What do students really know about criminal justice?

This survey of three hundred and twenty undergraduate students attempted to determine their knowledge of crime and punishment in North Carolina. Respondents answered a series of open- and closed-ended questions regarding various legal topics, such as statutory rape and the legal ages for tobacco and alcohol use. The participants were also asked to list punishments for various offenses, such as possession of marijuana, driving while intoxicated, and rape. They were then asked to define certain legal terms such as larceny. The results indicated that most students were unable to provide correct corresponding punishments for many offenses. They were also unable to accurately define various legal terms, such as robbery or rape. The implications for stronger education in the area of criminal justice are discussed.     

Reactions to Dating Violence Research: Do Difficulties with Distress Tolerance Increase Negative Reactions?

Recent research has begun to examine whether participants in dating violence studies perceive any benefit from the research and/or experience emotional distress as a result of having participated. Such information is important for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and researchers in determining ethical and appropriate protections for participants. In the current study, we examined participants’ reactions to answering questions on dating violence victimization and perpetration utilizing a sample of female college students (N?=?282). We also examined whether distress tolerance was associated with research reactions and moderated the relation between reports of victimization/perpetration and negative emotional reactions to the research. Findings demonstrated that negative emotional reactions to the research did not differ between individuals with or without previous dating violence. Further, distress tolerance had a main effect, but not a moderating effect, on negative emotional reactions to research participation. Implications of these findings for future research and IRBs are discussed.     

The Geography of Governance in Africa: New Tools from Satellites,Surveys and Mapping Initiatives

Abstract

Research on decentralization in Africa and beyond has made clear that the quality of decentralized governance is highly variable across localities within countries. In light of that variation, this article has three goals: first, we critique existing academic research on the quality of governance in light of work on decentralized governance in Africa; second, we provide a conceptual map of how to theorize subnational variation in the quality of governance in settings characterized by considerable dependence on higher authorities for revenues; and third, we outline a series of data initiatives that offer the opportunity to study local and regional politics in new and exciting ways across the region. We conclude with great optimism about the prospects for innovative work on decentralized governance within countries across the region.     

Legal Consciousness and Responses to Sexual Harassment

Studies of legal mobilization often focus on people who have perceived some wrong, but these studies rarely consider the process that selects them into the pool of potential "mobilizers." Similarly, studies of victimization or targeting rarely go on to consider what people do about the wrong, or why some targets come forward and others remain silent. We here integrate sociolegal, feminist, and criminological theories in a conceptual model that treats experiencing sexual harassment and mobilizing in response as interrelated processes. We then link these two processes by modeling them as jointly determined outcomes and examine their connections using interviews with a subset of our survey respondents. Our results suggest that targets of harassment are selected, in part, because they are least likely to tell others about the experience. We also discuss strategies that workers employ to cope with and confront harassment. We find that traditional formal/informal dichotomies of mobilization responses may not fully account for the range of ways that individuals respond to harassment, and we propose a preliminary typology of responses.     

Psychiatric diagnosis as a risk marker for victimization in a national sample of children

Research examining childhood abuse has shown an association between victimization and psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression). Historically, psychiatric diagnoses have been emphasized as a consequence of victimization, with less research examining if it also functions as a risk factor for further victimization, perhaps making diagnoses a general victimization risk marker. In addition, much of this research has emphasized particular types of victimization such as childhood physical or sexual abuse. Researchers have given less attention to other forms of victimization (e.g., peer victimization, witnessed violence) or a diverse victimization history. Using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ) we surveyed parents and children between the ages of 2 and 17 using a random digit dial (RDD) methodology. We examined the relationship between a number of different forms of victimization (termed poly-victimization ) in the preceding year and parent-reported lifetime psychiatric diagnosis. Results show that children with a psychiatric diagnosis have significantly higher rates of victimization than children without a psychiatric diagnosis. In addition, using logistic regression models, we find that psychiatric diagnosis was associated with increased risk for poly-victimization, conventional crime victimization, maltreatment, peer or sibling victimization, and witnessing violence, but not sexual abuse. The results highlight the need to consider psychiatric diagnoses as a risk marker for past and possible future victimization. In addition, the importance of obtaining a comprehensive and more diverse victimization history when working with children is highlighted.     

Examining the relationship between a childhood history of sexual abuse and later dissociation, breast-feeding practices, and parenting anxiety

The purpose of this study is to compare Mexican American adolescent mothers with and without childhood sexual abuse (CSA) histories to examine the influence of CSA on dissociation, selection of infant feeding method, and intimate parenting anxiety. Participants are 78 English-speaking adolescents between 15 and 19 years of age and recruited from the southwestern United States. Nearly one third of the sample ( n = 24, 30.77%) reports CSA histories. There is no correlation between CSA history and intimate parenting anxiety, no difference between breast-feeding and formula-feeding mothers in CSA severity, and intimate parenting anxiety does not predict dissociation. These findings are inconsistent with previous research. Supportive resources may explain the inconsistency and play a role in adolescent mothers' responses to CSA. Further research is necessary to explore these possibilities.     

Judgments of culpability in a filicide scenario

Previous research has indicated that potential jurors are likely to use personal biases, such as those based on gender and ethnicity, in their judgments of culpability of criminal defendants in addition to, or instead of, the facts of the crime. The present paper seeks to extend this literature to the crime of filicide; to examine whether male defendants are judged more harshly than female defendants, as is the case for domestic violence and sexual abuse. 214 participants were provided with a scenario of filicide in which the gender of the perpetrator, the gender of the child, and the family's social class were randomly assigned. Participants were asked to rate the culpability of the defendant in the case. Results indicated that, unlike for other violent crimes, participants did not use gender or social class biases in their judgments of criminal culpability.     

"The red zone": temporal risk for unwanted sex among college students

The "red zone" usually refers to the first few weeks of the first semester at college, when female students are believed to be at greatest risk for experiencing unwanted sex. We tested this notion using data from a survey study of 207 first-and second-year students (121 women, 84 men) at a small, liberal arts university. Results demonstrated only one significant elevation in incidence rates of first- and second-year women's unwanted sexual experiences (sexual touching, attempted and completed anal, oral, and vaginal sex), between the end of the first month and fall break (mid-October) during the second year at school. Previous research and local information about the relevant behaviors of sorority and fraternity members is discussed in light of these findings to provide heuristic material for further empirical testing. Because risk may involve both temporal and situational factors, systematic collection and dissemination of local data are recommended.     

Corruption, democracy and the World Bank

In this era of political conditionality and good governance, anti-corruptionhas emerged as a top priority (at least in theory) for all major donors. Thisis almost always linked to support for democratisation efforts, with onenotable exception – the World Bank. The Bank is constricted by anon-political mandate which forbids it supporting one particular politicalsystem through its lending and other activities. Nonetheless, the languageit uses (e.g., accountability, transparency, participation, etc.) and theprojects it supports seem to endorse the spirit of liberal democracy. I arguethat the Bank's mandate is in conflict with a politically sensitive issue likeanti-corruption, and that it is impossible to separate economic issues frompolitical ones in this instance; however, given the lack of consensus on therelationship between democracy, development and corruption, this may bethe best state of affairs for now.