The Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Mothers’ Parenting Practices for Urban, Low-Income Adolescents

This study examined whether depression and social support mediated the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and parenting practices. Participants were 1,057 female primary caregiver-young adolescent pairs. (Sample included greater than 90?% biological mothers; hereafter, female primary caregivers are referred to as mother.) Findings indicated that IPV was associated positively with mothers’ use of physical punishment and negatively with mothers’ involvement in their children’s education. Although depression and social support were not found to mediate the relationship between IPV and parenting practices, study findings suggest that IPV directly and negatively impacted mothers’ parenting practices. In sum, findings point to the important role that IPV may play in explaining parenting practices for mothers living in high-risk urban environments.     

Causes and Consequences of Political Clientelism: Mexico's PRD in Comparative Perspective

PRD politicians and officials widely use clientelism to structure their relationships with citizens. This is due not only to the entrenchment of clientelism in Mexican politics or to high rates of poverty and inequality, but also to the limited institutionalization of democratic rules inside the party. The last stems largely from the party's electoral strategy in its formative years, and has resulted in uncontrolled factional battles that play out through clientelism. The Brazilian PT faced external and internal conditions quite similar to those of the PRD, but its early focus on organization building and policy change allowed it to avoid clientelism to a greater degree. This analysis problematizes the trend of using minimalist definitions that assume clientelism to be nondemocratic because these approaches result in conceptual stretching and decreased explanatory power.     

Institutionalizing gender in UK NGOs

Drawing on recent research, it has been explored how far and in what ways UK NGOs have tried to incorporate gender into the policies and procedures of their international development work, and how far a formal recognition of gender issues is shaping the way each organization functions. The strengths and weaknesses of different strategies are assessed (such as specialist staff or units, formal gender policies, gender training, equal opportunity recruitment policies, and mainstreaming) for transforming organizational practice.     

Assessing the Influence of Familial Paternalism on Child Neglect Sentencing Decisions

Familial responsibilities have been found to significantly reduce the severity of sentencing outcomes of defendants in the criminal court. Additional research also has suggested that this leniency might be contingent on the type of offense, with defendants who commit crimes which imply that they are unfit parents (e.g., drug offenses) not receiving a significant reduction in their likelihood of incarceration. Utilizing familial paternalism as the theoretical basis, the current study examines whether having children influences the sentences of defendants charged with forms of criminal child neglect. The findings indicate that having children does result in significantly reduced odds of incarceration for defendants charged with child neglect. These findings support the arguments set forth by familial paternalism. However, they do not support the inference that defendants convicted of child neglect are presumed to be unfit parents. Implication of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

Rule of law and the democratization process: the case of Albania

This article will explore the dilemmas that Albania has been experiencing in implementing the rule of law during the past two decades with particular attention to the political institutional obstacles, including the difficulties of establishing an independent judiciary and the pervasiveness of corruption. The concept of the rule of law will be the lens through which the difficulties of the democratization process will be examined. The lack of transparency in the legislature and more broadly in the political decision-making process, and the divisive and leader-dominated political party system are two additional obstacles that Albania is facing in consolidating democracy. Since its first post-communist election in 1991, Albania has experienced challenges in conducting legitimate elections that meet international standards. The political and cultural environment where these political institutions operate and from which they have been constructed will provide the backdrop for analysis.     

Surviving the Trenches: The Personal Impact of the Job on Probation Officers

The purpose of this study was to assess traumatic stress and burnout in probation officers who work with criminal offenders. Adult probation officers from five departments in three states (Arizona, California, and Texas) participated in this study (N?=?309). Officers completed several survey instruments including the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (Weiss & Marmar, 1997), the Compassion Satisfaction/Fatigue Self-Test for Helpers (Steed & Bicknell, 2001), and the Probation Personal Impact Scale (PPI). The results indicated officers who reported violent and sexual recidivism on their caseloads, offender suicide, and threats and/or assaults in the line of duty scored significantly higher on measures of traumatic stress and burnout than officers who did not experience these caseload events. Assessments, education, training, and stress management programs are discussed as options to mitigate negative impacts, enhance the resiliency of officers, and improve the quality of evidence-based practices.     

Prosecutorial discretion for domestic violence cases: an examination of the effects of offender race,ethnicity, gender,and age

Much of the existing literature on courts and sentencing has focused on judicial decision-making. Prior research on prosecutorial decision-making is more limited, with even less attention paid to the prosecution of domestic violence cases. The research that has been conducted has produced inconsistent results regarding the effects of legal and extralegal variables. The current study focuses on the effects of extralegal suspect characteristics on the decision to dismiss domestic violence cases in a large Midwestern county from June 2009 to December 2009. The findings demonstrate that gender and race have a strong influence on prosecutors’ decisions to dismiss charges in domestic violence cases. Contrary to the focal concerns perspective, however, the results indicate that males and Black and Hispanic offenders are more likely to have their cases dismissed. Implications for future research are discussed.