Teenage prostitution and the future of the female adolescent in Nigeria

Nigeria has a large number of adolescents living and making a living on the streets. This has been attributed to economic factors and exposure to all forms of risks. The result is the proliferation of prostitution among the adolescents with its attendant problems. This article considers the different forms of adolescent prostitutes: those in brothels, street walkers, call girls, and casual, part-time, or floating prostitutes, as well as the trafficking of adolescent girls across international borders. The causes of adolescent prostitution in Nigeria are largely economic, sociological, and socioeconomic factors. A two-dimensional approach was adopted in considering the attitude to prostitution. Coping mechanisms include endurance, self-medication, seeking medical attention, and adaptation. The effects of prostitution are psychological reactions, psychosocial damage, and the political implication, which damages the image of the nation. Approaches to combat adolescent prostitution in Nigeria include legislative steps, governmental efforts, policy making, awareness programs, and the efforts of nongovernmental organizations, community conscientization, and societal measures.     

Object relations in criminal psychopaths

Although many empirical studies have documented the range and severity of problems caused by psychopaths, considerably less attention has focused on understanding its origins. Efforts to treat this potentially dangerous population have been equally frustrating, as psychotherapeutic approaches have almost always proven ineffectual. Because of the limited understanding of the psychological and interpersonal dynamics underlying psychopathy, the authors sought to assess the extent to which object relations theory could inform our understanding of psychopathy. In addition to eliciting background information, 74 men sentenced to probation following a criminal conviction were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version, a clinician-rated measure of psychopathy, and were administered the BORI, a self-report measure of object relations. Results showed significant correlations between object relations dimensions, psychopathy scores, and childhood environment data. Furthermore, object relations scores added to the prediction of psychopathy even after demographic and behavioral variables were considered, suggesting that object relations deficits comprise a significant component of psychopathy. Results suggest that psychopaths harbor profound underlying psychosocial damage including intense anxiety, anger, bitterness, and resentment. Implications for interventions and future research are discussed.     

Sequencing strategy of mitochondrial HV1 and HV2 DNA with length heteroplasmy

We describe a method to obtain reliable mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences downstream of the homopolymeric stretches with length heteroplasmy in the sequencing direction. The method is based on the use of junction primers that bind to a part of the homopolymeric stretch and the first 2-4 bases downstream of the homopolymeric region. This junction primer method gave clear and unambiguous results using samples from 21 individuals with length heteroplasmy in the hypervariable regions HV1, HV2 or both. The method is of special value for forensic casework, because sequencing of both strands of an mtDNA region is preferable in order to reduce ambiguities in sequence determination.