A Swedish Prevalence Study of Deaf People Using Sign Language: a prerequisite for Deaf studies

A widely used estimate claims that one per thousand individuals is deaf, but few recent studies exist on the actual prevalence. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of deaf people, defined as deaf individuals who use sign language as their main mode of communication, in the county of Scania, Sweden. To achieve high validity, data were collected from a large variety of sources including both public institutions and voluntary associations, working with deaf people. The study demonstrates a prevalence of 0.7 per thousand inhabitants, a figure considerably lower than the traditional estimate. One interpretation of this finding is that the prevalence of deafness is on the decrease. Another interpretation reflects the problem to define deafness. As prevalence figures vary with the definition used, one single estimate valid for the prevalence of deafness is not possible to make. We therefore question the traditional one-per-thousand estimate of deafness.     

Charting a course toward legible medical records. Perfect paperwork can mean financial savings, better patient care.

Short of going fully electronic, there are various ways to clean up your medical record system to make it more efficient and less time-consuming. Check out how some experienced physician executives are dealing with this perennial problem.     

Emancipation, crime and problem behavior of women: A perspective from Germany

The debate on women and crime has been dominated by two paradigms during the last decades: The “power-paradigm” predicted a steep rise of female crime rates, as a result of the thorough change of gender roles in this period, while the “victim paradigm” directed attention to rising rates of alcohol and drug addiction as well as mental health problems and suicides among women. Both paradigms have been linked by the proposition that the low involvement of women in crime was compensated by their higher rates of all types of passive problem behavior like depression or addiction. In this study, which covers the period from 1965 to 1990, both paradigms are examined by analysing female and male crime rates, as well as respective rates of alcohol and drug addiction, mental disorders, and suicides for all of Germany (before reunification), an urban metropolitan region and a rural state in the North of Germany. The results clearly show that both paradigms were wrong in exaggerating a negative impact of the process of emancipation. Until the early 1980s, female crime rates as well as proportions of other types of problem behavior only slightly gained compared to men, but since 1985 this trend has levelled off and has been inverted, most visible for crime rates. In contrast to both paradigms, these results show that women profited enormously in terms of mental health and other problem behaviors from the opportunities opening up in the process of emancipation. They clearly lend more support to two more recent theories, the “power-control” theory by Hagan and the “control-balance” theory by Tittle that both stress potential gains for women. Susanne Karstedt is an asociologist and criminologist. She is Professor of Criminology at the Department of Criminology of Keele University, Great Britain. In the field of gender studies she has pbulished on female criminality, problem behavior of women in social crises (postwar Germany), on the definition of social problems by the women's movement in the 19th century from a, comparative perspective and on the women's movement from a historical and comparative perspective.     

Berry–Esseen type bounds for trimmed U-statistics

Trimmed U  -statistics can be constructed in two different ways: by basing the statistic on a trimmed sample or by averaging the trimmed set of kernel values. Mild conditions are given to ensure the rate of convergence to normality is O(n^-1/2)$\mathrm{O}(n^{-1/2})$ in both cases.     

Can TV shows promote acceptance of sexual and ethnic minorities? A literature review of television effects on diversity attitudes

Until recently, western TV programming rarely featured sexual or ethnic minority members; if present, their representation was mostly negative. Increasingly, though, diverse characters start to play likeable protagonists as well. Thus, television can promote negative diversity attitudes and, at other times, positive ones. The present article reviews and connects theories and research from sociology, psychology, and media and communication studies to clarify the role of television in diversity attitudes formation and to identify directions for future research. Specifically, two research questions are addressed. First, through which processes does television influence diversity attitudes? Second, what features of TV shows contribute to positive diversity attitudes formation among viewers, according to different theories of television effects? Findings indicate that television can entrench existing negative diversity attitudes through the echo chamber phenomenon. However, TV content featuring numerous, likeable, attractive, and typical minority characters that have friendly interactions with the rest of society can promote positive diversity attitudes. Future research should study openness to view content with minority characters, examine the effects of the complete video media diets, check media effects in non-western countries, explore media effects in longitudinal studies and investigate what constitutes attractive, likeable, and typical representation of ethnic and sexual minorities.