Developmental and Validation of The Illustrated Version of The Home Inventory for Dangers and Safety Precautions: Continuing to Address Learning Needs of Parents in Injury Prevention

This paper describes the development and validation of the Home Inventory for Dangers and Safety Precautions – Illustrated Version to be used with parents whose children are at significant risk for home injury. Because illustrations are useful in facilitating learning by parents who have difficulty ensuring child and self home safety, colored illustrations representing 6 home rooms or areas were empirically developed for assessment purposes. The dangers depicted were selected from previous work and represented those associated with the majority of family home injuries. Score-sheets contained dangers and associated precautions administered to 62 referred young parents. Administration and psychometric characteristics were examined; specific hypotheses were tested. Obtained measures of internal consistency for dangers and precautions for all illustrations (except for Stairway) and for totals were satisfactory. Administration was suitable for use with this population. Parents were able to identify approximately half of the depicted dangers while being able to provide a suitable precaution for 40%. Reading comprehension was predictive of danger identification whereas reading recognition was predictive of precautions given. The HIDSP-IV is useful in assessing a parent's knowledge of dangers and precautions from which more individualized home safety instruction can occur.     

Capital punishment preferences for special offender populations

The present study utilized the factorial survey design, a quasi-experimental approach, in an attempt to measure respondent's capital punishment preferences regarding juvenile, the mentally incompetent, and the mentally retarded offenders. The findings indicated that respondents were significantly less likely to prefer capital punishment over alternative sentencing options. Moreover, the influence aggravating and mitigating circumstances such as the offender's age, mental capacity, prior record, and death-eligibility were found to strongly affect the public's death penalty preferences. The substantive, methodological, and public policy implications of this study are discussed.     

Analysis of Dental Case Reports in the Context of Court Decisions: Causal Nexus and Aspects of Fault

The purpose of expert reports is to support the judge in his decisions, by providing technical information. However, it remains uncertain as to what extent the content of these reports is used, and if they are effectively associated with judicial decisions. The aim of this study was to perform a qualitative analysis of case reports in relation to the judicial decisions rendered in association with these reports, by determining the connection between causal nexus and aspects of fault. The case reports included lawsuits against dentists, issued by the Medical Justice Department of the State Court of Appeals of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, between 2010 and 2013. Comparing the percentage of agreement between case report and judicial decision, causal nexus was 79.9% and fault was 86.7%. The high percentages of agreement found in relation to fault and causal nexus highlight the relevance of expert reports in weighing the judge's decision.     

Government of Canada's teleworking and hybrid policies in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article analyzes the evolution of teleworking and hybrid work policies in the public sector over the last two decades. It focuses on the Government of Canada, concentrating on the paradigmatic shifts brought about by COVID-19, particularly the impact on the development of teleworking and the transformation of the workplace into a hybrid model. Based on a historical neo-institutionalism approach, this article suggests that the pandemic has propelled the expansion of telework reforms, becoming a key driver in altering the application of both telework and hybrid policies. However, this article argues that, despite the general recognition in the effectiveness of telework and hybrid policies, there are still headways to be made, predominantly because there is still disagreement as to how these policies should be defined and ultimately applied in the federal public sector.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Healing After Gender-Based Violence Scale: An Instrument for Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Assessment of Recovery Progress for Women-Identifying Survivors

Journal of Family Violence - The Healing after Gender-based Violence Scale (GBV-Heal) was developed to measure the holistic recovery processes of woman-identifying survivors of gender-based...     

Development of a Marketing Campaign to Recruit Non-adjudicated and Untreated Abusive Men for a Brief Telephone Intervention

Although voluntary enrollment by abusive men in domestic violence perpetrator treatment programs occurs, most men enter treatment only after they have injured a partner or family member and have been arrested, convicted and sentenced. This leaves a serious gap for those who engage in abusive behavior but who have not been served by the legal or social service systems. To address this gap, the researchers applied social marketing principles to recruit abusive men to a telephone-delivered pre-treatment intervention (the Men’s Domestic Abuse Check-Up—MDACU), designed to motivate non-adjudicated and untreated abusive men who are concurrently using alcohol and drugs to enter treatment voluntarily. This article discusses recruitment efforts in reaching perpetrators of intimate partner violence, an underserved population. Informed by McGuire’s communication and persuasion matrix, the researchers describe three phases of the MDACU’s marketing campaign: (1) planning, (2) early implementation, and (3) revision of marketing strategies based on initial results. The researchers’ “lessons learned” conclude the paper. This project is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1 RO1 DA017873.     

Deviancy training: understanding how preventive interventions harm

Joan McCord’s follow-up study of the Cambridge–Somerville Youth Project showed that even well-intentioned, well-implemented prevention programs sometimes have harmful effects on participants. She reported that peer reinforcement of delinquent behaviors or bragging about delinquent behaviors that occurred during summer camp experiences provided as part of the project might explain the negative outcomes observed for treatment boys. We explored this “deviancy training” mechanism in the context of an evaluation of an after-school program. The study found that peer deviancy training does occur in the context of after-school programs, that it is more likely to occur during less structured activities, and that more violent behavior also occurs during these less structured times. Also, the amount of adult supervision that is afforded in after-school programs did not counteract the reinforcing effect of peers. Finally, we showed that while teaching a prevention curriculum that was part of the after-school program, the most effective group leaders provided positive reinforcement for students’ pro-deviancy expressions. A scale assessing beliefs that illegal, violent, and risky behaviors are common and acceptable in the peer group favored the control students in the programs in which group leaders were observed providing this positive reinforcement. Implications for prevention programming are discussed.     

Developmental validation of reduced-size STR Miniplex primer sets

This paper describes a developmental validation study of three Miniplex sets covering 12 of the 13 CODIS loci. As these new sets will be used for the analysis of degraded and low level DNA, the validation studies were performed using 100-125 pg of DNA, the lowest input level at which peak balance, peak intensity, and allele consistency were stable. To demonstrate the applicability of the Miniplex sets to forensic casework, these validation studies were completed in accordance with the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM). A range of tests were performed including studies of concordance with standard multiplex kits, sensitivity and reproducibility, and PCR amplification conditions. Additionally, studies of mixtures, nonhuman and environmentally degraded DNA, and simulated forensic samples were performed. Our results demonstrate that Miniplex STR amplification procedures are a robust and sensitive tool for the analysis of degraded DNA.