Exposure to multiple forms of victimization has been shown to have increasingly negative outcomes, but their unique trajectory-setting effects have been largely unexplored. Using a life course approach, this paper examines the trajectory-setting effects of childhood polyvictimization into early adulthood. I use a nationwide sample including 3,652 respondents after cleaning and preparation. Seemingly unrelated regressions were used to predict depression and criminal behavior in childhood and adulthood. Results suggest childhood polyvictimization sets children on a negative trajectory which grows increasingly worse through the life course. Researchers and interventions should take these trajectory-setting effects into account when attempting to aid polyvictims.

Emergency department nurses are at high risk for violence in the workplace (Keely, 2002; Fernandez et al., 1998; Nachreiner et al., 2005; Mayer et al., 1999). It is estimated that between 52% and 82% of emergency nurses will experience physical violence and 100% of emergency department nurses will experience non-physical violence in their careers. Despite this fact, there are limited studies examining workplace violence among this vulnerable group (Fernandez et al., 1998; Levin et al., 1998). Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine the experiences of emergency department nurses with workplace violence. Levin et al.’s (2003) Ecological Occupational Model (EOHM) was used to guide this study. Four focus groups were conducted with 27 nurses who represented different types of emergency departments (rural community facility to large urban Level 1 trauma center). Results of the study suggested that the majority of participants (96%) experienced some form of work-related violence and 75% had attended at least one violence education class. The major themes of frustration and powerlessness emerged from the data. Sub themes included professional conflict while caring for violent patients, personal detachment as an emotional survival mechanisms, and feelings of victimization. Additional factors contributing to workplace violence included: personal attributes of the nurse, the workplace, and the community where the emergency department was located. These study results have potential to guide intervention development aimed at reducing workplace violence in the emergency department setting.

Crime comes in many different forms and can be viewed differently depending on culture, individual factors and geography. This increases the importance of discussing the subject by continually analyzing its causes, to eventually enable the development of methods and means to stop it. This study seeks to contribute to this process by analyzing factors that influence crime but also the ending of it, in the context of social factors. Accordingly, the overall goal of the study is to contribute to broadening the know-how about what influences criminal careers to help in the development of methods to stop them. This is done by analyzing the field from in two approaches; (1) what indicate crimes and (2) what contributes to the ending. This is of great importance today as it will fill a prevailing shortage in previous research which tend to focus on the field in one of the two approaches and often with the same type of participants. To achieve its purpose, the study includes individuals which are young with on-going criminal lifestyles and older which have put their criminal past behind them. Through the study analysis six themes where identified; threat of punishment, drug abuse, family relations, environmental aspects and school. / Brott förekommer i många olika former och betraktas skiftande beroende på kultur, individuella och geografiska faktorer. Brottslighet är dessutom ett eskalerande samhällsproblem som har med sig stora negativa konsekvenser på ekonomisk aktivitet och den psykiska hälsan hos samhällsinvånare. Detta sätter stor vikt på att kontinuerligt diskutera ämnet och analysera orsaker till kriminalitet för att vidareutveckla förebyggande metoder och processer. Denna studie bidrar till denna process genom att analysera faktorer som indikerar brott men också varför respondenter valt att avsluta sina kriminella karriärer, i samband med sociala band teorin. Följaktligen, är det övergripande målet att bidra till att bredda kunskapen om vad som påverkar kriminella karriärer och därav bidra till utvecklingen av metoder för att stoppa dem. Detta utförs genom att analysera studieområdet ur två olika infallsvinklar; (1) vad som skapar brott och (2) vad som stoppar det. Detta ger inte enbart studien samhällsviktig tyngd utan bidrar också till en bristfällig forskning som tenderar att endast fokusera på en infallsvinkel och ofta i datainsamling från samma typ av deltagare. För att uppnå sitt syfte har studien inkluderat individer med pågående kriminell livsstil samt personer vars kriminella karriär ligger bakom dom. Sex teman identifierades under studieanalysen; straffhot, drogmissbruk, familjerelationer, miljöaspekter och skola.

Orientador: Cristina Amélia Luzio / Banca: Carlos Rodrigues Ladeia / Banca: Mara Quaglio Chirelli / Resumo: A Constituição Federal e a Lei 8142/90 defendem a participação da comunidade como condição imprescindível para o funcionamento do Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS. Essa definição, conquista do processo de democratização do país, na década de 80, propicia o surgimento no cenário político de um novo ator social, o usuário. O presente trabalho aborda a participação popular e o controle social na saúde, a partir do Conselho Municipal de Saúde - CMS de Assis, no período de 1991-2008, tendo como principal indagação as possíveis contribuições desse espaço político de participação social, para a consolidação do Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS. Para tanto, utilizando o arcabouço legal do SUS e os pressupostos teórico de Movimentos Sociais, Participação, Gestão e Planejamento, buscou-se compreender como se deu o processo político de gestão em relação ao Conselho Municipal de Saúde, a participação do Conselho no planejamento do sistema de saúde e quais foram suas contribuições para a aplicação dos princípios do SUS. As técnicas de pesquisa utilizadas foram a análise documental, a observação e as entrevistas semi-diretivas. A análise do material empírico aponta que a existência legal do Conselho Municipal de Saúde, não é suficiente para garantir a participação popular e o controle social. A capacidade transformadora, do CMS, está intimamente relacionada ao seu processo de institucionalização, do coeficiente de suas forças instituintes e de resistência à alternância do poder executivo. Tal capacidade decorreria por sua vez do grau de organização política da sociedade civil. / Abstract: The Federal Constitution and Law 8142/90 advocate community involvement as a prerequisite for the functioning of the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde) - SUS. This definition, conquest of the country's democratization process in the 80s, provides the appearance in the political landscape of a new social actor - the user. This study examines popular participation and social control in the health system, according to the Municipal Council of Health (Conselho Municipal de Saúde) - CMS of Assis between the period of 1991-2008, having as its primary concern the possible contributions of that political space of social participation to consolidate the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde) - SUS. For that, using the legal framework of the SUS and the theoretical assumptions of Social Movements, Participation, Management and Planning, I have tried to explain how the political process of management happened in relation to the Municipal Health Council; the Council's participation in the planning of the health system and what their contributions to the implementation of the principles of the SUS were. The research techniques utilized consisted of document analysis, observation and semi-focused interviews. The analysis of the empirical material suggests that the legal existence of the Municipal Council of Health (CMS) is not satisfactory to ensure popular participation and social control. The changing capacity of the CMS is closely related to its process of institutionalization, the coefficient of its instituting forces, and resistance to alternation of executive power. Such a capacity would, in turn, come from the level of political organization of civil society. / Mestre

Juvenile misuse of prescription drugs in the United States has continuously increased over the last few decades, especially within rural regions of the country. Despite continuous increase in rates of misuse, limited research exists on elements of socialization that may function to prevent drug use. The current study utilized the Monitoring the Future Survey data to explore prescription drug misuse between different populations of juveniles. While using Hirschi’s (1969) theory of social bonds as a theoretical framework, different elements of socialization were explored to determine whether they work to contribute or prevent prescription drug misuse among rural and urban juveniles. Results indicated that parental attachment served as the most substantial protective factor among both populations of juveniles. Additionally, socialization differed in relation to prescription drug use among rural and urban youth. These findings could be implicated in future anti-drug programs that specifically target different regions of the country.

This study explored changes in affect regulation and coping strategies with family functioning and attachment behaviors among a sample of incarcerated male adolescents (N = 115) and their maternal caregivers (N = 71). The sample participated in the Multiple Family Group Intervention (MFGI; Keiley, 2007) which is an 8-session program conducted in a juvenile correctional institution with adolescents adjudicated of a sexual offense, and their families. In 90-minute sessions, group facilitators use a six-step therapeutic method for altering interactional patterns from an affect regulation and attachment perspective. Using enactments and discussion, the intervention targets affect regulation and communication skills. Results indicate that changes in affect regulation and coping skills from pre- to post-intervention were related to changes in family functioning and attachment behaviors. Findings add to growing empirical support for the utility of systemic interventions within juvenile justice systems to strengthen affect regulation, coping skills, family functioning, and attachment behaviors.

Research on juvenile offender treatment and intervention has called for a shift from a deficits-based to a strengths-based approach (Marshall, Ward, Mann, Moulden, Fernandez, Serran, & Marshall, 2005; Wormith, Althouse, Simpson, Reitzel, Fagan, & Morgan, 2007; Zeldin, 2004). One potential approach to treatment fosters a sense of psychological empowerment in youth. Although research has yet to explore the experience of psychological empowerment within incarcerated youth, theory on empowerment suggests that it could help youth to create both cognitive (e.g., increased self-esteem, increased confidence) and behavioral (e.g., improving quality of life, social integration) changes in their lives (Cargo, Grams, Ottoson, Ward, & Green, 2003; Holden, Crankshaw, Nimsch, Hinnant, & Hund, 2004a). Empowerment-based programming may also help youth develop specific psychosocial capacities, such as competence, confidence, and self-efficacy, which are necessary skills for future success and community reintegration. The purpose of the current study was to establish a measure of psychological empowerment (PE) and explore potential behavioral correlates of PE for young men within Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) correctional and re-entry facilities. Using a cross-sectional, non-experimental design, quantitative data from self-report surveys of incarcerated youth on PE in three settings within correctional facilities as well as OYA staff ratings of behavioral success in five skill areas was collected. Confirmatory factor analyses did not support the three-factor structure of PE. A single-factor structure of Intrapersonal PE was found to fit the data in three correctional settings. The present study has implications for the reconceptualization and reoperationalization of psychological empowerment in this unique context. Using the confirmed sub-scale, results of hierarchical linear models indicated that Intrapersonal PE was a significant predictor of behavioral success in two of the five OYA domains. Even with an imperfect operationalization of PE, there was partial evidence for the predictive ability of Intrapersonal PE.

When juveniles are defined by society as delinquent they are frequently institutionalized. These institutions are referred to as reform schools, correctional institutions or schools, residential care facilities, treatment centers, or variations of the above. They are state sponsored or privately sponsored. Whatever name is on the sign by the front door, each institution is in the business of "people changing." The excellence of an inanimate product can be measured, weighed, checked, and reproduced; but an altered person is more difficult to measure. If one is in the business of people-changing, it seems important to see if one is in fact changing people. This study of post institutional adjustment in one privately sponsored girl's residential care facility is an attempt to look at change in a group of released girls measured in the scale devised by the study group).

The Child Abuse Committee at the University of Oregon Medical School has assumed a coordinating role as an attempt to provide more effective service to abused children and their families. This research report is a follow up to a 1970 study by Matusak which evaluated the effectiveness of the Committee. The Matusak study seemed to indicate that, because of Committee action resulting in appropriate intervention and services, definite improvement in the situation of the children in the study was seen. This study follows the children from the 1970 study one year later and makes further comparisons of child abuse cases seen at the hospital in 1971. The results of this study fail to support the Matusak findings. A decreased percentage of children in the 1970 study group have maintained their level of improvement one year later and an even lower percentage of the 1971 study group are improved. More children have been left in their own homes than in 1970 but there is little to indicate that the family functions any more adequately than at the time of abuse. The findings seem to reflect a need for reevaluation of management and treatment practices in child abuse cases. It appears that responsibility and authority for coordination should be placed with a single agency and that more specialized services be provided by experienced staff.

While men do indeed construct self-validating and often peculiar interpretations of the realities of their world the simple fact that these views become consensually shared doctrines of experience does not protect them from the revisionism of historical scrutiny. These perceptions of the world become retrospectively altered as developing bodies of knowledge reject them as being clearly deceptive or anachronistic. The concept of psychopathology, distinguished historically under many rubrics, has not been immune to these same processes of modification, nor has it ever been free of the diverse irrationalities which men of all ages have constructed to explain the etiology and treatment of deviant behavior. Historically, consideration of atypical behavior all reflect attempts to explain dysfunction utilizing existing systems of belief and knowledge. For example, primitive and ancient societies advanced quasi-theoretical frameworks that stressed either external causation (e.g., spirit intervention, sorcery, demonic possession, lunacy, bewitchment) or personal causation (e.g., loss of soul, breach of taboo, object intrusion, brain disease). Of course, retrospective evaluation of these explanatory devices have found them to be woefully impoverished. With the advent of science these archaic beliefs were found to be incompatible with a rational view of the world where all events had logical and determinable causes. Moreover, with the development of the medical model of disease, aberrant behavior, of a functional nature, could be explained and treated in the same systematic manner as that which had an organic basis. While the "new view" still distinguished between external and internal causation of psychopathology, it radically redefined explanatory concepts and apparently located dynamics of the disease process within the individual. The classic psychiatric/psychological approach has (and continues to) stressed the description and classification of pathological signs and symptoms and when etiology was considered, illness was accounted for more often than not by such intra-psychic factors as anxiety, stress, breakdown of defense mechanisms and ego strength. Current theories of psychopathology have not been quite as oblivious to the effects of the individual's environment in the production and maintenance of both functional and organic illness. Nor can they be, for the last two decades have witnessed a growing awareness of the purely sociological aspects of pathological processes--processes which had hitherto been assigned only to individual defects. Research in the social epidemology of mental illness has established the importance of numerous sociological variables including ecological and socioeconomic status factors,personal and social characteristics, and culture-specificfactors. It is now commonly recognized that the environment of the individual plays a crucial role in determining the characteristics and course of pathological processes.