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Month: January 2018

Brief Screening For Family Psychiatric History

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Abstract

Background Brief screens to collect lifetime family psychiatric history are useful in clinical practice and for identifying potential families for genetic studies.

Methods The Family History Screen (FHS) collects information on 15 psychiatric disorders and suicidal behavior in informants and their first-degree relatives. Since each question is posed only once about all family members as a group, the administrative time is 5 to 20 minutes, depending on family size and illness. Data on the validity against best-estimate (BE) diagnosis based on independent and blind direct interviews on 289 probands and 305 relatives and test-retest reliability across 15 months in 417 subjects are presented.

Results Agreement between FHS and BE diagnosis for proband and relative self-report had median sensitivity (SEN) of 67.6 and 71.1 respectively; median specificity (SPC) was 87.6 and 89.4, respectively. Marked decrease in SEN occurred when a single informant...

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The Measurement of Violence in Television Programming: Violence Indices

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Questions about the amount of violence in the mass media, pa~ticularly television programming, have been voiced almost since the advent of the media. Senate hearings about television violence were held as early as 1954. These concerns stem from fears that television violence leads to aggres,sive behavior, particularly among the young. An equally controversial subject has been how to define, measure, isolate., and analyze that violence. This paper will examine ways in which television violence has been measured, including violence indices. The discussion will be limited to television, even though there has been research about violence in other mass media. It will also be limited to studies of American television. One of the richest sources of information about television -- its content and effects -- is the 1972 six volume report of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee -- Television and Social Behavior. This report...

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Public Opinions Of The Police: The Influence of Friends, Family, and News Media

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Executive Summary

Police officers and their supervisors know that news coverage about a citizen’s negative encounter with the police, particularly coverage that erupts to the level of a public scandal, can quickly destroy their efforts to nurture a positive relationship with the public. But what about routine encounters positive or negative that are not covered by mass media? Do they shape the public’s opinion of the police? Do individuals’ vicarious encounters with police encounters they merely hear about from family and friends significantly affect public opinion? The answers to these questions can help police managers decide how best to manage the time and resources they devote to media management and officer training. They also can help officers understand the impact of their everyday encounters with citizens. The Vera Institute of Justice conducted a nine-month study to examine these and other questions about what shapes public opinion

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Column One : Murder Or Natural Causes? : Four Years After Crystal Spencer’s Death, Her Case Remains A Mystery. Following The Trail Leads To Rumors, Theories And Mishandled Evidence.

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The death of Crystal Spencer has evolved into a bizarre mystery--a tangled web of rumors and botched evidence, lawsuits and personal obsession.

Nearly four years ago, the 29-year-old topless dancer was found dead in her disheveled Burbank apartment. She was half-nude, her body decomposed beyond recognition. Her telephone was off the hook.

Whether she was murdered, or merely died of a sudden illness, is a lingering question. Authorities labeled the cause of death "undetermined," leaving angry, tormented loved ones to cling to theories: Spencer was killed by the Japanese mafia. Spencer was an FBI informant murdered by strip-club hoodlums. Spencer was strangled by a ruthless suitor.

The case has taken on a "Twilight Zone" quality, as if fate intended some sleight of hand. On the night of her death, the couple downstairs heard what they later described as muffled shrieks and screams, the apparent cries of someone "being tortured." But they never called police...

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Evaluating Multi-Agency Anti-Crime Partnerships: Theory, Design, And Measurement Issues

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Abstract:

Inter-organizational partnerships are widely praised as a vehicle for planning and implementing complex, comprehensive community interventions. This article explores conceptual, design, and measurement issues relevant to the evaluation of coalitions, with particular reference to anti-crime initiatives. A general theory of partnerships is outlined that goes beyond organizational models to focus on the complexity of intervention strategies: domains of influence, causal mechanisms, intervention targets, and partnership services. To fill a large gap in our knowledge of coalition effectiveness, impact evaluations should include a mixture of strong research designs with counterfactuals, a theory (or multiple theories) of change, a blend of quantitative and qualitative methods, measurement and analysis at multiple levels, and multiple case studies for understanding the dynamics and external relationships of each partnership. The primary substantive issue for public safety partnerships is the failure to be inclusive, thus undermining their greatest strength....

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Terrorism, Tourism And Worker Unions: The Disciplinary Boundaries Of Fear

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Introduction

In last decades, the specialized literature has focused on the impacts of terrorism in tourism and hospitality industries. This essay explores the viewpoint that tourism and terrorism are inextricably intertwined. The essay questions the idea that tourism is a peace keeping mechanism. Rather, tourism is a disciplined way of terrorism, a tolerated form of exploitation based on law. Fundamentally, spectacle and exploitation underlies tourism and terrorism. It begins with a brief review of the history of anarchism, its relationship with worker unions and terrorists, and the notion of Johann Most and his propaganda of the deed, who did not hesitate to advocate killing children and women at restaurants. When terrorists today employ their tactics of terror, fundamentally, they have learned from the lessons of the state. Understanding, not demonizing, the nature of terrorism is a good way to understanding the contemporary political landscape where workers, but not terrorists,...

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