‘County lines’: racism, safeguarding and statecraft in Britain

Government policies relating to dealers in ‘county lines’ drugs trafficking cases have been welcomed as a departure from punitive approaches to drugs and ‘gang’ policing, in that those on the bottom rung of the drugs economy of heroin and crack cocaine are no longer treated as criminals but as potential victims and ‘modern slaves’ in need of protection. However, our research suggests not so much a radical break with previous modes of policing as that the term ‘county lines’ emerged as a logical extension of the government’s racist and classist language surrounding ‘gangs’, knife crime and youth violence. Policies implemented in the name of safeguarding the vulnerable also act as a gateway for criminalisation not just under drugs laws but also modern slavery legislation. The government’s discovery of, and responses to, ‘county lines’ hinge on a moral crisis in the making, which ultimately deepens the state’s pre-emptive and violent criminalisation of the ‘Black criminal other’ at a time of deep political crisis

Large High Resolution Displays for Co-Located Collaborative Intelligence Analysis

Large, high-resolution vertical displays carry the potential to increase the accuracy of collaborative sensemaking, given correctly designed visual analytics tools. From an exploratory user study using a fictional intelligence analysis task, we investigated how users interact with the display to construct spatial schemas and externalize information, as well as how they establish shared and private territories. We investigated the spatial strategies of users partitioned by tool type used (document- or entity-centric). We classified the types of territorial behavior exhibited in terms of how the users interacted with the display (integrated or independent workspaces). Next, we examined how territorial behavior impacted the common ground between the pairs of users. Finally, we recommend design guidelines for building co-located collaborative visual analytics tools specifically for use on large, high-resolution vertical displays

Mingling Echoes

Mingling Echoes is an exhibition comprised of written word, alchemic reactions, found and repurposed objects, as well as sculptural forms of my own creation. All are abstractions from my subconscious, and they are blended with influential objects from my past in an intuitive manner. The following abstract gives a glimpse into my inspirations and personal experiences that have led to how I perceive memories are connected, intertwined, and ultimately, triggered. Additionally, I included two contemporary artists in whose work I find correlations with my own. The found and repurposed objects come from my personal collection that I have amassed over the past three decades from myriad places including my grand-parents’ property, gifts, flea markets, junk yards, antique/vintage shops, and roadsides

Posttraumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth Among Female Victim/Survivors of Adult Sexual Assault: The Importance of Social Reactions

In the United States, millions of women have experienced some form of sexual violence. The relationship between sexual assault and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been well documented. However, more recent research is focusing on positive outcomes of trauma, including posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current study examined the relationships between childhood trauma, PTSD symptoms, PTG, and social reactions to disclosure among female victim/survivors of adult sexual assault (ASA). Additionally, victim/survivors’ reasons for disclosure or non-disclosure and the ways in which disclosure was helpful or unhelpful were explored.Participants were 196 women who reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact since the age of 14 in an online survey. The survey included the following scales: the Sexual Experiences Survey – Short Form Victimization (Koss et al., 2006) identified unwanted sexual contact; the Adverse Childhood Experiences (Felitti et al., 1998) scale assessed childhood trauma; the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (Weathers et al., 2013) assessed PTSD symptoms; the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996) assessed experience of PTG; and the Social Reactions Questionnaire (Ullman, 2000) assessed frequency of positive and negative social reactions to disclosures of ASA. Open questions were asked to obtain information about non-disclosure and disclosure experiences.Analyses found that more frequent negative social reactions were predictive of more PTSD symptoms. Unexpectedly, both more frequent negative social reactions and more frequent positive social reactions were predictive of more PTG. The relationship between PTSD and PTG was positive and linear. Neither delay of disclosure nor childhood trauma were predictive of PTSD or PTG. A relationship between delay of disclosure and negative social reactions was not found.The most common reasons for non-disclosure were feelings of shame and self-blame. Participants who disclosed did experience blame and judgment, though nearly half reported there were no unhelpful parts to disclosure. The most common reasons for disclosure were seeking emotional support or to process the trauma, which were also the most common responses when asked what parts of disclosure were helpful.The findings in the current study have important implications for shaping how people respond to victim/survivors’ disclosures. Providing psychoeducation to communities and the people serving them could help increase the frequency of supportive reactions and reduce the frequency of negative social reactions. Additionally, an understanding of the realities of social reactions to victim/survivors’ disclosures and their relationship with both PTSD and PTG can inform psychologists’ work with victim/survivors.While this study was in progress, millions of women disclosed their sexual assault experiences on the Internet in the #NotOkay and #MeToo movements. Future research should examine the function of positive and negative social reactions victim/survivors experience online. Research should also examine women’s reasons for disclosing online versus in person

A preliminary evaluation of a manualised intervention to improve early literacy skills in children with developmental language disorder

Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) commonly present with oral language weaknesses which disrupt the development of literacy and impede related academic progress. While there is evidence to support the delivery of manualised Tier 2 interventions with this population, little is known about the effects of Tier 1 interventions. A retrospective cohort comparison was used to evaluate whether there was an observable effect of a manualised Tier 1 intervention compared to ‘business-as-usual’ on early literacy skills for children with DLD. Participants were 140 children attending a specialised education program with equivalent oral language skills and alphabetic knowledge at baseline. After 18 months formal literacy intervention, both groups were assessed on measures of early literacy skills. The differences between group means on all measures favoured the manualised intervention group, and they performed significantly better on a measure of nonword reading fluency. The findings indicate that a manualised Tier 1 intervention may be advantageous for children with DLD in developing proficiency in phonological recoding. This research contributes to the sparse evidence-base supporting the implementation of Tier 1 interventions for at risk populations, and findings warrant future research using experimental designs with tighter controls

#dssf16+1: Library-led Digital Scholarship for Undergraduates at a Small Institution

Librarian R.C. Miessler and Digital Scholarship Fellows Keira Koch, Julia Wall, and Lauren White were invited to speak to at the Pennsylvania Library Association, College and Research Division, Spring Conference about their experiences with the first cohort of the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship

#dssf16: Library-led Digital Scholarship for Undergraduates at a Small Institution

In the summer of 2016, Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library piloted the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship (DSSF), a library-led, student-centered introduction to digital scholarship. The Fellowship, a 10-week, paid, summer program for rising sophomores and juniors, is programmatic, based on a curriculum designed to introduce the student fellows to digital tools, project management, documentation, and the philosophy behind digital scholarship. The Fellowship aimed to create a digital scholarship community of practice at Gettysburg College, collaborating with educational technologists and faculty engaged in digital scholarship to support the needs of the first cohort; in addition, the Fellowship supported the digital scholarship activities of students participating in other summer research programs. R.C. Miessler, coordinator of the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship, will discuss the creation, development, implementation, and future of the program. The student fellows, Keira Koch, Julia Wall, and Lauren White, will reflect on their experience and present the digital projects they created