Consequences of mental and physical health for reentry and recidivism: Toward a health‐based model of desistance*

During the last few decades, criminologists have identified several adult roles and statuses, including employment, positive family relations, and economic stability, as critical for promoting successful reintegration and desistance. Very few researchers, however, have investigated the conditions that serve to bring about these transitions and successes crucial for behavior change. As a complement to a burgeoning amount of literature on the impact of incarceration on health, we emphasize the reverse: Health has important implications for reentry outcomes and reincarceration. Informed by multiple disciplines, we advance a health‐based model of desistance in which both mental and physical dimensions of health affect life chances in the employment and family realms and ultimately recidivism. Investigating this issue with longitudinal data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) and structural equation models, we find overall support for the health‐based model of desistance. Our results indicate several significant pathways through which both manifestations of health influence employment, family conflict, financial problems, and crime and reincarceration. The findings highlight the need for implementation of correctional and transitional policies to improve health among the incarcerated and avert health‐related reentry failures.     

Branscomb,Lewis M. and James H. Keller,eds. (1998). Investing in Innovation: Creating a Research and Innovation Policy that Works

The Journal of Technology Transfer -     

Stressful Childhood Experiences and Clinical Outcomes in People with Serious Mental Illness: a Gender Comparison in a Clinical Psychiatric Sample

Objective: This study examines stressful childhood experiences (SCE) including childhood abuse and family context in a cohort of 183 people diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) and compares gender specific rates of SCE and clinical outcome variables. Methods: 111 men and 72 women with SMI were interviewed regarding SCE and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, dissociative symptoms, risk for self-harm, and adult re-victimization. Results: Both genders endorse high rates of SCE. Cumulative SCE (the sum of seven SCE) are linked to increased levels of all four outcome variables after adjusting for demographic factors. Conclusions: The study addresses the need to assess cumulative SCE in a population with SMI and its effects on clinical outcomes in both genders.     

Book reviews

Chen Kuide, ed., Zhongguo dalu dangdai wenhua bianqian (197801989) (Cultural change in Contemporary Mainland China, 1978–1989) Taibei: Guiguan, 1991. 278 + iv pp.

Yizi Chen. China: the Ten Years Reform and Democratic Movement in 1989. Pp. ix, 209, Taipei, Taiwan, Lianjing Press, 1990.

Wu Xiaomei et al., Zhongguo xiandai zuojia yu dongxifang wenhua [Modern Chinese Writers and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 272 pp. 2.12 Yuan.

Zhao Xueyong, Shen Congwen yu dongxifang wenhua [Shen Congwen and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 226 pp. 1.75 yuan.

Zhongguo Waijiaoguan Huiylilu: Xin Zhongguo Waijiao Fengyun (Memoirs by China's Diplomats: Diplomatic Winds of New China). Edited by Waijiaobu Waijiaoshi Bianjishi (Editorial Office of Diplomatic History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Beijing: Shijie Zhishi chubanshe, 1990. 196 pp. 3.20 yuan

Zhao Wei, Zhao Ziyang zhuan (Biography of Zhao Ziyang)

Ruan Ming: Lishi Zhuanzedian Shangde Hu Yaobang (Hu Yaobang At the Turning Point of History), New Jersey: Global Cultural Publishing House, 1991     

Developing Principles for Best Practice in Expanded School Mental Health

On the basis of activities of a federally funded national center for school mental health, review of literature on principles for best practice in child and adolescent mental health and school health, and consultation with national experts and family members, a set of 10 principles for best practice in school mental health was developed. A survey was developed enabling 1–6 point Likert ratings (clearly unimportant to clearly important) for each of the 10 principles. With an original sample of 426 people involved in education, school health or mental health, all 10 principles were strongly endorsed, receiving mean ratings ranging between 5.10 and 5.75. On the basis of qualitative feedback from this survey and interactive forums, language for 9 of the 10 principles was revised and a survey reflecting these changes was developed and administered to a validation sample of 86 respondents. As with the original sample, endorsements of the principles were strong, with mean ratings ranging between 5.45 and 5.79. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing interconnected agendas related to quality assessment and improvement and empirically supported practice in school mental health.     

Proof of Concept Centers in the United States: an exploratory look

In this paper we identify the population of 32 US university-related Proof of Concept Centers (PoCCs), and we present a model of technology development that identifies the economic role of PoCCs within that model. We examine the broad technology transfer challenges that PoCCs have been established to address. Further, we argue that PoCCs are a growing technology infrastructure in the United States, and they are important as a possible element of our national innovation system.     

Case study of R&D efficiency in an ATP joint venture

This paper summarizes the technical accomplishments and presents selected measures of research efficiencies and early stage economic impacts of the Printed Wiring Board (PWB) Research Joint Venture Project. The project was cost-shared by the Advanced Technology Program and carried out by a group of seven companies, with participation by Sandia National Laboratories. The period considerred in this case study is from mid-1991 through mid-1996, the time during which the research was conducted. ATP’s funding of the PWB Research Joint Venture has thus far had a number of direct and indirect economic impacts. Of the direct impacts, the largest to date has been the increase in R&D efficiency. The project achieved at least a 53 percent reduction in overall research costs. The increase in research efficiency has in turn led to reduced cycle times for both new project development and new process development. Collectively, the result has meant productivity improvements for member companies and improved competitive positions in the world market.     

Influence of expert testimony regarding eyewitness accuracy on jury decisions

To determine the influence of expert testimony regarding the general unreliability of eyewitnesses, a two-phase study was conducted. In the first phase, 24 community residents served as jurors on four six-person juries. A burglary case was tried in 120 District Court. El Paso, Texas. Two juries heard all the evidence including the expert testimony of a psychologist and the other two heard all of the testimony except that of the psychologist. During the second phase, 24 student jurors constituting four six-person juries viewed a videotape of the trial. Two of these juries saw the entire proceeding from the first phase including the expert testimony and the remaining two saw all but the expert testimony. All juries acquitted the defendant; however, those who heard the expert testimony significantly lowered their judgments of the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness identification as well as its overall importance to the trial. Further, those juries that heard the expert testimony spent a significantly longer time discussing eyewitness identification as well as other relevant evidence. No differences between community residents and college student juries were obtained.The authors wish to thank Judge Brunson Moore, Mr. David Jeans, Mr. Ricky Glenn Smith, Detective James Christianson, D. Steven Cooper, Rachel Hanna, Daniel Torres, and Patricia Tetreault. All of these people participated in the trial and without them this research could not have been conducted. This research was supported by Gift Funds of the Department of Psychology, University of Texas at El Paso.