Premilitary adult sexual assault victimization and perpetration in a Navy recruit sample

Female (n = 5,226) and male (n = 5,969) U.S. Navy recruits completed a survey assessing their premilitary histories of adult sexual assault (SA), defined as attempted or completed rape since the age of 14. The survey was completed under anonymous or identified conditions. Overall, 39% of women reported premilitary SA victimization and 13% of men admitted premilitary SA perpetration. As predicted, rates were significantly higher in the anonymous than in the identified condition. For the sample of women as a whole, marital status, ethnicity, and family income were associated with SA victimization; for men, only marital status was associated with SA perpetration. Compared to previous college samples, Navy recruits were more likely to have previous SA experience. Given the negative consequences associated with SA victimization and perpetration, the present study reinforces the desirability of developing additional treatment, education, and prevention programs to reduce the occurrence of SA among military recruits.     

Using Reentry Simulations to Promote Changes in Attitude toward Offenders: Experiential Learning to Promote Successful Reentry

This research examines the viability of using reentry simulations as a tool for influencing changes in participants’ perspectives about the realities of coming back in the community after a period of incarceration. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we investigated changes in attitudes toward offenders after participants completed a reentry simulation designed to replicate the experience of the first four weeks in the life of a person attempting to reenter society after incarceration. Participants were 27 students enrolled in a community corrections course that was cross listed and co-taught between criminal justice and social work. Participants completed a quantitative pre- and post-test that assessed attitudes toward prisoners as well as a reflection assignment about the simulation experience. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to analyze scores from pre- and post-tests. Qualitative analysis of the reflection papers identified and analyzed themes. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that simulations humanize perspectives toward former offenders and develop a better understanding of their situation. This understanding creates empathetic feelings that can reduce discrimination and stigma, thereby creating an environment more conducive to successful reintegration. Based on the results of this study, use of simulation-based training is recommended with audiences including criminal justice personnel, service providers, court practitioners, judges, and legislators as a way to more clearly articulate the realities faced by this vulnerable population.

     

Adolescent Physical Abuse: Age at Time of Abuse and Adolescent Perception of Family Functioning

The relationship between physical abuse and family functioning was investigated in a comparative study of victims of adolescent physical abuse. The sample consisted of 99 physically abused adolescents and 99 nonabused adolescents who were administered the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES III). These measures assess family functioning in terms of adolescents' perception of their family's cohesiveness, flexibility, and the degree to which their parents provide care and protection. The relationship between family functioning and physical abuse, severity of abuse, and date of abuse onset was investigated. Abused adolescents perceived their families as significantly less adaptable, less cohesive, and less balanced than the comparison adolescents. Fathers and mothers of abused adolescents were viewed as less caring; abuse group fathers were also viewed as more overprotective. Family functioning was not different when childhood-onset abuse was compared to adolescent-onset abuse. Severity of abuse also did not differ in the childhood and adolescent onset groups. It was concluded that physically abused adolescents view their families as rigid, and their parents as emotionally unavailable. Treatment needs and intervention strategies for these families are outlined.     

It’s a Two-Way Street: The Bidirectional Relationship Between Parenting and Delinquency

As the primary socializing institution of youth, the family has long been recognized as important for predicting delinquency. Social control theory focuses on the effects of parental behavior on adolescent delinquency but fails to take into account the effect of adolescent delinquency on parental behaviors. This study addresses this problem by estimating eighteen models examining bidirectional relationships between general, property, and violent delinquency and parental attachment, monitoring, and involvement. The magnitude of both parent and child effects were examined using data from 12,505 youth ages twelve to seventeen who participated in the Add Health study. These youth were an average age of 14 and were predominantly white (65%); just over half (50.42%) were female. Cross-lag regressions showed that while parental attachment has an effect on delinquency, an adolescent’s delinquency also impacts parental attachment, regardless of the type of delinquency. Findings also revealed no significant parental effects of monitoring or involvement on any type of delinquency, and the only child effects revealed for monitoring or involvement were for involvement, which decreases when overall or property delinquency increases. The findings regarding parental attachment provide strong evidence for the existence of a reciprocal relationship between parenting and delinquency, consistent with the transactional and interactional models of reciprocal parent–child relationships.     

Reviews & Resources

Theater

Split Britches, by Lois Weaver in collaboration with Deborah Margolin and Peggy Shaw, directed by Lois Weaver for the Split Britches Company, Open Gate Theatre, New York City.

Beauty and the Beast—The Otic and Only World‐Famous Vaudeville Revue, written by Deborah Margolin in collaboration with Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw, directed by Lois Weaver, Spring 1983, WOW Cafe, New York City.

'night, Mother, by Marsha Norman directed by Tom Moore, Golden Theatre, New York City.

The Department, by Barbara Gar‐son, directed by Chris Kraus, May 1983, Theater for the New City, New York City.

Sappho and Aphrodite, by Karen Malpede, directed by Lois Weaver, presented by the Sappho and Aphrodite Company as a work‐in‐progress, Provincetown Playhouse, March 1983, New York City.

Cloud 9, by Caryl Churchill, directed by Tommy Tune, Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City.

Dance

With Longings to Realize, Johanna Boyce and Performance Group, January, 1983, Dance Theatre Workshop, New York City.

Theory and Play of the Duende, by Pilar Rioja, Repertorio Espanol's Gramercy Arts Theater, April 1983, New York City.

Ms. Barbie and Her Friends or Whose Life to Live, by the Barbara Mahler Dance Theater, March 1983, Cash Performance Space, New York City.

Music

Thoughts on Women's Popular Music

Meg Christian, Bottom Line, April 1983, New York City.

Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert in Concert, Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall April 13, 1983, New York City.

Books

Divine Dancer: A Biography of Ruth St. Denis by Suzanne Shelton. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981. 338 pp. Bibliography. Index.

American Women Dramatists of the Twentieth Century, A Bibliography. Brenda Coven. Metuchen, New Jersey & London: Scarecrow Press, 1982. 237 pp.

Women in Film: Both Sides of the Camera by E. Ann Kaplan. New York and London: Methuen, Inc., September, 1983.

Biographical Dictionary of Dance.Barbara Naomi Cohen‐Stratyner. New York: Schirmer Books, 1982. 970 pp.

American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present—Their Words, Lives, and Music.Sally Placksin. U.S.A.: Wideview Books, 1982. 322 pp. Bibliography, index, and discography.

Women in Theatre: Compassion and Hope.Karen Malpede. New York: Drama Book Publishers, 1983. 265 pp. Selected bibiography and index.

Listings     

Staying Out: Reentry Protective Factors Among Rural Women Offenders

The current study examines protective factors for women who transition from county jails to rural Appalachian communities, areas with limited health and behavioral health services. The study included drug-using women recruited from three jails in rural Appalachia and followed-up at 12-months post-release. Analyses focused on differences between women who remained in the community and those who returned to custody, as well as a multivariate model to determine protective factors for reentry success. At the bivariate level, staying out of jail was associated with being older, having a job, not using drugs, stable housing, receiving health treatment, and having prosocial peers. In the multivariate model, the most robust predictors of staying out of jail were drug use abstinence, health care utilization, and prosocial peers. Most research on criminogenic needs associated with reentry success have focused on men, and most focused on reentry to urban communities where services and resources are more accessible. These findings have important implications for criminal justice systems to implement reentry programs for women offenders during the transition to the community.     

Comments (1) on ‘cultural differences in the behavior of terrorists’

By examining the historically progressive role of cultural property in terrorism and political violence, this paper reveals the evolving significance of art to international security. Over the past two centuries, abuse of antiquities and fine art has evolved from the spoils-of-war into a medium for conducting terrorism that strives to erase the cultural heritage of “the other.” In contrast to wartime destruction and plunder which date back millennia, the growth of the art market over the past fifty years has created opportunities for novel abuses of cultural property. Since World War II, maturing international awareness has recognized the threat which armed conflict and looting pose to cultural property, but in parallel, art trafficking and the politics of cultural property have become tools for transnational organized crime and terrorist groups. The resulting unique intersection of issues in art, politics, and counterterrorism forms the basis for a new field—cultural security. After an assessment of topical security threats which suggest the need for such a field, the paper concludes by speculating on international-security risks precipitating from antiquities trafficking and collecting.     

Political violence in Algeria

It is estimated that over 20,000 people have died in civil conflict in Algeria since January, 1992, and no resolution is in sight. This article analyzes the current state of civil violence in Algeria in terms of a theory of collective rebellious behaviour stressing falsification of public preferences, adapted from the work of Timur Kuran. The theory links social and psychological factors to explain why the outcome of the political challenge mounted by radical Islamic groups has been stalemate rather than an Islamic revolution or the restoration of stable authoritarianism. It suggests that the outcome of the struggle in Algeria is unpredictable.