Vulnerability in custody: perceptions and practices of police officers and criminal justice professionals in meeting the communication needs of offenders with learning disabilities and learning difficulties

Information provision and communication within the Criminal Justice System can be highly problematic for young people and adults with learning disabilities and difficulties. Paper-based communication is common, and is mandated for the provision of rights and entitlements in custody, but such communication can be poorly understood, potentially leading to miscarriages of justice. This article uses the piloting of a more accessible version of the rights and entitlements notice in custody to explore the communication practices with vulnerable detained persons from the perspectives of professionals within the Criminal Justice System. As a legally mandated text in a context heavily imbued with organisational power, the rights and entitlements notice in custody has sociological significance as a lens through which organisational practices, and understandings, can be examined. The stressful, fast-paced and transitional context of custody shapes communication and interaction in ways that are challenging for the detained person and also the professionals who support them.     

Simulating Behavioral Influences on Community Flood Risk under Future Climate Scenarios

Flood risk is a function of both climate and human behavior, including individual and societal actions. For this reason, there is a need to incorporate both human and climatic components in models of flood risk. This study simulates behavioral influences on the evolution of community flood risk under different future climate scenarios using an agent-based model (ABM). The objective is to understand better the ways, sometimes unexpected, that human behavior, stochastic floods, and community interventions interact to influence the evolution of flood risk. One historic climate scenario and three future climate scenarios are simulated using a case study location in Fargo, North Dakota. Individual agents can mitigate flood risk via household mitigation or by moving, based on decision rules that consider risk perception and coping perception. The community can mitigate or disseminate information to reduce flood risk. Results show that agent behavior and community action have a significant impact on the evolution of flood risk under different climate scenarios. In all scenarios, individual and community action generally result in a decline in damages over time. In a lower flood risk scenario, the decline is primarily due to agent mitigation, while in a high flood risk scenario, community mitigation and agent relocation are primary drivers of the decline. Adaptive behaviors offset some of the increase in flood risk associated with climate change, and under an extreme climate scenario, our model indicates that many agents relocate.     

Improved estimators of a location vector with unknown scale parameter

The problem of estimating, under arbitrary quadratic loss, the location vector parameter θ of a p-variate distribution (p ≥ 3) with unknown covari-ance matrix ∑ = α² D (where D is a known diagonal matrix) is considered. A large class of improved shrinkage estimators is developed for this problem. This work generalizes results of Berger and Brandwein and Strawderman for the case of a known scale parameter and extends the authors’ results for the class of scale mixtures of normal distributions.     

Relationship Preferences Among Gay and Lesbian Online Daters: Individual and Contextual Influences

There is currently little knowledge about what gay men and lesbians seek in a romantic relationship. This study extends the literature on gay men and lesbians' partnership preferences by engaging in the first large‐scale empirical study of the long‐term dating intentions and monogamy beliefs of gay and lesbian online daters across 53 regions in 8 European countries (N = 24,598). Looking at profile and preference information, the authors examined both individual and contextual determinants in a series of multilevel logistic regression analyses. They show that lesbians give more importance to monogamy but show less interest in starting a long‐term relationship. The data also reveal the importance of life course aspects such as relationship history and presence of children. Finally, the authors empirically demonstrate that social tolerance and legal recognition of same‐sex unions are associated with higher long‐term dating intentions and stronger monogamy beliefs.     

Homeless Microaggressions: Implications for Education,Research, and Practice

ABSTRACT

Homeless individuals, often marginalized, are a group not yet explored in the microaggressions literature. However, research indicates that homeless individuals experience discrimination in a variety of contexts by well-meaning providers. This article outlines several microaggressive themes based on the current literature. The themes posited here include the following: Sub-human Status; Invisibility; Aesthetically Unappealing; Criminal Status/Dangerous; Assumption of Mental Illness; Assumption of Substance Abuse; Laziness; and Intellectual Inferiority. The manifestations and messages conveyed within each theme are discussed. Implications for social work education/training, research, and practice based on the themes are delineated.     

Wellbeing Research in Developing Countries: Reviewing the Role of Qualitative Methods

The authors review the contribution of qualitative methods to exploring concepts and experiences of wellbeing among children and adults living in developing countries. They provide examples illustrating the potential of these methods for gaining a holistic and contextual understanding of people’s perceptions and experiences. Some of these come from Young Lives, an innovative long-term international research project investigating the changing nature of child poverty in India, Ethiopia, Peru and Vietnam (), and others from the Wellbeing in Developing Countries ESRC research group (WeD), an international, inter-disciplinary project exploring the social and cultural construction of wellbeing in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand (). The authors show how qualitative methods can be used both alongside and as part of the development of sensitive and relevant quantitative measures, and provide some practical and methodological recommendations. They propose that qualitative approaches are essential in understanding people’s experiences of wellbeing, both now and in the future. However, the authors caution that while these offer many benefits, for example, a less structured and hierarchical engagement between researcher and participant; they require time, energy, and sensitivity. Qualitative methods also work best when used by trained and experienced researchers working in the local language/s in a community where some rapport has already been established. Finally, the paper recommends combining data from qualitative and quantitative approaches (e.g. psychological measures or household surveys) to enhance its explanatory power.

“Being Raised by White People”: Navigating Racial Difference Among Adopted Multiracial Adults

There are increasing numbers of multiracial families created through marriage, adoption, birth, and a growing population of multiracial persons. Multiracials are a hidden but dominant group of transracially adopted children in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This paper introduces findings from an interpretive study of 25 transracially adopted multiracials regarding a set of experiences participants called “being raised by White people.” Three aspects of this experience are explored: (1) the centrality yet absence of racial resemblance, (2) navigating discordant parent‐child racial experiences, and (3) managing societal perceptions of transracial adoption. Whereas research suggests some parents believe race is less salient for multiracial children than for Black children, this study finds participants experienced highly racialized worlds into adulthood.     

Vocational implications of post-polio syndrome

Of more than 1,000,000 survivors of poliomyelitis living in the United States, about 80% experience symptoms associated with post-polio syndrome (PPS). New weakness, fatigue, and pain are the most common symptoms that may appear years after acute polio. PPS is reported to be the most prevalent progressive neuromuscular disease in North America. The physical symptoms of PPS can be severe enough to decrease an individual's quality of life, significantly alter work function, and impose lifestyle changes. The psychological implications of battling once again with a disease that had stabilized decades ago can be devastating. Rehabilitation physicians and counselors knowledgeable of post-polio syndrome and its possible impact on employment can have a positive influence on persons with PPS.