Staying Cool Across the First Year of Middle School

As students transition into middle school they must successfully negotiate a new, larger peer context to attain or maintain high social standing. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which the maintenance, attainment, and loss of a cool status over the course of the sixth grade is associated with student and classroom levels of physical, verbal, and relational aggression. To address this goal, we studied a sample of 1985 (55% girls) ethnically diverse adolescents from 99 sixth grade classrooms in the United States. Attaining a cool status at any point across the school year was associated with stronger aggressive reputations. Additionally, classroom norms for aggressive behavior moderated the association between changes in aggression over the school year and the stability of coolness such that students who maintained their coolness across the school year showed greater increases in their verbally aggressive reputations from fall to spring when they were in classrooms with higher levels of aggression. The findings illustrate the importance of fitting in with social norms for maintaining a high social status among a new set of peers in middle school.     

A Cross-National Analysis of the Mediating Effect of Economic Deprivation on Crime

This study develops and tests a model of economic deprivation and crime using data from 52 nations for the years 1995–1999. The model, centering on the role of absolute and relative economic deprivation in mediating crime, predicts that social change causes variation in economic deprivation, which, in turn, leads to variation in crime rates. The results show that the relative deprivation variable, income inequality, mediates a large portion of the effects of two social change variables, population growth and urbanization, on homicide, while one of the absolute deprivation variables, GDP, transmits a great part of the effects of social change variables on theft. Both social change variables were found to have a weak direct connection to homicide and theft rates. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Differentiating cause-of-death terminology for deaths coded as sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation, and unknown cause: an investigation using US death certificates, 2003-2004

We compared written text on infant death certificates for deaths coded as sudden infant death syndrome (R95), unknown cause (R99), and accidental suffocation (W75). Using US mortality files supplemented with the death certifiers' written text for all infant deaths with International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 assigned codes R95, R99, and W75, we formed cause-of-death subcategories from common themes identified from the written text. Among all infant deaths in 2003-2004, the underlying cause of death was listed as R99 for 2128 deaths, R95 for 4408 deaths, and W75 for 931 deaths. Among the postneonatal deaths, the differences in subcategories varied between assigned ICD-10 codes: for R99-coded deaths, 45.8% were categorized as "Unknown" and 48.6% as "Pending"; for R95-coded deaths, 67.7% were categorized as "sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)"; and for W75-coded deaths, 76.4% were categorized as "Suffocation." Examination of the written text on the death certificates demonstrates variability in the assigned ICD-10 codes which could have an important effect on the estimates of SIDS cases in the United States.     

The first international proficiency test on ketamine and norketamine in hair

This paper discusses the organization of the first international proficiency test (PT) programme on ketamine (K) and norketamine (NK) in hair samples. The primary objective of the programme was to evaluate the analytical capability of participating laboratories on hair analysis for K and NK via comparison of results. Authentic samples, instead of spiked samples were used in the programme to mimic the analysis of incorporated illicit drugs in real-life situations. Eight of the ten participating medical or forensic laboratories from Australia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore and the USA returned results to the organizer. Quantification methods from these laboratories were confined to GC-MS and LC-MS/MS. Performance assessment based on z-score indicated that only three laboratories achieved satisfactory results for both the analysis of K and NK. It was concluded that the overall performance of the participating laboratories was fair and there is still room for further improvement. Additional similarly designed PT programmes are recommended to be organized in order to encourage reliable measurements of illicit drugs in hair samples. Taking into account the substantial effect on the consensus values within limited number of data points, a recommendation on the provision of reference values assigned by accurate methods will be of benefit to small size PT programmes in the forensic field.     

Preferences for Police Response to Domestic Violence: A Comparison of College Students in Three Chinese Societies

While a large amount of research has been conducted in the West on domestic violence related issues, only a small number of studies have focused specifically on Chinese societies. Using survey data collected from Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei, this study compares college students’ preferences for traditional and proactive police intervention into domestic violence and assesses the determinants of such preferences in the three Chinese societies. The findings indicate that Hong Kong students showed the highest level of support for traditional police response, followed by students in Beijing and Taipei, while students in Taipei displayed the strongest preference for proactive police response, followed by students in Hong Kong and Beijing. College students’ preferences for traditional police response were shaped mainly by their locality, whereas their preferences for proactive police intervention were influenced chiefly by their attitudes toward violence and gender roles. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Approaches to Studying Mexican-Origin Mother–Daughter Cultural Orientation Dissonance

The overall aim of the current study was to identify the methodological approach and corresponding analytic procedure that best elucidated the associations among Mexican-origin mother–daughter cultural orientation dissonance, family functioning, and adolescent adjustment. To do so, we employed, and compared, two methodological approaches (i.e., variable-centered and person-centered) via four analytic procedures (i.e., difference score, interactive, matched/mismatched grouping, and latent profiles). The sample consisted of 319 girls in the 7th or 10th grade and their mother or mother figure from a large Southwestern, metropolitan area in the US. Family factors were found to be important predictors of adolescent adjustment in all models. Although some findings were similar across all models, overall, findings suggested that the latent profile procedure best elucidated the associations among the variables examined in this study. In addition, associations were present across early and middle adolescents, with a few findings being only present for one group. Implications for using these analytic procedures in studying cultural and family processes are discussed.     

Characteristics of mentally retarded criminal offenders in Northern Taiwan

The characteristics and criminal behavior in mentally retarded individuals remain largely unstudied. This retrospective study sought to establish a set of reference of criminal behavior characteristics in an ethnic Chinese mentally retarded group. Data were collected from forensic psychiatric evaluation of 32 mentally retarded offenders. Of the 32 offenders, only four (12.5%) cases were female. Mean age at the time of the offenses was 31. By IQ testing, 23 (71.9%) of the group fell into the mild mental retardation range, seven (21.9%) into the moderate mental retardation range, and two (6.2%) into the severe mental retardation range. Nineteen (59.3%) of the group also suffered from additional mental disorder. Eight (25%) had definite neurological deficit. Fourteen (43.8%) were repeat offenders. A total of 24 (75%) of the offenders had committed crimes against property, with 13 having committed petty theft. Furthermore, the pattern of offending shows differences from that of the general population or other mental disorders. The property offenses, especially petty theft and arson, were frequently seen. There was no noteworthy above average frequency of sexual offenses.