Social problem-solving correlates of sexual deviancy and aggression among adult child molesters

Cognitive-behavioral treatment programs for adult sex offenders often include training geared to improve a perpetrator's social problem-solving skills. However, little empirical evidence exists to date that documents the relationship between problem-solving and deviant sexual interest or behavior among child molesters. As such, this study investigated the association between problem-solving and two aspects of sexual offending—self-reported sexual deviancy and clinician-rated sexual aggression among a recruited sample of incarcerated child molesters. To minimize the potential for biased self-reports, criterion scores on a lie scale were employed to exclude individuals who might be prone to misrepresent their responses. Results indicated this sample to be characterized by significant deficits on all measures of social problem-solving as compared to the general population. In addition, a series of correlational analyses indicated that an avoidant problem-solving style was significantly associated with past sexual aggression, whereas a negative problem orientation and an impulsive/careless problem-solving style were significantly related to a measure of current sexual deviancy. Of particular interest is the finding that a rational problem-solving style (i.e., the constructive style that involves the systematic application of specific problem-solving skills geared toward identifying an effective solution) was not significantly related to either sexual offending measure. The implications of these collective results are discussed.     

Attributions of blame in a hypothetical internet solicitation case: Roles of victim naivety,parental neglect and respondent gender

Abstract

This study investigates attributions towards the perpetrator, the victim and the victim's parents in a hypothetical internet solicitation case. A community sample of 187 respondents read a vignette outlining an internet chatroom conversation between a 10-year-old girl and a 25-year-old man, followed by a depicted sexual assault, before rating 26 attribution items. Principal components analysis extracted six reliable and interpretable factors which were then subjected to a two-respondent gender×two-victim age×two-victim internet naivety×two-parental neglect between-subjects multiple analyses of variance (MANOVA). While levels of victim naivety had no impact on any measure, parents who were neglectful of their child's online activities were deemed more culpable for their child's later abuse than were parents who took an active interest in their child's activities. In general, females deemed the victim more credible than males. Implications are discussed.     

Ripple effects: the groundnut scheme failure and railway planning for colonial development in Tanganyika, 1947–1952

While the reasons for the failure of the groundnut scheme are well understood, its effects on colonial development in Tanganyika are not. Drawing from the voluminous paper trail that development planning leaves in its wake, this paper traces the effects of the groundnut scheme demise on a contemporaneous plan to build a railway across Tanganyika to the Northern Rhodesian copperbelt. Tensions arose among the railway planners – civil servants, politicians, and consultants from Britain, Africa, and the United States – when, midway through the planning process, the scale of the groundnut scheme collapse became public. I demonstrate how this revealing crisis prompted planners to eschew the project's production-oriented impetus and embrace a welfare-oriented conclusion. By demonstrating the interlinked nature of development projects, this paper proposes a new angle for studying the history of development in an era characterised by the rapid proliferation of projects.     

Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: The Depiction of Government in American and Australian Cinema

With the prevalence of government, it is unsurprising to find it frequently represented on the silver screen. But, with the ability of film to influence perceptions and attitudes, questions arise, including: how is government portrayed on the silver screen? Are government bureaucrats berated or praised? This research examines the representation of government—and civil servants in particular—in a comparative setting. The top 100 box office grossing films of all time in the United States and Australia were selected to address the question: how do these films in the United States and Australia depict government? This study analyzes these 200 films and the more than 400 government characters in these films and suggests that government in both American and Australian films does not fare well. However, despite the generally negative—or at best mixed—depictions of government overall, individual government characters fare better.     

Substance Use Among African American Adolescents in the Midwest

The purpose of this article is to examine the attitudes and substance use behaviors of African American adolescents living in the Midwest. A baseline survey was administered to 463 African American teens between the ages of 11–19. The article examines the relationship between attitudes toward drugs and drug-using behavior in this African American sample. Drug use will be compared to national drug use norms established by the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. Overall participants had fairly negative attitudes toward drugs. Sixty percent of the sample reported that they were committed to a drug-free life, 74% had made a decision to stay away from marijuana, 79% reported making a decision not to smoke cigarettes, and 71% reported they would not get drunk in the next year. Females were more likely to stay away from marijuana than males. In this current study there is cause for alarm; participants reported higher percentages of ever smoking cigarettes and marijuana than the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. This study shows there is a need to provide substance abuse prevention programs for African American adolescents. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.     

Culture,Institutions and Campaign Effects: Explaining the Outcome of Malta's EU Accession Referendum

This survey examines the background to and the campaign preceding Malta's EU accession referendum. The result of the referendum, which was held on 8 March 2003, and which was the first of the EU accession referendums of 2003, was a 53.65% vote in support of membership, on a turnout of close to 91%. Explaining both the relatively low support for EU accession and the high turnout on referendum day involves weighing up the relative impact of distinctive features of Malta's political culture and institutional framework against more immediate campaign effects. While the conclusion is that the high turnout in the Maltese EU accession referendum can be traced to Malta's political culture, the relatively low but positive vote in favour of membership can only be fully understood by focusing on a range of factors, including campaign-related factors, such as the credibility of the arguments presented by the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ camps and the balance of resources available. The most important factor explaining the result of the Maltese referendum are, however, the cues provided by the political parties prior to and over the course of the referendum campaign.