Philosophy into Practice? Community Policing Units and Domestic Violence Victim Participation

Much research has focused on the police response to domestic violence; however, relatively little research has considered performance differences of various types of police officers. Although there has been widespread adoption of community policing by police departments across the country, it is not conclusive as to whether units with a specific community policing philosophy perform better than traditional units when handling domestic violence calls. The current study addresses this issue by analyzing the factors associated with victim participation; specifically, do officers and detectives operating under a specific community policing mandate produce higher rates of victim participation? Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicate that victim participation rates did not differ by a community policing orientation; rather, situational factors exert the strongest effect on victim participation

The Importance of Expectation Fulfillment on Domestic Violence Victims’ Satisfaction with the Police in the UK

Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate what victims of domestic violence expect police to do for them, and how these expectations subsequently influence their levels of satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Structured interviews with 222 victims of domestic violence were conducted by staff from an integrated community-based service delivery agency in Cardiff, Wales. Multivariate analyses were performed to reveal the factors that contribute to domestic violence victims\u27 satisfaction with the police. Findings – Consistent with the expectancy disconfirmation model, results indicate that the most important determinant of satisfaction is the extent to which victims\u27 expectations about police behaviour and demeanour are fulfilled. Originality/value – The results of this study and implications for police policy are discusse

The impact of sleep disruption on mouse physiology, behavior, and welfare

Laboratory mice are nocturnal, spending most of their daylight hours asleep. But they live in the diurnal world of human investigators and husbandry staff, who primarily work during this rest period. In humans, lack of sleep or sleep that occurs outside the normal circadian sleep period (as in shift work) has adverse effects. These include increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic disorder, mood disorders, type II diabetes, and obesity. However, it is unknown if mice experience sleep disruption due to these human activities, and, if so, what the adverse effects may be. This is an important question, not only to ensure good welfare for laboratory mice, but also to improve experimental validity. If researchers are inadvertently inducing physiological or cognitive changes in mice through sleep disruption, we may be confounding experimental results in unpredictable fashions. This is particularly relevant to biomedical research, as only eleven percent of drug trials that pass the animal testing stage go on to pass human trials. Part of this discrepancy may be due to sleep disruption-induced changes in mice. In Chapter 2, we tested two different disruption times, one during the day (their rest period) and one at night (their active period). These changes in disruption time produced no differences in overall amounts of sleep, though there were changes in sleep timing based on sex and type of mouse. These results suggest that disturbance timing does affect sleep, but that response isn’t uniform across strains or sexes. However, it is possible that our brief welfare checks may have been too predictable and inconsequential to induce true sleep disruption. In light of these results, our next experiment (Chapter 3) involved testing more extensive and unpredictable disruptions, as well as using both physiological and behavioral measures, as well as sleep monitoring. In this project, mice were exposed to either a week of predictable disruptions, or a week of those same disruptions, consolidated at the beginning and the end of the day. After 4 days of disruption, we performed a biopsy punch procedure on them to assess wound healing, with mice being assigned to an analgesia or control group. Again, overall sleep did not change for mice in response to disruption. They did, however, display a decrease in activity levels, likely due to the stress of handling and restraint for manual analgesia injection. Additionally, male mice who received analgesia spent more time sleeping than their female counterparts, suggesting that an adequate dose for males may not be sufficient for pain relief in females

Long-Term Optical Observations Of Two Lmxbs: Uw Crb (=Ms 1603+260) And V1408 Aql (=4U 1957+115)

We present new optical photometry of two low-mass X-ray binary stars, UW CrB (MS 1603+260) and V1408 Aql (4U 1957+115). UW CrB is an eclipsing binary and we refine its eclipse ephemeris and measure an upper limit to the rate of change of its orbital period, vertical bar P vertical bar < 4.2 x 10(-11) (unitless). The light curve of UW CrB shows optical counterparts of type I X-ray bursts. We tabulate the times, orbital phases, and fluences of 33 bursts and show that the optical flux in the bursts comes primarily from the accretion disk, not from the secondary star. The new observations are consistent with a model in which the accretion disk in UW CrB is asymmetric and precesses in the prograde direction with a period of similar to 5.5 days. The light curve of V1408 Aql has a low-amplitude modulation at its 9.33 hr orbital period. The modulation remained a nearly pure sine curve in the new data as it was in 1984 and 2008, but its mean amplitude was lower, 18% against 23% in the earlier data. A model in which the orbital modulation is caused by the varying aspect of the heated face of the secondary star continues to give an excellent fit to the light curve. We derive a much improved orbital ephemeris for the system.NSF 0958783Astronom

Prevalence and characteristics of serial domestic abuse perpetrators: multi-agency evidence from Wales

The Integrated Offender Management (IOM) Cymru partnership commissioned this research to achieve a clearer picture of whether and how ‘serial domestic abuse’ is being understood, defined and recorded by Police forces, Probation providers and Third Sector partners across Wales. Phase one of the research included a qualitative mapping exercise along with a quantitative analysis of n=6642 anonymised domestic abuse perpetrator records provided by Wales Probation Trust. This report sets out findings from phase two which entailed interrogating agency files to gather more detailed information on a random sample of perpetrators (n=100). Objectives for this phase of the research included: 1) Estimating the prevalence of serial domestic abuse 2) Evaluating agency information and the overlaps (and gaps) across agencies 3) Identifying any distinguishing characteristics of serial domestic abuse perpetrators 4) Providing new evidence to inform developing policy and practice in this area Findings Prevalence estimates varied considerably across the three main sources of information used in this research (Police, Probation and Third Sector), ranging from 4% to 20%. A key finding from this research is that different agencies are identifying different individuals as serial (from the same sample of 100 domestic abuse perpetrators) with only a very small degree of overlap across agencies (at best only 1 out of 100). Using Probation data, it was difficult to empirically distinguish ‘serial domestic abuse perpetrators’ from non-serial perpetrators. While serial perpetrators were also likely to be repeat perpetrators, only a fraction could also be considered ‘high risk’ using Probation risk assessment tools (OASys and SARA). Therefore, in the case of domestic abuse offending, the categories of serial/ repeat/ high-risk should not necessarily be considered interchangeable or synonymous. Serial perpetrators do, however, differ to some extent in their individual risk profile as assessed by the Spousal Abuse Risk Assessment (SARA) risk factors. For example, serial domestic abuse perpetrators are more likely than non-serial domestic abuse perpetrators to have past assault of family and stranger/acquaintance violence, recent escalation in violence, past use of weapons and denial of spousal assault, amongst others. A profiling exercise of the ‘top ten’ serial perpetrators was conducted to identify whether those prioritised by Police forces represent a distinctly different, and more dangerous, group of perpetrators. This exercise revealed that, in addition to each force developing their own definition of what constitutes a serial perpetrator, different methods and processes are utilised across forces to target this group of perpetrators, if this is done at all. Only two of the four Welsh forces (South Wales and Dyfed Powys) routinely target serial perpetrators within their force operational processes, thus highlighting that not all forces necessarily view serial perpetration as synonymous with the highest priority offending. Cross-force comparison showed that the profile of ‘top ten’ serial perpetrators varied considerably across forces, and whilst all but one perpetrator was ‘known’ to Probation, only one-third of this group could be identified by Probation as serial perpetrators. Implications In conclusion, the evidence derived from this exploratory study does not suggest that ‘serial domestic abuse perpetrators’ represent a qualitatively different group – one that is distinctive, can be reliably identified, and that has a profile calling for a particular course of action in terms of multi-agency response and risk management. This in turn suggests that the conceptualisation of ‘serial domestic abuse perpetrator’ should be informed not just by the quantity of victims but also the quality of, and motivations behind, the abusive behaviour. For this reason, we recommend that serial offending be considered alongside repeat and high-risk offending behaviour in the determination of who is a priority perpetrator and that this determination should instigate a more intensive and targeted multi-agency response

The relationship between the development of general offending and intimate partner violence perpetration in young adulthood

This study examined how patterns in general offending relate to the occurrence of and likelihood of persistence in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration in young adulthood. The study used longitudinal data from the cohort of 18 year olds from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods study. Self-reported offending was measured in all three waves, and data on IPV were collected in Waves 1 and 3. Group-based trajectory modeling identified three distinct general offending trajectory groups: non-offenders, low-rate offenders, and high-rate offenders. The majority of respondents engaged in psychological IPV perpetration, and half of all young adults reported physical IPV, but prevalence rates decreased over the waves. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that those involved in offending, especially those who showed a diverse offending pattern, were at increased risk of perpetrating psychological and (severe) physical IPV, as well as to show persistence in the different forms of IPV perpetration. The findings highlight an important overlap between general crime and IPV perpetration. In recognition that IPV is often part of a broader pattern of antisocial behavior, interventions should focus on interrupting the criminal careers of all young offenders to reduce the prevalence and harms of IPV

Genome sequences of 15 Gardnerella vaginalis strains isolated from the vaginas of women with and without bacterial vaginosis

Gardnerella vaginalis is a predominant species in bacterial vaginosis, a dysbiosis of the vagina that is associated with adverse health outcomes, including preterm birth. Here, we present the draft genome sequences of 15 Gardnerella vaginalis strains (now available through BEI Resources) isolated from women with and without bacterial vaginosis