From Pervert to Predator: Law, Medicine, Media, and the Construction of Contemporary Sexual Deviance

This Dissertation examines how cultural and legal interactions shift the meaning and implications of “predatory” sexual behavior. Specifically, it explores how lawmaking processes, media coverage, and therapeutic jurisprudence have shifted the way that sexually predatory behavior is categorized and defined in California’s 1996 Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Act. Drawing on fieldwork; interviews with experts working in law, medicine, politics, and advocacy; and legal and media content analysis, I develop three substantive chapters exploring different institutions’ impact on this law. Chapter Two of the dissertation introduces the SVP Act and examines changes to the law made via Proposition 83, a 2006 voter-initiated statute. Drawing on comparative analysis of legislative history, text, and debates, this chapter demonstrates how the Proposition system allowed for the incorporation of rhetoric that the legislative system did not, justifying different legal penalties for sexual predators at each point in time. Chapter Three uses content analysis of 323 Los Angeles Times articles about sexual predators over the span of 25 years to examine shifting representations of sexual predator victims, crimes, and offenders. Chapter Four examines how interactions between legal and medical actors and systems transform SVP treatment into punishment. Taken together, these chapters illustrate how different aspects of law, medicine, and popular opinion interact to construct sexual predators as increasingly monstrous, and provide a framework to begin to understand the impact and implications of this construction for both sex offenders and victims

How Children of LGBQ Parents Negotiate Courtesy Stigma over the Life Course

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 28 U.S. adults who have at least one lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) parent, we examine how this group negotiates the courtesy stigma of a parent’s sexual identity over the life course. Respondents reported less control over revealing courtesy stigma during childhood, when they were closely linked to their parents, but increased ability to conceal parents’ sexual orientation as they aged. During childhood and adolescence, parents’ gender presentation and choice of partner(s) impacted the visibility and degree of courtesy stigma, as did their peer networks and social environments. As adults, respondents continued to face issues of visibility; those who identified as heterosexual struggled to gain acceptance within LGBQ communities, while those who identified as LGBQ negotiated fears about how their own sexual orientation reflected upon their families of origin. Recognizing that people with one or more LGBQ parents face courtesy—rather than direct—stigma sheds light on past research, while providing a sociological framework with which to analyze future work on this population

Representation Matters: No Child Should Appear in Immigration Proceedings Alone

Each year, thousands of immigrant children are placed into court proceedings in which government prosecutors seek to deport them unless those children can prove they have a right to stay in the United States. Many face these immigration proceedings alone. Many children have legal options that establish their ability to remain in the United States, but these options are nearly impossible to access without the assistance of trained attorneys. Unfortunately, although the right to be represented by legal counsel is recognized in immigration proceedings, the right to appointed counsel is not. Children who are unable to find free counsel or afford private counsel must navigate the immigration system alone. This fact sheet outlines why universal, publicly funded representation for children in immigration proceedings is urgently needed

Il ruolo della prevenzione al bullismo nella progettazione per la scuola dell’infanzia

All’interno del panorama scientifico legato alla progettazione per l’infanzia occupa un ruolo molto importante l’attenzione per lo sviluppo delle competenze socio-emotive nei bambini di fascia 0-6 anni. Lo sviluppo adeguato di queste abilità risulta correlato negativamente alla presenza di aggressività nei minori e al bullismo scolastico, specificamente rispetto all’abilità di comprendere stati emotivi altrui (perspective taking emotiva). I protocolli di potenziamento di tali abilità, che possono essere integrati nella progettazione didattica per la fascia 0-6, possonorappresentare un importantissimo alleato nella ricerca di interventi mirati alla marginalizzazione del fenomeno del bullismo, coadiuvando dei minori quelle competenze che possano, in futuro, preservarli dal commettere bullismo

Physical and sexual violence, childhood sexual abuse and HIV/STI risk behaviour among alcohol-using women engaged in sex work in Mongolia

Although the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Mongolia is low, it could increase without strategic prevention strategies. Female sex workers (FSWs) often experience barriers to prevention, including interpersonal violence. This study investigated if childhood sexual abuse (CSA) or recent physical or sexual violence was associated with HIV sexual risk behaviours and if CSA modified associations between recent violence and HIV sexual risk behaviours. Two-hundred twenty-two women who (1) were at least 18 years old and clients at the National AIDS Foundation; (2) reported vaginal or anal sex in the past 90 days in exchange for money or goods and (3) met criteria for harmful alcohol use in the past year were enrolled. In-person interviews assessed sexual risk behaviours and violence in childhood and adulthood. Negative binomial regression, ordinary least squares regression and modified Poisson regression were performed. Sexual risk with paying partners was associated with penetrative CSA and sexual violence by paying partners. CSA and recent violence were not associated with sexual risk behaviours with intimate partners. CSA modified the association between recent sexual violence and unprotected sex with intimate partners. Findings highlight the need for integrated violence and sexual risk reduction services to ensure safe and effective prevention for FSWs

Problems of sampling and inference in the study of fluctuating dental asymmetry

Randomly distributed or “fluctuating” dental asymmetry has been accorded evolutionary meaning and interpreted as a result of environmental stress. However, except for congenital malformation syndromes, the determinants of human crown size asymmetry are still equivocal. Both a computer simulated sampling experiment using a combined sample size of N = 3000, and the requirements of adequate statistical power show that sample sizes of several hundred are needed to detect population differences in dental asymmetry. Using the largest available sample of children with defined prenatal stresses, we are unable to find systematic increases in crown size asymmetry. Given sampling limitations and the current inability to link increased human dental asymmetry to defined prenatal stresses, we suggest that fluctuating dental asymmetry is not yet established as a useful and reliable measure of general stress in human populations.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37616/1/1330580306_ftp.pd

Dynamic Elastography of Pre-stressed Material with Multi-Directional Excitation in a Table Top MRI System

There is a signi cant correlation between changes in mechanical properties and disease or injuries. For this reason were developed techniques, such as biopsy and manual palpation, to detect tissue's mechanical structure. These latter techniques are characterized by a lot of disadvantages. For instance, a biopsy is invasive and not reliable, and manual palpation is qualitative, super cial, and operator dependent. As a consequence of these drawbacks, two non-invasive techniques were developed: Ultrasound Elastography and Magnetic Resonance Elastography. This work is based on Magnetic Resonance Elastography, which can provide motion encoding simultaneously in three directions, is not depth-limited and provides a good resolution. This imaging technique utilizes standard MRI equipment and equipment and an actuator to generate vibrations transmitted to the analyzed tissue. In a method developed by researchers at UIC a decade ago, high frequency vibratory shear waves are induced and imaged in a small sample within a test tube by axially driving the test tube in the MRI system. This motion of the test tube, using a piezoelectric actuator, results in radially converging (geometrically focused) axially-polarized shear wave motion within the sample. More recently, using the same setup with a sample in the test tube, torsional vibratory motion has been induced in the test tube using a stepper motor, in order to drive torsionally polarized geometrically focused shear waves, which when compared to axially-polarized waves in the same sample, may elucidate it's anisotropy. In the present study, two innovations to this setup are considered. (1) In order to extend the frequency range of the torsional approach, which in turn improves its resolution, the stepper motor is replaced with two piezoelectric actuators that are con gured in a way to induce torsional motion. (2) In order to investigate the e ect of tensile pre-stress on shear wave motion in a sample, a new arrangement is designed, whereby the test tube is removed and the cylindricallyshaped sample hangs freely in the MRI and can be subjected to di erent known axial tensile pre-stresses while simultaneously performing MRE studies using both axially-polarized and torsionally-polarized shear waves. The measurements obtained using MRE are wave images representing the displacement eld in cross-sectional and sagittal slices within an isotropic cylindrical phantom under di erent pre-stresses. Experimental measurements are compared to computer simulations of the experiment using nite element analysis (FEA)