Housing instability is as strong a predictor of poor health outcomes as level of danger in an abusive relationship: findings from the SHARE Study

Advocates, clinicians, policy makers, and survivors frequently cite intimate partner violence (IPV) as an immediate cause of or precursor to housing problems. Research has indicated an association between homelessness and IPV, yet few studies examine IPV and housing instability. Housing instability differs from homelessness, in that someone experiencing housing instability may currently have a place to live but faces difficulties with maintaining the residence. We present baseline findings from a longitudinal cohort study of 278 female IPV survivors with housing as a primary concern. Our analysis indicates the greater the number of housing instability risk factors (e.g., eviction notice, problems with landlord, moving multiple times), the more likely the abused woman reported symptoms consistent with PTSD (p < .001), depression (p < .001), reduced quality of life (p < .001), increased work/school absence (OR = 1.28, p < .004), and increased hospital/emergency department use (OR = 1.22, p < .001). These outcomes persist even when controlling for the level of danger in the abusive relationship and for survivors' drug and alcohol use. Importantly, both housing instability and danger level had stronger associations with negative health outcomes than other factors such as age, alcohol, and drug use; both make unique contributions to negative health outcomes and could contribute in different ways. Housing instability is an important and understudied social determinant of health for IPV survivors. These findings begin to address the literature gap on the relationship between housing instability, IPV, and survivors' health, employment, and utilization of medical care services.     

Enter the Dragon: Parenting and Low-Self Control in a Sample of Chinese High School Students

While a number of studies examine the parenting and social bond causes of low self-control in data obtained in the United States, very few focus on these constructs on data collected in international settings. The resulting gap in the literature is a major one in terms of the understanding of how low self-control potentially develops in other countries. This study tests several parenting and social bond models in an attempt to spur future global research on the concepts that are associated with low self-control. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 414 high school students in a suburb of a large Chinese city. Measures of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s parental variables as well as those of other investigators are included. Additionally, important social bonds such as maternal, school, and peer attachment are also specified. Results indicate that almost all of the parenting and bond measures are significantly associated with the development of low self-control. These findings indicate the possibility that both parenting and relationship factors are potentially important to the development of low self-control in Chinese high school students.     

Mental health specialized probation caseloads: Are they effective?

With the large and growing number of persons with mental illnesses under probation supervision, a form of specialized probation called specialized mental health caseload (SMHC) has been implemented. This study explores the effectiveness of a prototypic SMHC implemented statewide. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare criminal justice, mental health, and community engagement outcomes among three caseloads: a newly established SMHC supervising no more than 30 clients per officer (N = 1367); an established SMHC supervising roughly 50 clients per officer (N = 495); and a traditional caseload of clients receiving mental health treatment and supervised by officers with average caseloads of over 130 clients (N = 5453). Using a mixed methods approach, we found that the SMHC was implemented with high adherence to fidelity, and comparisons based on different caseload samples generally support the effectiveness of the specialized mental health caseload, particularly on criminal justice outcomes. Future studies using random assignment are needed to examine the connection among mental health symptoms, compliance with treatment and probation supervision, and recidivism.     

The “killer of the cane fields”: The social construction of the Australian coastal taipan

This paper makes an original contribution to human–animal studies through the application of social construction theory to an iconic species of Australian snake, the coastal taipan. Little research attention using this approach has been focused on reptiles, and this study addresses this gap in the literature. The taipan has achieved a high level of notoriety in Australia. This paper seeks to understand why and how this has occurred. Drawing on a range of data derived from analysis of newspaper articles, popular magazines and books, and the scientific literature, four dominant narratives are identified: the taipan as an object of science and natural history, as social problem, as object quest and as celebrity. The insights gained from this study support the contention that the meanings made of Australia's fauna are fluid, historically contextualised and socially constructed. In the specific case of the taipan, key individuals, including scientists, popular natural historians and snake men contributed greatly to the species’ construction, as did popular cultural forms such as newspapers and natural history books.     

Opening Pandora’s Box: How Does Defendant Race Influence Plea Bargaining?

Minority overrepresentation in the criminal justice system has long been an important topic of research and policy debate. In New York City, recent changes in the Rockefeller Drug Laws and the controversy around police stop-and-frisk practices have placed an even greater emphasis on the need for studying the possible impact of defendants’ race and ethnicity on criminal justice outcomes. Relatively little contemporary research, though, examines plea-bargaining outcomes. Using unique data on misdemeanor marijuana cases, this study examines the impact of defendants’ race on prosecutors’ decisions to make (a) plea offers for a lesser charge and (b) sentence offers for non-custodial punishments. Preliminary findings indicated that black defendants were less likely to receive reduced charge offers, and both black and Latino defendants were more likely to receive custodial sentence offers. However, these disparities were largely explained by legal factors, evidence, arrest circumstances, and court actor characteristics, though black defendants were still more likely to receive custodial sentence offers after including these controls. No differences were found between white and Asian defendants. Implications for research and prosecutorial practices are discussed.     

Just-in-Time Justice: Globalization and the Changing Character of Law,Order, and Power

This article examines how economic globalization has dialectically interacted with the nation-state and legal order to facilitate the production of “just-in-time justice”—the increasingly flexible character of law, order, and power. Utilizing Chambliss’s analytic strategy, particularly his dialectical approach to lawmaking, I first examine the relationship between the global social order, economic globalization, and the changing architecture of nation-states. I then explore ways that the legal order has been flexibilized, including the creation of “states of exception,” the privatization of social control functions of the state, the development of transnational spaces for governance, and the widespread use of surveillance. My analysis of these transformations suggests that the greatest danger in the contemporary moment may be what we do not know, what is hidden from public accountability, beyond the public gaze. Importantly, this analysis also highlights that law continues to matter—or else there would not be such a press to ensure its disappearance.     

The Complexity of Social Outcomes from Cooperative,Competitive, and Individualistic Reward Systems

Previous research on cooperative and competitive reward systems has investigated the relation between extreme cooperative and competitive conditions, along with an intermediate noninterdependent neutral condition, to numerous outcome variables. This study added two additional conditions to these three usual conditions, between the neutral midpoint and the cooperative or competitive extremes, to see if these intermediate conditions might be distinctive in the outcomes they produced. The study used 240 participants, divided into groups of three that played a board game under these five different reward conditions. Participants' attitudes toward self, others, and task were then assessed and analyzed along with objective measures of performance, measures of self-esteem, state and trait anxiety, and results coded from an autobiographical report in game-defined roles. Results indicated that the intermediate cooperative condition was distinctively different from the extreme cooperative condition in predicted ways, and that the intermediate competitive condition was distinctively different from the extreme competitive condition, but in unpredicted ways. The research also demonstrated that an individualistic condition, which had previously been thought to produce neither a cooperative nor competitive social orientation, in fact produced both, raising questions as to whether reward interdependence, as researchers have defined it, is really the cause of cooperation and competition.     

Courtship Violence Among College Students: A Comparison of Verbally and Physically Abusive Couples

This study used a modified version of the Conflict Tactic Scale (Straus, 1990) to measure the expression of verbal and physical aggression among 572 college students (395 females and 177 males) involved in dating relationships over the previous year. Results indicated that 82% (n = 465) of the total sample reported having engaged in verbally aggressive behavior with a dating partner over the past year, whereas 21% (n = 116) admitted to acting in a physically aggressive manner over the same interval. No significant gender-based difference was found for verbal aggression scores; however, females were significantly more likely to report using physical force than were male students. Male and female students who used verbal aggression were characteristically similar to each. Both had experienced aggression from a parent as children and had drunk alcohol within 3 hours (before or after) an argument with a dating partner. Male and female students who admitted using physical force were dissimilar except that both had experienced parent-child aggression. For male students, having witnessed conjugal violence and their general drinking patterns were also significantly related to their using physical force, whereas for females, the use of physical force was associated with drinking alcohol within 3 hours of an argument with a dating partner.     

同性恋的婚姻、生育和亲属制度

人类学理论时于新的亲属关系实践的深层含义,特别关注时同性恋与辅助生育的研究.同性恋这一行为不仅创造了极为有意思的亲属关系和家庭网络,还遵循抑或挑战了传统文化对家庭生活的期待.欧美社会中出现的新生育技术对于传统亲属制度提出了新的难题,与亲属关系相连的文化意识和价值相应地塑造了生育技术的转变,这些技术又被应用到其他社会和文化之中.     

心性的身体:医学人类学未来的研究引论

西方哲学对心/身,个人/社会的二元假设影响了整个人文学科的研究范式,对身体的研究不仅旨在界定医学人类学的本质,也为整个人类学学科提供了哲学上的支撑.有关身体既定观念的解构,可从人类学和其学科及来自不同文化的人,用概念化身体的方法从个体身体、社会身体和身体政治三种视角来进行考察,而把情感作为主题,是这一研究的新路径.