Examining the Influence of Individual and Neighborhood Characteristics on Jail Recidivism

This study examined how various individual and neighborhood characteristics influenced the likelihood for individuals to recidivate following release from a local jail. Using data from various sources, this study contributed to the understanding of jail recidivism by addressing several gaps in the literature. First, little attention has been directed towards the study of jail reentry and, instead, concentrates on prison reentry. Next, using a social disorganization perspective, neighborhood context was examined for a sample of jail ex-inmates. Individual characteristics were simultaneously examined for the current sample, using theoretical underpinnings from the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model. Finally, recidivism was measured using multiple indicators, including subsequent charges, convictions, and incarceration terms. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 6,482 individuals who were released from the House of Corrections in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin in 2013 and 2014. Results of the study revealed that neighborhood context was not a significant influence on the current sample of jail ex-inmates. Instead, results indicated that recidivism was largely a matter of individual risk. Gender, race, ethnicity, age at release, criminal record, risk score, and time served were found to significantly influence an individual’s likelihood of receiving a new charge, conviction, or incarceration term within three years post-release. The findings of this study demonstrated a lack of support for the relationship between neighborhood context and jail reentry. However, empirical support was found for the relationship between individual characteristics and jail reentry and confirm the importance of individual risk factors for predicting recidivism

To Change or Not to Change? That’s the Question… On MOOC-Success, Barriers and Their Implications

This explorative study aimed to get an understanding of MOOC-success as seen from the perspective of the MOOC-taker and the types of barriers which might stand in the way of this success. Data of two MOOCs was used to illustrate MOOC-success from two perspectives and barriers encountered. Following the currently used approach to identify educational success, the success rate of MOOC-II was 5,6%. The success rates from the perspective of the MOOC-taker was 70%. In addition, data of MOOC-I and II showed that the encountered barriers were mainly non-MOOC-related. Workplace issues and lack of time were most frequently indicated. For MOOC-designers’ decision making regarding redesign of a MOOC after evaluation, it is valuable to have insight in these matters to prevent unnecessary design interventionsThis work is financed via a grant by the Dutch National Initiative for Education Research (NRO)/The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science under the grant nr. 405-15-705 (SOONER/http://sooner.nu)

Mother-Infant Interactions in a Wild Population of \u3ci\u3eMacaca nemestrina\u3c/i\u3e (Linnaeus)

Until now, mother-infant relationships have not been studied in a wild population of the Southern Pig-tailed Macaques Macaca nemestrina. We observed six mother-infant dyads from April 2016 to September 2016 in the Segari Melintang Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia using focal sampling methods from the perspectives of both individuals. We hypothesized that as infant age increased, the same important mother-infant behaviours, previously observed to change in captive pig-tailed macaque mother-infant studies, would also change over time in field conditions. We expected that as the infant ages, mothers would decrease their rates of restraint and retrieval, and increase their rates of punishment. Two separate generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) of mother permissive behaviour and mother-infant contact duration as the outcome variables each showed infant age as the sole significant predictor variable indicating that as infant age increased, maternal behaviours changed as expected above, and mother-infant contact duration decreased. Mothers’ interactions with other group members appeared influenced by mothers’ associations with their offspring: adult females and juveniles were significantly more likely to be within 1-5 m proximity of mothers as infant age increased. Our data show that mother permissive behaviour, mother-infant contact duration, and proximity are crucial elements to consider when examining wild Southern Pig-tailed Macaque mother-infant relationships and infant independence, similar to what has been observed in captive settings

Reactance to Health Warnings Scale: Development and Validation

Health warnings may be less effective if they elicit reactance, a motivation to resist a threat to freedom, yet we lack a standard measure of reactance

Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime

Belief in conspiracy theories is associated with negative outcomes such as political disengagement, prejudice, and environmental inaction. The current studies - one cross-sectional (N = 253) and one experimental (N = 120) - tested the hypothesis that belief in conspiracy theories would increase intentions to engage in everyday crime. Study 1 demonstrated that belief in conspiracy theories predicted everyday crime behaviours when controlling for other known predictors of everyday crime (e.g., Honesty-Humility). Study 2 demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories (vs. control) increased intentions to engage in everyday crime in the future, through an increased feeling of anomie. The perception that others have conspired may therefore in some contexts lead to negative action rather than inaction

The impact of asking intention or self-prediction questions on subsequent behavior: a meta-analysis

The current meta-analysis estimated the magnitude of the impact of asking intention and self-prediction questions on rates of subsequent behavior, and examined mediators and moderators of this question–behavior effect (QBE). Random-effects meta-analysis on 116 published tests of the effect indicated that intention/prediction questions have a small positive effect on behavior (d+ = 0.24). Little support was observed for attitude accessibility, cognitive dissonance, behavioral simulation, or processing fluency explanations of the QBE. Multivariate analyses indicated significant effects of social desirability of behavior/behavior domain (larger effects for more desirable and less risky behaviors), difficulty of behavior (larger effects for easy-to-perform behaviors), and sample type (larger effects among student samples). Although this review controls for co-occurrence of moderators in multivariate analyses, future primary research should systematically vary moderators in fully factorial designs. Further primary research is also needed to unravel the mechanisms underlying different variants of the QBE