Juvenile delinquency : concepts and control

xi, 516 p. : il.; 25 cm

Tracking methods and retention for a longitudinal sample of alcohol- and drug-involved women on probation and parole

Attrition, or the progressive loss of individuals from a sample, poses a major problem in fields that carry out research to inform policy and program design. Attrition reduces statistical power by reducing sample size and compromises the external validity of findings by introducing sampling bias. If sampling bias results from disadvantages that act as barriers to research participation, then it promotes social injustice by excluding disadvantaged groups from the study. This study describes strategies used to retain participants in a longitudinal study of experiences of women under community supervision (probation or parole). It uses quantitative methods to examine sampling bias and qualitative methods to elicit accounts of participants’ explanations for being hard to reach and their recommendations for retention in future research. For participants who were and who were not retained, there were no statistically significant differences on several common quantitative predictors of retention. Hard‐to‐reach women identified residential mobility, low income, and busy lifestyles as main reasons research staff had difficulty contacting them and recommended repeated attempts at contact through multiple means. The article ends with recommendations for limiting attrition of disadvantaged, justice‐involved women in studies, and for steps to be taken when women are especially difficult to contact

Stressors, coping resources and strategies, and police stress in South Korea

The present article extends prior research to identify the predictors of police stress from work place problems, the resources available through social support, different strategies for coping with stress, and conditions unique to policing in South Korea. The unique conditions are perceived public perception of police and attitudes towards women working outside of the home. Seven hundred officers were asked to participate in the research, and 686 did participate (96 percent response rate). Almost half of the variance in stress could be explained. Reports of being ridiculed and "set up" in dangerous situations, and to a lesser extent, lack of support from superiors and perceived disrespect from the public, were salient predictors of stress. Coping strategies did not moderate the associations between stressors and stress. Findings were interpreted in relation to collectivist culture and possible points of intervention.