Correlates of African American female adolescent offenders 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or “Ecstasy”) use and sexually transmitted infection morbidity

Abstract

The current study was designed to determine the extent to which self-reported ecstasy use in a population of juvenile adolescent detainees in a southern state is associated with high-risk health behaviors pertaining to sexually transmitted infection (STI) symptomology and past history of STI occurrence. Participants were 764 African American females extracted from an overall sample of 2,260 juvenile offenders housed at selected Youth Development Campuses in the state of Georgia. Significance tests were conducted using univariate logistic regressions to examine the independent associations of participant’s self-reported ecstasy use and dichotomized HIV risk behavior correlates and history of having a prior STI before the most recent incarceration Participants who reported ecstasy use prior to incarceration were 1.7 (OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 0.78–3.64) and 1.8 times (OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.24–2.81) more likely respectively to indicate having had genital warts or chlamydia, and were more than 1.5 times (OR = 2.21, 95% CI = 0.83–5.44) and two times more likely to report having had gonorrhea or herpes, accordingly. Prevention programs for adolescent offender populations should develop interventions that target adolescents’ substance use behavior as a function of STI risk taking as well as being culturally competent to deal specifically with these problem behaviors.     

A trilogy of trepidation: Diverse perspectives on police violence targeting African American males

ABSTRACT

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are supposedly “certain inalienable rights” that the Declaration of Independence claims have been gifted to all human beings by their Creator, and for which the U.S. government was created to protect. The issue of violence and brutality against African American males along with the police shooting of unarmed African American males has become a reality of the denial of these rights for some in America. Recent police shooting incidents of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, in addition to the brutal murder by police of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, have sparked riots, looting, protests, “die-ins,” and national conversations. The subsequent civil unrest across the United States and abroad has attracted widespread public attention. In this article, three authors respond by providing a timely trilogy of uniquely diverse perspectives and viewpoints on these issues giving particular attention to (1) the view from a historical lens and Black Power political framework producing an analysis of the causative factors promoting and sustaining violence against African American males, (2) an examination of criminal justice law, and (3) a look at our way forward.     

Exploring Physical Health of African Americans: A Social Determinant Model

The objective was to examine the relationships between socioeconomic, structural, community, and individual factors and health outcomes of African Americans in the United States using a modified version of the social determinants of health model in a nationally representative sample of 2,926 non-elderly African American adults. This empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between socioeconomic/structural determinants and health outcomes of African Americans. Results show poor housing and low income contribute to poorer health outcomes; therefore, in order to improve the health outcome, programs are needed that provide their residents with adequate and safe housing and employment. Moreover, local, state, and federal governmental entities need to work together to rebuild and revitalize the housing in African American communities.     

African Americans,U.S. Poverty,and International Law

ABSTRACT

Statistical rates of poverty among African Americans often hide the cultural and historical nature of their intended consequences. Unfavorable outcomes for social change can occur when viewing poverty among African Americans in isolation from their unique historical and cultural experiences and U.S. social, political, and capitalistic influences. While pressures to subordinate African Americans continue, African Americans also exert pressure (e.g., social movements) as human agents in their efforts toward self-determination. In order to understand and/or ameliorate poverty in the US, policy makers, researchers, and educators must first deal with the cultural hegemony undergirding it.     

Risk and Resilience Among African American Children of Incarcerated Parents

Abstract

The current literature indicates that children of incarcerated parents are negatively responding to parent-child separation and vulnerable to myriad adverse psychological, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. African American children are the most greatly impacted by this social issue as they account for over 50% of all children of incarcerated parents. Despite the risks, many of these youths appear to cope with parent-child separation. There is a paucity of literature that employs a risk and resilience conceptual model to explicate the variability in developmental trajectories. This article reviews the literature on risks and resilience among African American families. An interpersonal-ecological conceptual model that emphasizes the reciprocal interaction between the person and social context is employed. Moreover, African American resilient factors that potentially mediate the relationship between parental incarceration and environmental risks and developmental outcomes are discussed.     

THE AMBIGUITIES OF EXTERNAL MINORITY PROTECTION

This article focuses on the special and prominent place that the “Jewish question” occupied in the general discussion about Russian modernisation in the pre‐1914 period, both in American society and in the arena of US–Russian relations. It analyses the role that anti‐Jewish violence in Russia had in effecting a dramatic shift in the way Americans viewed the Russian Empire, which was being depicted by the American Jews and the leaders of the crusade for a “Free Russia” as a barbarous oppressor of political dissent and a savage persecutor of religious, national, and ethnic minorities. American society’s reaction to anti‐Jewish violence in the Russian Empire at the turn of the twentieth century helped, on the one hand, to shape the idea of the American belief that the United States bore special responsibility for carrying out reforms in Russia, and, on the other hand, to place relations between the two countries within such binary oppositions as “light and darkness,” “civilization and barbarity,” “modernity and medievalism,” “democracy and authoritarianism,” “freedom and slavery,” “the West and the Orient.” The article uses a broad range of verbal and graphic sources from the American press and new sources from archival collections. These sources help to illustrate one of the author’s principal tenets which holds that the United States’ view of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire was a result of the Americans’ projection of their own vision of the nature of the US foreign policy. In their official and public discourses, Americans considered Russia’s foreign policy an extension of Russia’s political regime. This study examines US foreign policy as a vital sphere in which national identity is redefined and reaffirmed and gives an opportunity to draw attention to the cultural and ideological dimensions of Russian–American relations, to understand the origins of dualistic American myths about Russia that have proven so enduring, and to demonstrate how a demonised Russia serves to revitalise American nationalism and how the Russian “Other” was used, in part, to construct the American “Self.”     

美国中国学的发端史研究

美国中国学的最终创立者远东学会产生于美国东方学会并在初期与之联合,而东方学会是美国传统汉学研究的大本营。中国学研究在美国汉学内部发端是由美国汉学的特性所先天决定的,也是当时美国现实需求和学术发展的必然结果。汉学与中国学的初期合作并未能掩饰双方在学术主张上的根本差异。研究美国中国学的发端史能揭示汉学与中国学最初的关联与纠葛,从双方的决裂过程彰显二者的差异。通过研究美国东方学会、远东学会、美国学术团体理事会等美国重要涉华研究机构和组织在中国学发端期的互动,可以反映美国中国研究的一段发展史。     

《石头记》庚寅本考辨

从外证、内证、理证、旁证、反证等方面作综合考辨,可以肯定,新近发现于天津的庚寅本,确是一个《石头记》清代抄本。庚寅本之发现,不仅填补了"脂本"乃至"佚稿"之文献空白,也为现存版本考证鉴定提供出十分重要之学术依据,为"列藏系五本"乃至整个《石头记》版本源流考辨梳理提供出极具价值之文献参照。从版本研究史之角度观,庚寅本之发现,也是上世纪20年代末30年代初甲戌本、"庚辰本"发现以来红学研究领域最为重要的文献收获。     

《红楼梦》历史文化精神论纲

作为红学研究的核心议题,关于《红楼梦》精神主题的争论,二百余年以来从未间断。在不断进步的时代光华映照之下,在全球视野下的中外文化的比较之中,《红楼梦》这部古典名著,将继续为红学研究提供诠释空间与意义场域。然而从根本上讲,这部"家传"、"国史"、"拟《春秋》"三位一体的"今古未有之奇书",乃是华夏民族历史文化之文本象征;以"三科九旨"为理论支柱的《春秋》大义,已然成为《红楼梦》全书之精神主旨。如果说文明与野蛮、繁华与衰落、入世与出世,是其三个相互关联的历史文化主题,向往天下化成,期望万世太平,关注现实人生,则是其贯穿始终的精神主线。     

高等教育公平与政府责任——论战后美国联邦政府在高等教育入学机会均等中的作用

二战以来,美国联邦政府积极介入高等教育入学机会分配,其作用经历了四个阶段：二战后到20世纪60年代中期为满足高等教育入学需求;60年代中期到70年代末为重视高等教育入学机会均等;70年代末至90年代末为迎合中产阶级学生的入学需求;新世纪以来为关注入学的可负担性。美国联邦政府在高等教育入学机会均等中的作用表现出受不同政府理论影响;强制性制度变迁为主,兼顾诱致性制度变迁;立法、行政和司法机关各自发挥作用等特点。