Gender is Key: Girls’ and Boys’ Cortisol Differs as a Factor of Socioeconomic Status and Social Experiences During Early Adolescence

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The risks associated with negative peer relationships and low socioeconomic status (SES), and how they impact diurnal cortisol and the cortisol response to...     

The reduction of male abusiveness as a result of treatment: Reality or myth?

A 6-month outpatient treatment program for male abusers emphasized honesty, shame reduction, and group support for change. Ratings on the Abusive Behavior Inventory (ABI) obtained before and immediately after treatment demonstrated a significant decrease in physical and psychological abuse as rated by both the abusers and their female partners. This decrease in male abusiveness was maintained 6 months and two years after completion of treatment for those couples who cooperated in followup. No decrease in male abusiveness was observed during treatment, however, for those couples who did not cooperate in the followup. The authors suggest that the noncooperative female partners may have been afraid to rate their partners because of continued abuse. Therefore, the selective attrition of subjects who did not improve is a major problem in evaluating the apparent long-term success of treatment.     

The Arab Uprisings and the Geopolitics of the Middle East

The contest between Saudi Arabia and Iran played out in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, postwar Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Yemen and Bahrain, has shaped the geopolitics of the region since the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Arab uprisings intensified this geopolitical contest and spread it to Syria. The sectarianisation of the region’s geopolitical battles, and the instrumental use of some of the uprisings for geopolitical ends, has hardened sectarian sentiments across the region, complicated post-authoritarian democratic transitions, and, at least in Syria’s case, transformed its popular uprising into a veritable civil war.     

Correctional Treatment Programmes for Young Offenders in Europe: A Survey of Routine Practice

This article presents the results of an international survey of European correctional treatment programmes for young offenders. Questionnaires gathering data on programmes’ design, implementation, structure, and evaluation were collected from 112 programme administrators in 25 European Union countries. Results demonstrated that although there was a commitment to young offender rehabilitation in almost every country, programmes adopted many different approaches and were implemented with varying levels of adherence to evidence-based principles of ‘best practice.’ The majority of programmes adopted a cognitive-behavioural approach, and clinical discretion was prioritised over systematised, empirically validated assessment instruments. Most programmes were administered by centralised government agencies; however, process and outcome evaluation was rare. These findings suggest a strong need for improved systematic evaluation in most European countries.     

The discovery of acquaintance rape: the salience of methodological innovation and rigor

Over the past 20 years, research has uncovered the many types of sexual victimizations women experience. Findings regarding the victim-offender relationship in such incidents have undoubtedly been among the most striking. Particularly salient is the revelation that the sexual abuse of and violence against women-including rape-most often are perpetrated not by a stranger but by someone known to the victim. Without the innovation and implementation of victimization surveys with behaviorally specific questions, this knowledge may have remained unknown. Instead, armed with such knowledge, prevention and education efforts can be fashioned to address sexual victimizations committed by someone known to the victim. In this article, we address these issues related to key developments in sexual victimization research.     

The direct detection and identification of staining dyes from security inks in the presence of other colorants, on currency and fabrics, by laser desorption mass spectrometry

Laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) is useful for the direct desorption and MS analysis of dyes off materials such as paper. Here it is shown that staining dyes, produced by currency degradation devices, such as those used by financial institutions or armored transport companies, can be detected by LDMS. These staining dye packs are commonly used in bank security programs to deter theft or unauthorized removal of currency from teller stations or from ATM cash cassettes. Working automatically, these technologies release a security dye to degrade the surface of the notes and possibly mark the assailant involved in the attack. These dyes can be characterized and identified directly from paper currency, and from fabrics, and uniquely identified in the presence of other dyes that are used in the printing and dying of such materials, by LDMS. In these experiments, no extraction step is required. A pulsed UV laser directly irradiates a paper or fabric sample--colorants are desorbed, ionized and detected using time-of-flight MS. Results shown here suggest that dyes such as Basic Red 1:1 and Basic Violet 11:1 are used in such devices.     

An investigation into the usefulness of the MMPI and MMPI-2 in municipal and state police candidate selection

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the later revision (MMPI-2) have been two of the most frequently employed instruments in the selection of law enforcement officers (Bartol, 1996). In this study, the following three sets of data were collected and analyzed: municipal law enforcement officer candidates tested with the MMPI, municipal law enforcement officer candidates tested with the MMPI-2, and state police trooper candidates tested with the MMPI-2. These three data sets were evaluated for their effectiveness at predicting “pass/fail” status on police candidate interview using multiple linear regression. A combination of subscales were found to be associated with classification as either pass or fail on interview.