Blaming the Victim: Perceptions About Incarcerated Sexual Assault Victim Culpability Among a Sample of Jail Correctional Officers

Research examining correctional officer perceptions about the sexual victimization of inmates is rare. This research offers a first glimpse of what personal, job-related, and attitudinal factors influence blaming incarcerated sexual assault victims among a sample of 376 jail correctional officers in one state. Surveys are utilized to elicit understanding about officer perceptions of incarcerated victims. Findings indicate that jail correctional officer blaming of incarcerated sexual assault victims is highly correlated with perceptions about rape myths and homosexuality. Specifically, officers who adhere to rape myths and disapprove of homosexuality are more likely to blame incarcerated victims of sexual assault. This study is a first to examine factors correlated with jail correctional officer blaming of incarcerated sexual assault victims. The results are useful in understanding the perspectives of jail correctional officers and experiences of victims incarcerated in jails. Implications for correctional institutions and authorities include attending to the issue of sexual assault in correctional facilities, understanding staff perceptions that are related to this issue, training of staff, and classification of inmates.     

Culture as Values or Culture in Action? Street Codes and Student Violent Offending

ABSTRACT

The authors draw on two competing cultural perspectives—culture as values and culture in action—to examine the relationship between street codes and the propensity to violently victimize others. Specifically, they explore whether individual-level and school-level street codes, net of one another, are related to 3 types of violence: assault, robbery, and sexual battery. In addition, they consider whether these effects vary according to 3 contextual characteristics: (a) the location of the offending—in school versus out of school, (b) school-level economic disadvantage, and (c) school efficacy. Three-level ordinal logistic regression models are estimated using four waves of survey data from over 3,000 students nested within 103 schools. Results provide evidence that individual-level street codes are related to violent offending in a manner that is, largely speaking, not tied to context. However, there is some evidence that the effects of school-level street codes on offending differ between outside of school and in school settings and are conditioned by levels of school disadvantage and efficacy. Overall, some support is offered for both the culture-as-values and culture-in-action perspectives.     

Body image ideals of low-income African American mothers and their preadolescent daughters

Given the high incidence of obesity and obesity-related health problems among low-income African American women, it is both timely and significant to study factors that contribute to obesity in this population. The perception of current body size (body image) and desired body size (body image ideal) has been associated with the development of anorexia and bulimia in white adolescent girls. Body images and ideals may also be related to the development of obesity among African Americans adolescent girls. This study examined the body images and ideals of 27 low-income African American mothers and their 29 preadolescent daughters. Results suggest that there is a relationship between mothers' perceptions of their daughters bodies and their daughters' body images. Preadolescent, low-income, African American girls have normal weight ideals rather than the ultrathin ideals typically found among white girls. Normal weight girls have ideals that are heavier than their body images. This population may be less motivated than those with thinner ideals to engage in behaviors that would prevent the development of obesity during adolescence. Health promotion programs for this population should acknowledge cultural body weight standards.This study was funded by the American Heart Association of Metropolitan Chicago.Received B.A from the University of Pennsylvania. Research interests include cross-cultural studies of body image, eating disorders, health risk perceptions, and health promotion programs.Received Ph.D. from in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University. Research interests include obesity prevention, binge eating, and cultural differences in eating behavior.     

Labor Reform and Dual Transitions in Brazil and the Southern Cone

The sequencing of transitions to democracy and to a market economy shaped the outcome of labor law reform and prospects for expanded labor rights in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Argentina and Brazil experienced democratic transitions before market economic reforms were consolidated in the 1990s. During the transition, unions obtained prolabor reforms and secured rights that were enshrined in labor law. In posttransition democratic governments, market reforms coincided with efforts to reverse earlier labor protections. Unable to block many harmful reforms, organized labor in Argentina and Brazil did conserve core interests linked to organizational survival and hence to future bargaining leverage. In Chile this sequence was reversed. Market economic policies and labor reform were consolidated under military dictatorship. During democratic transition, employers successfully resisted reforms that would expand labor rights. This produced a limited scope of organizational resources for Chilean unions and reduced prospects for future improvements.     

The case of the missing victims: Gunshot woundings in the National Crime Survey

National Crime Survey (NCS) data yield an estimate that 171,000 Americans were nonfatally shot in criminal assaults, robberies, and rapes for the period 1973–1979. Comparing this estimate with the number of firearms homicides during this period suggests either that the death rate in gunshot cases is very high (over 1/3) or that the NCS estimate is low. Based on police-generated data appropriate to estimating the true death rate from gunshot wounds, it appears that the NCS estimate is low by a factor of about 3.0 compared with the number of criminal gunshot woundings known to the police. It is common knowledge that survey-based estimates of assault rates tend to be relatively unreliable, a fact that has been attributed to problems with respondents being willing and able to recall threats, fist fights, and other minor assaults. The current result indicates that the estimation problem is not limited to minor assaults. There is reason to think that the underestimate of gunshot woundings is the result of problems with the NCS sample as well as problems with respondent cooperation.     

Correlations on radioimmunoassay, fluorescence polarization immunoassay, and enzyme immunoassay of cannabis metabolites with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of 11-nor-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in urine specimens.

Results obtained from three commercial immunoassay kits, Abuscreen, TDx, and EMIT, commonly used for the initial test of urine cannabinoids (and metabolites) were correlated with the 11-nor-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (9-THC-COOH) concentration as determined by GC/MS. Correlation coefficients obtained based on 26 (out of 1359 total sample population) highly relevant samples, are 0.601 and 0.438 for Abuscreen and TDx. Correlation coefficients obtained from a parallel study on a different set of 47 (out of 5070 total sample population) highly relevant specimens are 0.658 and 0.575 for Abuscreen and Emit. The immunoassay concentration levels, that correspond to the commonly used 15 ng/ml GC/MS cutoff value for 9-THC-COOH, as calculated from the regression equations are 82 ng/ml and 75 ng/ml for TDx and EMIT and 120 ng/ml and 72 ng/ml for Abuscreen manufactured at two different time periods. The difference of these calculated corresponding concentrations provides quantitative evidence of the reagent specificity differences.