Amy L. Anderson

The effects of training community leaders in prevention science: Communities That Care in Pennsylvania

Abstract This paper examines the effects of training community leaders in prevention science in the context of Communities That Care (CTC). The data analyzed here comes from an evaluation of CTC in 21 Pennsylvania communities, including in-depth interviews with 203 community leaders. The association of attendance at training sessions was investigated at the individual and community levels. Multi-level modeling supported the findings from the corelational analyses at each level separately. The findings suggest that training is positively, albeit modestly, linked with participant attitudes and knowledge, and with internal and external functioning of the CTC coalition. Training was not linked to perceived community readiness nor perceived CTC efficacy. In addition, some evidence suggests that the long-term influence of training in this context may be found at the group or coalition level, not at the individual level.

Residency Restrictions for Sex Offenders Public Opinion on Appropriate Distances

Although many states have enacted statewide residency restriction laws, others have left the need for, and content of, these laws to local municipalities. To better understand within-state variation in residency restriction laws, this study investigates the public’s desire for these laws and the distances they feel restrictions should be from public spaces populated by children. We review both quantitative and qualitative data from a statewide survey to determine where the public feels sex offenders can live without threatening children. Our results are interpreted using the “dikes” perspective of public opinion to predict the passage and content of future of residency restriction laws.

FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND LIFESTYLE: ADOLESCENT VICTIMIZATION IN HELSINKI

The proximate correlates of adolescent victimization are well documented in the literature. The purpose of our research is to examine the more fundamental sources of this outcome. Focusing on two basic social contexts—the family and the residential community—we develop a theoretical model and test it empirically against a multilevel data set on juveniles living in Helsinki. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the family context is an important determinant of violent victimization. Much of this effect is mediated by involvement in delinquent lifestyles. We also find support for the assumption that community context matters to the risk of victimization independently of the family context and individual-level risk factors. Our research underscores the need for a multilevel approach in explanations of violent victimization.

Who accesses the sex offender registries? A look at legislative intent and citizen action in Nebraska

States are required to maintain an Internet‐based sex offender registry in order to comply with community notification laws. Such legislation, however, relies on citizens to proactively access information regarding sex offenders’ whereabouts in order to take precautions to protect themselves and their families. This study examines the legislative intent, in terms of the target audience for sex offender community notification laws, and whether this audience is in fact using the online community notification tools available to the public. Survey responses from a representative sample of Nebraska residents and logistic regression are used to examine who is likely to access the registry information and also who is likely to take preventative action in response. Our findings and the implications of the results on notification laws are discussed.

Interactions and the Criminal Event Perspective

Using data from a large sample of adolescents, this research examines the role of interactions in describing a criminal event. The authors test whether characteristics from multiple social settings combine to increase the likelihood of a criminal event. Broadly conceived, the interactions examine characteristics reflecting the residential environments of adolescents in addition to characteristics of family and leisure. The authors find that both structural and cross-level interactions condition delinquency, although not all such interactions are significant for every offense. The findings support the utility of using a criminal events perspective to describe and interpret criminal and delinquent acts.

Adolescent Time Use, Companionship, and the Relationship with Development

This chapter examines where and with whom adolescents are spending their time and the relationship between those activities and adolescent development. Specifically, developmental and life course outcomes related to activities engaged in while at home, school, and after-school are discussed. Time spent in unsupervised activities tends to be associated with poorer outcomes regardless of whether an adolescent is away from home with friends or home alone with nothing to do. Additionally, peers have great potential to shape developmental and life course outcomes of other peers with whom they interact, including providing positive reinforcement for engaging in risky behaviors like drinking. Areas where less is known about adolescents and risky behaviors but for which there is a great potential to learn more are discussed at the end of the chapter.

Public Opinion of the Application of Sex Offender Notification Laws to Female Sex Offenders Why It Is Important to Examine

Sex offender notification laws depend not only on the public’s access of registration information but also on the belief that those on the registry present a danger to society and thus deserve informal monitoring. As registries have expanded to include more people, perhaps citizens feel some people on registry are incapable of committing sex crimes or do not pose a danger to society. A group whose inclusion the public may question is women, as many scholars have argued there is a societal-level denial that females commit sex crimes. Data from the 2012 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey were used to determine whether the public agreed that citizens should be notified of convicted female sex offenders living in their communities, whether they would take preventive action if a female sex offender lived in their neighborhood, and whether they think that female sex crimes are less serious than sex crimes committed by men.

AGE, PERIOD, AND COHORT EFFECTS ON DEATH PENALTY ATTITUDES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1974-2014

In this article, we further the understanding of both changes in public opinion on capital punishment in the United States and changes in the factors associated with public opinion on the death penalty. Support for the death penalty may be motivated by events happening during specific time periods, and it can vary across birth cohorts as a result of cohort-specific socialization processes, demographic changes, and formative events that are specific to each generation. An explication of the sources of and variation in death penalty attitudes over time would benefit from the accounting for the age of the respondent, the year of the survey response, and the birth cohort of the respondent. We improve on previous research by using multiple approaches including hierarchical age–period–cohort models and data from the General Social Survey (N = 41,474) to examine changes in death penalty attitudes over time and across birth cohorts. The results showed curvilinear age effects, strong period effects, and weak cohort effects on death penalty support. The violent crime rate explained much of the variation in support for the death penalty across periods. The examination of subgroup differences suggests that support for the death penalty is becoming concentrated among Whites, Protestants, and Republicans.

Female sex offenders: Public awareness and attributions

Traditional gender roles, sex scripts, and the way female sex offenders are portrayed in the media may lead to misconceptions about who can commit sexual offenses. Sexual crimes by women may go unnoticed or unreported if there is a general lack of awareness that females commit these crimes. Data from the 2012 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey were used to determine whether the public perceives women as capable sex offenders and the perceived causes of female sex offending. The traditional focus on male sex offenders by researchers, media, and politicians, in addition to gender stereotypes, introduces the possibility of group differences (e.g., between men and women) in perceptions of female sex offenders. Consequently, two secondary analyses were conducted that tested for group differences in both the public’s perception of whether females can commit sex offenses and the explanations selected for why females sexually offend. The findings suggest that the public does perceive women as capable sex offenders, although there were group differences in the causal attributions for female sex offending.