Early childhood education and crime

This article presents new evidence on the crime-reducing impacts of a high-quality, intensive early childhood program with long-term follow-up, evaluated by a randomized controlled trial. Proportionately, more women than men decrease their criminal activity after participating in the program. This gender difference arises because of the worse home environments for girls, with corresponding greater scope for improvement by the program. For both genders, treatment effects are larger for the least-advantaged children, as measured by their mother's education at baseline. The dollar value of the social cost of criminal activity averted is higher for men because they commit more costly violent crimes.     

Reading Against the Grain,Readings of Substitution: Catholic Books as Inspiration for Judaism in Early Modern Iberia

Forced conversion produced a large number of converts, many or at least some of whom sought to continue to practice their former religion. For many crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims, polemical literature was actually a source of knowledge about their old religion—sometimes the only source. It was not unusual for Iberian New Christians, lacking access to Jewish or Islamic books, to make use of Catholic works either to gather information about Judaism and Islam or to borrow from their expressions of spirituality and piety. In this essay I explore the unintended readings and reception of polemical works among converts, in particular the Christian books of piety and devotion that persons of converso origin read and used in their own writings. In the end most of these books were included by the Inquisition and Church censors in the Index of Forbidden Books, affecting in this way the perception of these orthodox books by Catholic Church authorities. On the one hand, I am interested in how a heterodox (or Jewish or Muslim) spirituality could be constructed using Catholic books; on the other hand, in how this phenomenon had an impact on orthodox Catholics. I argue that Catholic books were sometimes condemned to the Index simply because they were read by New Christians who the Inquisition considered to be judaizers or crypto-Muslims.

     

Wanting HIV Is ‘Such a Hot Choice’: Exploring Bugchasers’ Fluid Identities and Online Engagements

ABSTRACT

Bugchasers are gay men who fetishize HIV infection and use the internet to discuss their fetish. Previous research considered bugchasers’ online engagements as proof of their sexual identities. This paper contests that view the through the exploration of three cases: Scott, a committed bugchaser; Marvin, who uses the internet as ‘bugchasing entertainment’ but is not a bugchaser; and Milo, whose bugchasing feelings are blurry and evolving. All three men use the internet in diverse significant ways from pure entertainment to it being a key part of their daily life. In presenting and analysing these three cases, this paper complicates identity-based assumptions of bugchasing, and presents ways in which gay men engage with social media in the pursuit of sexual pleasure.     

Post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth in children and adolescents 12 months and 24 months after the earthquake and tsunamis in Chile in 2010: A longitudinal study

On 27 February 2010, Chile experienced one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history. The study aimed to evaluate post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and post-traumatic growth (PTG) in children and adolescents 12 months (T1) and 24 months (T2) after the earthquake and tsunamis in Chile in 2010. Three hundred twenty-five children and adolescents (47.4% girls; 52.6% boys) between the ages of 10 and 16 years participated in the study. The instruments included the Revised Post-traumatic Growth Inventory for Children by Kilmer et al., the Childhood PTSD Scale by Foa et al. and the Rumination Scale for Children by Cryder et al., as well as a scale to assess the severity of the event and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The PTSS and PTG scores decreased at T2. In addition, the main predictors of PTSS and PTG were disruptive experiences, losses after the event and intrusive and deliberate rumination during the previous year. These results enhance understanding of factors related to PTG, improve the ability to predict PTSS and PTG in children and adolescents following natural disasters, and inform the design of intervention strategies to promote better mental health in those affected.     

Gender Differences in Perceived Family Involvement and Perceived Family Control during Emerging Adulthood: A Cross-Country Comparison in Southern Europe

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The aim of the present study was to explore gender differences in perceived parental involvement and perceived psychological and behavioral control during...     

Social cognitive predictors of peer acceptance at age 5 and the moderating effects of gender

In this study we examined the effects of social intelligence, empathy, verbal ability and appearance‐reality distinction on the level of peer acceptance, as well as the moderating role of gender. Participants were 98 five‐year‐old children (43 boys and 55 girls; mean age 5 years 3 months for boys and girls). Our results showed a main effect of social intelligence on peer acceptance, as well as several other effects that were moderated by gender: a significant and positive effect of verbal ability on social acceptance was found for boys; appearance‐reality distinction was found to have a positive effect on social acceptance in the case of girls; and although empathy had a significant positive effect on social acceptance for both boys and girls, this effect was more pronounced among boys. Our results suggest that abilities promoting peer acceptance are different for boys and girls.