Gender Differences in Posttraumatic Stress and Related Symptoms Among Inner-City Minority Youth Exposed to Community Violence

This study examined gender differences in levels of violence exposure, and in levels of posttraumatic stress (PTS) and related symptomatology in a sample of inner-city predominantly African American youth. Because such youth are at risk for exposure to chronic community violence, they are likely to experience considerable distress and clinical or subclinical levels of posttraumatic stress and related symptoms. Previous research has found that although boys are exposed to violence more frequently than are girls, girls are more likely to express posttraumatic stress and related symptoms as a result of violence exposure. Thus, we examined gender as a moderator of the relation between violence exposure and symptoms. A stronger positive association of anxiety and depression symptoms with extent of community violence exposure for girls than boys was found. It was also found that while girls do not appear to differ in their responses to witnessing violence versus being a victim of violence, boys appear to be more distressed by being a victim of violence than by witnessing violence.     

Book reviews

Computer Law (4th edition) Colin Tapper Longman ISBN CSD 0 582 05932 1 £22.50 PPR 0 582 02491 1 £35.00

Further Computer Contracts M‐T Michèle Rennie Sweet and Maxwell 1989. ISBN 0 421 40330 6

Formalism in AI and Computer Science Philip Leith Ellis Horwood 1990. ISBN 1 3325549 2

Electronically Recorded Evidence ‐ A Guide to the Use of Tape and Video Recordings in Criminal and Civil Proceedings Sybil Sharpe Fourmat Publishing 1989. ISBN 1 85190 071 3

Computer Law Chris Reed(ed) Blackstone Press Limited 1990. ISBN 1 85 431037 2

EDI and American Law: A Practical Guide Benjamin Wright Electronic Data Interchange Association 1989. ISBN 0 96 238750 9

Computer Software Protection and Semiconductor Chips Dr Dirk Schroeder (Butterworth's Current EC Legal Developments Series) 1990. ISBN 0 406 04021 4

Computers and the Law David I Bainbridge (Pitman) 1990. ISBN 0 273 03170 8     

The Effect of Attachment and Self-Control on Status Offending among Puerto Rican High School Students

This study tests the cross-cultural applicability of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime and self-control theory by examining self-reported status offenses among a sample of Puerto Rican adolescents. Data come from a 2005 sample of 298 youth ages 14–19, representing both the public and private school systems in Puerto Rico. Using a series of multivariate regressions, three hypotheses were tested. First, low attachment to parents, schools, peers, and church will positively and significantly predict status offenses among both public and private students. Second, low self-control will positively and significantly increase status offenses among each group. Finally, the effects of attachment on offending will be mediated by self-control. Results show support for both social control theory (via institutional attachment) and general theory of crime (via self-control). Both the measures of attachment and self-control contribute to explaining status offenses. Self-control partially mediates the effects of attachment on status offenses.     

Victimization as a cause of delinquency: The role of depression and gender

Victimization as a correlate of delinquency has been largely neglected in the criminological literature, despite research on Agnew's general strain theory (GST) suggesting that victimization is a type of strain likely to cause delinquency (Agnew, 2002). This study examined the role of depression and gender as potentially indispensable mechanisms in the victimization-delinquency relationship. Findings indicated that victimization has a positive effect on both delinquency and depression, and consistent with a GST explanation, the connection between victimization and delinquency is most pronounced for males with trait depression. This study added to the GST literature by distinguishing between trait and state emotion and by delineating GST predictions regarding each emotional form.     

Perceptions and Predictors of Children's Credibility of a Unique Event and an Instance of a Repeated Event

Perceptions of children's credibility were studied in two experiments wherein participants watched a videotape of a 4- to 5- or a 6- to 7-year old child report details of a play session that had been experienced once (single-event) or was the last in a series of four similar play sessions (repeat-event). The child's report was classified as high or low accurate. In Experiments 1 and 2, reports of repeat-event children were judged to be less believable on several measures. In Experiment 1, younger children were viewed as less credible than older children. In both experiments, neither undergraduates nor community members correctly discriminated between high- and low-accurate reports. Content analysis in Study 3 revealed the relationship between age and event frequency and children's credibility ratings was mediated by the internal consistency of children's reports. Recent research on children's reports of instances of repeated events has identified several challenges facing children who report repeated abuse. These data bring to light another potential difficulty for these children.     

Reducing the Risk of Terror Events at Seaports1

There are several paths of terror at seaports, terminals, inland waterways, and pipelines for entry of persons, materials, and weapons and for access to destroy seaport infrastructure, ships, equipment, and people so as to disrupt economic activity. This research seeks to:

• 1 Examine the probability of terror events via these paths and to determine a strategy to create barriers to entry and access, and to ensure the likelihood of these events is near zero.
• 2 Identify specific actions taken, and by whom, to accomplish the above objective, considering interacting government levels and public–private partnerships.
• 3 Suggest apparent inaction where a probability of terror remains, albeit judged more qualitatively than quantitatively.

The need for secrecy and the reality of erroneous public information complicates the task of researcher and terrorist alike.