“Clean up and go straight”: Effects of drug treatment on recidivism among felony probationers

The central question we address in this article is whether participation in court-ordered drug treatment programs reduces future criminal involvement among convicted property offenders who have a history of drug abuse. Using a national sample of male property offenders sentenced to felony probation, we analyze drug treatment experience on probationers’ recidivism rates by employing proportional hazards techniques. Results indicate that how successful white men are in completing courtordered drug treatment programs has no significant effect on their recidivism rates. However, AfricanAmerican and Hispanic men who satisfy the expectations of their drug treatment programs are significantly less likely to be rearrested. Overall, our findings support the contention that drug treatment reduces further criminal behavior among men on probation for felony property offenses. Thus, we recommend that court service personnel strive to provide drug treatment programs for property offenders with a history of drug abuse and that supervisors closely monitor probationers’ activities while in treatment to assure lower rates of recidivism. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society in Chicago in April 1996.     

Autonomy in nicaragua

Since the 1979 Revolution, Nicaragua's Sandinista government has been engaged in the reconstruction of political and administrative institutions throughout the country. Problems of administrative development have been especially acute along the Atlantic Coast, which has not only been geographically separate from the Pacific Coast, but ethnically and culturally distinct as well. U.S. intervention into the region since 1981 has intensified Sandinista efforts to accommodate indigenous demands for autonomy. The result has been the establishment of limited self-government involving a regional coordinator and council structure. Although many problems remain unresolved, the Nicaraguan experience offers a novel approach to a number of the policy and administrative issues involving indigenous minority populations within modern nation-states.     

Factors Predicting Relationship Satisfaction,Investment, and Commitment When Women Report High Prevalence of Psychological Abuse

Relationship satisfaction, investment, and commitment in women experiencing extensive psychological abuse were examined to determine predictive factors. Participants were the top quartile of a national sample of women in conflictual relationships (N = 81) experiencing psychological maltreatment. Relationship satisfaction, investment, and commitment were each used as criterion variables with conceptually related factors as the predictors (e.g., reactions to the psychological abuse; mental health indicators; personality variables; perceived harm; problematic relationship schemas; response styles; demographics). These relationship markers were differentially predicted within this group of women. Three independent clusters of women, based on patterns of satisfaction, investment, and commitment scores, were compared regarding physical abuse, reactions to psychological abuse, ratings of perceived harm, endorsement of relationship schemas, psychological distress variables, and personality variables. The cluster of women reporting higher satisfaction, investment, and commitment in these seemingly aversive relationships frequently demonstrated differences from the other two clusters. Implications for clinical applications are discussed.     

Clinical observations of ghetto four-year-olds: Organization,involvement, interpersonal responsiveness,and psychosexual content of play

This study attempted to refine the assessment of the effectance of four-year-old children through observation of their play. Two scales were developed; the first scale defined organization, involvement, and interpersonal responsiveness in play, and the second operationally defined psychosexual content of play. The validity and reliability of both scales and the inter correlations among the four major variables were explored. The results confirmed the validity and reliability of the instruments as measures of the children's effectance and important indicators of a child's capacity as a learner at age four.This research was carried out at the Dr. Martin Luther King Family Center and was supported by the Kenneth F. Montgomery Charitable Foundation in collaboration with the State of Illinois Department of Mental Health. Additional support was provided by the National Institutes of Health, General Research Support Grant No. 1-So 1 FR 05 666-01.Received M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1957. Presently Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Research interests lie in cross-cultural personality development and in psychophysiologic studies of human sexual arousal.Received Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1967. Presently Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center. Research has been mainly in the area of development and interference of effective learning in children.Graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1954. Presently Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Primarily interested in the effects of poverty on personality and social organization.     

Schiavo's lessons for health attorneys when good law is all you have: reflections of the special guardian ad litem to Theresa Marie Schiavo

Rarely have all the branches of federal and state government converged upon a single issue, a single person as they did in the tragic and acrimonious case of Theresa Maria Schiavo. In late 2003, the Florida Legislature passed what become known as "Terri's Law" and in Spring of 2005, Congress and the President of the United States sought to directly intervene in the care of the severely brain damaged woman. During that period, the state and federal court systems, through the highest courts in both venues, ruled on Ms. Schiavo's life, resulting in the removal of an artificial feeding tube and her death during Easter week. The legal and medical issues in this complex, politically and emotionally charged case continue to raise important questions for health attorneys. In this Article, Professor Wolfson, who served as the legislatively mandated, court appointed special guardian ad litem for Theresa Schiavo in late 2003, provides a distinctive first-person overview of the Schiavo case.