Psychopathy, Gang membership, And moral disengagement among juvenile offenders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of psychopathy factors and gang membership on moral disengagement while controlling for age, ethnicity, having run away from home, family member and/or friend arrests, substance misuse, parental physical fights, violence exposure (victimization and witnessing), and maternal warmth and hostility. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on data collected from serious juvenile offenders (n=769) as part of the Pathways to Desistance Study. Findings – Six independent variables made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model: gang membership, age, gender, violence exposure, and psychopathy Factors 1 and 2. Psychopathy Factor 1 was the strongest predictor of moral disengagement. Originality/value – Results indicate that youth with heightened psychopathic traits make greater use of strategies to rationalize and justify their harmful behaviour against others. Implications in relation to theory and previous studies are discussed

Victimization Profiles, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Suicide Attempt, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptomology: Application of Latent Class Analysis.

Few studies have incorporated multiple dimensions of victimization or examined whether victimization profiles differ by gender. Consequently, the present study sought to extend prior research by using latent class analysis (LCA) to identify naturally occurring subgroups of individuals who have experienced victimization, and to test for sex differences. Data from 4,016 females and 3,032 males in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) were analyzed. Evidence of the existence of similar victimization subtypes for both males and females emerged, with a three-class solution providing the best fit to the data for both sexes. Furthermore, the classes were labeled “low victimization” (the baseline class; Class 3), the “high victimization class” (Class 1), and “the bullying and domestic violence class” (Class 2) for both males and females. Multinomial logistic regression was used to interpret the nature of the latent classes, or groups, by estimating the associations with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) dimensions, suicide attempt, and non-suicidal self-injury. Although different constellations of victimization experiences did not emerge through the gender-specific analyses, the nature of the associations between class membership and external variables differed between males and females. Findings highlight the heterogeneity of victimization experiences and their relations to functioning, and have implications for policy and practice implications

Frozen Soils: A Perspective On Past And Future Research For Promoting Sustainable Agricultural Systems

Frozen soils impact many industries which rely· on soil, water, and .air resources in developing and manufacturing products. Most noteworthy is the agricultural industry in the northern United States where soils, which sustain food and fiber production, are subjected to frequent freezing and thawing. Soil freezing and thawing influences soil erodibility, surface and ground water quality, air quality, and biological activity. Many strides toward understanding frozen soil processes and managing lands to minimize the adverse effects of freezing and thawing have been made over the last two decades. Yet, further efforts to identify frozen soil processes which influence wind and water erosion, soil faunal adaptation, soil quality, movement of agricultural chemicals,· and rural and urban water supplies will aid industry and society in meeting future needs for food and water

A double-edged sword : children’s experiences of visiting a parent in prison in Scotland

Prison visits are recognised as an important feature of a humane prison system, providing important benefits for prisoners and their family in maintaining ties (McCarthy & Adams, 2017). Scotland has a history of penal welfarism and a right-based agenda in relation to visits (McCarthy & Adams, 2017); however, there is a lack of research that focuses on visits in the context of Scottish prisons. Equally, there is limited research that considers the perspective of children visiting a parent in custody. This paper explores the experiences of children visiting a parent in prison in Scotland, highlighting lessons for policy and practice

Constructive Connections : building resilience of families affected by the criminal justice system : final report

The Stimulus for the Study NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde hadidentified through previous research that therewas a need to engage with families that areaffected by the criminal justice system in orderto improve the experience for children andyoung people. A consortium of two universities supporting aScottish voluntary organisation that workssolely on behalf of families affected byimprisonment was commissioned toundertake a participative research project over18 months to elicit from children, youngpeople, their families and involvedprofessionals what the problems were and toco-produce proposed solutions.An estimated 27,000 children are affectedeach year by parental incarceration inScotland. GIRFEC - Getting It Right For EveryChild, now enshrined in Scottish legislationthrough the Children and Young People(Scotland) Act 2014, is a sound building blockfor supporting children whose parents comeinto contact with the criminal justice system

Factor structure and factorial invariance of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire among children of prisoners and their parents

Parental imprisonment has been linked to a variety of adverse psychological outcomes for children and adolescents. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely used to assess behavioural and emotional difficulties among 7-17 year olds in the general population and more recently has been utilised among samples of children of prisoners. Previous research has variously tested traditional one-, three- and five- factor solutions to the SDQ, and more recently one bifactor solution has been examined. Based on a sample of children of prisoners (N = 724) and their non-imprisoned parent or caregiver (N = 658), the aim of the present study was to simultaneously compare nine alternative factor structures, including previously tested models and alternative bifactor solutions. Tests of factorial invariance and composite reliability were also performed. The five-factor model was found to provide the best fit for the data. Tests of factorial invariance revealed that the five-factor model provided an equally acceptable, but not identical fit, among boys and girls. Composite reliability scores were low for the Conduct Problems and Peer Problems subscales. The utility of the SDQ in measuring psychological functioning in response to parental imprisonment is discussed

Children of Prisoners: Their Situation and Role in Long-Term Crime Prevention

Studies suggest that maintaining family ties can help reduce the likelihood of reoffending, and that while parental imprisonment can increase a child’s likelihood to offend, positive responses to the situation can aid the children’s well-being, attitude and attainment. Drawing on findings from the recently completed EU-funded COPING Project on the mental health of children of prisoners, this chapter explores the factors that aid a child’s ability to cope with parental imprisonment and the actions that different stakeholders can take to support them. It identifies some of the mental health impacts at different stages of parental imprisonment, the roles played by non-imprisoned parents/carers and by schools, and suggests options for further clarifying the factors that help and hinder children of prisoners in the short and long term

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Waste Plastics using Staged Catalysis for Production of Gasoline Range Hydrocarbon Oils

The two-stage pyrolysis-catalysis of high density polyethylene has been investigated with pyrolysis of the plastic in the first stage followed by catalysis of the evolved hydrocarbon pyrolysis gases in the second stage using solid acid catalysts to produce gasoline range hydrocarbon oil (C8-C12). The catalytic process involved staged catalysis, where a mesoporous catalyst was layered on top of a microporous catalyst with the aim of maximising the conversion of the waste plastic to gasoline range hydrocarbons. The catalysts used were mesoporous MCM-41 followed by microporous ZSM-5, and different MCM-41:zeolite ZSM-5 catalyst ratios were investigated. The MCM-41 and zeolite ZSM-5 were also used alone for comparison. The results showed that using the staged catalysis a high yield of oil product (83.15 wt.%) was obtained from high density polyethylene at a MCM-41:ZSM-5 ratio of 1:1 in the staged pyrolysis-catalysis process. The main gases produced were C2 (mainly ethene), C3 (mainly propene), and C4 (mainly butene and butadiene) gases. In addition, the oil product was highly aromatic (95.85 wt.% of oil) consisting of 97.72 wt.% of gasoline range hydrocarbons. In addition, pyrolysis-staged catalysis using a 1:1 ratio of MCM-41: zeolite ZSM-5 was investigated for the pyrolysis–catalysis of several real-world waste plastic samples from various industrial sectors. The real world samples were, agricultural waste plastics, building reconstruction plastics, mineral water container plastics and household food packaging waste plastics. The results showed that effective conversion of the real-world waste plastics could be achieved with significant concentrations of gasoline range hydrocarbons obtained

Cognitive and emotional stressors of child homicide investigations on UK and Danish police investigators

In a previous paper, key differences in the form and manifestation of cognitive and emotional stress experienced by investigators of adult and child homicide were identified, along with a cursory look at how investigators commonly deal or cope with these effects. In this paper, the findings from eleven interviews with UK and Danish police officers with experience of investigating both adult and child homicides, suggest that child homicide investigations can have a profoundly different effect on police investigators that can vary between officers. The effects experienced and coping strategies employed were similar among officers in Denmark and the UK, and these included becoming more emotionally closed and engaging in regular sport and exercise. The findings hold important implications for police training and for the welfare of current and future police homicide investigators particularly where the victim is a child