Prisoners’ Families’ Research: Developments, Debates and Directions

After many years of relative obscurity, research on prisoners’ families has gained significant momentum. It has expanded from case-oriented descriptive analyses of family experiences to longitudinal studies of child and family development and even macro analyses of the effects on communities in societies of mass incarceration. Now the field engages multi-disciplinary and international interest although it arguably still remains on the periphery of mainstream criminological, psychological and sociological research agendas. This chapter discusses developments in prisoners’ families’ research and its positioning in academia and practice. It does not aim to provide an all-encompassing review of the literature rather it will offer some reflections on how and why the field has developed as it has and on its future directions. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses reasons for the historically small body of research on prisoners’ families and for the growth in research interest over the past two decades. The second analyses patterns and shifts in the focus of research studies and considers how the field has been shaped by intersecting disciplinary interests of psychology, sociology, criminology and socio-legal studies. The final part reflects on substantive and ethical issues that are likely to shape the direction of prisoners’ families’ research in the future

Delinquent gedrag van jongens en meisjes : Het (anti)sociale kapitaal van vriendschapsrelaties

Delinquent behaviour of boys and girls The (anti) social capital of friendship-relations What influence do friends, school and parents have on delinquent behaviour of high school students? This article examines the influence of friends in relation to bonds with school and with parents, and also examines differences between boys and girls in the influence of friends and bonds on delinquent behaviour. We used network data to measure delinquent behaviour of friends, which is more precise than usual measurement methods of delinquent peers. Delinquency was measured at two points in time, which gave us the opportunity to examine the causal order of having delinquent friends and performing delinquent behaviour. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, significant effects were found for delinquent friendships, conventional bonds and for other friendship variables. However, boys and girls differed in the explanatory variables affecting delinquency. Causal examination revealed that delinquent friends increased the likelihood of delinquent behaviour a year later, but also that delinquency had an effect on choosing delinquent friends after a year.

Zo vader, zo zoon? De intergenerationele overdracht van crimineel gedrag

Onderzoek binnen de traditie van de ontwikkelings- en levensloopcriminologie richt zich zowel op intragenerationele ontwikkelingen van crimineel gedrag – het verloop van criminele carrières van individuen – als op intergenerationele ontwikkelingen – overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen ouders en hun kinderen in crimineel gedrag (Blokland & Nieuwbeerta, 2006). De intragenerationele ontwikkelingen zijn de afgelopen jaren veelvuldig onderzocht in empirische studies ( Sampson & Laub, 2002; Blokland e.a., 2005; Blokland & Nieuwbeerta, 2004; 2005). De bestaande kennis over deze intragenerationele ontwikkeling van criminele levenslopen is voortgekomen uit een aantal grootschalige longitudinale studies naar individueel crimineel gedrag. Het gebruik van dergelijke data met een prospectief design (waarbij twee opeenvolgende generaties worden bekeken) is noodzakelijk om individuele criminele carrières adequaat te kunnen onderzoeken.

When does the Apple Fall from the Tree? Static Versus Dynamic Theories Predicting Intergenerational Transmission of Convictions

Contains fulltext : 90506.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Criminal behavior of parents substantially affects the criminal behavior of children. Little is known, however, about how crime is transmitted from one generation to the next. In order to test two possible explanations against each other, we pose the question whether the timing of the criminal acts of fathers is important for children's chances of committing crime. Static theories predict that it is the number of delinquent acts performed by fathers that is important, and that the particular timing does not affect the child's chance of committing crime. Dynamic theories state that the timing is important, and children have a greater chance of committing crime in the period after fathers have committed delinquent acts. Results show that the total number of convictions of a father is indeed very important, but also the exact timing is key to understanding intergenerational transmission of crime. In the year a father is convicted the chance his child is also convicted increases substantially and it decays in subsequent years. This decay takes longer the more crimes father has committed. Our results show that some of the assumptions of the static theories at least need to be adjusted.29 p

Intranodal vaccination with mRNA-optimized dendritic cells in metastatic melanoma patients

Autologous dendritic cell (DC) therapy is an experimental cellular immunotherapy that is safe and immunogenic in patients with advanced melanoma. In an attempt to further improve the therapeutic responses, we treated 15 patients with melanoma, with autologous monocyte-derived immature DC electroporated with mRNA encoding CD40 ligand (CD40L), CD70 and a constitutively active TLR4 (caTLR4) together with mRNA encoding a tumor-associated antigen (TAA; respectively gp100 or tyrosinase). In addition, DC were pulsed with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) that served as a control antigen. Production of this DC vaccine with high cellular viability, high expression of co-stimulatory molecules and MHC class I and II and production of IL-12p70, was feasible in all patients. A vaccination cycle consisting of three vaccinations with up to 15×10(6) DC per vaccination at a biweekly interval, was repeated after 6 and 12 months in the absence of disease progression. mRNA-optimized DC were injected intranodally, because of low CCR7 expression on the DC, and induced de novo immune responses against control antigen. T cell responses against tyrosinase were detected in the skin-test infiltrating lymphocytes (SKIL) of two patients. One mixed tumor response and two durable tumor stabilizations were observed among 8 patients with evaluable disease at baseline. In conclusion, autologous mRNA-optimized DC can be safely administered intranodally to patients with metastatic melanoma but showed limited immunological responses against tyrosinase and gp10

Effective Clinical Responses in Metastatic Melanoma Patients after Vaccination with Primary Myeloid Dendritic Cells

Thus far, dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy of cancer was primarily based on in vitro-generated monocyte-derived DCs, which require extensive in vitro manipulation. Here, we report on a clinical study exploiting primary CD1c(+) myeloid DCs, naturally circulating in the blood. Fourteen stage IV melanoma patients, without previous systemic treatment for metastatic disease, received autologous CD1c(+) myeloid DCs, activated by only brief (16 hours) ex vivo culture and loaded with tumor-associated antigens of tyrosinase and gp100. Our results show that therapeutic vaccination against melanoma with small amounts (3-10 × 10(6)) of myeloid DCs is feasible and without substantial toxicity. Four of 14 patients showed long-term progression-free survival (12-35 months), which directly correlated with the development of multifunctional CD8(+) T-cell responses in three of these patients. In particular, high CD107a expression, indicative for cytolytic activity, and IFNγ as well as TNFα and CCL4 production was observed. Apparently, these T-cell responses are essential to induce tumor regression and promote long-term survival by stalling tumor growth. We show that vaccination of metastatic melanoma patients with primary myeloid DCs is feasible and safe and results in induction of effective antitumor immune responses that coincide with improved progression-free survival. Clin Cancer Res; 22(9); 2155-66. ©2015 AAC