Serious juvenile offenders who have experienced emerging adulthood: Substance use and recidivism

Using data from the California Youth Authority, this article examines whether or not specific substance use differentially predicts recidivism for individual offense-type among a group of serious juvenile offenders who have experienced emerging adulthood. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that users of specific substances have a higher overall likelihood of receipt of a subsequent arrest for different offense-types when compared to other substances. Specifically, among the 524 serious juvenile offenders analyzed, one demographic, one social bond, and two substance use measures were significant indicators of an offender being arrested during the seven-year follow-up period. The social bond measure of full-time employment and substance use measure of using mind-altering drugs were significant indicators of receipt of an arrest for a non-violent offense, while being non-white and reported use of uppers/downers were significant predictors of arrest(s) for violent and both non-violent and violent offenses. Policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Table of Contents

California Outcome Measurement Forges Ahead with all 58 Counties on Board Maryland Audit Charges Single State Authority with Accountability Problems California Drug Abuse Index Methamphetamine is Number‐One for Treatment Admissions in California Governor's Budget Proposal Slashes Prop. 36 Funding Texas County Boosts Capacity to Treat Probationers Mass. Agency to Bring Efficiencies to New Outpatient Services Addictive Diseases Chair Funded at University of Florida Methamphetamine Treatment Admissions Decline in Minnesota Briefly Noted Call for Applications Coming Up     

A short history of randomized experiments in criminology. A meager feast

This article discusses advantages of randomized experiments and key issues raised in the following articles. The main concern is the growth and decrease in the use of randomized experiments by the California Youth Authority, the U.S. National Institute of Justice, and the British Home Office, although other experiments are also discussed. It is concluded that feast and famine periods are influenced by key individuals. It is recommended that policy makers, practitioners, funders, the mass media, and the general public need better education in research quality so that they can tell the difference between good and poor evaluation studies. They might then demand better evaluations using randomized experiments.     

Sex differences in empathy and its relation to juvenile offending

Implicit in most theoretical accounts of sex differences in offending is the assumption that females are less likely than males to engage in crime--especially serious, violent crime--in part because of their comparatively higher levels of concern for others and stronger affiliative ties. Much research suggests that significant sex differences in both empathy and serious offending emerge in adolescence, with females displaying notably higher levels of empathy and males engaging in notably higher levels of serious offending. However, there has been little empirical work assessing the degree to which sex differences in empathy among adolescents can account for sex differences in offending. This research uses data from a sample of adolescents attending public high schools in Philadelphia (n = 425) and a sample of adolescents incarcerated in the California Youth Authority (CYA) (n = 232) to examine the relation between empathy and serious offending. Results suggest that empathy acts as a protective factor for both males and females but that there are subtle differences among males and females in the relation between empathy and offending.     

Modeling Multiple Failure Time Data: A Survey of Variance–Corrected Proportional Hazards Models with Empirical Applications to Arrest Data

Proportional hazards models are powerful methods for the analysis of dynamic social processes and are widely used in sociology to estimate the effects of covariates on event timing (e.g., time to arrest, birth, marriage). The proper statistical modeling of failure time data is an important analytical issue in sociology, but to date the field has largely neglected the application of these models to multiple failure time data in which the conventional assumption of the independence of failure times is not tenable. This paper critically describes a class of models known as variance–corrected proportional hazards models that have been developed by statisticians to take into account a lack of independence among failure times. The purpose is to provide an exposition and comparison for sociologists of several such models and associated methods for handling multiple failure time data that can be readily estimated in commonly available statistical software packages. We pay special attention to the data requirements necessary for estimation of the models. The paper concludes with an illustrative application of the models to analyze the arrest patterns of a sample of California Youth Authority parolees.     

Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus

Book reviewed in this article:
STEVEN M. TIPTON, Getting Saved From the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984, pp. 364 J. MILTON YINGER, Countercultures: The Promise and Peril of a World Turned Upside Down. New York: The Free Press, 1984, pp. 371
MARIE HAUG and BEBE LAVIN, Consumerism in Medicine: Challenging Physician Authority. Beverly Hills, ca : Sage Publications, 1983, pp. 239
MAUREEN BAKER (ed.), The Family: Changing Trends in Canada. Scarborough, Ont.: McGraw-Hill Ryerson
SUSAN A. MCDANIEL and BEN AGGER, Social Problems Through Conflict and Order. Don Mills, Ontario: Addison-Wesley Publishers
R. W. BIBBY, and D.C. POSTERSKI, The Emerging Generation, An Inside Look at Canada's Teenagers. Toronto: Irwin, 198
MICHAEL BRAKE, Comparative Youth Culture, The Sociology of Youth Cultures and Youth Subcultures in America, Britain and Canada. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985, pp. 228
EDWARD W. LAINE (ed.), Scandinavian-Canadian Studies/Etudes Scandinaves au Canada. Ottawa: Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada, 1983, pp. 172
S.D. BERKOWITZ (ed.), Models and Myths in Canadian Sociology. Toronto: Butterworths
DAN ALBAS and CHERYL ALBAS, Student Life and Exams: Stresses and Coping Strategies. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1984, pp
Reply to G.L. WATSON concerning his review of Dialectic and Sociological Thought (November issue of CRSA     

The Importance of Identity in Policy: The Case For and Of Children

This article draws out one of the core reasons why children should be conceived as active agents in research, particularly policy‐related research. The main thesis is that policy inevitably projects and, to an extent, constitutes the subject identities of its intended objects — in this case, that of ‘children’. Drawing on several bodies of theory — the ‘new’ sociology of childhood, identity theory, ‘governmentality’ and theories of discourse — the article shows why not incorporating children’s voices is a problem for social policy, and suggests that the impact of their exclusion has the potential to render policy both inappropriate and non‐responsive.     

Hard-to-reach or out-of-reach? Reasons why women refuse to take part in early interventions

The aim of this study was to explore the reasons why vulnerable women refuse to take part in early interventions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 women who refused to take part in an evaluation of an intensive home visiting programme. A number of themes were identified including perceptions about vulnerability, misperceptions about the service, misgivings about the service, and lack of trust. It is concluded that women who refuse to take part in early interventions are a diverse group, and that service providers need to take this diversity into account, if they are to improve uptake of services by vulnerable women. Service providers may also need to consider new ways of providing services.     

Risky behaviour: a new framework for understanding why young people take risks

Theories of youth risk taking range from the realist to the sociocultural. Much of this theorising, particularly in the field of epidemiology, has been strongly influenced by the Health Belief Framework. More recently, attention has shifted to understanding how young people perceive risk and what makes some of them resilient to risk taking. In this article we develop a framework that brings together diverse theoretical perspectives on youth risk taking. We draw on lessons from across the social science disciplines to inform a conceptual framework incorporating the broad context and internal processes of young people's decisions to take risks. Our Youth Risk Interpretation Framework (Y-RIF) has been developed from insights gained during an ethnographic study conducted in South Africa (Graham, Lauren, 2012. Understanding risk in the everyday identity-work of young people on the East Rand of Johannesburg. Doctoral Thesis. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg.). We argue that our framework is useful, as it offers new ways of understanding why some young people take risks while others are more cautious. It could be used to inform youth behaviour surveillance research and interventions. However, it will need to be rigorously tested.     

Enhancing Family Therapy's Relationships With Research

The contention of this article is that systemic family therapy has much to gain from a realistic appraisal of its research base, which is as positive as possible. And that through such an appraisal we can find ways of developing the scope of family therapy to the benefit of the profession and thereby, of our clients. Family therapy will benefit if practitioners can present an informed view of research. As a preliminary approach to this objective, I review reasons why perceptions of family therapy underestimate its research base, and why therapists might resist involvement with research. The article then explores the reasons for regarding randomised controlled trials as a ‘gold standard’, and why they are not well fitted for the purpose of evaluating or developing a relational therapy. Next is a consideration of alternative approaches to research, including a consideration of what clients actually want from their therapy, then a brief review of the positive findings of outcome research. Greater emphasis on researching processes in therapy is proposed, and consideration of the ‘common factors’ debate is shown to support priorities that are specific to systemic therapies. The article concludes with suggestions for increasing the involvement of family therapists with research, both as consumers and as research practitioners.     

Towards ethical practice in the use of archived transcripted interviews: a response

The Hawthorne Effect is relatively common in community intervention trials. Yet, very little is known about it in developing countries where poverty may play an important role in how and why people participate in studies. A quasi‐experimental trial with a comparison group designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an indoor air pollution intervention showed evidence of reactivity in rural South Africa. By drawing on post‐trial focus group discussions with members of the comparison group (n = 30), this paper explores the reasons why participants improved their behaviours despite not having received the intervention. Results suggest that participants changed their behaviours for three reasons: expectations of gain, misunderstandings of the data collection equipment and a learning effect. In addition to highlighting the role of poverty and miscommunication in influencing reactivity, this paper also offers recommendations to reduce the Hawthorne Effect in impoverished contexts.     

Community Corrections Officers' Attributions for Sexual Offending Against Children

ABSTRACT

The present research examined gender differences in community corrections officers' (CCOs') attributions for child sexual offending. Eighty-five CCOs were asked to write down the reasons why they thought men sexually abused children, and then rate their reasons using Benson's Attributional Dimensions Scale. The results found that CCOs' reasons regarding why men sexually abuse children strongly paralleled current scientific theories on the etiology of child sexual abuse. Also, significant gender differences were found regarding the frequency with which participants cited certain types of reasons for child sexual abuse. Female CCOs were more likely to cite power and control as a reason, while male CCOs were more likely to cite psychopathology as a reason for child sexual abuse. No other gender differences were found. The research, clinical, and educational implications pertaining to these findings are discussed.     

The people of California are suffering': The ideology of white injury in discourses of immigration

Abstract

This article examines how the ideology of white injury both conceals and sustains inequitable social relations in turn‐of‐the‐millenium California. Understanding the political and economic context of California in the early 1990s in relation to media, law, and culture helps explain why Californian citizens passed the unconstitutional initiative, Proposition 187, in 1994. Targeting undocumented Mexican immigrants, this ‘color‐blind’ Proposition functioned to conflate economic insecurities with racial anxieties. An analysis of culture, law, and media discloses how racial anxieties limit our understandings of exploitative capitalist relations, serving to artificially augment the white middle‐class ‘ wealth, opportunities, and power, while making vulnerable populations in the United States even more open to exploitation.     

Person centered planning in a transition program for Bronx youth with disabilities

The City University of New York conducted its Youth Transition Demonstration Project from 2003 to 2010. This federally-funded research and demonstration project was designed to help transition-age youth with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) achieve maximum self-sufficiency. More than 400 youth living in the high-poverty county of Bronx, NY were enrolled in a treatment group and offered a series of interventions, including Person-Centered Planning (PCP). Quantitative and qualitative research methods show that this process was linked to improved educational and employment outcomes for youth. Sixty-five percent of youth enrolled in the project participated in at least one PCP session. Youth from lower-income families were less likely to participate in PCP, as were youth with mood disorders. Youth who did participate in PCP were more likely to hold at least one paid job. Youth focused on relationships, personal strengths and goals during these sessions, which proved an important part of their transition process. Recommendations for educators, service-providers and policy-makers are included for professionals seeking to implement collaborative transition services for youth and their families.     

Table of Contents

House Bill Focuses on Treatment Accountability, Harm Reduction State Grant and Employers Support New Private Treatment Program The Souder Report The ONDCP Annual Report Combat Methamphetamine Act Includes Treatment Provisions Advocacy Coalition Maintains Optimism on N.Y. Parity Measure Surveys: California Youths Discuss Appeal of ‘Alcopops’ Inhalants and Youth Briefly Noted Resources Coming Up     

A Woman's Place Is in the Cab:

This article examines the situation of women train operators in the New York City Transit Authority. Many of the problems women faced when they first became train operators in the 1970s--sexual harassment and resentment, unsafe working conditions, inadequate facilities, lack of benefits important to women--remain unresolved today. The article focuses on the women who choose this job, why they do so, the problems they face, and why women stay. It also looks at the role of the workers' union in meeting the needs of its women members and suggests implications for human services workers.     

Factors in marijuana cessation among high-risk youth

The rise in marijuana use among high school students has generated considerable concern. The apparent failure of current marijuana control efforts may be due in part to ignorance about why students use marijuana and what influences them to consider quitting. This article utilized both open-ended and multiple-choice surveys as well as health educator-led focus groups to assess issues related to marijuana use and cessation among a population of high-risk youth. A total of 842 students participated, assessed as two separate samples from eleven continuation high schools in southern California. Approximately 70 percent of the students are current marijuana users. Interpreting results across both samples, it is apparent that interest in quitting marijuana use among continuation high school students is high. Over half of the marijuana users surveyed have tried to quit and failed. Still, several social images associated with marijuana smokers are positive and subjects express a lack of confidence in the efficacy of marijuana cessation clinic programs. Subjects believe that either self-help or punitive methods are the most effective types of marijuana cessation activities. A reportedly high rate of failed quit attempts suggests that effective marijuana cessation programs are needed in this population. Future programs must address both reasons users resist change, including use of marijuana as a stress reliever, and the particular motivations that subjects report regarding why they desire to quit using marijuana, including legal, vocational, and health consequences.     

The Role of Design in Inhibiting or Promoting Use of Common Open Space

Abstract

Redwood Gardens is a housing project for the elderly on the Clark Kerr campus affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley. A post occupancy evaluation study done in 1994 indicated that outdoor spaces were not well used, and a follow-up set of interviews and observations over a decade later in 2005 shows that the spaces are still underutilized, despite being greatly appreciated as an amenity. This paper explores reasons for the under usage, describes the design of the spaces, and makes proposals for improvements in seating and other environmental props that might facilitate both solo and group use of outdoor spaces. Design and policy recommendations are directed both to this immediate site and other such housing sites elsewhere.     

Individual-focused approaches to the prevention of college student drinking

Alcohol consumption is prevalent among college students and can become problematic for some. Numerous randomized controlled trials have evaluated the efficacy of individual preventive interventions in reducing alcohol use and alcohol-related problems in college student populations. Consistent with earlier reviews, the balance of the evidence from studies conducted during the past 3 years strongly supports the efficacy of brief motivational interventions combined with personalized feedback interventions (PFIs) and personalized normative feedback (PNF), as well as of stand-alone PFI/PNF interventions. Recent analyses also continue to support the efficacy of alcohol expectancy challenge interventions, although the findings are less consistent. In addition, recent analyses offer mixed support for feedback-based interventions focused solely on blood alcohol concentration and for multicomponent, alcohol education-focused interventions that include elements of PFI/PNF. No evidence of efficacy was found for programs that only included alcohol education.