Improving the Implementation and Effectiveness of Out‐of‐School‐Time Tutoring

School districts are spending millions on tutoring outside regular school day hours for economically and academically disadvantaged students in need of extra academic assistance. Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), parents of children in persistently low‐performing schools were allowed to choose their child's tutoring provider, and together with school districts, they were also primarily responsible for holding providers in the private market accountable for performance. We present results from a multisite, mixed‐method longitudinal study of the impact of out‐of‐school time (OST) tutoring on student reading and mathematics achievement that link provider attributes and policy and program administration variables to tutoring program effectiveness. We find that many students are not getting enough hours of high‐quality, differentiated instruction to produce significant gains in their learning, in part because of high hourly rates charged by providers for tutoring. We identify strategies and policy levers that school districts can use to improve OST tutoring policy design and launch improved programs as waivers from NCLB are granted.     

Policies,Technology and Markets: Legal Implications of Their Mathematical Infrastructures

Law and Critique - The paper discusses legal implications of the expansion of practical uses of mathematics in social life. Taking as a starting point the omnipresence of mathematical...     

Exploring the Taxometric Status of Psychopathy Among Youthful Offenders: Is There a Juvenile Psychopath Taxon?

Several recent studies have examined the taxometric status of psychopathic and antisocial traits in adult samples, almost all of which have supported a dimensional model. The three studies examining whether psychopathic traits among youths are best conceptualized as a discrete latent class (or taxon) or as a dimensional construct, however, have provided conflicting results. In a sample of 723 delinquent youths who completed two self-report measures of psychopathic traits, results across taxometric procedures provided uniform support for a dimensional model. Additionally, analyses comparing putative dichotomous and dimensional classification models in terms of predicting relevant criterion measures (e.g., delinquent behavior, substance abuse, and hostility) indicated superior validity for the dimensional model. Implications for research, policy, and practice are reviewed.     

Do PCL-R scores from state or defense experts best predict future misconduct among civilly committed sex offenders?

In a recent study of sex offender civil commitment proceedings, Murrie et al. (Psychol Public Policy Law 15:19-53, 2009) found that state-retained experts consistently assigned higher PCL-R total scores than defense-retained experts for the same offenders (Cohen's d > .83). This finding raises an important question about the validity of these discrepant scores: Which type of score, state or defense evaluator, provides the most useful information about risk? We examined the ability of PCL-R total scores from state and defense evaluators to predict future misconduct among civilly committed sex offenders (N = 38). For comparison, we also examined predictive validity when two state experts evaluated the same offender (N = 32). Agreement between evaluators was low for cases with opposing experts (ICCA,1 = .43 to .52) and for cases with two state experts (ICCA,1 = .40). Nevertheless, scores from state and defense experts demonstrated similar levels of predictive validity (AUC values in the .70 range), although scores from different types of state evaluators (corrections-contracted vs. prosecution-retained) did not. The finding of mean differences between opposing evaluator scores, but similar levels of predictive validity, suggests that scores from opposing experts in SVP cases may need to be interpreted differently depending on who assigned them. Findings have important implications for understanding how rater disagreement may relate to predictive validity.     

Protection orders protect against assault and injury: a longitudinal study of police-involved women victims of intimate partner violence

The objective of this study was to measure the efficacy of protection orders (POs) in reducing assault and injury-related outcomes using a matched comparison group and tracking outcomes over time. This study was a retrospective review of police, emergency department, family court, and prosecutor administrative records for a cohort of police-involved female IPV victims; all events over a 4-year study period were abstracted. Victims who obtained POs were compared with a propensity-score-based match group without POs over three time periods: Before, During, and After the issuance of a PO. Having a PO in place was associated with significantly more calls to police for nonassaultive incidents and more police charging requests that were of multiple-count and felony-level. Comparing outcomes, PO victims had police incident rates that were more than double the matched group prior to the PO but dropped to the level of the matched group during and after the order. ED visits dropped over time for both groups. This study confirmed the protective effect of POs, which are associated with reduced police incidents and emergency department visits both during and after the order and reduced police incidents compared with a matched comparison group.     

Crimes by Visitors Versus Crimes by Residents: The Influence of Visitor Inflows

Objectives

To disaggregate the crime impact of visitor inflows. There is increasing evidence that visitors can make a major contribution to levels of crime in a given neighbourhood: crimes by visiting offenders may add to those committed by local offenders, while visitors (and their property) may provide local offenders with additional opportunities for crime.

Methods

Using police-recorded crime data for a large Eastern Canadian city we determined whether individuals charged or chargeable for property and violent crimes were visitors or residents of census tracts (CT) where crimes had been committed. This information was combined with data from a large transportation survey, allowing us to estimate daily population flows into each CT for four purposes (work, shopping, recreation, and education). Negative binomial regression models including spatial lags were used.

Results

An increase in visitor inflow not only increases the number of visitors charged with crimes but also the number of local residents charged. These effects vary significantly by visit purpose: more infractions are committed in tracts where visits are for recreation and, to a lesser extent, for shopping. Findings for work and education are mixed.

Conclusions

One important implication of our results is that, because most studies of aggregate crime counts or rates fail to account for whether crimes have been committed by visitors or residents, previous research may have provided hasty, partial, or even erroneous explanations for crime concentrations.

     

Studying Perceptions of Juror Influence In Vivo: A Social Relations Analysis

Because of legal constraints and statistical limitations there has been little research on social influence in actual juries. We used Kenny's (1994) social relations model to examine jurors' perceptions of social influence in the jury. After rendering a verdict in criminal or civil court cases, jurors rated how influential each member of the jury had been and provided self-reports of their personality traits. Perceptions of influence in the jury were mostly in the eye of the beholder, with jurors high in Conscientiousness and low in Openness being most likely to report that they were personally influenced by other jurors. There were small but statistically significant levels of consensus in the ratings of how influential the jurors were. To the extent that they did agree, jurors rated extraverted, tall men as most influential.