Streetwork at the crossroads: An evaluation of a street gang outreach intervention and holistic appraisal of the research evidence

Spurred by the success of public health violence interventions, and accelerated by policy pressure to reduce violence without exacerbating overpolicing and mass incarceration, streetwork programs—those that provide anti-violence services by neighborhood-based workers who perform their work beyond the walls of parochial institutions—have positioned themselves as the most important non–law-enforcement violence prevention option available to urban policy makers. Yet despite their importance, the state of the field seems difficult to interpret for academics and practitioners alike. In this article, we make several contributions that bring forth new findings and deliver new perspectives on streetwork as a violence reduction strategy. First, we offer an extended analytic review of the streetwork evaluation literature that connects the study of contemporary public health violence interventions to a preceding tradition of criminologically inspired streetwork studies. Second, we present the results of an impact evaluation of StreetSafe Boston (SSB)—a multiyear streetwork intervention that served 20 Boston gangs. We find that the SSB intervention had no detectable effect on violence among the gangs that it served. We conclude by offering a framework for understanding a field at multiple crossroads: past and present, proclaimed successes and failures, help and harm.     

Automated processing of forensic casework samples using robotic workstations equipped with nondisposable tips: contamination prevention

An automated process has been developed for the analysis of forensic casework samples using TECAN Genesis RSP 150/8 or Freedom EVO liquid handling workstations equipped exclusively with nondisposable tips. Robot tip cleaning routines have been incorporated strategically within the DNA extraction process as well as at the end of each session. Alternative options were examined for cleaning the tips and different strategies were employed to verify cross-contamination. A 2% sodium hypochlorite wash (1/5th dilution of the 10.8% commercial bleach stock) proved to be the best overall approach for preventing cross-contamination of samples processed using our automated protocol. The bleach wash steps do not adversely impact the short tandem repeat (STR) profiles developed from DNA extracted robotically and allow for major cost savings through the implementation of fixed tips. We have demonstrated that robotic workstations equipped with fixed pipette tips can be used with confidence with properly designed tip washing routines to process casework samples using an adapted magnetic bead extraction protocol.     

The prevalence of drugs and alcohol found in road traffic fatalities: A comparative study of victims

Researchers have studied the involvement of drugs and alcohol in fatal road traffic incidents, but with particular emphasis on the possible impairment of the driver. This paper describes a comparative study of drug and alcohol findings in various victim groups (drivers of cars, vans or lorries, car passengers, motorcyclists, motorcycle passengers, cyclists and pedestrians) between 2000 and 2006. Post-mortem blood and urine specimens submitted were analysed by immunoassay, GC–NPD, GC–FID, GC–MS and HPLC–DAD. The results of 1047 cases indicated 54% of all victims were positive for drugs and/or alcohol, with the highest percentage of positive findings occurring in pedestrians (63%). Males between the ages of 17–24 were most likely to be involved in a road traffic accident, whether being in control of a vehicle (driver) or involved indirectly (car passenger, pedestrian, motorcycle passenger). A wide range of drugs were detected (e.g. drugs of abuse, anti-convulsants, anti-histamines, anti-inflammatories, anti-psychotics, cardiac drugs and over-the-counter products), but alcohol and cannabinoids were the most frequent substances across the victim groups. When detected, alcohol was commonly above the legal driving limit in blood and urine (> 63% in those in control and > 60% not in control). Overall, the presence of drugs and/or alcohol was of similar frequency in those victims in control (55% of driver, 48% of motorcyclists, 33% of cyclists) and not in control of a vehicle (52% of car passengers, 63% of pedestrians). This degree of frequency strongly implicates the involvement of drugs and alcohol in road traffic incidents and infers an effect on driving ability and individual impairment.     

Effects of storage time on DNA profiling success from archived latent fingerprint samples using an optimised workflow

Due to recent improvements in forensic DNA testing kit sensitivity,there has been an increased demand in the criminal justice community to revisit past convictions or cold cases.Some of these cases have little biological evidence other than touch DNA in the form of archived latent fingerprint lift cards.In this study,a previously developed optimised workflow for this sample type was tested on aged fingerprints to determine if improved short tandem repeat(STR)profiles could be obtained.Two-year-old samples processed with the optimised workflow produced an average of approximately five more STR alleles per profile over the traditional method.The optimised workflow also produced detectable alleles in samples aged out to 28 years.Of the methods tested,the optimised workflow resulted in the most informative profiles from evidence samples more representative of the forensic need.This workflow is recommended for use with archived latent fingerprint samples,regardless of the archival time.     

Parental and Peer Factors Associated with Body Image Discrepancy among Fifth-Grade Boys and Girls

Many young adolescents are dissatisfied with their body due to a discrepancy between their ideal and actual body size, which can lead to weight cycling, eating disorders, depression, and obesity. The current study examined the associations of parental and peer factors with fifth-graders’ body image discrepancy, physical self-worth as a mediator between parental and peer factors and body image discrepancy, and how these associations vary by child’s sex. Body image discrepancy was defined as the difference between young adolescents’ self-perceived body size and the size they believe a person their age should be. Data for this study came from Healthy Passages, which surveyed 5,147 fifth graders (51 % females; 34 % African American, 35 % Latino, 24 % White, and 6 % other) and their primary caregivers from the United States. Path analyses were conducted separately for boys and girls. The findings for boys suggest father nurturance and getting along with peers are related negatively to body image discrepancy; however, for girls, fear of negative evaluation by peers is related positively to body image discrepancy. For both boys and girls, getting along with peers and fear of negative evaluation by peers are related directly to physical self-worth. In addition, mother nurturance is related positively to physical self-worth for girls, and father nurturance is related positively to physical self-worth for boys. In turn, physical self-worth, for both boys and girls, is related negatively to body image discrepancy. The findings highlight the potential of parental and peer factors to reduce fifth graders’ body image discrepancy.     

Human security/environmental security

This article offers a genealogy of human security and environmental security set against the background of the 1994 United Nations Human Development Report and its demands for a profound transition in thinking. It shows how these two concepts have intersected and overlapped on the one hand, and diverged on the other. The debates within the UN system about what human security does or should mean have taken some account of the impact of environmental degradation on people and their communities though this has often lacked any analytical depth. The concept of environmental security, on the other hand, has become increasingly divorced from its potentially heterodox and critical roots in human security. Rather it has been captured by an orthodoxy that focuses primarily on non-traditional threats to traditional referents (i.e. the state) and that increasingly perceives ‘environmental security’ as a synonym for the threat multiplier dimensions of climate change. Rather than empowering a people-centred approach that places emancipation at the centre of human/environmental security, the author argues (following Mason and Zeitoun) that this has foreclosed rather than protected human freedom and dignity.     

Drastic Plastic and the Global Electronic Economy

This article considers the rise of cosmetic surgical culture against the backdrop of recent explanations that foreground celebrity culture and the consumer industries. By contrast to these mainstream accounts, the article contends that surgical culture has become increasingly interwoven with major institutional changes of the global electronic economy. Personal vulnerabilities in the workplace and wider new economy are explored in the context of people seeking to reinvent themselves and improve their life prospects through cosmetic surgery.