhere).     

Adoption,Homosexuality and the European Convention on Human Rights: Gas and Dubois v France

On 15 March 2012 the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) issued its first judgment addressing the differential treatment of same‐sex and opposite‐sex couples in respect of the adoption of a child. 1 The Court held that excluding same‐sex couples in civil partnerships, who have no legal right to marry, from adoption provisions available to married opposite‐sex couples does not violate rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). I argue that the Court's reasoning in Gas and Dubois v France is unpersuasive and unsustainable in light of its wider case law.     

Variability in cancer death certificate accuracy by characteristics of death certifiers

Death certificates are the source for mortality statistics and are used to set public health goals. Accurate death certificates are vital in tracking outcomes of cancer. Deaths may be certified by physicians or other medical professionals, coroners, or medical examiners. Idaho is one of 3 states that participated in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded study to assess the concordance between cancer-specific causes of death and primary cancer site among linked cancer registry/death certificate data. We investigated variability in the accuracy of cancer death certificates by characteristics of death certifiers, including certifier type (physician vs coroner), physician specialty, years of experience as death certifier, and number of deaths certified. This study showed significant differences by certifier type/physician specialty in the accuracy of cancer mortality measured by death certificates. Nonphysician coroners had lower accuracy rates compared with physicians. Although nonphysician coroners certified less than 5% of cancer deaths in Idaho, they were significantly less likely to match the primary site from the cancer registry. Results from this study may be useful in the future training of death certifiers to improve the accuracy of death certificates and cancer mortality statistics.     

Space–Time Modeling of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq

The US and its Coalition partners concluded combat operations in Iraq in August 2010. Rather surprisingly, little empirical evidence exists as to the factors that contributed to the ebb and flow in levels of violence and the emergence and disappearance of hot spots of hostilities during the campaign. Building upon a tradition of criminology scholarship, recent work demonstrates that Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks are clustered in space and time and that these trends decay in a manner similar to that observed in the spread of disease and crime. The current study extends this work by addressing a key potential correlate of these observed patterns across Iraq—namely, the timing and location of a variety of Coalition counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. This is achieved by assessing the co-evolving space–time distributions of insurgency and counterinsurgency in the first 6 months of 2005. To do so, we employ a novel analytic technique that helps us to assess the sequential relationship between these two event types. Our analyses suggest that the number of COIN operations that follow insurgent IED attacks (moderately) exceeds expectation (assuming that events are independent) for localities in the vicinity of an attack. This pattern is more consistent than is observed for the relationship in the opposite direction. The findings also suggest that less discriminatory COIN operations are associated with an elevated occurrence of subsequent insurgency in the vicinity of COIN operations in the medium to long term, whilst for more discriminatory and capacity-reducing COIN operations the reverse appears to be true.     

STR melting curve analysis as a genetic screening tool for crime scene samples

In this proof-of-concept study, high-resolution melt curve (HRMC) analysis was investigated as a postquantification screening tool to discriminate human CSF1PO and THO1 genotypes amplified with mini-STR primers in the presence of SYBR Green or LCGreen Plus dyes. A total of 12 CSF1PO and 11 HUMTHO1 genotypes were analyzed on the LightScanner HR96 and LS-32 systems and were correctly differentiated based upon their respective melt profiles. Short STR amplicon melt curves were affected by repeat number, and single-source and mixed DNA samples were additionally differentiated by the formation of heteroduplexes. Melting curves were shown to be unique and reproducible from DNA quantities ranging from 20 to 0.4 ng and distinguished identical from nonidentical genotypes from DNA derived from different biological fluids and compromised samples. Thus, a method is described which can assess both the quantity and the possible probative value of samples without full genotyping.     

Influences of Childhood Abuse on Parenting Perspectives of Pregnant Cohabitors

Using thematic analysis, we examine the effects of childhood abuse regarding parenthood for pregnant cohabitors from qualitative interviews. Participants (N?=?18; 10 women and 8 men) recalled childhood abuse during the Adult Attachment Interview. Three themes emerged: (1) “Learning what not to do,” whereby abuse is discussed as something not to continue, and harmful toward children; (2) “Use but modify parents’ discipline,” whereby individuals state that they will employ methods of their parents, but in ways different for their children; and (3) “Ambiguous,” whereby discussions are unclear and confused about how the abuse will affect their parenting. These results suggest that even when pregnant cohabitors want to parent differently than their own parents, they may not have relevant models or skills. For practitioners, we suggest interventions aimed at providing alternative models for how to parent, and effective and appropriate disciplining methods, as ways to deter intergenerational abuse.