An experimental study of a therapeutic boot camp: Impact on impulses, attitudes and recidivism

Two hundred thirty four adult male inmates entering prison were randomly assigned to an early release program in either a correctional boot camp or a large, traditional prison in the Maryland state correctional system. Boot camp releasees had marginally lower recidivism compared to those released from the traditional prison. A pre-test, post-test self report survey indicated the boot camp program had little impact on criminogenic characteristics except for a lowering of self control. In contrast, inmates in prison became more antisocial, lower in self control, worse in anger management, and reported more criminal tendencies by the end of their time in prison. Criminogenic attitudes and impulses were significantly associated with recidivism. The impact of the boot camp diminished to non-significance when antisocial attitudes or anger management problems were added to the models predicting recidivism. Implications for jurisdictions considering whether to operate correctional boot camps are discussed.     

Developmental trends of delinquent attitudes and behaviors: replications and synthesis across domains, time, and samples

Inconsistent findings of attitude-behavior relations are commonly attributed to uncontrolled domain, time, or situational factors. Without integrative work, studies accounting for these factors may further complicate research by introducing potentially numerous third variables and render a coherent understanding of the attitude-behavior relationship even more difficult to achieve. In this paper, a developmental perspective is taken and the attitude-behavior relationship in delinquency is examined using three modes of investigation: multivariate patterns of attitude-behavior associations, their mutual predictability, and their developmental trajectories. Three grade cohorts of public school boys (n=1517 of the first, seventh, and tenth grades, initially) were followed over a period of 4 years, with an average age span of 7–16 years. Correspondence analyses suggested that adolescent boys with a tolerant attitude toward theft or violence were more deviant than those who had actual behavior of theft or violence. Stronger attitude effect on subsequent behavior, relative to behavior effect on subsequent attitudes, was found among boys aged 10–12 years. While mean scores of tolerant attitudes to serious theft and violence increased linearly with their behavior counterparts between 6 and 17 years of age, ages 11 and 14 were two turning points at which most delinquent attitudes and behaviors escalated at a higher speed. In general, delinquent attitudes and behaviors were related to each other in various patterns, and age was a defining factor that provided much of the explanation for the inconsistencies in research findings.     

浅论新时期的专群工作

专门工作和群众路线一直是我国公安机关工作的根本路线,并在社会治安综合治理中发挥着重要作用。但随着市场经济体制的发展以及城市化进程的加快,旧的专群工作体制已不适应变化了的新情况,因此,建立符合时代特征的专群工作新机制就成为当前公安工作亟待解决的重要任务。     

Black Cities/White Cities: Evaluating the Police

It is well known that African Americans and whites hold different views of the police, but nearly all of the previous research has been conducted in majority white settings. This research examines the relationship between race and evaluations of the police in majority black versus majority white contexts. Social dominance theory and the research on racial threat predict that when the racial majority changes, the relationship between race and attitudes toward police will change. We find that, in majority black contexts, the traditional relationship between being black and having negative evaluations of the police disappears, and it disappears because whites' evaluations of the police become more negative. Black evaluations of the police are relatively consistent across racial contexts. Also, white racial attitudes affect police evaluations in majority black contexts, but not in white contexts, while African American racial attitudes are inconsequential in both contexts. Furthermore, if a white citizen is victimized by crime in a black city, it has greater ramifications for evaluations of the police than if the victimization had occurred in a white city. All of this suggests that whites' views of the police may be more racialized than the views of African Americans.     

Race and the City: Neighborhood Context and the Development of Generalized Trust

Previous research has indicated that socio-economic and racial characteristics of an individual's environment influence not only group consciousness and solidarity, but also affect his or her views toward minority or majority groups. Missing from this research is a consideration of how context, social interaction, and interracial experiences combine to shape more general psychological orientations such as generalized trust. In this study we address this gap in the literature by conducting a neighborhood-level analysis that examines how race, racial attitudes, social interactions, and residential patterns affect generalized trust. Our findings suggest not only that the neighborhood context plays an important role in shaping civic orientations, but that the diversity of interaction settings is a key condition for the development of generalized trust.     

Children’s attitudes towards animal cruelty: Exploration of predictors and socio-demographic variations

ABSTRACT

Assessing the risk for animal cruelty is imperative, yet understudied and problematic due to the sensitivity of the topic. Early prevention is critical, yet very little research examines cruelty when it first appears in childhood. The aim of this study was to explore children’s attitudes towards types of animal cruelty, to investigate potential demographic differences, and to examine potential associations between acceptance of cruelty and cognitive and affective factors that place children ‘at-risk’ for cruelty perpetration. Questionnaire data was collected from 1127 children in schools. The results indicate that cruelty attitudes are predicted by some demographic variables such as urban living, being male, younger age and not having pets, but depend on the type of animal cruelty. Acceptance of cruelty predicted low compassion and low reported humane behaviour towards animals. Acceptance of cruelty was predicted by negative attitudes towards animals, lower beliefs in animal minds and low attachment to pets, signifying the importance of targeting such variables in future prevention programmes. This study is an original contribution to research into childhood animal cruelty in the general population, with implications for designing and implementing early prevention programmes that tackle problematic attitudes to cruelty.     

新时代深化群团改革的实践载体研究——以天津经济技术开发区群团组织“三基地一中心”为例

天津经济技术开发区总工会(团委、妇联)牢牢把握群团改革要求,主动服务于党政工作大局,以职工群众为中心,创新建设了“三基地一中心”综合服务阵地。“三基地一中心”具有政策宣传、孵化培育、职工服务、创新创业、企业服务等功能,在思想引领、组织拓展、助力发展、维护和谐、普惠服务五个方面取得了显著成效。调研结果显示,“三基地一中心”契合职工群众需求,有助于提高职工对工会的认可度,并受到企业管理人员的好评。其今后的运维应在宣传力度、精准服务、运行机制、形式内容、资源整合、沟通反馈等方面持续发力,让职工群众拥有更多幸福感、获得感、安全感,助力经济社会高质量发展。     

Gaughran vs the UK and public acceptability of forensic biometrics retention

This commentary provides a response to the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of Gaughran vs the United Kingdom on 13 February 2020. The Court ruled that the indefinite retention of DNA, fingerprints and facial images from all convicted adults was disproportionate. Using data from a survey on public attitudes, we examine the public acceptability of the police retention of forensic biometrics from the population.     

Attitudes towards highly skilled and low‐skilled immigration in Europe: A survey experiment in 15 European countries

To what extent do economic concerns drive anti‐migrant attitudes? Key theoretical arguments extract two central motives: increased labour market competition and the fiscal burden linked to the influx of migrants. This article provides new evidence regarding the impact of material self‐interest on attitudes towards immigrants. It reports the results of a survey experiment embedded in representative surveys in 15 European countries before and after the European refugee crisis in 2014. As anticipated by the fiscal burden argument, it is found that rich natives prefer highly skilled over low‐skilled migration more than low‐income respondents do. Moreover, the study shows that these tax concerns among the wealthy are stronger if fiscal exposure to migration is high. No support is found for the labour market competition argument predicting that natives will be most opposed to migrants with similar skills. The results suggest that highly skilled migrants are preferred over low‐skilled migrants irrespective of natives’ skill levels.     

Contested war remembrance and ethnopolitical identities in Kosovo

This paper examines the relationship between political power and war remembrance by considering the way war remembrance occurs in a divided society. The purpose of this paper is to explore memory of the violent past and its uses as an ongoing arena of disputes between former adversaries and within ethnopolitical groups pushing their distinct versions of memory. Moreover, this paper examines three key aspects of the politics of remembrance: prevalent narratives, arenas of commemoration, and agencies of war remembrance, based on the case study of Kosovo. The postwar narrative and commemoration in Kosovo have evolved along ethnic lines, perpetuating antagonism and conflicting identities. Memorialization in Kosovo raises serious challenges for comprehensive transitional justice and reconciliation between these ethnic groups. The paper concludes that through appropriate civic education, critical inquiry of commemoration practices, and especially through evidence-based adaptation of the history curriculum, there is a chance to promote a culture of shared memory and to establish inclusive politics of remembrance in Kosovo, as crucial components of reconciliation and peace-building.