Risks of Mortality and Morbidity from Worldwide Terrorism: 1968–2004

Worldwide data on terrorist incidents between 1968 and 2004 gathered by the RAND Corporation and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) were assessed for patterns and trends in morbidity/mortality. Adjusted data analyzed involve a total of 19,828 events, 7,401 "adverse" events (each causing >or= 1 victim), and 86,568 "casualties" (injuries), of which 25,408 were fatal. Most terror-related adverse events, casualties, and deaths involved bombs and guns. Weapon-specific patterns and terror-related risk levels in Israel (IS) have differed markedly from those of all other regions combined (OR). IS had a fatal fraction of casualties about half that of OR, but has experienced relatively constant lifetime terror-related casualty risks on the order of 0.5%--a level 2 to 3 orders of magnitude more than those experienced in OR that increased approximately 100-fold over the same period. Individual event fatality has increased steadily, the median increasing from 14% to 50%. Lorenz curves obtained indicate substantial dispersion among victim/event rates: about half of all victims were caused by the top 2.5% (or 10%) of harm-ranked events in OR (or IS). Extreme values of victim/event rates were approximated fairly well by generalized Pareto models (typically used to fit to data on forest fires, sea levels, earthquakes, etc.). These results were in turn used to forecast maximum OR- and IS-specific victims/event rates through 2080, illustrating empirically-based methods that could be applied to improve strategies to assess, prevent, and manage terror-related risks and consequences.     

Preparing for Elite Political Participation Simulations and the Political Socialization of Adolescents

Objective. We ask: How do socialization experiences shape adolescent perceptions of and the performance of gender in political leadership roles? We examine a political simulation, Model United Nations, which attracts academically motivated students aspiring to elite roles in politics and government. Methods. Using observational and survey data, we explore adolescent behavior in the simulation as both a learning experience and as a reflection of students' perceptions of leadership behavior. Results. Three critical observations emerge. First, the Model United Nations is a domain in which young women do not play an equal part. Female delegates take far fewer speaking turns. However, contextual factors, including membership on a committee that deals with less masculine issues and on a committee with a female chair, increase the likelihood of female turn‐taking. Second, though participants come to the event with very similar motivations, young women leave less satisfied with their personal effectiveness than do young men. Finally, female delegates are judged less favorably by themselves and others and thus as less successful in the simulation. Conclusions. These findings have normative implications for the recruitment of young women to politics.     

Reducing overclaiming in needs assessment studies. An experimental comparison.

A randomized experiment investigated the effect of various instructional sets on reducing agency awareness overclaiming, that is, claiming knowledge of fictitious agencies. As predicted, respondents who were warned that the list contained fake agencies exhibited less agency awareness overclaiming than respondents who were not warned. However, providing respondents a memory retrieval strategy had no effect on agency awareness overclaiming. A multivariate model, which included demographic variables, response style variables, and knowledge variables, explained 40% of the variance of agency awareness overclaiming.     

Tracking the Sexual Behavior-Specific Effects of a Foster Family Treatment Program for Children with Serious Sexual Behavior Problems

Few treatment programs exist for very young children with serious sexual behavior problems. Fewer still have produced data relating to their effectiveness, and the sparse data that have emerged have focused on global social adjustment or improvement rather than on sexual behavior- specific changes. This study tracked both frequency of problem sexual behaviors and care giver estimates of the propensity to re-offend of six initial clients referred to a treatment-intensive foster care program for sexually reactive children and pre-adolescent sexual offenders. A simple pre-post (basepoint-treatment) design was used, and in-treatment data gathered over a two-year interval are presented. Initial results indicate that the problem sexual behaviors of most of these youthful clients were effectively and immediately suppressed in the context of their treatment intensive foster placements, but that the program's impact on the clients' propensity to re-offend given the opportunity—a crude measure of treatment internalization—was much less immediate, less pronounced, and less predictable across clients. Recommendations based on these data are offered concerning the viability of foster care intervention for sexualized and offending children, as well as optimal durations for such treatments. The strengths and weaknesses of the novel progress tracking method are discussed.     

Student Reflections on Vulnerability and Self-awareness in a Social Work Skills Course

Self-awareness is generally considered core to effective social work education and professional practice. This paper examines student reflections on personal vulnerability and self-awareness in social, educational, and professional contexts. Ethics approval and student consent was obtained to analyse entries from the online learning component of a second year interpersonal skills course. The week 7 workshop, which focused on the concept of self-awareness, was contextualised and triggered by an online viewing of a relevant TED talk on the power of vulnerability. Qualitative analysis of student entries from this week revealed three core themes: (a) a provocative stimulus, which emphasised the usefulness and challenging nature of the TED talk in the context of workshop learning; (b) vulnerability, scarcity, and blame, which highlighted student identification with stimuli material and their emerging self-awareness; and (c) the importance of self-awareness and connection, which illuminated the students’ beginning applications of theory to practice.

IMPLICATIONS

• Interpersonal skills courses can be well supported by a diverse range of online and classroom stimuli.

• The intentional scaffolding of self-reflective activities can support early skills development and promote self-awareness.

• The analysis of student reflections can contribute to effective and responsive curriculum design.

     

‘The world they’ve been born into’: Black male teachers on Blackness,masculinities and leadership

ABSTRACT

In this article, life history methodology and principles of counterstorytelling are used to examine moments when one Black male preservice social studies teacher and three Black male social studies teachers challenge Black masculinist visions of leadership, and moments when they seem complicit in perpetuating these visions. Findings indicate that these educators’ understandings of Blackness, maleness, and the pursuit of Black masculine recognition are fluid, developing and sometimes contradictory. We argue that while necessary across disciplines, interrogations of Black masculinity are uniquely imperative in social studies teacher education due to how assumptions about Blackness and maleness have shaped struggles for Black civic recognition.     

Evaluating the Perceived Efficacy of Randomized Security Measures at Airports

Both the increase in traveler numbers and the heightened threat posed by terrorism in recent years represent significant challenges to airport security measures. To ensure that a high level of security is maintained, randomized security checks have been proposed as a promising alternative to traditional security approaches. The use of randomized checks means that only a specific number of people are selected for security screening. However, the likely effects of such a change in security procedures on travelers’ security perceptions and on the deterrence of criminal activities remain unclear. Thus, the present study examines how varying the percentage of people screened during security checks influences people's security perceptions. In two online experiments, the participants were asked to imagine that they sought to smuggle an explosive dummy past an airport security check. The only information provided was the number of people screened during security checks, which was manipulated between-subjects in the first experiment and within-subjects in the second experiment. The participants then had to rate their security perception (i.e., the perceived likelihood of successfully smuggling the explosive dummy). The findings show that people perceive traditional security checks to be safer than randomized checks, irrespective of whether 90% or 30% of people are screened. Hence, if randomized security checks would indeed be implemented, it would automatically lead to a decreased perception of security. Furthermore, this decreased security perception might lead to an actual reduction in security, as the deterrence of criminal activities could also be reduced.     

Things Are Looking Up: Using Cloud-Based Technology Tools in Collection Management Workflows

Abstract

Between 2018 and 2019, two librarians at the College of Charleston Libraries incorporated cloud-based technologies into their collection management workflows. The following paper was derived from a presentation they prepared for the 2020 North Carolina Serials Conference, which was to be held on March 27, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper highlights which cloud technologies they use and provides an overview of the literature that has been published on project management and cloud-based technologies in libraries. It includes an explanation of how they use each tool, and provides examples for setting up each tool in different scenarios so that other collection management librarians may implement them into their own routines. The paper ends with an exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of integrating these tools into collection management workflows. Although the librarians had not prepared to discuss the role these technologies may play when working remotely, they have both found them invaluable during this unprecedented time when many librarians are working from home.     

A Shared Presentation: Two Disabled Women on Video

In this paper we share our collaborative experience of making a video in which disabled women present their lives as they wish to portray them. We undertook what we hope will be perceived as emancipatory research, in which disabled and non-disabled women work together to create audio-visual teaching materials. We include a preliminary discussion about the representation of disability on British television broadcasts between October 1991 and March 1992. We look at negative imagery, charity fund raising, and positive images. The paper uses comments by disabled broadcasters and disabled academics, and reflects on their work.