The problem of single parent/child paternity analysis--practical results involving 336 children and 348 unrelated men

In a certain amount of paternity investigations, only DNA from child and alleged father is analyzed, thus increasing the possibility of false paternity inclusions. The aim of this study was to determine how many wrong paternity inclusions could be detected in a rather small geographical area comparing empirical results from 336 children and 348 men (13-15 STRs were investigated per person). This comparison between each child and all unrelated men (i.e. all putative fathers from the other cases) with an especially designed computer program resulted in 116,004 man/child pairs. Less than three excluding STRs were found in 1666 child/unrelated man pairs (1.44% of the comparisons). At least one unrelated man with only two or less STR mismatches could be determined for 322 children (95.8% of all investigated children). In 26 comparisons no STR mismatches between a child and an unrelated man were detected, thus at least one and up to three "second father(s)" under 350 men could be found for 23 children, if the mother is excluded. Paternity probabilities between 95.475% and 99.996% were calculated. Our results underline the difficulties in motherless paternity cases using only STR analysis and advise great precaution in assigning verbal predicates such as "paternity proven" in those investigations.     

Testing the Trauma Model of Violence

The present study sought to explore the relationship between trauma and violence, as measured by the Traumatic Events Questionnaire and the Conflict Tactics Scale. Using Multiple Regression Analysis, several types of traumatic experiences were studied as predictors to violent behavior in 55 graduate students. Results suggest that trauma as a set, as well as being the victim of a violent crime, are significantly related to future violent behavior. However, no other individual predictor variable, including being the victim of childhood physical abuse, significantly predicted future violence. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Risking Housing Need

It is commonly suggested that social housing is allocated on the basis of 'need'. The authors, however, suggest that the concept of risk provides a much better explanation of the complex interplay of interests involved in the allocation process. In particular, risk explains developing allocation methods in low-demand areas. The thesis is exemplified by drawing upon data derived from the authors' original research on the rehousing of sex offenders.     

Explaining Women's Rights Realignment: Convention Delegates, 1972–1992

Since the early 1970s, the major American parties have moved from general consensus on women's rights issues to sharp polarization. While previous efforts to explain this realignment have identified pieces of the puzzle, these explanations have been generally incomplete and atheoretical. I argue that party positions are determined by the perceived value of specific issue positions for maintaining and expanding the party's coalition of electoral support. Thus, changes in both the composition of the party's coalition and the way the issue is defined and understood can bring about changes in the issue positions adopted by parties. Using the Convention Delegate Studies (1972–1992), this research suggests that both replacement (coalition change) and in the case of Democrats, conversion (caused by issue change) have been important mechanisms for bringing about party realignment on women's rights. This explanation both encompasses causal factors highlighted by previous scholars and points to other important contributing causes.     

Alcohol Use, Outcome Expectancies, and HIV Risk Status among American Indian Youth: A Latent Growth Curve Model with Parallel Processes

Alcohol use is cited as a risk factor for exposure to HIV infection through risky sexual behavior, especially among adolescents. From Social Cognitive Theory, positive outcome expectancies about the use of alcohol have often been presented as a critical aspect of alcohol use. Yet little is known about how they might be related to different aspects of HIV risk. Using latent growth curve modeling with data from 292 American Indian youth across seven years, both alcohol use and positive expectancies increased significantly; a lower-risk group showed significantly slower increases in both. Changes in alcohol use and outcome expectancies were significantly interrelated, providing support for reciprocal influence between the two constructs. Positive alcohol outcome expectancies may provide a preventive intervention point worthy of further consideration as influencing alcohol use and lowering HIV sexual risk among adolescents.Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Michigan State University. Her major research interests are adolescent development among minority youth with an emphasis on positive and problem behaviors.Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. Her major research interests are in areas of American Indian mental health and services research.Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Her primary research interests are in demography and contextual effects of individual health behavior, with a special emphasis on adolescent development.In addition to the above people, the Project Team included Sonia Bauduy, Cathy A.E. Bell, Cecelia K. Big Crow, Dedra Buchwald, Nichole Cottier, Amy D. Dethlefsen, Ann Wilson Frederick, Ellen M. Keane, Shelly Hubing, Natalie Murphy, Angela Sam, Jennifer Settlemire, Jennifer Truel, and Frankee White Dress.     

The Coming Genocide? Burundi's Past,Present, and Potentially Deadly Future

The Great Lakes region of Africa is the most conflict-prone region of the world and one current concern is political violence in Burundi. This research investigates whether Burundi is on the precipice of a genocide. Burundi's weak democratic norms, genocidal history, and the impact of contagion and diffusion of violence in the region provide a number of the conditions that could contribute to a genocide. This research investigates the past and present conflict variables of the Great Lakes region with a focus on Burundi and assesses the potential that the ongoing political violence in Burundi will lead to genocide.     

Foreign Aid and Undeserved Credit Claiming

Politicians in developing countries misuse foreign aid to get reelected by fiscally manipulating foreign aid resources or domestic budgets. Our article suggests another mechanism that does not require politicians to have any control over foreign aid in order to make use of it for electoral purposes: undeserved credit claiming. We analyze the conditions under which local politicians can undeservedly take credit for the receipt of foreign aid and thereby boost their chances of reelection. We theorize that politicians can employ a variety of techniques to claim credit for development aid even when they have little or no influence on its actual allocation. Using a subnational World Bank development program in the Philippines, we demonstrate that credit claiming is an important strategy to exploit foreign aid inflows and that the political effects of aid can persist even when projects are designed to minimize the diversion or misuse of funds.     

The contested terrain of food sovereignty construction: toward a historical,relational and interactive approach

This contribution puts forward a historical, relational and interactive (HRI) approach to food sovereignty research. A historical lens allows us to understand the social structures and institutions that condition the politics of food over time and the ways in which the agency of relevant state and societal actors has been, and continues to be, enhanced and exercised, or not, in the political contestation over the food system. A relational lens allows us to capture the process-oriented nature of food sovereignty – the ways in which the very meanings and attempted practices of food sovereignty are being dynamically and contentiously shaped and reshaped over time. An interactive lens allows us to analyze how actors within the state and in society are dialectically linked, molding the construction of food sovereignty through their interactions. Rather than an enquiry into food sovereignty per se, this piece is about efforts toward food sovereignty, partly to address a tendency in the literature and political debates to conflate the two. This is thus an investigation into food sovereignty construction, meaning how food sovereignty is being articulated and attempted, as well as contested – including resisted, refracted or reversed – in a given setting. The case of Venezuela is examined as one of a growing number of countries where food sovereignty has been adopted into state policy and among the longest-running experiments in its attempted construction. Concluding reflections are shared on the extent to which the HRI framework can help us understand the current conjunctural crisis facing Venezuela’s food system, and implications for food sovereignty research and activism more broadly.     

Digital Social Multitasking (DSMT), Friendship Quality,and Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Among Adolescents: Perceptions as Mediators

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Most existing research assumes “phone use during face-to-face interactions” to be psychosocially detrimental. Drawing on the digital social...