Crime and violence in Brazil: Systematic review of time trends,prevalence rates and risk factors

Between 1980 and 2010 there were 1 million homicides in Brazil. Dramatic increases in homicide rates followed rises in inequality, more young men in the population, greater availability of firearms, and increased drug use. Nevertheless, disarmament legislation may have helped reduce homicide rates in recent years. Despite its very high rate of lethal violence, Brazil appears to have similar levels of general criminal victimization as several other Latin American and North American countries. Brazil has lower rates of drug use compared to other countries such as the United States, but the prevalence of youth drug use in Brazil has increased substantially in recent years. Since 1990, the growth of the Brazilian prison population has been enormous, resulting in the fourth largest prison population in the world. Through a systematic review of the literature, we identified 10 studies assessing the prevalence of self-reported offending in Brazil and 9 studies examining risk factors. Levels of self-reported offending seem quite high among school students in Brazil. Individual and family-level risk factors identified in Brazil are very similar to those found in high-income countries.     

The Survey of European Psychotherapy Training 2: questionnaire data

49% of 730 Psychotherapists surveyed in 8 European Countries provided information about obstacles to accessing training. Distance, childcare (especially in women) and family responsibilities and educational background (especially in men). The introduction of a common platform for the training, the European Certificate of Psychotherapy, had not, the respondents thought, reduced these barriers but the Certificate was considered beneficial for other reasons.     

A review of: “Feminism and psychotherapy: Reflections on contemporary theories and practices”

I. Bruna Seu and M. Colleen Heenan (eds) (1988) Feminism and Psychotherapy: Reflections on Contemporary Theories and Practices, London: Sage, $14.99 (pb)     

Surviving the early loss of a mother: daughters speak,by Anne Tracey

The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate a coping response that is thought to be unique among older Catholics–suffering in silence. Two hypotheses are examined. The first predicts that older Catholics will be more likely than older Protestants to suffer in silence when ongoing economic difficulty is encountered. The second hypothesis specifies that the potentially deleterious effects of financial problems on depressive symptoms will be offset for older adults who prefer to suffer in silence. Data from an ongoing nationwide survey of older people in the United States provide support for both hypotheses.     

How do Jewish teachings relate to beliefs about depression in the strictly orthodox Jewish community?

The aim of this study was to explore whether and, if so, how Jewish teachings influence strictly orthodox Jewish beliefs about depression. The rabbinic literature was searched for Jewish teachings relevant to depression. Ten consenting strictly orthodox Jews were purposively selected and interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule focussing on their beliefs about causes of and treatments for depression. Thematic analysis was used to analyse transcribed interviews and explore relationships between community beliefs and the Jewish teachings identified in the review. The key themes in both the rabbinic literature and the community included the overriding importance in Judaism of preserving life, using appropriate, acceptable means to do so, and obligations to help others. Contrasts between rabbinic teachings and community beliefs included community concerns about stigma, generally lacking in the rabbinic literature, and greater rabbinic emphasis on spiritual exertion in dealing with depression. Findings could prove useful to those managing depressed, orthodox Jews.     

An extrapolation of Foucault’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Technologies of the Self</Emphasis> to effect positive transformation in the intensivist as teacher and mentor

In critical care medicine, teaching and mentoring practices are extremely important in regard to attracting and retaining young trainees and faculty in this important subspecialty that has a scarcity of needed personnel in the USA. To this end, we argue that Foucault’s Technologies of the Self is critical background reading when endeavoring to effect the positive transformation of faculty into effective teachers and mentors.     

Parafoveal pragmatics revisited

The results of two experiments are reported, examining eye movements as participants read the initial sentence in a sentence‐matching task. The sentences employed had a NP1‐verb‐NP2 construction and the pragmatic plausibility of the relationship between the verb and the two nouns was independently manipulated. The aim of the first experiment was to investigate the claim that the plausibility of a NP1‐verb relationship influences reading time on NP1 even before the verb is directly inspected. The data confirm the existence of such “parafoveal pragmatic” effects, but suggest that sublexical properties of the particular nouns employed may also exert a parafoveal effect on foveal processing. Experiment 2 was carried out as a control. A contingent presentation procedure ensured that the critical verb remained masked until it was directly inspected. Parafoveal‐on‐foveal effects exerted by the verb were removed by this procedure, although effects relating to properties of the nouns remained. The results confirm the presence of processing interactions involving sublexical properties of the two nouns, even though these were quite widely separated. Overall, the results of the two experiments suggest that, for this task, there is a genuine parafoveal‐on‐foveal effect attributable to purely pragmatic relationships involving the initial noun and verb in the sentences employed. In addition, there is evidence of longer range parafoveal‐on‐foveal effects of orthographic properties of the words employed.     

Understanding the role of gender in body image research settings: Participant gender preferences for researchers and co-participants in interviews,focus groups and interventions

Participant gender preferences for body image researchers, interventionists and focus group and intervention co-participants have been largely ignored, despite recognition that such characteristics can influence the nature and quality of data collected and intervention effects. To address this, Australian women (n = 505) and men (n = 220) completed a questionnaire about their preferences for interviewers and focus group facilitators, for teachers delivering school-based interventions, and for co-participants in these settings. Women predominantly preferred female interviewers and teachers, and mixed-sex co-participants, but most had no preference for focus group facilitators. Body dissatisfied women were more likely to prefer female researchers and single-sex co-participants. Most men did not have specific preferences, however, body dissatisfied men were more likely to report a gender preference for interviewers and teachers. Professional capabilities, personal qualities and appearance were regarded as important researcher characteristics. These findings have important implications for body image research, particularly among high-risk groups.     

The Development of Prosocial Behaviors in Young Children: A Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study

Researchers know relatively little about the normative development of children's behaviors aimed at alleviating distress or discomfort in others. In this article, the authors aim to describe the continuity and discontinuity in the degree to which young children in the general population are reported to exhibit specific prosocial behaviors. Data came from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Consistent with Hay's model of prosocial development, the results show that there were about as many children who stopped exhibiting prosocial behaviors between 29 and 41 months of age as there were children who started doing so during this period. Further, gender differences (girls > boys) in prosocial behaviors are either emerging or at least increasing in magnitude, with girls being more likely to start and boys being more likely to stop exhibiting these behaviors between 29 and 41 months of age. Consistent with the early-onset hypothesis, children who exhibit prosocial behaviors at 17 months of age are less likely to stop exhibiting the same behaviors between 29 and 41 months of age. Otherwise, if they did not exhibit prosocial behaviors at 29 months of age, they are also more likely to start doing so in the following year.