Perpetrators of sexual assault continuing to have sex with their victims following the initial assault: evidence for evolved reproductive strategies

Among a sample of college students, roughly 30% of the women and 12% of the men reported having been the victim of a sexual assault sometime in their lives. Of the assault victims, approximately 23% of both sexes stated that they had sexual intercourse with their assaulters on at least one subsequent occasion. Female victims of a completed sexual assault were significantly more likely to continue being sexually active with their assailants than were female victims who managed to block the assault, while no such difference was found for male victims. This would imply that some men are using assaultive tactics to secure sex partners beyond a single sexual episode, thereby enhancing their potential reproductive success in evolutionary terms. Also, men who committed sexual assault reported having had more lifetime sex partners than did sexually experienced men with no sexual assault history. Overall, the idea that sexual assault is part of an evolved reproductive strategy is consistent with findings from this study.     

The relationship between moral reasoning, provictim attitudes, and interpersonal aggression among imprisoned young offenders

This study examined the relationship between moral reasoning, provictim attitudes, and interpersonal aggression among imprisoned young offenders. The participants were 60 imprisoned male young offenders from a young offender institution or remand centre. Using the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist, the offenders were categorised as one of four groups: perpetrator, victim, perpetrator-victim, or not involved. Participants in the four groups were compared on measures of provictim attitudes and sociomoral reasoning. The results showed that the majority of the participants were involved in victimising behaviours, with 43.3% falling into the perpetrator-victim category. Victims had significantly more empathic attitudes toward victims than did those in the perpetrator-victim group. No significant differences were found among the four groups on the sociomoral reasoning measure, nor was there a significant correlation between sociomoral reasoning and provictim attitudes. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and their implications for practice.     

BUREAUCRATS AS PURCHASERS OF HEALTH SERVICES: LIMITATIONS OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR FOR CONTRACTING

Contracting out of health services increasingly involves a new role for governments as purchasers of services. To date, emphasis has been on contractual outcomes and the contracting process, which may benefit from improvements in developing countries, has been understudied. This article uses evidence from wide scale NGO contracting in Pakistan and examines the performance of government purchasers in managing the contracting process; draws comparisons with NGO managed contracting; and identifies purchaser skills needed for contracting NGOs. We found that the contracting process is complex and government purchasers struggled to manage the contracting process despite the provision of well‐designed contracts and guidelines. Weaknesses were seen in three areas: (i) poor capacity for managing tendering; (ii) weak public sector governance resulting in slow processes, low interest and rent seeking pressures; and (iii) mistrust between government and the NGO sector. In comparison parallel contracting ventures managed by large NGOs generally resulted in faster implementation, closer contractual relationships, drew wider participation of NGOs and often provided technical support. Our findings do not dilute the importance of government in contracting but front the case for an independent purchasing agency, for example an experienced NGO, to manage public sector contracts for community based services with the government role instead being one of larger oversight. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.