The epidemiology of physical attack and rape among crack-using women

This prospective study examines the epidemiology of physical attack and rape among a sample of 171 not-in-treatment, crack-cocaine using women. Since initiating crack use, 62% of the women reported suffering a physical attack. The annual rate of victimization by physical attack was 45%. Overall, more than half of the victims sought medical care subsequent to an attack. The prevalence of rape since crack use was initiated was 32%, and the annual rate was 11%. Among those women having been raped since they initiated crack use, 83% reported they were high on crack when the crime occurred as were an estimated 57% of the perpetrators. Logistic regression analyses showed that duration of crack use, arrest for prostitution, and some college education were predictors of having experienced a physical attack. Duration of crack use and a history of prostitution were predictors of suffering a rape. Drug abuse treatment programs must be sensitive to high levels of violence victimization experienced by crack-cocaine using women. Screening women for victimization, and treating the problems that emanate from it, may help make drug abuse treatment more effective.     

Business games and implementation research

This paper reviews some recent research in OR implementation and suggests that a new approach is required, which will take fuller account of the perceptions of managers concerned with the problem. Research games in business settings seem to offer a means for such approach. Some lessons learned from a business game used in this way are described and their implications for modelbuilders are discussed.     

The Developmental Origins of Gaze‐Following in Human Infants

During the first year of life, infants develop the capacity to follow the gaze of others. This behavior allows sharing attention and facilitates language acquisition and cognitive development. This article reviews studies that investigated gaze‐following before 12 months of age in typically developing infants and discusses current theoretical perspectives on early GF. Recent research has revealed that early GF is highly dependent on situational constraints and individual characteristics, but theories that describe the underlying mechanisms have partly failed to consider this complexity. We propose a novel framework termed the perceptual narrowing account of GF that may have the potential to integrate existing theoretical accounts.     

CRACKING THE CORNFIELDS: Recruiting Illicit Stimulant Drug Users in Rural Ohio

This article describes the process of recruiting research subjects for a natural history study of illicit stimulant use in rural Ohio using respondent-driven sampling and ethnographic methods. Participant observation, qualitative interviews, and focus groups were used to establish the project and to evaluate and modify the sampling process as it unfolded. We outline the steps taken in several different rural counties, using ethnographic data to illustrate local differences and obstacles that were faced. The article concludes that respondent-driven sampling is a promising method for identifying and recruiting members of hidden populations in rural areas. However, adequate time must be allotted to establish ethnographic footholds and to reach various networks in separate communities.     

Pathways to solutions

Problems may be viewed from many different angles and in many different ways. The order in which facts are collected, the attitudes of the people involved in the problem, the climate in which the problem finds itself to be, all play their parts in determining what the problem is perceived to be and how it is tackled. This paper reports on the several ways in which an apparently simple problem was approached and recognises that the process of solution which is adopted can dictate the eventual outcome and determine what the recommendations will be.     

Government,management and the environmental crisis

In case there should be any doubt that the human predicament will soon be a global crisis the reasons why this must be so are discussed. The increased use of resources and the growing dependence on a fuel-based technology are crisis enough, but to this is added the growing population of the part of the world less advanced in technology, where attitudes are different and cannot be changed to conform to the richer population's idea of what is what in the world.Most of our problems are created because the total effect of an operation is not properly considered when it is undertaken for the part that is wanted. Thus the rich countries have got themselves into a predicament the fault for which the poor see lying entirely with the rich, while the rich see the danger in the growing poor populations.The mechanism of evolution by selection from spontaneous variety must be followed because we cannot foresee needs. To keep the process healthy we must retain room for manoeuvre and choice and we must studiously avoid trying to operate monolithic technological ways of maintaining our society.Policies should seek to anticipate the imminent pressures of the future so as to retain freedom of movement, and the most obvious policy should be to make the price of fuel artificially high to conserve resources and stimulate the right kind of new technologies.     

Physical victimization of rural methamphetamine and cocaine users

Substance use and physical violence often coincide, but little has been published on the correlates associated with receipt of partner versus nonpartner physical violence for rural users of methamphetamine and/or cocaine. In this study, participants' substance use, depression and past-year physical victimization were assessed. In separate logistic regression models, received partner violence in females was associated with age; alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine abuse/dependence; and number of drugs used in the past 6 months. In males, received nonpartner violence was associated with age, cocaine abuse/dependence, and being Caucasian. Findings suggest a relationship between stimulant use and received violence among rural substance users and a need for victimization screenings in settings where such individuals seek health care.     

Constructing a consensus-based prevention outcome measurement instrument

This article describes Ohio's Prevention Evaluation Project (PEP). The purpose of the project was to develop a process and instrument to assess behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in primary drug abuse prevention programs targeting young people aged twelve to seventeen. One of PEP's principal achievements was the inclusion of community prevention program providers from throughout the state in the evaluation instrument development. The effort produced a self-administered questionnaire to capture data on young peoples' drug use practices, attitudes toward drugs, and problematic behaviors. Most significantly, the product produced was the acceptance and endorsement of community-based programs. The forty-one-item questionnaire has good to excellent reliability for virtually all measures, as assessed by the test-retest method. The instrument is a product of a process that brought together a university-based research team, state alcohol and drug abuse prevention administrators, and representatives of public programs. PEP demonstrates how to productively link service providers, administrators, and evaluators to develop a process for assessing the effectiveness of prevention programs. The process and tools described serve as a model for other communities wanting to evaluate their prevention programming.