Assessing and managing risk for intimate partner violence: Police employees’ use of the Police Screening Tool for Violent Crimes in Scania

Relapse into intimate partner violence (IPV) can potentially be predicted and counter-measures applied. This study examines the predictive validity of a violence risk assessment tool: the Police Screening Tool for Violent Crimes (PST-VC) among a sample of 65 offenders. All PST-VC assessments regarding IPV that were conducted at the Scania police department in 2010 were included in the sample. Follow-up time was 16–28 months, and all reported incidents with the same victim and suspected offender were recorded. The PST-VC demonstrated limited effect in the ability to identify high-risk offenders and predict repeat victimization. Interventions against the offender and victim protective actions were more often recommended in high-risk cases but did not lower the number of IPV relapses. The study suggests that the PST-VC is not a promising instrument.     

Research note: career stage and job satisfaction among southern correctional officers

The career stage theory postulates that employees go through different career stages, and each career stage has different effects on various outcomes, such as job satisfaction. There has been empirical support for the career stage theory from other disciplines, but there has been limited research relating to this theory to corrections. To expand the literature, the current study examined whether different career stages were significant predictors of job satisfactions, while including the personal characteristics and the workplace place variables among Texas correctional officers. The results supported the career state theory: job satisfaction was highest during the entry stage (0–2 years), but was lowest during the second career stage (2–5 years). In career stages three (5–15 years) and four (16+ years), job satisfaction rose. Possible interventions that correctional administrators can undertake to encourage job satisfaction from their staff during the second career stage are discussed.     

Pubertal Timing and Early Sexual Intercourse in the Offspring of Teenage Mothers

Early puberty is associated with stressful family environments, early sexual intercourse, and teenage pregnancy. We examined pubertal timing and sexual debut among the 14-year-old offspring of teenage mothers. Mothers (71% Black, 29% White) were recruited as pregnant teenagers (12–18 years old). Data were collected during pregnancy and when offspring were 6, 10 and 14 years old (n = 318). Adolescents (50% male) compared the timing of their pubertal maturation to same-sex peers. There was a significant 3-way interaction effect of race, sex, and pubertal timing on sexual debut (n = 305). This effect remained significant in a model controlling for maternal age at first intercourse, substance use, exposure to trauma, authoritative parenting, and peer sexual activity (n = 255). Early maturation was associated with early sex in daughters, and may be one pathway for the inter-generational transfer of risk for teenage pregnancy among daughters of teenage mothers.     

First-time DWI offenders are at risk of recidivating regardless of sanctions imposed

Objective

Research demonstrates that punitive approaches to DWI employed by the judiciary have failed to significantly reduce recidivism. However, little is known about the deterrent effects of administrative and diversion sanctions. We examine whether such sanctions deter first-time DWI offenders.

Methods

We grouped combinations of administrative, judicial, and diversion sanctions routinely employed in the state of Maryland for processing drivers arrested for DWI into one of eight mutually exclusive disposition sequences. We applied this classification to Maryland drivers who had been licensed in the state and had precisely one DWI on their record prior to January 1, 1999. We then used a proportional hazards model to estimate the probability of remaining free of a new DWI during a 6-year period (January 1, 1999 - December 31, 2004) as a function of the disposition of the index violation, and of selected factors that could affect that probability.

Results

Drivers with a prior DWI were at relatively high risk of recidivating regardless of how they were sanctioned. Those who received administrative and alternative sanctions had a risk of recidivating similar to that of drivers who were convicted.

Conclusion

All dispositions sequences, not just convictions, indicate that first-time DWI offenders are at high risk of recidivating.     

The scope of punishment: an economic theory

The harm caused by many acts is not certain but probabilistic. Current public enforcement of the law combines harm-based sanctions (usually in criminal law) with act-based sanctions (very common in administrative law and regulation). We propose an economic theory of the choice between harm-based and act-based sanctions in public enforcement. The efficiency of act-based versus harm-based sanctions is analyzed and a typology of the determinants is drawn up. Our model suggests that harm-based sanctions are more efficient when (1) acquiring information about the act is important, (2) engaging in harm avoidance activities is advisable, (3) judgment-proofness is not a very significant problem, (4) punishment is especially costly, (5) changes in law are expensive or difficult to negotiate and (6) on average, potential criminals are better informed than the government about losses for society. Legal policy implications are discussed.     

University-industry linkages in nanotechnology and biotechnology: evidence on collaborative patterns for new methods of inventing

The nanotechnology and biotechnology “revolutions” are so-called because their enabling technological breakthroughs were not simply inventions, but discoveries of entirely new methods of inventing. We hypothesize that university participants in either or both of these areas will exhibit greater collaboration with industry than researchers in other areas. We explore this hypothesis for 454 faculty members who conducted research that was patented during the period 1994–1999. Because our data include patents, publications, and funding at the individual level, we are able to examine the industry interaction of faculty who participated in the nanotechnology and biotechnology revolutions, as well as the interaction of faculty contributing to other areas of patentable science. We examine a variety of linkages, including sponsored research, consulting, publication with firm employees and measures of the potential for cross-campus collaboration. The results are striking in that they show significant differences in collaborative behavior across patent types and across the major program areas biological sciences, physical sciences and engineering. The results are consistent with a greater degree of tacit knowledge within the new methods of inventing. We also find significant differences in the embryonic nature and importance of patents across areas.     

Southeast Asian cooperation in health: a comparative perspective on regional health governance in ASEAN and the EU

Globalization has led to new health challenges for the twenty-first century. These new health challenges have transnational implications and involve a large range of actors and stakeholders. National governments no longer hold the sole responsibility for the health of their people. These changes in health trends have led to the rise of global health governance as a theoretical notion for health policy making. The Southeast Asian region is particularly prone to public health threats such as emerging infectious diseases and faces future health challenges including those of noncommunicable diseases. This study looks at the potential of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a regional organization to lead a regional dynamic for health cooperation in order to overcome these challenges. Through a comparative study with the regional mechanisms of the European Union (EU) for health cooperation, we look at how ASEAN could maximize its potential as a global health actor. Our study is based on primary research and semistructured field interviews. To illustrate our arguments, we refer to the extent of regional cooperation for health in ASEAN and the EU for (re)emerging infectious disease control and for tobacco control. We argue that regional institutions and a network of civil society organizations are crucial in relaying global initiatives, and ensuring the effective implementation of global guidelines at the national level. ASEAN’s role as a regional body for health governance will depend both on greater horizontal and vertical integration through enhanced regional mechanisms and a wider matrix of cooperation.     

Total and Marginal Cost Analysis for a High School Based Bystander Intervention

Costs of providing the Green Dot bystander-based intervention, shown to be effective in the reduction of sexual violence among Kentucky high school students, were estimated based on data from a large cluster-randomized clinical trial. Rape Crisis Center Educators were trained to provide Green Dot curriculum to students. Implementing Green Dot in schools (N = 13) randomized to the intervention, over five years, cost $1.6 M and included start-up ($58 K) and ongoing implementation ($1.55 M). Costs for adding a school ($25,510) were calculated based on the final year, where no start-up costs were incurred. Knowing the $25,510 cost estimate for adding Green Dot may be particularly useful for high school administrators or school boards when they were making economic decisions based on strong evidence of program effectiveness to reduce violence.     

Comment on the Economic Dimension of Soviet Interaction With the Third World

This article looks at collective memory formation—the study of monuments, memory, and public space—through a political science lens. An explicit theoretical focus on power relations in "monumental politics" and a methodological approach featuring large-N comparative analysis are combined to examine the process of monument creation, destruction, and alteration. Using a new database on monuments in 26 post-communist states over a 25-year period, patterns of monument transformation are identified, and official and private efforts to transform monuments are systematically compared across different regime types. The complex implications of private provision and alteration of monuments is also discussed.