A needs assessment of incarcerated mothers and their children

An analysis of the needs of incarcerated women and their children was conducted in 1999 for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department in Boston, Massachusetts. This earlier study concluded that incarcerated mothers had a wide variety of challenges including lack of access to stable living arrangements, unsafe and inadequate housing, marginal education, limited job skills, poly-drug addiction, and family instability. It was argued, at that time, that ignoring the difficulties faced by these mothers and their children was setting the stage for increased risk for recidivism among the mothers and poor health, education, and behavioral outcomes for the children (Gabel & Johnston, 1995).The goal of this study is to determine the current educational, familial, economic, health, criminal justice and social conditions of sentenced or awaiting trial women at Suffolk County House of Corrections to provide an overview of the challenges faced by these women as they try to re-enter mainstream society

Once a criminal always a criminal? A 15-year analysis of recidivism among female prisoners in Massachusetts

The study of prisoner recidivism has long captured the interest of criminal justice researchers. Recidivism studies attempt to answer a variety of questions ranging from what are the characteristics of those who reoffend, what factors predict offender recidivism, and how long does a recidivist remain in the community before finding themselves in conflict with the law again. Unlike many studies that examine recidivism over a relatively short term – three to five years, this study investigates recidivism over a 15-year period among a group of female offenders released from a Massachusetts prison in 1995. Findings point to three propositions moving forward. First, correctional programming geared specifically toward youthful offenders might be necessary to promote desistance over the life course. Second, offender monitoring and accountability up to 36 months after release from incarceration may reduce the risk of re-offending. Third, studies with a follow-up period of ten years would be a valuable addition to the recidivism literature to advance our understanding of chronic offending among women.El estudio de la reincidencia de los presos ha captado el interés de los investigadores de justicia penal durante mucho tiempo. Estudios sobre reincidencia intentan responder una serie de preguntas que van desde lo que son las características de los que reinciden, qué factores predicen la reincidencia delincuente, y cuánto tiempo una persona reincidente permanece en la comunidad antes de que se encuentre en conflicto con la ley de nuevo. A diferencia de muchos estudios que examinan la reincidencia en un plazo relativamente corto - tres a cinco años-, este estudio investiga la reincidencia en un período de 15 años entre un grupo de mujeres delincuentes liberadas de una prisión de Massachusetts en 1995. Los hallazgos apuntan a tres proposiciones. En primer lugar, podría ser necesaria la programación correccional orientada específicamente hacia las delincuentes juveniles para promover el desistimiento a largo de la vida. En segundo lugar, la supervisión y rendición de cuentas hasta 36 meses después de su liberación de la cárcel pueden reducir el riesgo de reincidencia. En tercer lugar, los estudios con un período de seguimiento de diez años, serían una valiosa aportación a la literatura sobre reincidencia para avanzar en nuestra comprensión de la delincuencia crónica entre las mujeres

Evaluation of a Community Developed Intervention to Reduce HIV Risk Among African American Women

In the United States, African American women are twenty times as likely as their Caucasian counterparts to become infected with HIV. At some point in her life, one in thirty-two African American women will be diagnosed with HIV. Developing and rigorously evaluating interventions to reduce the impact of this disease for African American women is thus a matter of great public health significance. The Girlfriends Project (TGP) is a community developed intervention designed to reduce HIV infection rates among African American women. TGP builds on social networks by recruiting women to host house parties for their friends and family members, during which trained facilitators provide HIV risk reduction information and on-site HIV testing and counseling. This document describes the process of scientifically evaluating TGP using a study design that was developed with community partners and took place in community settings. This pilot study used a mixed methods approach, pairing a quantitative analysis using a wait-list design with a qualitative study in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with study participants. A number of statistically significant findings were noted. As compared to the control group, women in the intervention group were four times as likely to decrease their frequency of anal sex without condoms, six times as likely to increase their frequency of anal sex with condoms, and two to three times more likely to talk with their male sex partners about preventing HIV, preventing other sexually transmitted infections, or their partners’ sex histories. Intervention group women were significantly more likely to have vaginal sex with a condom after participating in TGP and also experienced a statistically significant improvement in HIV knowledge after the intervention. Preliminary qualitative data suggests that TGP participants increase the degree to which they talk with members of their social networks about HIV risk after participating in the intervention. Participants also report that TGP has helped them to prioritize their own health and to develop connections to support other women in doing the same. Given these early indicators of success, further research is warranted to understand TGP’s mechanisms for change and demonstrate program effectiveness

Identifying and Predicting Performance for Stocker and Feeder Cattle

Agricultural Economic

Once a Criminal Always a Criminal? A 15-Year Analysis of Recidivism Among Female Prisoners in Massachusetts

The study of prisoner recidivism has long captured the interest of criminal justice researchers. Recidivism studies attempt to answer a variety of questions ranging from what are the characteristics of those who reoffend, what factors predict offender recidivism, and how long does a recidivist remain in the community before finding themselves in conflict with the law again. Unlike many studies that examine recidivism over a relatively short term - three to five years, this study investigates recidivism over a 15-year period among a group of female offenders released from a Massachusetts prison in 1995. Findings point to three propositions moving forward. First, correctional programming geared specifically toward youthful offenders might be necessary to promote desistance over the life course. Second, offender monitoring and accountability up to 36 months after release from incarceration may reduce the risk of re-offending. Third, studies with a follow-up period of ten years would be a valuable addition to the recidivism literature to advance our understanding of chronic offending among women

Clinical Manifestations Associated with Neurocysticercosis: A Systematic Review

Neurocysticercosis is an infection of the brain with the flatworm Taenia solium which is normally transmitted between humans and pigs. Sometimes, humans can infect other humans and the larva of the parasite can go the brain, causing the disease neurocysticercosis. There has never been a systematic review of what clinical signs are found among people with neurocysticercosis. We conducted a thorough review of the literature to answer this question. We reviewed 1569 and 21 were of a sufficient quality to be included in the final analysis. Among neurocysticercosis patients who are seeking care in neurology clinics, about 79% have seizures/epilepsy, 38% severe headaches, 16% focal deficits and 12% signs of increased intracranial pressure. Several other symptoms were also reported in less than 10% of patients. People with neurocysticercosis who seek care in neurology clinics show a whole range of manifestations. Clinicians should be encouraged to consider neurocysticercosis in their differential diagnosis when a patient presented with one of the symptoms described in this review. This would ultimately improve the estimates of the frequency of symptoms associated with neurocysticercosis

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

A Many-analysts Approach to the Relation Between Religiosity and Well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β = 0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β = 0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates