Female Online Sex Workers’ Perceptions of Exit from Sex Work

Although the sex work industry has evolved with the emergence of internet marketing, little research examines sex workers who advertise online (i.e., online sex workers) and how their work experiences may differ from those of other sex workers who have been studied more extensively. This qualitative study addresses this gap by examining female online sex workers’ perceptions of exit from sex work. Data come from semi-structured interviews conducted in Southern California in 2014, with twenty-seven female online sex workers. Participants varied in their perceptions of exit meaning, desirability, and feasibility, and in their intentions to exit from sex work.     

Social Disorganization and Residential Locations of Registered Sex Offenders: Is This a Collateral Consequence?

Guided by social disorganization theory, this research assesses the characteristics of neighborhoods where registered sex offenders (RSOs) reside. Drawing on data from 1,504 RSOs in 4 urban counties analysis compares both census tracts with any RSOs and high concentrations of RSOs with the counties containing these census tracts. Findings show that RSOs are likely to live in areas with greater social disorganization than their containing counties and the nation as a whole. Census tracts with high concentrations of RSOs show the most social disorganization. Results also suggest that RSOs are relegated to such locations rather than living there by choice.     

Results from a National Survey of Psychologists in Medical School Settings—2003

Preliminary results are presented from a 2003 collaborative survey of psychologists employed in medical schools and academic health centers. The findings are reported along with comparable data from a similar survey conducted in 1997. There were several noteworthy changes in results from 1997 to 2003. Salaries increased substantially at all ranks, though women’s earnings remain lower than men’s. There were increases in the percentage of respondents who completed their doctorates 20 or more years ago, and in the percentages holding higher academic ranks and having tenure. However, there was a decrease in the absolute number and percentage of psychologists at lower ranks who received their doctorates recently. Overall, the findings indicate that psychologists have established a secure home in medical school settings. Future reports will present more detailed analyses of the 2003 dataset as well as additional comparisons with the 1997 survey data.     

Measuring Subjective Quality of Life: A Survey to Porto’s Residents

The evaluation of the urban quality of life has been an important aspect of the research concerning the contemporary city and an increasingly support to urban planning and management. As part of a project to monitor the quality of life in the city of Porto, a survey of the resident population was conducted in order to study the citizens’ perceptions of their local quality of life and its evolution in recent years. The opinions of individuals on their level of satisfaction with various fields of the urban quality of life are systematised, as well as their integrated assessment. This analysis is complemented by a multivariate analysis that allows the grouping of the interviewees in large homogenous groups and their social and economic characterisation. Based on the results achieved, we try to highlight the usefulness of the qualitative analysis of the quality of life to support the definition of urban policies.

A Survey of Management Educators’ Perceptions of Unethical Faculty Behavior

To help academic associations in management develop, refine, and implement a code of ethics, we conducted a survey of management educators’ perception of the ethicality of 142 specific behaviors in teaching, research, and service. The results of the survey could be used to inform ethics committees of these associations regarding the level of acceptability of such conduct. The potential value of our study for the Academy of Management or similar management associations lie in our (1) systematically involving the members in building support for the code of ethics, (2) assessing members’ ethical judgments on both cross-sectional and longitudinal bases so as to identify areas needing particular attention in ethical training, (3) providing an extensive list of specific examples of questionable and potentially unethical behaviors so as to make it easier to implement the code, and (4) providing a template survey document for potential use in involving more stakeholder groups in the development of codes of ethics.

Sex Offenders—America’s New Witches? A Theoretical Analysis of the Emergence of Sex Crime Laws

During the 1990s, the United States enacted several punitive sex crime laws. Contemporary scholarship suggests this shift can be understood as a modern “witch hunt.” However, theoretical accounts have yet to examine systematically the emergence of such legislation. This study applies two theories—the first by Erikson and the second by Jensen—to assess whether they accord with known facts about the proliferation of these laws. Broad support for the theories as accounts for the punitive trend in sex crime legislation exists, but the inclusion of information dissemination as an additional factor would strengthen these accounts. Implications are discussed.     

New Faces in a New Place: Long-Time Residents’ Perceptions of New Residents in an Oil Boomtown in the Bakken Oil Shale Region

ABSTRACT

In 2008, increased oil production in the Bakken oil shale region in western North Dakota sparked a rapid increase in population for the communities in that area. This study examines long-time residents’ perceptions of new residents moving into their community using quantitative methods. The findings reveal that long-time residents who reported an increase in fear of crime because of the oil boom in western North Dakota were less likely to have positive perceptions of new residents. In addition, long-time residents who viewed their community as a friendly place and its residents as trustworthy, and who attempted to interact with new residents, were more likely to report positive perceptions of new residents.     

First Year Medical Students’ Perceptions Towards Integration of Medical Law in the Medical Curriculum: a Pilot Study

Medical law is not new in medical literature and can constitute an imperative component in medical education. Some medical schools include medical law as a compulsory component of the curriculum. In line with curriculum re-structuring at the University of Malaya, medical law was integrated in the medical curriculum and the feasibility of this integration into the Year 1 undergraduate curriculum was evaluated. Following implementation of a 4-week medical law module, an evaluation of the suitability of early integration of this module was conducted using a ten-item, 4-point Likert scale (1?=?strongly disagree to 4?=?strongly agree) questionnaire. Two open-ended questions were also included to gauge insights of the integration. All items were scored 3 points or more from the students’ responses (n?=?129). Using the open-ended questions, recommendations for future directions as well as constraints and issues related to the integration of medical law into teaching and learning was revealed. Overall, findings of the study indicated that integrating medical law into medical curriculum at an early stage was beneficial for the medical students.     

Sense of Community in Hong Kong: Relations with Community-Level Characteristics and Residents’ Well-Being

Sense of community (SOC) has been one of the most studied topics in community psychology. However, no empirical study to date has investigated SOC in Hong Kong and its relations with community characteristics and residents’ psychological well-being. A representative sample of 941 Hong Kong Chinese based on a randomized household survey was conducted in all 18 districts in Hong Kong. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that SOC was not associated with sociodemographic indicators on both the individual-level (i.e., gender, age, family income, education level, type of residence, and area-to-capita ratio of residence) and the community-level (i.e., proportion of individuals with tertiary education, median family income, ownership of residence, population density, and resident stability). SOC was negatively related to daily hassles and positively with social support and quality of life. Conceptualization of SOC in Hong Kong was discussed.     

Characteristics of Traumatic Experience and Survivor Perceptions of Mental Health Services: The 2004–2005 Erie County Community Trauma Survey

Trauma is associated with severe mental illness and substance abuse problems, yet it typically is not addressed sufficiently in treatment. This article reports on an assessment of mental health service recipients and their experience of traumatic events and perceptions of service providers' sensitivity, helpfulness, and knowledge regarding their trauma and service needs using a community-based participatory research model. Demographic characteristics and status of co-occurring disorders were measured. Participants perceived that individual therapists and peer service providers were sensitive to and knowledgeable about their trauma. Group treatment and peer programs were seen as being most helpful. Psychiatric services were seen as being the least sensitive to trauma issues. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

The Thought of Building a Human Community with a Shared Future: Inheritance and Innovation to Marx’ s Thought of Community

Marx’s thought of community has experienced three stages in logic and is rooted in the social fundamental contradictions between productive forces and universal communication in content. It reflects the evolution of history into world history and human’s free and all-round development tending towards the unity of individuals and communities. Faced with the profound changes never seen in a century, the thought of building a human community with a shared future inherits and carries forward Marx’s idea of community in three aspects, i.e., the practice of building a social community, the ultimate focus on human destiny, and the grand vision of promoting historical development in human society. In addition, under the historical context of socialism and capitalism coexisting, the thought of building a human community with a shared future creates and shows a new state of Marx’s idea of community in three aspects, namely, dimension remodeling, path reshaping, and value reinterpretation. It presents a new model for historical significance and human civilization of a world of openness, probability and promise to promote the transformation from the modern society to a human society.     

The Role of Friends’ Disruptive Behavior in the Development of Children’s Tobacco Experimentation: Results from a Preventive Intervention Study

Having friends who engage in disruptive behavior in childhood may be a risk factor for childhood tobacco experimentation. This study tested the role of friends’ disruptive behavior as a mediator of the effects of a classroom based intervention on children’s tobacco experimentation. 433 Children (52% males) were randomly assigned to the Good Behavior Game (GBG) intervention, a universal preventive intervention targeting disruptive behavior, and facilitating positive prosocial peer interactions. Friends’ disruptive behavior was assessed from age 7–10 years. Participants’ experimentation with tobacco was assessed annually from age 10–13. Reduced rates in tobacco experimentation and friends’ disruptive behavior were found among GBG children, as compared to controls. Support for friends’ disruptive behavior as a mediator in the link between intervention status and tobacco experimentation was found. These results remained after controlling for friends’ and parental smoking status, and child ADHD symptoms. The results support the role of friends’ disruptive behavior in preadolescents’ tobacco experimentation.     

Patients’ Perceptions on Their Involvement in Medical Education: A Qualitative Pilot Study

Patients’ perception with regards to their use in medical teaching is an under-researched area in Pakistan. The objective of this qualitative, pilot study was to determine the perspectives of hospital admitted patients on their being used in the medical education of students in a private medical institution. An attempt to understand the dynamics of interactions between patients, students and doctors was also made and to see how this affected the doctor-patient relationship. A qualitative study with in-depth interviews was conducted in a private medical college of Islamabad, Pakistan with a total of 20 adult patients. The focus was on their experiences with bedside teaching. This pilot study reveals interesting findings about patient-physician interactions in Pakistan. Patients had a traditionally passive role in medical education putting more onuses on the doctor to impart knowledge to the medical students. Patients comforted themselves in the knowledge that they were following Allah’s command when they were involved in the teaching of medical students. The apparent altruism of Pakistani patients in this study was influenced mainly by religious reasons, following the commandments of Allah to help develop future healers for humanity. The culture evident in the medical college where this study was conducted is reflective of the social power ladders that pervade Pakistani society. The positions of doctors and medical teachers in Pakistani society are hardly challenged to debate. Little attention has been paid to the values that influence the cultural and social frameworks within which Pakistani medical teachers, medical students and the patients function.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Serious Adolescent Offenders’ Perceptions of Chances for Success and Engagement in Behaviors Accomplishing Goals

We examined antisocial adolescents’ perceptions of the importance of and their ability to accomplish positive life outcomes (e.g., employment) and avoid negative ones (e.g., arrests) during their transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were 1,354 adolescents from the Pathways to Desistance project, a multisite longitudinal study of seriously antisocial adolescents. Participants’ perceptions of the importance and likelihood of accomplishing positive adult goals at one age uniquely predicted how often they engaged in behaviors that were consistent with these goals the following year. Our findings suggest that among serious adolescent offenders aspirations to achieve positive goals are related to engaging in behaviors that bring adolescents’ current selves more in line with their aspired-to future selves. We discuss the implications of these findings for prevention and intervention efforts.     

What do Suicide Survivors Tell Us They Need? Results of a Pilot Study

Few studies have examined the natural coping efforts used by suicide survivors, or have identified specific problems and needs survivors experience following the death of a significant other by suicide. In the present study, we used a newly developed needs assessment survey to examine four areas of natural coping efforts: practical, psychological, and social difficulties; formal and informal sources of support; resources utilized in healing; and barriers to finding support since the loss. Sixty-three adult survivors of suicide were recruited from suicide survivor conferences and support groups. Results indicate that participants experienced high levels of psychological distress since the suicide, including elevated symptoms of depression, guilt, anxiety, and trauma. Participants experienced substantial difficulties in the social arena (e.g., talking with others about the suicide). The majority of the sample viewed professional help as beneficial; although many informal sources of support were also valued (e.g., one-to-one contact with other survivors). Depression and a lack of information about where to find help served as barriers to help-seeking behaviors for our participants. Participants who reported higher levels of functional impairment were more likely to report higher levels of psychological distress, social isolation, and barriers to seeking help. Future research with a longitudinal and more inclusive sample is needed to build on these preliminary findings and to provide a solid foundation for evidenced-based interventions with survivors.     

Youth’s Help-Seeking Intentions for ADHD and Depression: Findings from a National Survey

This study investigates the role that youth-level factors play in predicting help-seeking intentions in a nationally representative sample. Eleven help-seeking intentions were examined separately by target conditions (ADHD and depression), gender, race/ethnicity, and self-reported diagnosed/non-diagnosed in respect to the target conditions, and interaction effects were tested. Using factor analysis, a traditional help-seeking scale was created, which captured four help-seeking items, and predictive power of youth-level factors in accounting for traditional help-seeking was tested. Study findings provide practitioners and researchers with fresh evidence on what youth-level factors are associated with which help-seeking intentions, and illustrate the challenges involved in better understanding the complexity of the help-seeking process among youth in the context of ADHD/Depression. With increased understanding of youth’s perceptions and the complexity of their help-seeking behavior, community-based efforts to develop effective strategies that support active help-seeking behavior and eliminate barriers to appropriate care can have a greater likelihood of success.