School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students’ Smoking Status?

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behavior using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51% female) Grade 10–11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy. The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included lower school connectedness, a greater number of family and friends who smoked, higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence, lower perceptions of student smoking frequency, and stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context. School-level variables associated with student smoking included weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction, weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement, and a higher number of students smoking on school property. These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use.     

Criminal network vulnerabilities and adaptations

The current paper aimed to investigate the effectiveness of five law enforcement interventions in disrupting and dismantling criminal networks. We tested three law enforcement interventions that targeted social capital in criminal networks (betweenness, degree and cut-set) and two interventions that targeted human capital (actors who possess money and those who possess precursor chemicals). These five interventions are compared with each other and with random (opportunistic) removal of actors in two settings: (i) with network adaptation incorporated into the simulations and (ii) without network adaptation. Results illustrate that the removal of actors based on betweenness centrality was the most efficient strategy, leading to network disruption in the least number of steps and was relatively consistent across replications. Targeting actors who possessed money was the second most effective overall and was also relatively consistent in its disruptive effect.     

Assessing the Feasibility and Acceptability of Narrative Exposure Therapy to Address IPV-related Mental Health in Parenting and Pregnant Adolescents

Many urban, low-income adolescents experience violence, often resulting in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) facilitates therapeutic processing of traumatic memories. This purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of NET among adolescents at-risk for PTSD and depression. Two community-based agencies hosted five focus groups with adolescents (n = 28), aged 18–21, predominantly African- American (71 %) and female (61 %) and one with adolescent service providers (n = 11). Pope’s coding framework (2000) and the Socio-Ecological Model for violence prevention (Krug et al. in The Lancet, 360(9339), 1083–1088, 2002) elicited perceived barriers and facilitators to NET. Individual, relationship, and community level barriers and facilitators to NET therapy engagement were identified. The findings indicate participants have favorable attitudes about NET and the provision of the therapy within trusted community agencies. The results will inform the next steps of NET implementation, training, and psychoeducation.     

The Impact of Race on the Pretrial Decision

This study examined the effect of race on the pretrial release decision for drug offenders. Although this decision point has not been examined as extensively as the final sentencing decision, it is a critical discretion point which impacts defendants’ future sentencing outcomes. The results found that race had a significant impact on judges’ decisions to release a defendant on recognizance, with black defendants less likely to receive this release status. Race was not significant, however, in the decision of bail amount or in the likelihood to post bail. These results are consistent with the focal concerns perspective which suggests that black defendants are viewed by courts as more dangerous and blameworthy and thereby, less likely to be released on their own recognizance.     

Race categorization and the regulation of business and science

Despite the lack of consensus regarding the meaning or significance of race or ethnicity amongst scientists and the lay public, there are legal requirements and guidelines that dictate the collection of racial and ethnic data across a range of institutions. Legal regulations are typically created through a political process and then face varying kinds of resistance when the state tries to implement them. We explore the nature of this opposition by comparing responses from businesses, scientists, and science-oriented businesses (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) to U.S. state regulations that used politically derived racial categorizations, originally created to pursue civil rights goals. We argue that insights from cultural sociology regarding institutional and cultural boundaries can aid understanding of the nature of resistance to regulation. The Food and Drug Administration's guidelines for research by pharmaceutical companies imposed race categories on science-based businesses, leading to objections that emphasized the autonomy and validity of science. In contrast, similar race categories regulating first business by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and later scientific research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) encountered little challenge. We argue that pharmaceutical companies had the motive (profit) that NIH-supported scientists lacked and a legitimate discourse (boundary work of science) that businesses regulated by the EEOC did not have. The study suggests the utility of a comparative cultural sociology of the politics of legal regulation, particularly when understanding race-related regulation and the importance of examining legal regulations for exploring how the meaning of race or ethnicity are contested and constructed in law.     

STR Profiles from DNA Samples with "Undetected" or Low Quantifiler™ Results

Abstract:  Screening methods capable of identifying DNA samples that will not yield short tandem repeat (STR) profiles are desired. In the past, quantitation methods have not been sensitive enough for this purpose. In this study, low level DNA samples were used to assess whether Quantifiler™ has a minimum quantitation value below which STR profiles would consistently fail to be detected. Buccal swabs were obtained and the DNA extracted, quantified, and serially diluted to concentrations ranging from 0.002 to 0.250 ng/μL. Samples were analyzed once with Quantifiler™, followed by Profiler Plus™ amplification and capillary electrophoresis analysis. An absolute minimum value below which STR results were unobtainable could not be defined. From the 96 low level samples tested, STR loci (including one full profile) were successfully amplified and detected from 27% of the samples "undetected" by Quantifiler™. However, no STR alleles were detected in 73% of these "undetected" samples, indicating that Quantifiler™ data may be useful for predicting STR typing success.