Sexual orientation and gender identity: an administrative approach to diversity

Research indicates that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) teens in the care of a northeastern child welfare department do not receive adequate services due to the workers' homophobic attitudes. These teens are at high risk for alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, prostitution, and suicide. A training module was developed for administrators. Pretest and posttest instruments measured their education and support of GLBTQ issues before and after the training.     

Attitudinal and normative predictors of alcohol use by older adolescents and young adults

A model of alcohol use based on the theory of planned behavior, expectancy theory, and the developmental literature on the influence of parents and peers was examined with 87 eleventh grade students, 105 college freshmen, and 107 college juniors. Specifically, the influence of attitudes about the positive and negative consequences of drinking, perceived parental and peer norms about alcohol consumption, and perceived control over drinking predicted self-reported alcohol use. The results suggest that, during adolescence, decisions to consume alcohol are rational, based on the consideration of the positive consequences of alcohol use and perceptions of control over drinking; however, the negative consequences of alcohol use are discounted. While perceived peer norms predicted alcohol consumption in all three age groups, the influence of perceived parental norms varied such that they predicted alcohol use only among the college juniors. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Community characteristics and out-migration from Canadian Indian reserves

Path models, at two levels of complexity, examine the effects of community characteristics upon levels of off-reserve residence among 500 Canadian Indian communities. The presentation of a concise model followed by a more complex one allows a simpler causal chain to be elaborated, illustrating the importance of several variables that do not directly affect off-reserve residence levels. The more complex model supports various hypotheses under multiple controls, expands our understanding of native communities, and clears up a few misconceptions and spurious interpretations. It is clear that certain community characteristics (e.g., institutional completeness) encourage the retention of members, thereby enhancing the viability of reserve-based communities: other characteristics encourage boundary breakdown and out-migration. Des trajectoires modéles, à double niveaux de complexité, étudient les effets des caracté-ristiques de la communauté sur les niveaux de résidence hors de la réserve parmi cinq cents communautés indiennes canadiennes. La présentation d'un modèle concis, suivie d'un plus complexe, permet l'élaboration de la plus simple chaine causale, illustrant l'importance de plusieurs variables qui n'affectent pas directement les niveaux de résidence hors des réserves. Le modèle plus complexe appuie plusieurs hypothèses, sous de multiples contrôles, développe notre compréhension des communautés aborigènes, et éclaircit quelques fausses idées et interprétations. Il est clair que certaines caractéristiques de la communauté (e.g. état institutionnel complet) encouragent les membres à rester, rehaussant ainsi la viabilité des communautés dans les réserves: d'autres caractéristiques encouragent l'écroulement des frontières et l'émigration à l'extèrieur.     

Missing discourses: concepts of joy and happiness in disability

This paper analyses a series of representations of disability and rehabilitation taken from research and policy settings in Australia. The purpose of the analysis is to (a) identify the presence or absence of discourses of happiness and joy in the contexts analysed and (b) to analyse the various treatments and interpretations of happiness and joy that are present. Through this analysis we show that while official professional and public discourses on disability and rehabilitation exhibit predominantly negative discursive patterns and features (i.e. aspirations to achieve ‘normality’ and a negative lexicon, such as disability, coping, rehabilitation, burden, abnormality, etc.) there are many other potentially positive and empowering discursive and narrative patterns and features that remain hidden beneath negatively oriented ways of seeing, being, acting and describing in academic, policy and practice settings. We argue that policy‐makers and academics alike need to be sensitive to the dynamics of discourse when constructing research and developing policy.     

High-Risk Sexual Behavior in Postmenopausal Women

Individuals who participate in sexual behavior indeed expose themselves to multiple risks, including social, emotional, and physical risks. Outcomes associated with risk behavior can have detrimental consequences on one’s interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, and overall health and well-being. This study examined how four factors (relational, decision-making, sexual variables, and safety) operate in a postmenopausal women’s decision to engage in risky sexual behavior. Data were collected online from 44 women, ranging in age from 34 to 68. Results indicate this model explains 62.6% of the variance in risky decision-making for postmenopausal women. Implications and directions for future research are addressed.     

Prisons as LULUs: Understanding the Parallels between Prison Proliferation and Environmental Injustices

Criminologists who examine prison siting and proliferation often take two approaches. On one hand, researchers explore citizens’ perceptions of prison siting in their community. Alternatively, they unpack consequences a prison brings to a region—often with attention toward whether they fuel economic growth. This discussion occasionally invokes the concept environmental sociologists commonly used to examine environmental injustices: LULUs (locally undesirable land uses). However, criminologists have not drawn on this concept to consider how environmental contamination and prison proliferation dovetail in the context of mass incarceration. Relatedly, environmental justice scholars have begun to suggest that prisons are rife with environmental justice issues that scholars in that subdiscipline should take seriously. Here, we draw these subfields into conversation with one another, as we see several important synergies. In particular, we heed Eason's (2017, Big House on the Prairie: Rise of the Rural Ghetto and Prison Proliferation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press) call for a more robust theoretical framework interrogating the causes and consequences of the prison boom by making a case that environmental justice work on LULUs provides criminology an opportunity to understand prison proliferation more critically. In turn, we make the case that environmental justice scholars have inroads into the study of mass incarceration—especially as it relates to prison proliferation.