Suchergebnisse

Because spanking is common, puts children at risk for harmful side effects, and is ineffective as a positive behavior management tool, it is important to identify the kind of advice families receive about the appropriateness of spanking. Using the health belief model, I examined spankers and nonspankers on the spanking messages they received from eight sources of discipline information and how important they perceived these messages to be. Data from telephone interviews with 998 mothers with children aged 2 to 14 years showed that 33% of mothers rated advice from workshops, pediatricians, newspapers and magazines, and books as "very important." Less than 15% rated parents and relatives and friends as such. Spankers perceived sources as recommending spanking, whereas nonspankers perceived sources as opposing spanking. Mothers were more likely to spank when they perceived more intense messages to spank, less intense messages opposing spanking, had younger children, and were of lower socioeconomic status.

Law enforcement officials and the public are said to hold the stereotype that it is difficult to prosecute cases involving nonforcible sex crimes with willing adolescent victims. The authors examine prosecution outcomes in nonforcible Internet-related sex crimes with adolescent victims and extra-familial adult defendants. Data are from a national sample of law enforcement officers and prosecutors (N = 77). Most (91%) of the defendants are convicted, usually via a guilty plea (77%). Results show that even when victim cooperation is lacking or victims willingly engage in sexual activity, defendants are convicted. A small group of defendants are not convicted, and certain conditions appear to contribute to this, including victims' untruthfulness, defendants giving victims illegal drugs or alcohol, and lack of a confession from the defendant. Most defendants, however, are sentenced to incarceration and required to register as sex offenders. The findings show promise for holding defendants accountable for this type of crime.

(MIST Oakland) ; Multimodal Information Sharing Team (MIST) ; The Multimodal Information Sharing Team (MIST) is an evolution of the Maritime Information Sharing Taskforce that has been conducting workshops in domestic ports since 2008. After conducting four MIST workshops, the interconnection of the maritime domain to other modalities in terms of information sharing became a natural expansion of the research. Beginning in Boston, the MIST framework and process for the collaborative exploration of information sharing embraced the larger port multimodal community. The MIST continues to emphasize the private sector perspective to ensure that government stakeholders are leveraging these critical players in the sharing of all hazards threat information protecting our global supply chain.

The Multimodal Information Sharing Team (MIST) is an evolution of the Maritime Information Sharing Taskforce that has been conducting workshops in domestic ports since 2008. The MIST provides a framework and process for the collaborative exploration of information sharing across the port multimodal community. The MIST emphasizes the private sector perspective to ensure that government stakeholders are leveraging this critical player in the sharing of all hazards threat information. The Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) sponsored the Baltimore MIST. This report presents the results of an action planning workshop that involved over 30 local, state, and national public and private sector stakeholders in maritime security for the Port of Baltimore. It highlights the motivations for information sharing and the information needs of both public and private sector. It uses the Inter-Organizational Collaborative Capacity model to organize the analysis and recommendations for three aspects of information sharing: security-focused mechanisms, commerce-focused mechanisms, and technology mechanisms. The report concludes with a set of both immediate-term and long term actions that were identified by workshop participants. Through the MIST collaboration, the PM-ISE in partnership with National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO) will continue to work with the Baltimore area, supporting the on-going development of the Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network (MLEIN).

Increasing the number of suspects who give true confessions of sexual abuse serves justice and reduces the burden of the criminal justice process on child victims. With data from four communities, this study examined confession rates and predictors of confession of child sexual abuse over the course of criminal investigations (final N = 282). Overall, 30% of suspects confessed partially or fully to the crime. This rate was consistent across the communities and is very similar to the rates of suspect confession of child sexual abuse found by previous research, although lower than that from a study focused on a community with a vigorous practice of polygraph testing. In a multivariate analysis, confession was more likely when suspects were younger and when more evidence of abuse was available, particularly child disclosure and corroborative evidence. These results suggest the difficulty of obtaining confession but also the value of methods that facilitate child disclosure and seek corroborative evidence, for increasing the odds of confession.

This study aims to identify characteristics that predict full disclosure by victims of sexual abuse during a forensic interview. Data came from agency files for 987 cases of sexual abuse between December 2001 and December 2003 from Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) and comparison communities within four U.S. states. Cases of children fully disclosing abuse when interviewed were compared to cases of children believed to be victims who gave no or partial disclosures. The likelihood of disclosure increased when victims were girls, a primary caregiver was supportive, and a child's disclosure instigated the investigation. The likelihood of disclosure was higher for children who were older at abuse onset and at forensic interview (each age variable having an independent effect). Communities differed on disclosure rate, with no difference associated with having a CAC. Findings suggest factors deserving consideration prior to a forensic interview, including organizational and community factors affecting disclosure rates.

This article explores the length of time between key events in the criminal prosecution of child sexual abuse cases (charging decision, case resolution process, and total case-processing time), which previous research suggests is related to victims' recovery. The sample included 160 cases in three communities served by the Dallas County District Attorney. Most cases (69%) took at least 60 days for the charging decision, with cases investigated at the Children's Advocacy Center having a quicker time than either comparison community. Only 20% of cases had a case resolution time within the 180-day target suggested by the American Bar Association standard for felonies. Controlling for case characteristics, one of the three communities and cases with an initial arrest had a significantly quicker case resolution time. Total case processing generally took more than 2 years. Implications include the need to better monitor and shorten case resolution time.