Racial/ethnic and socio‐economic biases in child maltreatment severity assessment in Spanish child protection services caseworkers

Evidence from several countries has shown the over‐representation of racial/ethnic minority groups in child protection services (CPS). The objective of the present study was to explore whether racial/ethnic and socio‐economic biases influence Spanish CPS caseworkers' judgements of the severity of child maltreatment. Moreover, the study attempted to explore the influence on these judgements of the use of structured instruments and professional experience. Two case vignettes of child maltreatment were presented to 405 CPS caseworkers and 169 students of social work and psychology. Family ethnic origin and income were manipulated in the vignettes. The findings showed no statistical evidence of biases related to family ethnic origin or socio‐economic status (SES) in Spanish CPS caseworkers' judgements of maltreatment severity. Biases related to family SES were found for students for the vignettes of physical abuse. CPS caseworkers and students who did not use a structured instrument to assess maltreatment severity tended to underestimate the severity for the vignettes of parental incapacity to control child/adolescent behaviour and to overestimate it for the vignettes of physical abuse. CPS caseworkers who used a structured instrument showed higher percentages of accuracy and inter‐rater agreement, supporting the relevance of structured tools in reducing potential caseworkers' biases.     

漏洞严重性的灰色层次分析评估模型

针对系统漏洞的严重性评估问题,提出基于灰色评估方法和层次分析法的量化评估模型。首先根据漏洞严重性的影响因素,建立漏洞严重性评估指标体系。通过层次分析法建立递阶层次模型并计算漏洞各因素的权重,采用基于中心点三角白化权函数的灰色评估方法对漏洞各层次指标进行评估和分析,得到漏洞的综合评估结果即漏洞严重性的等级和综合量化值。实验结果表明该模型能有效、准确地评估系统漏洞的严重性。     

Does severity matter?: An investigation of crisis severity from defensive attribution theory perspective

Although the concept of crisis severity has existed in the crisis communication literature for two decades, it has not been theoretically tested and explained. Based on Defensive Attribution Theory (DAT), this study intends to specify the relationship between crisis severity and crisis responsibility as well as organizational reputation within the SCCT model. Through a 2 (crisis severity) × 3 (crisis type) between-subject factorial experiment (n?=?274), the study revealed that higher crisis severity causes worse reputation regardless of crisis type. For accidental crisis, higher crisis severity leads to higher intentionality, one dimension of crisis responsibility. The findings indicate that crisis severity still has value in SCCT and deserves further investigation.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse Severity Reconsidered: A Factor Structure of CSA Characteristics

To address the lack of empirically grounded measures of childhood sexual abuse severity, a survey of self-report items was developed following a thorough review of the childhood sexual abuse literature. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using data collected from a convenience sample of college students that included 275 females and males with a history of childhood sexual abuse. The solution produced seven factors interpreted as the following: (a) less intrusive forms of childhood sexual abuse (e.g., sexual invitations, kissing), (b) more intrusive forms of childhood sexual abuse (e.g., oral sex, intercourse), (c) humiliation/fear, (d) childhood sexual abuse involving photography, (e) familiarity with the perpetrator, (f) physical force/rape, and (g) active digital penetration. Correlations among these factors further suggested the existence of two relatively independent second-order factors, one based on the levels of physical intrusiveness and the other composed of the psychological/emotional factors. While arguably the most common measurement of severity, physical intrusiveness had little association with critical factors such as humiliation, fear, and association with the perpetrator. Consequently, physical intrusiveness appears to be an inadequate stand-alone measure of childhood sexual abuse severity. These results are proposed to lay the groundwork for an improved, more comprehensive measure of childhood sexual abuse severity.     

Chronic pain,pain severity and analgesia use in Australian women of reproductive age

Background

The increasing prevalence and adverse outcomes associated with opioid analgesia use in women of reproductive age have become a significant public health issue internationally, with use during pregnancy potentially affecting maternal and infant health outcomes.

Examining the joint impact of relationship norms and service failure severity on consumer responses

ABSTRACT

This study investigates consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies with which they have previously established good relationships. It indicates that conformity with or violation of relationship norms guides consumers’ decision making, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes further depend on the severity of the service failure. Through a 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs. communal) × 2 (service failure severity: minor vs. major) between-subjects experiment, the study shows that when the prior relationship norms are exchange-based, consumers demonstrate similar attitudes toward the minor and major failures. However, when these relationship norms are communally-based, consumers respond relatively positively in the minor failure situation, but they display more negative attitudes in the major failure situation. This study contributes to public relations literature regarding the role of company-consumer relationships in service failure situations.     

新时期实践宽缓刑事政策的制度设计

根据发展趋势和国际潮流,文明和轻缓是当代刑事政策的主旨.我国实行宽缓的刑事政策,不仅是与世界刑事法律改革趋势相一致,而且也是我国现行刑事司法实践的迫切要求.目前,检察机关适用宽缓刑事政策的实践探索关键是在合理有效地进行制度引进和制度借鉴的基础上,着手设计和安排符合中国国情和中国检察职能的相关制度.     

Bayesian inference for epidemics with two levels of mixing

Abstract.  Methodology for Bayesian inference is considered for a stochastic epidemic model which permits mixing on both local and global scales. Interest focuses on estimation of the within- and between-group transmission rates given data on the final outcome. The model is sufficiently complex that the likelihood of the data is numerically intractable. To overcome this difficulty, an appropriate latent variable is introduced, about which asymptotic information is known as the population size tends to infinity. This yields a method for approximate inference for the true model. The methods are applied to real data, tested with simulated data, and also applied to a simple epidemic model for which exact results are available for comparison.     

The Risk of Partner Violence Among Low‐Income Hispanic Subgroups

Women with few social resources are at elevated risk of partner abuse. Certain evidence suggests that African American and Hispanic women, who are overrepresented in the lower socioeconomic strata, are at particularly high risk. We compare women's risk of partner violence, defined as moderate and severe, among 2,400 low‐income African American, Hispanic, and non‐Hispanic Whites from “Welfare, Children and Families: A Three City Study” and find that these groups differ in their risk of degrees of violence. Specific nation‐of‐origin Hispanic subgroups also manifest important differences in their violence risk profiles. We argue that a better understanding of victimization requires more detailed ethnic categorization and a more refined understanding of the meaning of domestic violence for different groups.