Knocking on the Door: Juvenile and Family Courts as a Forum for Facilitating School Attendance and Decreasing Truancy

While there is debate about whether courts should be involved in truancy reduction efforts, less recognized is how courts can impact school attendance without lengthening their reach or further penalizing children and families. Courts are already involved with school‐related decision making in child welfare and delinquency cases. This article reports on data from a qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives (N = 64) on school attendance in Maryland. Respondents suggested that courts adopt engagement‐focused approaches to guide their work such as family assessments, school attendance plans, monitoring coordination and delivery of services, and ensuring that agencies meet their obligations to children.     

Squeezing the balloon?

Drug policy scholars generally agree that coercive attempts by the United States to reduce drug supplies from abroad have negative side effects. This article confirms that US coercion has made a bad situation worse. However, it also argues against oversimplified statements about the creation of side effects. The empirical focus is on the Air Bridge Denial Program, a US-sponsored attempt from the late 1980s to 2001 to reduce aerial drug trafficking in South America. A causal mechanism is developed that helps to understand and explain how air interdiction contributed to the displacement of coca cultivation from Peru to Colombia, an increase in Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine production, and a diversification of trafficking routes and methods. The analysis also examines contingent conditions, empirical black boxes, and alternative explanations. A complex empirical picture means that the popular metaphor of a balloon whose air, when squeezed, simply moves elsewhere is misleading. Although US-sponsored air interdiction has contributed to displacement, other factors have played a role as well.     

Refugees Who Have Experienced Extreme Cruelty: A Qualitative Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing after Being Granted Leave to Remain in the UK

Abstract

This study explores how vulnerable refugees’ experiences in the first year after being granted leave to remain in the UK impact on mental health and wellbeing. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with refugee survivors of extreme cruelty. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis with a narrative influence. Reported challenges included requirements to organize housing, finances and welfare benefits rapidly. Most respondents reported low mood, worry, exacerbated PTSD symptoms, physical ailments and isolation, but valued stable housing, meaningful activities, emotional support and service provider sensitivity in managing this transition. Policy and service recommendations are made, to assist integration and improve wellbeing.     

China and Global Energy Markets

China's emergence as a global economic powerhouse has caused the world economy to become more oil intensive and energy policy to become a key component of China's foreign policy. Responsibility for the country's energy policy is split among various commissions and is further complicated by overlaps with social, industrial, local-central governmental relations, and geopolitical considerations. To the extent China's leadership succeeds in meeting these challenges, it will have major repercussions for the rest of the world, and in particular on China's relations with the United States. But conflict between the United States and China is far from inevitable, as long as the global price mechanism operates reasonably efficiently and Washington and Beijing can operate in partnership rather than rivalry.     

Reactions to participating in dating violence research: are our questions distressing participants?

In recent years, there has been increased research focus on dating violence, producing important information for reducing these violent relationships. Yet Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are often hesitant to approve research on dating violence, citing emotional distress of participants as a possible risk of participation. However, no known research has examined the reactions of research participants to questions about dating violence. The current study examined the reactions among college students to completing a self-report measure on dating violence. Results showed that participants reported numerous positive experiences as a result of their research participation, with only mildly increased negative emotional reactions evident for some. Findings are discussed in relation to IRB proposals and appropriate informed consent for research participants.     

Participation in prevention programs for dating violence: beliefs about relationship violence and intention to participate

This study utilizes the Health Belief Model (HBM) to examine the factors related to the intention to participate in prevention programming for dating violence. Perceptions of susceptibility to future violence and the benefits of prevention programming appear to be the strongest predictors of participation in prevention programs. Perceptions of the severity of dating violence do not appear to be related to intentions to participate. There were no differences in intention between those reporting psychological or physical violence in their dating relationship, although some of the HBM factors were associated with a history of violence. Contrary to hypotheses, psychological and physical violence did not moderate the impact of the HBM factors on intention. Implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for recruiting participants for primary and secondary prevention programs are offered.     

Assessment of STR Typing Success Rate in Soft Tissues from Putrefied Bodies Based on a Quantitative Grading System for Putrefaction

To date, there is no systematic investigation of the association of short tandem repeat (STR) typing success rate in soft tissues with different signs of putrefaction. Herein, putrefaction was rated using a newly developed 19‐parameter system in soft tissues from a collective of 68 decaying bodies, and DNA yield was determined in 408 samples. DNA integrity was rated using a self‐devised pentaplex PCR generating an “integrity score” (S_i). STR typing success rate was then assessed for selected cases. DNA yield and S_i differed significantly between tissues with kidney on average exhibiting the highest S_i values. Statistical analysis revealed that nine parameters were significantly and positively correlated with S_i. The observed values for each of these nine parameters were summed up to generate a putrefaction score (S_p) for each sample. Our results show that STR typing success rate can be predicted based on S_p before expensive multiplex STR profiling is performed.