The Downside of Patriarchal Benevolence: Ambivalence in Addressing Domestic Violence and Socio-Economic Considerations for Women of Tamil Nadu,India

Social values and status cause diverse obstacles for escaping abuse (e.g., belief in the sanctity of marriage vs. financial necessity to stay for survival). India provides a unique opportunity to explore the interplay of status and corresponding patriarchal values in relation to the incidence of domestic violence and how it is viewed, coped with, and psychologically impacting native women. Sixty-four women of Tamil Nadu, India were surveyed. Women of higher status were found to be less likely to acknowledge abuse as a societal problem, accurately identify abuse events, and seek help or report abuse. Women who had more realistic conceptions of abuse were more likely to seek help but also likely to experience more severe psychological distress. All of the women surveyed had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that were exacerbated by unsuspected variables. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of public health strategies.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms,Relationship Adjustment,and Relationship Aggression in a Sample of Female Flood Victims

This study tested a model examining the interrelationships among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, intimate relationship adjustment, and intimate relationship aggression in a sample of 205 adult female flood victims. At the bivariate level, higher PTSD symptoms were associated with higher physical and psychological aggression victimization, poorer relationship adjustment, and higher physical and psychological aggression perpetration. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated that relationship aggression victimization influenced aggression perpetration directly, and in the case of physical aggression, indirectly through its relationship with PTSD symptoms and relationship adjustment. The influence of PTSD symptoms on physical aggression perpetration was fully explained by poorer relationship adjustment. These findings extend prior work from other traumatized populations documenting associations between variables reflecting PTSD symptomatology and indices of relationship functioning, and indicate a need for further investigation in this area of inquiry. This research was supported in part by a grant to Patricia A. Resick from the National Institute of Mental Health (1-R01-MH55542).     

Examining the relationship between a childhood history of sexual abuse and later dissociation, breast-feeding practices, and parenting anxiety

The purpose of this study is to compare Mexican American adolescent mothers with and without childhood sexual abuse (CSA) histories to examine the influence of CSA on dissociation, selection of infant feeding method, and intimate parenting anxiety. Participants are 78 English-speaking adolescents between 15 and 19 years of age and recruited from the southwestern United States. Nearly one third of the sample ( n = 24, 30.77%) reports CSA histories. There is no correlation between CSA history and intimate parenting anxiety, no difference between breast-feeding and formula-feeding mothers in CSA severity, and intimate parenting anxiety does not predict dissociation. These findings are inconsistent with previous research. Supportive resources may explain the inconsistency and play a role in adolescent mothers' responses to CSA. Further research is necessary to explore these possibilities.     

Corporate Incubators: Industrial R&D and What Universities can Learn from them

The explosive growth of incubation has seen a concurrent and significant increase in research on and knowledge of the incubation phenomenon. However, instead of comprehensively differentiating between non-profit and for-profit incubators, research has described a whole array of partly overlapping archetypes, thus missing out on important aspects. This article first offers two arguments validating a framework of what non-profit university incubators can learn from for-profit corporate incubators before presenting the framework itself. While corporate incubators are for-profit organizations with which to enhance a corporation’s technology development, university incubators try to leverage technological insights from the university in a similar manner. In accordance with their respective missions, organizational structures, incubator processes and resource flows, it is possible to transfer lessons learned from two corporate incubator archetypes—the fast-profit incubator and leveraging incubator—to the world of university incubator. Our empirical findings are based on in-depth case studies of 25 companies through 52 semi-structured interviews with managers of corporate incubators of large technology-intensive corporations in Europe and the U.S., two EU incubator benchmarking surveys and five interviews with the heads of technology transfer offices of two top technology universities.     

A comparison of mothers of adolescent incest vs. non-incest perpetrators

One hundred and thirty mothers of adolescent sexual perpetrators were interviewed. Mothers of incest perpetrators (n = 48) were compared to mothers of non-incest perpetrators (n = 82). Results indicated that significantly more mothers of incest perpetrators reported having been physically and sexually abused, having a sexual dysfunction, and having been in prior psychotherapy. With regard to their sons, a higher percentage of mothers of incest perpetrators reported that they believed their son had committed the sexual offense, was in need of treatment, and had a history of being physically abused. Additionally, a significantly lower percentage of incest perpetrators had involvement with the juvenile justice system.     

The illusion of fiscal illusion: Unsticking the flypaper effect

Recognizing that it is difficult to prove a negative, this paper marshals evidence in support of the hypothesis that the widely documented flypaper effect of federal grants to state and local governments is purely a statistical artifact. A review of previous studies and a monte carlo investigation suggest that the use of an inappropriate functional form may generate an illusory flypaper effect. A local expenditure equation is then estimated in alternative specifications with ten years of state level data. Empirical results confirm the sensitivity of the flypaper effect to specification, and tests of fit unambiguously favor one functional form. That specification yields no statistical evidence of a flypaper effect.     

Soviet Union and the Third World: The Economic Dimension

This paper surveys some of the outstanding issues and changes in the economic dimension of Soviet involvement in the non-communist Third World over the last 30 years. It attempts to identify and integrate salient features of current knowledge about Soviet economic policy toward the less developed countries. After a survey of the evolution of Soviet arms transfers and economic aid and trade relations, the paper concludes with some reflections on the effectiveness of Soviet policy and prospects for future change. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 420.     

Sexual offenders with serious mental illness: prevention, risk, and clinical concerns

Individuals with serious and persistent mental illness who have also engaged in illegal sexual behavior present a unique challenge for our legal and clinical systems. Frequently, these individuals may engage in problematic sexual behaviors which result in hospitalization rather than incarceration, and an overburdened and resource-deficient public community mental health system is ill-equipped to address the seriousness of these sexual behaviors. We have a rather limited understanding of how prevention programs, intervention strategies, and risk assessment would work with this population. Here we evaluate data from a sample of 245 inpatient psychiatric sexual offenders in a forensic mental health setting and compare these with what information has already been presented in some of the literature. Through an examination of seriously mentally ill sexual offenders and their clinical presentation, legal history, and risk management concerns, we illustrate a variety of tertiary prevention needs. Future directions in the area of prevention and risk management for seriously mentally ill sexual offenders are also discussed.