This thesis aims to add to the evidence base regarding offenders with a Learning Disability (LD) living in UK communities. The thesis also aims to enhance the reader’s understanding about why offenders with a LD avoid reoffending. The first paper reviews the current literature on the community-based treatment and support of offenders with a LD. In line with social policy, effective treatment reduces reoffending. Current developments show that effective treatments are long-term Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programmes, innovative treatment components that enhance empathy and skills to problem solve, and community integration. The review highlights issues with a small sample size in the quantitative evaluations of treatment efficacy, which researchers address by stating other measures of change (e.g. community engagement and reductions in support). Throughout the literature, these measures are inconsistent and informal. Therefore, the review outlines a need to use consistent and robust methods to evaluate treatment efficacy, which could include qualitative research. The second paper employs narrative methodology to explore the reasons why, offenders with a LD do and do not reoffend. The research involves interviews with six male offenders living in the community. Analysis and interpretation suggest that offenders with a LD need to have the ability or support to make decisions to avoid reoffending. Offenders with a LD must also have meaningful relationships and engagement in the community, which they fear losing if they reoffend. The outcomes endorse community-based treatments and improving community opportunities for offenders with a LD. The third paper offers a reflective commentary focused on overcoming the barriers to completing a thesis. The barriers relate to the conduct of the literature review and the research. Overall, the thesis provides an insight into what helps offenders with a LD to avoid reoffending, with reference to the evidence base and regard to individual stories.

This thesis examines images and dialogues of the male body in contemporary men’s lifestyle magazines. Taking the examples of two top-selling British men’s lifestyle magazines FHM and Men’s Health, and their respective websites, I unpack mediated constructions of white, heterosexual masculinities using the combined methods of semiology, discourse analysis and non-participant observation. The male body is central to this project, and the ways that it is represented as idealized and grotesque are analysed for the ways that they each impact upon perceptions of white heterosexual masculinities and conceptions of the ‘Other’. Reading the male body as idealised and grotesque also introduces wider feminist debates on the male gaze, representation, and whether the grotesque can be theorised from the perspective of masculinities. The construction of online communities and reader dialogues is also examined in relation to discourses of the body, identity and masculinity. The work in this thesis explores the basis for contemporary representations of white heterosexual masculinities and male bodies in men’s lifestyle magazines and their respective websites.

This thesis explores current assumptions surrounding why homeless people use outreach service programmes from a social psychological perspective. Specifically, within this, 2 main aims are tested: 1) The validity of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen 1988, 1991) and suggested additional avenues to this, in predicting homeless people’s use of outreach service programmes, and 2) To tackle methodological issues arising from prior social psychological research in this domain. There are 4 studies in this thesis. Study 1 (Chapter 4) addresses the issue of fine tuning research methods and applications that would be used later in this programme of research, and tests the relevance of social psychological theory to homeless people’s service use. The findings show interesting associations between perceived behavioural control (PBC)/ efficacy and homelessness issues. Study 2 (Chapter 5) examines the utility of single item questions of the direct measure of the TPB, as well as single items of additional avenues such as social identity/self-categorisation perspectives (SIT/SCT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), self-esteem and affective functioning. PBC emerged as the only predictor of intentions to use services. Study 3 (Chapter 6) has two aims. First, to test a multi-domain measure based on the TPB, SIT/SCT framework, and second, to examine the predictive contribution of social cognitive influences and socio-demographic variables to intentions to use service programmes. The multi-domain measure did not show utility, yet attitude, ‘coping’ thinking style and ethnicity predicted intentions to use services. Lastly, the main aim of Study 4 (Chapter 7) was to test the utility of an efficacy based intervention on the empowerment of homeless people. The intervention showed to increase perceptions of control and decrease negative affect. I conclude that (a) the utility of the TPB framework can be strengthened with additional avenues, and (b) a PBC/efficacy intervention can empower homeless people into securing more permanent accommodation.

Intoxicated by music| A content analysis of the prevalence of alcohol, illicit substances, and tobacco in popular music from 2000 to 2011

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-198).

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the differential effects of the Capitalization vs. Compensation model applied to a brief, group-based intervention that focused on Character Strengths, as defined by Peterson and Seligman (2004). Traditional Character Strengths interventions in Positive Psychology apply a Capitalization model, in which individuals engage their top-ranked strengths of character, and this approach has amassed substantial empirical support. However, it is not known whether a Compensation model, in which individuals engage their bottom-ranked strengths, can offer similar benefits. One hundred and eighty-seven employees from eighteen small organizations were randomized at the group level to receive one of four psychoeducational interventions: Top Strengths, Bottom Strengths, Placebo (behavioral health), or a delayed-treatment Control. Participants completed the VIA Survey of Character Strengths and a pre-treatment battery of outcome measures that assessed both positive psychological variables, such as life satisfaction and psychological well-being, and negative life functioning variables, such as depression and negative affect. Post-treatment outcome measures and a compliance measure were completed approximately one month following the psychoeducational presentations. Results revealed few differences between experimental conditions for most measures; however, participants in the Bottom Strengths condition experienced a decrease in symptom distress and an increase in emotional well-being relative to those in the Placebo and Control conditions. Regression analyses revealed several interesting relationships between Character Strengths and outcome measures, with implications for applications in multiple fields. A discussion of methods to strengthen brief group-based interventions, as well as the future direction of Character Strengths interventions, concludes the paper.</p>

<p> Research suggests that sexual abuse (SA) increases the likelihood of alcohol/drug use (AOD), and that AOD increases criminality. As such, in this study 50 women completed a survey reporting their histories of SA, AOD, and criminality. Fifteen related hypotheses were formulated: age at which drug abuse began would be lower; total number of drugs used, higher; age of first crime, lower; age of first incarceration, lower; and cumulative time in prison, greater, for those with SA vs. those without, for those who did not report their SA vs. those who did, and for those who did not receive treatment for SA vs. those who did. Thirteen of 15 hypotheses trended as predicted, significantly different from chance using Chi square. Trends for those who did not report SA vs. those who did, and for those who did not receive treatment for SA vs. those who did, were universally in line with hypotheses. Hypotheses regarding those with SA vs. those without remain less clear, with three of five outcome measures trending as expected. Together, these findings suggest that it may not be an SA history in itself that predicts earlier and greater severity of AOD, earlier criminal behavior, and greater prison time; but that the lack of treatment for SA and lack of reporting of SA may predict earlier and more severe behavioral disruptions. This underscores the importance of supporting girls and women who experience SA with access to reporting and treatment to reduce the emotional and behavioral sequellae of SA. </p><p> Keywords: substance use, sexual abuse, criminality, alcohol use</p>

<p>The forensic artists who create suspect composite drawings of wanted criminals for law enforcement agencies are frequently exposed to the details of traumatic events. The manner and degree to which this exposure to details of violence affects the perceptions and lives of these artists comprise the basis of this phenomenological study. Interviews with 8 experienced forensic artists include inquiries about their background and training and their perceptions of the most disturbing type of crimes, and also about how they subjectively process the traumatic material received via the cognitive interviews that they conduct with victims and witnesses of violent crime. Perceptions of a more comprehensive effect of violence on society are also explored. Other pivotal aspects of this study include the manner in which memories of criminal cases are evoked, and specifically the way in which specific facial features that these artists have imaged in composites may act as triggers to these memories. The results of this inquiry reveal the varied degrees to which these forensic artists are conscious of the effects of this repeated exposure to traumatic detail. However, conscious revelations of such an impact on their lives occur frequently during the research interviews due to the narrative process of specific cases with which they had been involved. Recommended future research includes further exploration of specific facial features as triggers to traumatic memory and of the gender of the forensic artist may have on the perception of facial features and their translatable meanings within the context of a suspect composite interview. </p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to identify a group of twenty-something adults to help guide and develop a sermon series to transition a congregation through the grief of losing a primary staff member. The study was originally focused on using the advisory group to develop a preaching style effective for the age group from which the advisory committee emerged. During the course of the study, the church experienced traumatic loss. The study shifted focus to support the collective grief of the congregation and transition to a new person to replace the absent staff member. The advisory group met face-to-face as well as through video conferencing, which was a new experience for the advisory group. The congregation overall successfully transitioned to a new staff member, yet a small though significant group of leaders could not adequately deal with loss, causing additional trauma in the context of the congregation, that, by the end of the project, continued unresolved.</p>

<p> Homicide followed by suicide is a relatively rare event in which one individual kills another and subsequently dies by suicide, usually shortly after the homicide (Barraclough &amp; Harris, 2002). Intimate Partner Homicide-Suicide (also IPH-S and Murder-Suicide) occurs when a person kills an intimate partner&mdash;a current or former romantic partner or family member&mdash;and then kills him or herself. The goals of this proposal and subsequent dissertation are to determine the quality and accuracy of the <i>media coverage</i> of intimate partner homicide-suicide, along with identifying the <i> geographic distribution</i> of dyads or linked cases of intimate partner homicide-suicide. Relying on data collected from the Internet through digitized media reports on intimate partner homicide-suicide, I expect to conduct scientific analyses of paired cases or dyads to assess or examine the quality and quantity of coverage. These analyses will explore how accurately and comprehensively the media portrays the intimate, violent relationship. In addition, geographic site data will be analyzed using ESRI, software that will establish geographic distribution across the United States.</p>