Parent-adolescent congruence for adolescent substance use

Parental reports of adolescent substance use were compared to the adolescents' self-reports using identical scales. Congruence was defined as exact agreement on whether adolescents were current users, ex-users, or never-users. Both parents were found to be less accurate in predicting their adolescents' alcohol use compared to cigarette or marijuana use. Single mothers were significantly less likely to be congruent than were mothers from two-parent households. Mother and father congruence on all substances was unrelated to the adolescent's sex, race, or after school employment. For both parents, congruence for adolescent marijuana use was significantly related to the age and GPA of the adolescent. Congruence may also reflect important properties of family functioning, as significant relations were found between both adolescent and parent ratings of family cohesion and parent-adolescent congruence on perceptions of marijuana use.This research was supported by Grant DA03706 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (Hyman Hops, Principal Investigator).Jennifer Langhinrichsen is a doctoral candidate in psychology interested in adolescent and family interactions. The other authors are psychologists or data analysts working on family influences on substance use and mental health.     

A transition zone phenomenon of the skin in cadavers lying in bath water

In three cases a phenomenon is reported, seen on the skin of bodies found dead after a longer time of lying in bathtubs filled with water. The sign was parallel to the surface of the water and showed a breadth up to about 1 cm. Contrary to the surrounding skin, the mark was characterized by paleness and clearly les distinct formation of postmortem alterations as put-refaction. Searching for an explanation, temperature measurements were performed in model. The results showed the marginal paleness of the skin to be a thermal phase transition phenomenon. This mark has a forensic message too: it demonstrates a longer remaining of the corpse in the corresponding position, is a statement concerning the high of the water level, and allows a reconstruction of the original situation after manipulation, but is no sign of vital reaction.     

Social control theory and the connection with ideological offenders among Israeli youth during the Gaza disengagement period

The present study examined whether social control theory is capable of explaining youth's law violations in instances of conflict between the ideological religious worldview and the laws of the country in which they reside. Differences in the control factors (commitment, belief, attachment, and involvement) were examined among Israeli adolescents who took part in legal activity (n=163) and illegal activity (n=99) during the resistance to the Gaza evacuation. The findings indicate that the model provides a partial explanation for ideological delinquency. It was found that involvement with friends and the absence of belief in the formal legal system were associated with illegal ideology activity. Attachment to friends and parents and involvement with parents had no effect on youth's participation in illegal ideological activities.     

Hindsight bias and third-party consentors to warrantless police searches

Research on hindsight bias indicates that awareness of event outcome influences how individuals interpret information and form judgments. We extend this earlier work to suggest that the effect of this bias on lay perceptions of third-party consent to warrantless searchers of residences may be contingent upon the presence verus absence of the search target(the suspect). A study using random assignment to experimental conditions in a between-subjects design explored this possibility. The experiment indicated that hindsight bias in perceived rights of the third-party consentor is influenced, not only by search outcome, but also by a web of overlapping and potentially competing social obligations and personal prerogatives, the salience of which is influenced by situational dynamics.Portions of this research were reported in a panel session at the 1989 meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Reno.