Violence against women associated with arrests for sex trade but not drug charges

The current study was designed to examine associations between gender-based violence and arrests due to sex trade or drug-related charges among a statewide sample of incarcerated women in Rhode Island. Incarcerated women were asked to participate in brief pre- and posttest surveys of their experiences of violence, sexual risk and substance use behaviors, as part of a study on the effectiveness of a family planning program in a state correctional facility; data from pretest surveys (N=447) were used for current analyses. Logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographics were used to assess significant associations between gender-based violence variables (i.e., adolescent intimate partner violence (IPV), adult IPV, childhood sexual assault (SA), adolescent SA, and adult SA) and arrests due to sex trade or drug-related charges. Significant relationships were observed between arrests for sex trade and adult SA (OR=2.1, 95%CI=1.2-3.6), adolescent IPV (OR=2.5, 95%CI=1.5-4.1), and adult IPV (OR=1.7, 95%CI=1.1-2.6); no significant associations were observed for drug-related charges. Findings from the current study demonstrate that experiences of gender-based violence are associated with arrests for sex trade but not drug-related charges. Interventions for incarcerated women are needed to consider and address history of victimization from gender-based violence and its relation to women's historic and future sex trade involvement.     

Factors affecting perceptions of medical errors

The purpose of the study was to assess how three factors affect subjects' perceptions of a medical error made in a hypothetical scenario. The factors were (i) type of compensation system, (ii) degree of procedural “voice” present in the physician-patient relationship, and (iii) magnitude of damage sustained by the patient. Perceptions were defined to include subjects' (i) emotional reactions to the incident, (ii) causal attributions about the incident, (iii) evaluations of the faimess of the compensation systems, and (iv) compensation demands. Results indicated that damage magnitude was the only factor that affected subjects' emotional reactions to the described incident and their compensation requests. When damage was severe, subjects reacted more negatively to the event and demanded greater compensation. Subjects rated the no-fault system and greater voice conditions as more fair. In general, subjects causally analyzed the error incident in a manner that was less blameworthy of the physician when procedural justice was high, especially if this was combined with a no-fault compensation system. Results were discussed in terms of Wexler and Winick's (1991) model of therapeutic jurisprudence.     

Intimate Partner Violence Screening in a Women Veterans’ Health Clinic: Assessing Feasibility

Women presenting for care within a suburban Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital (VA) were screened for intimate partner violence (IPV). This study aimed to explore the feasibility of screening for IPV within a VA women’s health clinic, assess how well the screening measure captured women veterans’ experiences of IPV, and compare clinical correlates of IPV in women veterans who have and have not experienced IPV. Of 96 eligible women, 93 (97 %) answered a self-report question regarding experience of lifetime IPV and 72 (75 %) participated in a standardized screening. Among participants, 42 (47 %) reported experiencing past or current IPV, and of those, 11 (25 %) reported that they were currently experiencing IPV, and 31 (70 %) reported that they had experienced IPV in their past. Screening for IPV among women veterans in a women’s health clinic is feasible and identifies women who experience IPV, offering opportunities for referral and intervention.     

Examining the Long-Term Consequences of Bullying on Adult Substance Use

Violence is a major concern in the school safety literature. With the potential negative impact of bullying victimization, it is imperative that bullying also be seen as an important social problem that has potential long-term mental and physical health consequences (CDC Surveillance Summaries, 65(6), 1-50, 2016). Numerous studies have documented the negative consequences of bullying in childhood, contending that bullying during childhood can lead to a variety of adulthood problems (Farrington, Loeber, Stallings, & Ttofi Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 3(2), 74-81, 2011; Rigby, 2007). Fewer studies have examined the long-term consequences of childhood bullying on adult substance use. This study uses Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997) data to examine the association between school-aged bullying (under the age of 19) and adult alcohol, cigarette, and drug use (using Wave 10 from 2007).     

An analysis of how the police ‘caution’ is presented to juvenile suspects in England

In England and Wales, suspects must be given a police caution before they are questioned. The purpose of the caution is to explain a suspect's right to silence as a protection against self-incrimination. However, the evidence on whether the caution fulfils its purpose is limited. The aim of the present study was to describe how cautions were delivered in interviews with juvenile suspects in England. First, the study set out to describe how the caution was delivered to suspects during actual police interviews. Second, the study examined whether suspects claimed or demonstrated understanding of the caution. Third, the study analysed how the caution was explained by police officers. In total, the study examined 38 cautions from 31 interviews. The results indicated that police officers delivered the caution at a speed that is likely to be too fast for juvenile suspects to comprehend. Juvenile suspects often claimed to understand the caution, but when asked, failed to demonstrate comprehension. On the other hand, police officers often explained the caution to juvenile suspects, but not always correctly. Both suspects’ and police officers’ explanations of the caution revealed several misconceptions. The results suggest that the caution may not safeguard suspects as intended.     

Returning to the child welfare system: Understanding the wellbeing,health, education,and placement of children who return

Using longitudinal archival Child Welfare System (CWS) data, this study describes child health and wellbeing at their initial entrance into the CWS and subsequent returns. Associations between child wellbeing, health, placement stability, and frequency of returning to the system were also investigated. Results indicated most children were healthy and developmentally on target. In addition, emotional distress, behavioral concerns, and number of placements in the CWS were significantly correlated with placement stability. Future work should utilize the use of developmental assessments to systematically and reliably document the concerns for children in the system, and investigate factors contributing to stable placements.     

Backloading to extinction: Coping with values conflict in the administration of Australia's federal biodiversity offset policy

Policy-makers are frequently required to consider and manage conflicting public values. An example of this in the environmental domain is biodiversity offset policy, which governments worldwide have adopted as a mechanism to balance environmental protection with socio-economic development. However, little work has examined administrative practices underpinning biodiversity offset policy implementation, and how the adoption of coping strategies to manage value conflicts may influence resulting policy outcomes. This study fills this research gap using a case study of Australia's federal biodiversity offset policy under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. Using data from 13 interviews of federal policy administrators, I show that the introduction of a new policy in 2012 enabled a shift from the use of precedent to a technical approach for setting offset requirements under the EPBC Act. Yet, multiple sources of policy ambiguity remain, and administrators have adopted post-approval condition-setting, or ‘backloading’—a form of cycling, facilitated by structural separation—to defer detailed assessments of offset requirements until after biodiversity losses are approved. Backloading thus undermines the effectiveness of environmental policy and will persist as coping strategy unless policy ambiguity is reduced via legislative amendments and adequate resourcing of biodiversity conservation.

Points for practitioners

• Biodiversity offset policy requires administrators to manage conflicting environmental and socioeconomic values.
• Technical decision tools reduce reliance on case-by-case decision-making, but multiple ambiguities persist.
• Backloading (post-approval condition-setting) defers values conflict, but reduces transparency, accountability, and policy effectiveness.
• Policy ambiguity must be reduced at the political level to facilitate effective biodiversity conservation.