Decision Making in a Hybrid Organization: A Case Study of a Southwestern Drug Court Treatment Program

This article presents a case study of decision making in a drug court located the southwestern United States. This study seeks to fill a gap in research on decision making by attending to the ways that drug court officials navigate the demands of a court that is dedicated to both therapy and criminal justice. This analysis differs from previous research by viewing the drug court as a “hybrid organization” and asking how the staff members interact in the decision‐making process. Additionally, this research provides an opportunity to investigate the concerns over collaborative decision making raised by critics. The data from this case study reveal that as a hybrid organization, the drug court staff often divides along institutional lines by allowing the counseling staff to manage treatment and the judge to manage punishment. When tensions arise, they are resolved by the structure of the court, which is hierarchical rather than collaborative.     

Risk factors and consequences of unwanted sex among university students: hooking up, alcohol, and stress response

This is the first study of unwanted sexual experiences in the collegiate "hooking-up" culture. In a representative sample of 178 students at a small liberal arts university. Twenty-three percent of women and 7% of men surveyed reported one or more experiences of unwanted sexual intercourse. Seventy-eight percent of unwanted vaginal, anal, and oral incidents took place while--"hooking up,"--whereas 78% of unwanted fondling incidents occurred at parties or bars. The most frequently endorsed reason for unwanted sexual intercourse was impaired judgment due to alcohol. The most frequently endorsed reason for unwanted fondling was that it happened before the perpetrator could be stopped. Of those affected by unwanted sexual intercourse or unwanted fondling, 46.7% and 19.2% reported unwanted memories, 50% and 32.7% reported avoidance and numbing responses, and 30% and 26.9% reported hyperarousal responses, respectively. A preliminary model of unwanted sex and collegiate social dynamics is proposed to provide a heuristic for further research.     

Goffman on the Jury: Real Jurors’ Attention to the “Offstage” of Trials

Social psychologist Erving Goffman, in his classic work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, provides a framework that explains why jurors may turn their attention at the courthouse to information not formally presented from the witness stand. We dub this “offstage observation,” a type of juror behavior that has not been systematically examined empirically. Analyzing a unique data source of 50 actual jury deliberations in civil trials, we find that jurors do look to the offstage in evaluating the claims of the parties. However, in contrast to predictions, these observations played a surprisingly minor role in the jury deliberation process.     

The persisting challenge of age-for-grade non-compliance in post-free primary education in Kenya

This article examines the prevalence of non-compliance on the age-for-grade policy in the post-free primary education system in Kenya. We utilised data from the 2009 cohort of enrolled primary schoolchildren. The analysis revealed non-compliance to be a persisting concern in the school system, characterised by both under-age and over-age enrolment at the age-for-grade level of analysis in spite of the introduction of free primary education in 2003. Irrespective of the nature of non-compliance, overcrowding in the lower grades is more prevalent, with potential for adverse compromises in quality of learning and the attendant added dimension of the mismatched grade-for-age curricula.     

A Pre-Trial Domestic Violence Intensive Supervision Unit: Exploring Case Seriousness and Successful Disposition

This study measures the seriousness of domestic violence cases from the population of cases (N = 96) sentenced to a pre-trial domestic violence intensive supervision unit in one county probation office in Florida from April 1, 2006, to April 30, 2007. No significant differences were found in seriousness across sex, self-reported drug use, or attorney type. Furthermore, no relationship was found between the number of special conditions imposed by the court and the seriousness index value for a case. However, non-Whites had a significantly higher mean case seriousness index than Whites. Findings suggest that using the seriousness index presented in this study, some of the cases examined were not serious enough to warrant being sentenced to the pre-trial domestic violence intensive supervision unit. Implications for future research, including the use of lethality assessments, are addressed.     

Etiological Similarities Between Psychological and Physical Aggression in Intimate Relationships: A Behavioral Genetic Exploration

Previous research has consistently shown that there is a strong association between psychological and physical aggression in intimate relationships. Theories as to why this association exists include that they have a single underlying etiology with differing thresholds, or they have separate etiologies and there is a two-step process by which psychological aggression moves to physical. The current study suggests that these two theories are not necessarily competing theories. The genetic and environmental covariance between psychological and physical intimate partner aggression were examined in 134 monozygotic (MZ) and 41 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. Results showed that psychological and physical aggression have largely the same genetic etiology, and any differences between the two are a function of differing nonshared environmental influences.     

CONFLICTING ROLES IN CHILD CUSTODY MEDIATION

This article will first discuss the conflict in the mediator's role as a neutral and impartial third party with no interest in the outcome and his or her role as guardian or advocate for the best interests of the child. That discussion will define terms, consider the legal standard for the best interests of the child as it is used by the courts, and lay out how the legal standard is problematic in general but even more so for mediators. Part 3 will discuss options for mediators attempting to resolve this conflict by looking at a continuum of alternatives, using examples of opening statements that illustrate positions ranging from extreme nonintervention to complete inte mention. An assessment follows each example.