Five-year accuracy of assessments of high risk for sexual recidivism of adolescents

This study looked at 12 juveniles in Wisconsin who were recommended by experts for commitment under Chapter 980, known as the Sexually Violent Person Commitments Act, but who ultimately were not committed. The purpose was to determine the accuracy of these assessments and risk for sexual reoffending for juvenile sexual offenders. The results found a rate of 42% sexual recidivism among these individuals, with a 5-year at-risk period. This figure is in contrast to the low rates of sexual recidivism reported in the general juvenile sexual research. This provides evidence that the capability to assess the risk in juvenile sexual re-offending may at times be higher than previously estimated. Implications of these unusual results are discussed.     

Attention to Counter-Attitudinal Messages in a State Election Campaign

Research following the "selective exposure" model has focused on avoidance of political messages with which a person might disagree. But positive attention to such "counter-attitudinal" messages is worthy of study, in part because normative theories of democracy value exposure to information that might disturb citizens' political predispositions. Surveys of youth (N = 417) and parents (N = 430) examine attention to newspaper, television, and Web messages about candidates. While there is somewhat more attention to messages about and for a person's favored political candidate or party, forms of political involvement (knowledge, curiosity, and discussion) that predict this "attitude-consistent" attention also predict counter-attitudinal attention at least as strongly. Parents' education and students' exposure to civics lessons also predict both kinds of attention. These results suggest that attention to counterattitudinal political messages is worthy of further study as an important goal of political socialization and a criterion of citizen performance in democracy.     

Police Response to Intimate Partner Violence in Canada: Do Victim Characteristics Matter?

This study examines the role of sociodemographic factors and violence characteristics in influencing women's reporting behaviors and types of police intervention received in response to intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada. A subset of female respondents to Canada's 1999 General Social Survey who experienced physical or sexual IPV by a male perpetrator and who had contact with the police as a result of the violence was used for this analysis (n = 383). Findings suggest significant racial, economic, and social variations in women's motivation for self-reporting violence to the police as well as in the types of law enforcement interventions administered by police in response to reports of IPV. Implications for policy development are examined.     

Using Cost Analysis to Examine Variability in Replications of an Efficacious Child Neglect Prevention Program

This article reports on a program- and case-level cost analysis of five replication sites of an efficacious child neglect prevention program. Approximately one-third of all sites' total labor hours were expended on direct family services and casework support for a specific family, with the remainder spent on indirect implementation support and program administration activities. Including non-personnel costs, the all-site mean total cost per family was $6,276, ranging across sites from $2,245 to $10,260. Costs varied greatly among individual families within sites. More research is needed to understand factors associated with differences in cost.     

Correlation between saw blade width and kerf width

Most studies of saw marks have focused on morphological characteristics and their utility in identifying saws suspected to have been utilized in cases of criminal dismemberment. The present study examined the extent to which metric analysis may be used to correlate saw blade measurements with minimum kerf widths (MKWs). A sample of 56 partially defleshed white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) long bones was utilized as proxy for human remains. The long bones were cut using a variety of commercially available saws, including 11 manual‐powered and 5 mechanical‐powered saws. A total of 496 false start kerfs (FSKs) were created. Two experiments were performed, with the first test examining the MKWs of FSKs produced on specimens that were restrained using a bench vise, while the second test analyzed the MKWs of FSKs produced on minimally restrained specimens. Statistical analysis using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) indicated a positive relationship between saw blade width (mm) and MKW, with blade width (p < 0.001) and the overall difference between the mechanical‐ and manual‐powered saws (p = 0.029) tested, reaching statistical significance. A comparison of MKWs produced using manual‐powered saws on restrained and minimally restrained bones suggests that restraint condition (p = 0.009) has a statistically significant effect. In comparisons of MKWs to blade widths, the average ratio for mechanical‐powered saws is 18.7% greater than the average ratio for manual‐powered saws. While the mode of the ratios was 1.42, thus supporting the general rule that MKW does not exceed 1.5 times blade width, multiple individual ratios did surpass 1.5.     

Welcome Mats and On‐Ramps for Older Adults: The Impact of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid Expansions on Dual Enrollment in Medicare and Medicaid

For many low‐income Medicare beneficiaries, Medicaid provides important supplemental insurance that covers out‐of‐pocket costs and additional benefits. We examine whether Medicaid participation by low‐income adults age 65 and up increased as a result of Medicaid expansions to working‐age adults under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Previous literature documents so‐called “welcome mat” effects in other populations but has not explicitly studied older persons dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. We extend this literature by estimating models of Medicaid participation among persons age 65 and up using American Community Survey data from 2010 to 2017 and state variation in ACA Medicaid expansions. We find that Medicaid expansions to working‐age adults increased Medicaid participation among low‐income older adults by 1.8 percentage points (4.4 percent). We also find evidence of an “on‐ramp” effect; that is, low‐income Medicare beneficiaries residing in expansion states who were young enough to gain coverage under the 2014 ACA Medicaid expansions before aging into Medicare were 4 percentage points (9.5 percent) more likely to have dual Medicaid coverage relative to similar individuals who either turned 65 before the 2014 expansions or resided in non‐expansion states. This on‐ramp effect is an important mechanism behind welcome mat effects among some older adults.     

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.