The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: a "systems" approach

Male prison rape and sexual assaults remains a serious and sensitive issue in many countries. Human rights groups claim that sexual assaults among male prisoners have reached pandemic proportions and need to be stopped. Researchers for many years have studied the causes of male sexual assault in prison and offered numerous recommendations on its prevention. Few, however, have presented evidence for a decline in male prisoner sexual assaults and investigated the reasons for the decline. This article provides evidence from population-based surveys of a steady decrease in male prisoner sexual assaults in New South Wales (NSW) between 1996 and 2009. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with former and current inmates, and using a "systems" approach they discuss the complexity of sexual assaults in prison, incorporating a multiplicity of perspectives. In particular, they bring together different sources of data and discuss this in relation to changes in power structures and control in a modern prison, the attitudes of older and younger prisoners, the concept of "duty of care," introduction of prison drug programs, and prisoner attitudes toward gender and sexuality. In anthropology, the term "system" is used widely for describing sociocultural phenomena of a given society in a holistic manner without reducing the complexity of a given community.     

Do motor vehicle advertisements that promote vehicle performance attributes also promote undesirable driving behaviour?

• In response to concerns that motor vehicle advertising may have a negative influence on audiences' driving attitudes, many countries have adopted Codes of Ethics with respect to motor vehicle advertising. Most Codes restrict explicit depictions relating to power, speed and acceleration but do not necessarily identify when advertisements implicitly communicate these and other undesired messages about unsafe driving behaviours. We selected three motor vehicle advertisements containing depictions of vehicular behaviour such as fast driving and rapid acceleration that had been the subject of complaints to the Australian Advertising Standards Board. We exposed these advertisements to n = 463 14–55 year olds. All three advertisements were found to promote positive expectancies about undesirable driving behaviours. These data confirm the rationale for motor vehicle advertising Codes but identify faults in applying the Codes; namely that the Advertising Standards Board upheld complaints about only one of the advertisements whereas viewer perceptions indicate that all three breached the Australian Code. There is a need to include mechanisms other than simple observation to assess whether undesirable messages are being communicated in motor vehicle advertisements.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">BodiMojo</Emphasis>: Efficacy of a Mobile-Based Intervention in Improving Body Image and Self-Compassion among Adolescents

Mobile interventions promoting positive body image are lacking. This study presents a randomized controlled evaluation of BodiMojo, a mobile application (app) intervention grounded in self-compassion to promote positive body image. A sample of 274 adolescents, mean (SD) age?=?18.36 (1.34) years, 74% female, were allocated to a control group or used BodiMojo for 6 weeks. Appearance esteem, body image flexibility, appearance comparison, mood, and self-compassion were assessed at baseline, 6, and 12 weeks. Significant time by group interactions emerged for appearance esteem and self-compassion, with appearance esteem and self-compassion increasing in the intervention relative to the control group. These findings provide preliminary support for BodiMojo, a cost-effective mobile app for positive body image.     

Donald Trump and right-wing populists in comparative perspective

ABSTRACT

We compare sources of Donald Trump’s appeal in the 2016 US presidential campaign to the appeal of right-populists from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. We compare the appeal of right-populist to center-right candidates in each case (as measured with feeling thermometers) and test hypotheses about how the appeal of right-populists differs from that of center-right candidates. Standard predictors of affect toward right-of-center candidates were generally less relevant as a basis of affect toward right-populist candidates. This comparative perspective demonstrates that Trump’s appeal was based on racial resentment, anti-immigration sentiments and anxiety. Affect toward Trump and other right-populists from these Anglo-democracies fits patterns previously observed in Europe, a pattern that appears to be world-wide.     

The Governance of Social Science and Everyday Epistemology

Research on the governance of publicly funded research does not recognize that social science and 'science' are distinct activities. Neither does it recognize that regulating research policy in purely science and technology terms has undesirable consequences for the social sciences – intended or otherwise. This paper seeks to correct these omissions and considers the governance of social science through the example of regulating 'everyday epistemology' at the science policy level. The British research council system is used in order to demonstrate how social science has been politically constructed as a legitimate enterprise for public funding. We find that social science is in fact regulated by non-social scientists. The result is that social science, seen as a square peg, is forced into the round hole of natural scientific thinking. When this policy is translated into governance structures it creates a 'slave social science' and subverts the role of social science as social science.     

Methamphetamine and alcohol detection in vehicle-driver fatalities in South Australia: A 10-year survey (2008–2018)

Motor vehicle driver fatalities (≥18 years) from the files at Forensic Science South Australia were reviewed from January 2008 to December 2018 for cases in which either positive blood sample for methamphetamine (MA) or an illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) >0.05g/100 ml were found. Three hundred driver deaths were found with MA detected in 28 cases (age range 21–62 years; ave. 37.8 years; M:F 23:5). Hundred and fifteen cases with a BAC > 0.05 g/100 ml were identified (age range 18–67 years; ave 35.7 years; M:F 95:20). No change was found in numbers of MA cases, although alcohol cases showed a significant decline (p < 0.001). Drunk driving-related fatal crashes tended to occur in the evening (5 p.m. to 11 p.m.), while MA-related fatal crashes had a longer peak extending from late evening until late morning (11 p.m. to 8 a.m.). This study has demonstrated that while roadside breath testing, legislative changes, and increased monitoring have resulted in reduced levels of drunk driving, similar safety countermeasures have had negligible effects on MA use in drivers. Continued monitoring of MA use by drivers will, therefore, be necessary to assess the possible effects, or not, of new countermeasures.     

The Political Economy: Political Attitudes and Economic Behavior

It has long been recognized that voters bring their political behaviors in line with economic assessments. Recent work, however, suggests that citizens also engage in economic behaviors that align with their confidence—or lack thereof—in the political system. This alignment can happen consciously or, as we suggest, unconsciously, in the same way that positivity carries over to other behaviors on a micro-level. Using monthly time series data from 1978 to 2008, we contribute further evidence of this relationship by demonstrating that political confidence affects consumer behavior at the aggregate level over time. Our analyses employ measures more closely tied to the theoretical concepts of interest while simultaneously accounting for the complex relationships between subjective and objective economic indicators, economic behavior, political attitudes, and the media. Our results suggest that approval of the president not only increases the electorate’s willingness to spend money, but also affects the volatility of this spending. These findings suggest that the economy is influenced by politics beyond elections, and gives the “Chief Economist” another avenue by which they can affect the behavior of the electorate.