Stealing a car to be a man : the importance of cars and driving in the gender identity of adolescent males

Nationally vehicle theft is associated with approximately 40 fatalities per year with an estimated annual cost of one billion dollars. During 2000 - 2001 almost 139,000 motor vehicles (cars, motor cycles, campervans, and trucks) were stolen across Australia. Vehicle theft is an overwhelmingly adolescent male crime yet gender has not been considered in either policy or program initiatives.----- This thesis used Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity theory to examine the relationships between vehicle theft, offending, and adolescent male gender identity. Four central research questions were posed:----- 1. Is vehicle theft a gendered behaviour, that is, do some adolescent males engage in vehicle theft to create a particular adolescent male gender identity?----- 2. Do vehicle theft offenders engage in other offending behaviours?----- 3. Are these other offences also used to create a particular adolescent male gender identity and----- 4. Will the use of a variety of gender-related scales to measure gender identity support Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity Theory that gender identity is multifactorial?----- Study One Parts A and B provided the empirical basis for Studies Two and Three. Part A of Study One examined the &quotmaleness" of vehicle theft and two other problem behaviours: problem drinking and traffic offence involvement. Cross-sectional and longitudinal methodologies were used to investigate a representative sample of 4,529 male high school students in relation to vehicle theft, problem drinking, and traffic offence involvement as a novice driver. Results indicated that &quotmaleness" was significantly related to vehicle theft, problem drinking, and traffic offence involvement. Subsequent analyses, based on Jessor's Problem Behaviour Theory, found a significant relationship between vehicle theft offenders and problem drinking. Study One Part B examined the relationship between masculinity as measured by the Australian Sex Role Scale (ASRS) and problem drinking in a rural sample of 1,248 male high school students. Using a cross sectional methodology, Masculine students were more likely than students in the other gender trait groups to report a range of problem drinking behaviours. Contrary to previous research, both socially desirable and socially undesirable masculine traits were significantly related to most problem drinking behaviours.----- Having established significant relationships between &quotmaleness" and vehicle theft and masculinity and the adolescent problem behaviour of underage drinking, Study Two qualitatively examined the perceptions of adolescent males with histories of vehicle theft in relation to &quotdoing masculinity". Using semi-structured interviews, 30 adolescent males, clients of the juvenile justice system were asked &quotwhat do you have to do to be a man?" Vehicle theft was clearly identified as a masculine defining behaviour as were other offending behaviours. Overall, participants nominated very traditional behaviours such as having a job and providing financially for families as essential behaviours in &quotdoing masculinity". It was suggested that in the absence of legal options for creating a masculine gender identity, some adolescent males adopted more readily accessed illegal options. Study Two also canvassed the driving behaviour of adolescent males in stolen vehicles. Crash involvement was not uncommon. Speed, alcohol, and the presence of other adolescent males were consistent characteristics of their driving behaviour. Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants were similar in their responses.----- Study Three compared the gender identity of offender and non-offender adolescent males as measured by three gender-related measures: the ASRS, the Toughness Subscale of the Male Role Norm Scale (TSMRNS) and the Doing Masculinity Composite Scale (DMCS). While the ASRS measured gender traits, the TSMRNS measured masculinity ideology. The DMCS was developed from the responses of participants in Study Two and sought to measure how participants &quotdo masculinity". Analyses indicated vehicle theft was endorsed by just over a third of the sample as a masculine defining behaviour. Overall, offenders were again very traditional in the behaviours they endorsed. When compared to non-offenders, offenders were more likely to endorse illegal behaviours in &quotdoing masculinity" while non-offenders were more likely to endorse legal behaviours. Both offenders and non-offenders strongly endorsed having a car and the ability to drive as masculine defining behaviours.----- In relation to gender traits, non-offenders were more likely than offenders to be classified as Masculine by the ASRS. Surprisingly offenders were more likely to be classified as Androgynous. In relation to masculinity ideology, offenders and non-offenders were similar in their results on the TSMRNS however offenders were more likely to endorse beliefs concerning the need to be tough. Overall Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders were similar in their responses though Indigenous males were more likely to endorse beliefs concerning the need to be tough. Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity theory was supported in that the relations between the three gender-related measures were significant but low.----- Results confirmed that vehicle theft was endorsed by a minority of participants as a gendered behaviour. Other offending behaviours were also endorsed by some adolescent males as means to create masculine gender identity. Importantly though both offenders and non-offenders endorsed very traditional behaviours in relation to &quotdoing masculinity". The implications for policy and program initiatives include the acknowledgement of gender identity as an important component in relation to vehicle theft and offending and the desire of adolescent male offenders to engage in legal, traditional male behaviours. In the absence of legal avenues however, some adolescent males may use illegal behaviours to create gender identity. Cars and driving also feature as important components of gender identity for both offenders and non-offenders and these needs to be considered in relation to road safety initiatives

Cemophora, C. coccinea

Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Justice or Peace? A Proposal for Resolving the Dilemma

This article will address the question of how the international community should respond when the pursuit of justice and the attainment of peace are incompatible. It begins with an overview of the international human rights movement prior to World War II, a period when there was almost no effort to hold human rights violators accountable. The article then discusses how Nuremberg transformed international human rights law and created the framework for holding individuals accountable for committing egregious human rights violations. In the next section there is a discussion of how, despite Nuremberg, there was an era of impunity as a result of the Cold War. The Cold War permitted many of the twentieth century’s worst human rights violators to escape accountability for their actions. Next, there is a discussion of how the end of the Cold War ushered in a new era of accountability; specifically, in this new era many human rights violators have been brought to justice. This article suggests that although this new era is welcome, a one size fits all approach should not be adopted. Rather, this paper proposes that whether human rights violators should be prosecuted needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis. It may very well be that in particular situations, an attempt to prosecute may make it more difficult to attain peace and that other approaches may be necessary. The approach taken by South Africa, creating a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and granting amnesty to many perpetrators is examined and supports the position that flexibility is needed when dealing with human rights violators. Finally, the article recommends that when faced with a justice versus peace dilemma, the Security Council should be given the authority to suspend criminal proceedings if it determines that the threat of criminal prosecution presents a risk to international peace and security

Action Research: An Investigation of Teacher Perceptions of a Job-embedded Professional Development Program in a Suburban High School

Accountability in education is perhaps the most significant issue faced by school leaders and teachers today. With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in the form of No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001), school districts have been concentrating efforts directed at student achievement as related to state standardized testing. School districts have subsequently focused attention more intensely on existing curricula and effective instructional practice to increase student learning. Action research has been used, and is gaining more momentum as a staff development tool, to impact student achievement in classrooms. Fox Chapel Area School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has a long-standing tradition of high student achievement and academic success. The adoption of the Professional Education Program (PEP) has enabled the district to provide teachers with staff development opportunities during the school day to closely examine instructional practices and refine daily activities to further improve student achievement. Fox Chapel Area High School (FCAHS) has expanded this to include a specific teacher initiated, action research initiative. Teachers identify areas of inquiry upon which to gather data and make adjustments in instruction and/or assessment to meet or exceed the requirements of federal legislation. This study was designed to be a comprehensive program evaluation of the PEP program that assessed multiple aspects of the program through the lenses of the classroom teachers who have completed the PEP action research course. Utilizing survey instruments and questionnaires, teachers provided feedback to evaluate PEP\u27s effectiveness as a professional development tool. Data was gathered through both qualitative and quantitative means to establish support for both the cultural impact of action research on the professional staff as well as its impact on student performance. Data were analyzed comparing three distinct cohorts of educators who completed the action research phase. The data were used to determine if the program had a positive impact on instructional practice and to what degree action research is sustained in the daily lives of the professional educators. National Staff Development Council\u27s Standards Assessment Inventory was the primary survey instrument used. The Professional Development Survey, Section 2 as designed by Lowden (2005) and published in The Journal of Research in Professional Learning provided additional information specific to instructional practice. Results of the study suggested that a positive impact occurred with respect to teacher efficacy issues and improvements in instructional practice. Data suggest that action research, when used as a reflective/professional development tool, was sustained after teachers were no longer formally involved in the PEP program as participants. Additional areas of study related to standardized and achievement tests are needed to establish a direct impact on student achievement

Fiducial-free Alignment Verification Techniques for Intracranial Radiosurgery

The current process of intracranial radiosurgery treatment uses implanted titanium fiducials in the skull to assist in alignment of the patient. These fiducials add an element of physical and emotional stress to the patient, and scheduling the implantation procedures adds a delay of a few extra days before the radiosurgery procedure can begin. During the radiosurgery treatment, each proton beam is manually aligned by the therapist/physician with X-ray images and the fiducials that are visible on these images. This method of alignment can be time-intensive and requires personnel who are specifically trained in patient alignment. We propose a new method using image registration to automate this process in an effort to eliminate the need for surgical implantation of fiducials prior to treatment as well as to improve the accuracy and efficiency of alignment during treatment. Image registration is a technique used to align a moving image with respect to its known fixed image. Several methods of image registration are used for comparison: an enhanced correlation coefficient maximization algorithm, a mutual information maximization algorithm, and an extended phase correlation algorithm. Accuracy, robustness, and performance are emphasized in the comparison of these algorithms. Due to patient privacy, test images from MATLAB will be shown in this paper. This research was conducted under the clinical supervision of Dr. Andrew Wroe and Dr. Reinhard Schulte of the Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC)