André B. Rosay

Invariance of Measures of Prevention Program Effectiveness: A Replication

Recent literature has suggested that measures of risk and protective factorsfor delinquency and substance use are not equally reliable or valid acrossgender and ethnic groups and has recommended differentiated programming andculturally specific evaluation methods. Three data sets containing up tofive ethnic groups were used to determine the degree to which risk andprotective factors are equally reliable and valid predictors of drug use anddelinquency across gender and ethnic groups. Congeneric measurement modelsand structural equation models were evaluated to determine if the factorstructures for these measures and their covariances with measures of druguse and delinquency were equivalent across gender and ethnic groups. Half ofthe risk and protective factors included in this analysis were found to beequally reliable across gender and ethnic groups. When controlling forreliability differences, all of the risk and protective factors were foundto predict both drug use and delinquncy for all gender and ethnic groups. Interms of the magnitude of these associations, no substantive differenceswere found in the validity of risk and protective factors for drug use anddelinquency. Differences in the validity of risk and protective factors weremore prevalent for delinquency than for drug use. However, all differenceswere substantively trivial. We conclude that measures of prevention programeffectiveness are invariant across gender and ethnic groups.

The Impact of Drug Use and Crime Involvement on Health Problems Among Female Drug Offenders

Health problems comprise some of the most important concerns about female offenders today. In comparison to others, they suffer more frequent and serious chronic disease, acute illness, and injuries. Although many have argued that these higher rates can be explained by poverty, inaccessible medical care, and poor nutrition, few have studied the impact of the severity of criminal and substance abuse involvement on the same. Consequently, the authors ask if these factors help explain the likelihood of leading health problems of female cocaine-abusing offenders. Bivariate logistic regression analyses on women (n = 848) from Dade County, Florida, show important effects of criminal and substance abuse involvement on chronic disease and illness, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and mental illness. However, after controlling for demographic variables with multivariate logistic models, their predictive power decreases substantially. The findings lend insights to both theoretical models explaining health problems and to policy recommendations for female offenders and inmates.

Police Presence, Isolation, and Sexual Assault Prosecution

This article considers the effects of geographic isolation and local police presence on the processing of 239 sexual assault cases reported to the Alaska State Troopers. Geographic isolation is hypothesized to hinder case processing due to its impact on the celerity and thoroughness of investigations, whereas the presence of local police is hypothesized to facilitate case processing by legitimizing reported offenses and assisting with evidence collection. Controlling for a host of important legal and “extra legal” case characteristics, the authors find that geographic isolation and local police presence did significantly influence case processing. However, contrary to expectations, geographic isolation facilitates case processing in that sexual assault cases from isolated locations are actually more likely to be referred for prosecution. As expected, local police presence facilitates case processing by enhancing the likelihood that referred cases would be accepted for prosecution. Implications for rural policing are discussed.

Prevalence estimates and correlates of elder abuse in the United States: The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey

ABSTRACT This study examines the prevalence and correlates of psychological abuse and physical abuse against women and men aged 70 or older. Self-report data from 2,185 respondents in the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) were used to create weighted estimates for past-year experiences of abuse. Correlates were then examined using survey logistic regression models. More than 1 in 10 adults who are 70 years of age or older (14.0%) have experienced some form of abuse in the past year, with 12.1% experiencing psychological abuse and 1.7% experiencing physical abuse. One in five victims (20.8%) were abused by both intimate and nonintimate partners. Health care insecurity was the strongest correlate of past-year abuse. The odds of experiencing abuse were 4.53 times greater for those who experienced health care insecurity than for those who did not. This presents a significant challenge for identifying and helping victims of abuse.