Burden of Womanhood: Tamil Women’s Perceptions of Coping with Intimate Partner Violence

Helping women victimized by intimate partner violence (IPV) is a challenge, particularly when the women belong to diverse ethnic groups. The objective of our study was to collect information on perceptions of coping with IPV from the perspective of a specific immigrant group of women. Sixty-three women from the Tamil community in Toronto representing different generations and experiences of IPV were interviewed in focus group settings about their views of coping with IPV. Study findings suggested that their views were deeply embedded in their sociocultural context and influenced by the gender-role expectations from the community. The women showed a marked preference for “passive” modes of coping rather than “active.” Study findings have implications for the development of alternative approaches to helping ethnically diverse women deal with IPV.     

Building group capacity for problem solving and police–community partnerships through survey feedback and training: a randomized control trial within Chicago’s community policing program

Objectives

To examine whether group capacity for problem solving and partnership building could be enhanced at police–community meetings by providing the results from community surveys and training for group facilitators.

Methods

A randomized control trial was conducted in 51 police beats in Chicago’s community policing program, CAPS. Unlike control beats, results from web-based community surveys were provided at beat meetings in the feedback and training beats, with facilitators in training beats also receiving training and exercises to guide problem solving about survey results. Analysis included OLS and logistic regression of data from questionnaires administered to police and resident participants, as well as observations at beat meetings, which measured resident capacity, attitudes about the police–community partnership, and problem-solving activities.

Results

Support for hypothesized effects was found with greater resident confidence in their ability to achieve outcomes and solve local problems, as well as officers viewing their relationships with residents at beat meetings more favorably. Effects, however, were inconsistent and limited to the feedback group. While additional training and support provided in training beats indicated fuller engagement in problem solving, possible negative effects on attitudes were observed.

Conclusions

Failure to find more effects is discussed in terms of implementation and resistance. Officer resistance to and a shift in organizational priorities away from community policing worked against achieving full program implementation. The beat meeting context provided a traditional framework for police–resident interactions that precluded more comprehensive use of community data and possibly heightened dissatisfaction with the level of problem solving that occurred.     

Positive Effects in Detecting Lies from Training to Recognize Behavioral Anomalies

We examined whether training in both the verbal and nonverbal indicators of truth telling and lying would have positive effects on Law Enforcement Officers’ (LEOs) ability to evaluate truths from lies. College course-level training on empirically validated verbal and nonverbal indicators of truth telling and lying was provided to mid- to advanced-career level LEOs, whose accuracy in detecting lies from truths was assessed pre- and post-training using truthful and deceptive videos of mock crimes and opinions. A marginally significant truth bias existed at pre-test; training, however, resulted in a significant improvement in accuracy rates for both truth and lie videos, and the truth bias that existed at pre-test was eliminated. Additional analyses indicated that accuracy rates improved for videos of mock crimes but not for opinions. These findings add to a small but growing literature that indicates that training on validated verbal and nonverbal indicators of truth telling and lying has positive benefits.     

The road home: an examination of the successes and challenges of housing non-profits in New Orleans since Katrina

Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of nearly 1000 Louisiana residents and damaged about 80% of the building stock in New Orleans. Unequal protection from the hurricane and uneven recovery patterns have left some communities (predominantly low-income and black) with few options to rebuild their homes. These factors have created a high demand for housing non-profits specializing in new construction as well as low-cost home repairs. Drawing from interviews with a number of stakeholders including non-profits completing home repairs and new construction for low-income residents, this article identifies the type, amount and target areas for work done by housing non-profits in post-Katrina New Orleans. Additionally, it identifies the challenges for future work and limitations in the non-profits’ ability to address housing inequity in New Orleans.     

ID‐Check: Online Concealed Information Test Reveals True Identity

The Internet has already changed people's lives considerably and is likely to drastically change forensic research. We developed a web‐based test to reveal concealed autobiographical information. Initial studies identified a number of conditions that affect diagnostic efficiency. By combining these moderators, this study investigated the full potential of the online ID‐check. Participants (n = 101) tried to hide their identity and claimed a false identity in a reaction time‐based Concealed Information Test. Half of the participants were presented with personal details (e.g., first name, last name, birthday), whereas the others only saw irrelevant details. Results showed that participants′ true identity could be detected with high accuracy (AUC = 0.98; overall accuracy: 86–94%). Online memory detection can reliably and validly detect whether someone is hiding their true identity. This suggests that online memory detection might become a valuable tool for forensic applications.     

Injustice in School and Students’ Emotions,Well-Being,and Behavior: A Longitudinal study

School can be regarded as an important factor in the development of children’s values and attitudes. Given this great importance of justice experiences for students’ development, this study aimed at examining the influence of perceived injustice in school on students’ emotions, well-being, and behavior with an experimental longitudinal design. In total, 196 students participated in this study and came to the university with their classes to receive extra teaching once a week for six consecutive weeks. To manipulate justice perceptions, a scenario of arbitrary privilege was chosen to lead students of the experimental group to experience injustice from a beneficiary perspective. We found that students in the experimental group reported higher well-being and a higher appreciation of the opportunity to learn than the control group did. Additionally, they showed an increase in justice-related negative emotions over time; that is, they expressed more of a bad conscience and stronger feelings of anger the more they became aware of their privilege. This study shows that even subtle experiences of injustice in school can have an impact on students’ outcomes. These results are discussed with regard to practical implications.