Sexual Offenses Against Elderly People: Forensic Evaluation and Judicial Outcome

Forensic evaluation reports and judicial outcomes regarding older victims of suspected sexual offenses were retrospectively reviewed. During this period, a total of 14 cases were registered, corresponding to 0.3% of nonfatal crimes against elderly and 0.6% of the total of sexual crimes reported. All the victims were female. The majority lived alone and did not have limitations in communication, orientation, ambulation, or autonomy. The offenders were all male (17 to 81 years old); most were known to the victims and had history of previous disruptive behaviors. The majority of the sexual offenses occurred in the victims’ homes, and the offenders tended to use physical violence. Forensic evaluation was crucial for the identification of physical and biological evidence, and forensic conclusions were positively correlated with the judicial outcome of each case. High prosecution and conviction rates were also observed.     

Managerial Listening and Career Development in the Hospitality Industry

Recent research confirms that communication skills are essential to effective management practice. Less is known, however, about the specific communication activities associated with different levels of management and how these competencies affect career development. This paper reports findings from two related studies of hospitality managers. One reports the differences between middle and upper level managers' perceptions of the frequency and difficulty of specific communication activities. The second study examines upper level managers' perceptions of the communication skills most essential to their career development.

Findings suggest that listening is perceived to be more critical to managerial effectiveness as individuals move into senior level positions, and that listening is perceived by general managers as the most essential communication skill for their career development. The results of this research have implications for educators, practitioners, and consultants as they work to improve managers' communication competence.     

The Benefits and Costs of New Fuels and Engines for Light‐Duty Vehicles in the United States

Rising oil prices and concerns about energy security and climate change are spurring reconsideration of both automobile propulsion systems and the fuels that supply energy to them. In addition to the gasoline internal combustion engine, recent years have seen alternatives develop in the automotive marketplace. Currently, hybrid‐electric vehicles, advanced diesels, and flex‐fuel vehicles running on a high percentage mixture of ethanol and gasoline (E85) are appearing at auto shows and in driveways. We conduct a rigorous benefit‐cost analysis from both the private and societal perspective of the marginal benefits and costs of each technology—using the conventional gasoline engine as a baseline. The private perspective considers only those factors that influence the decisions of individual consumers, while the societal perspective accounts for environmental, energy, and congestion externalities as well. Our analysis illustrates that both hybrids and diesels show promise for particular light‐duty applications (sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks), but that vehicles running continuously on E85 consistently have greater costs than benefits. The results for diesels were particularly robust over a wide range of sensitivity analyses. The results from the societal analysis are qualitatively similar to the private analysis, demonstrating that the most relevant factors to the benefit‐cost calculations are the factors that drive the individual consumer's decision. We conclude with a brief discussion of marketplace and public policy trends that will both illustrate and influence the relative adoption of these alternative technologies in the United States in the coming decade.     

Culture,Place of Origin,and Service Delivery for Latino Older Adult Immigrants: The Case of Puerto Rican Older Adults

ABSTRACT

A conceptual model for the design and implementation of effective social services for Latino older adult immigrants in the United States is proposed in this article. Built on the stage-of-migration framework (Drachman, 1992 Drachman, D. 1992. A stage-of-migration framework for service to immigrant populations. Social Work, 37: 68–72. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the model presented shows how the premigration service experience of Latino older adults can be used as a basis for service design and implementation in the country of immigration. The case of Puerto Rican older adult immigrants is used to illustrate how the model can be applied to understand present service utilization and develop future programs that are useful and culturally sensitive for Latino older adult immigrants.     

A Right to Benefit from International Research: A New Approach to Capacity Building in Less-Developed Countries

This article proposes a means by which benefits provided in international research collaborations might be employed to strengthen health care, research, and other capacities in less-developed countries. The Declaration of Helsinki and CIOMS Guidelines define certain expectations of benefits, but these requirements are ambiguous, logistically problematic, and studies suggest they are inconsistently upheld. Drawing on the principle of respect for persons, a right to benefit from hosting externally-sponsored research is proposed. This right guarantees host communities benefits of a certain value, the nature and use of which is controlled by indigenous personnel. Suggestions are made as to how implementation of this right, using structured incentives, may systematically promote capacity building in host communities.     

The Therapeutic Misconception: A Threat to Valid Parental Consent for Pediatric Neuroimaging Research

Neuroimaging research has brought major advances to child health and well-being. However, because of the vulnerabilities associated with neurological and developmental conditions, the parental need for hope, and the expectation of parents that new medical advances can benefit their child, pediatric neuroimaging research presents significant challenges to the general problem of consent in the context of research involving children. A particular challenge in this domain is created by the presence of therapeutic misconception on the part of parents and other key research stakeholders. This article reviews the concept of therapeutic misconception and its role in pediatric neuroimaging research. It argues that this misconception can compromise consent given by parents for the involvement of their children in research as healthy controls or as persons with neurological and developmental conditions. The article further contends that therapeutic misconception can undermine the research ethics review process for proposed and ongoing neuroimaging studies. Against this backdrop, the article concludes with recommendations for mitigating the effects of therapeutic misconception in pediatric neuroimaging research.     

Assessing the Seriousness of Research Misconduct: Considerations for Sanction Assignment

Federal and institutional policies recommend the criterion of “seriousness” as a guide for sanction assignment in cases where researchers have been found to have committed research misconduct. Discrepancies in assessments of seriousness for similar acts of misconduct suggest the need to clarify what might be meant by the seriousness of research misconduct and how the criterion can be used to assign sanctions. This essay demonstrates how determinations of seriousness can differ depending on the set of ethical appeals employed and argues that an expanded lexicon for talking about the seriousness of research misconduct would help to promote fairness and consistency in sanction assignment. It concludes with some policy recommendations for those charged with research misconduct sanction assignment and for those who oversee research integrity at institutional levels.