Eric Jefferis

The effect of a violent televised arrest on public perceptions of the police

A sizable literature exists showing that the general public is supportive of the police, but that substantial differences exist in levels of support among minorities and whites. Few studies, however, have examined the impact of violent police‐citizen encounters on perceptions of the police. Using survey data from a random sample of Cincinnati residents over an 11‐year period, we examine the effect of a violent televised arrest of an African‐American youth on minority and white opinions of the police. Furthermore, we interpret the results of the analysis in the context of Easton’s (1965) theory on diffuse and specific support for political institutions. The results suggest that although substantial differences exist among minorities and whites in their levels of support for the police, most indicators of diffuse support were unaffected by the controversial televised arrest.

COMMUNITY CORRELATES OF SERIOUS ASSAULTS ON POLICE

Violence against police officers is a widely held concern for the law enforcement profession. Prior research into this problem has focused almost exclusively on individual, situational, or ecological correlates at the city or higher levels of aggregation rather than at the neighborhood level, potentially masking important local variation. This study examines block-group-level risk factors for serious assaults on police from a criminal opportunity perspective. Data for the study included 603 aggravated assaults on police in Boston, arrestee location data, violent crimes known to the police for the years 1993 to 1999, and 1990 census data. Findings indicate strong associations between serious assaults on police and block groups characterized by high arrestee density, criminogenic conditions, and propensity for violence.

Suicidal Behaviors among Adolescents in Juvenile Detention: Role of Adverse Life Experiences

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of multiple adverse life experiences (sexual abuse, homelessness, running away, and substance abuse in the family) on suicide ideation and suicide attempt among adolescents at an urban juvenile detention facility in the United States. Materials and Methods The study sample included a total of 3,156 adolescents processed at a juvenile detention facility in an urban area in Ohio between 2003 and 2007. The participants, interacting anonymously with a voice enabled computer, self-administered a questionnaire with 100 items related to health risk behaviors. Results Overall 19.0% reported ever having thought about suicide (suicide ideation) and 11.9% reported ever having attempted suicide (suicide attempt). In the multivariable logistic regression analysis those reporting sexual abuse (Odds Ratio = 2.75; 95% confidence interval  = 2.08–3.63) and homelessness (1.51; 1.17–1.94) were associated with increased odds of suicide ideation, while sexual abuse (3.01; 2.22–4.08), homelessness (1.49; 1.12–1.98), and running away from home (1.38; 1.06–1.81) were associated with increased odds of a suicide attempt. Those experiencing all four adverse events were 7.81 times more likely (2.41–25.37) to report having ever attempted suicide than those who experienced none of the adverse events. Conclusions Considering the high prevalence of adverse life experiences and their association with suicidal behaviors in detained adolescents, these factors should not only be included in the suicide screening tools at the intake and during detention, but should also be used for the intervention programming for suicide prevention.

Measuring perceptions of police use of force

The purpose of this study is to examine issues in measuring perceptions of police use‐of‐force incidents. The Force Factor developed by Alpert and Dunham in 1997 is assessed as an objective, use‐of‐force measure by comparing it to several previously used measures of the perceived legitimacy of force used by officers in arrest situations. Findings indicate that few predictor variables are consistently related to the various measures of perceptions of the legitimacy of a single use‐of‐force incident. While the Force Factor uniquely considers level of suspect resistance, it does not appear to overcome perceptual biases inherent to measures of police use‐of‐force incidents.

An Examination of the Productivity and Perceived Effectiveness of Drug Task Forces

Multijurisdictional drug task forces formalize cooperative ventures and dedi cate attention to drug crime with the assumption that such will lead to more effective drug law enforcement. This improvement in drug enforcement is hypothesized to benefit the task forces not only in the number of drug arrests achieved, but also in enhanced communication and cooperation among in dividual members. Using data collected from a survey of task force leaders, grant applications and quarterly arrest reports, this study compares effective ness across task forces and organizational contexts. Findings indicate that differences in task force organizational structure, context and managerial fac tors may not affect the number of drug-related arrests, though they may influence the level of perceived effectiveness.

Spatial video geonarratives and health: case studies in post-disaster recovery, crime, mosquito control and tuberculosis in the homeless.

BackgroundA call has recently been made by the public health and medical communities to understand the neighborhood context of a patient’s life in order to improve education and treatment. To do this, methods are required that can collect “contextual” characteristics while complementing the spatial analysis of more traditional data. This also needs to happen within a standardized, transferable, easy-to-implement framework.MethodsThe Spatial Video Geonarrative (SVG) is an environmentally-cued narrative where place is used to stimulate discussion about fine-scale geographic characteristics of an area and the context of their occurrence. It is a simple yet powerful approach to enable collection and spatial analysis of expert and resident health-related perceptions and experiences of places. Participants comment about where they live or work while guiding a driver through the area. Four GPS-enabled cameras are attached to the vehicle to capture the places that are observed and discussed by the participant. Audio recording of this narrative is linked to the video via time stamp. A program (G-Code) is then used to geotag each word as a point in a geographic information system (GIS). Querying and density analysis can then be performed on the narrative text to identify spatial patterns within one narrative or across multiple narratives. This approach is illustrated using case studies on post-disaster psychopathology, crime, mosquito control, and TB in homeless populations.ResultsSVG can be used to map individual, group, or contested group context for an environment. The method can also gather data for cohorts where traditional spatial data are absent. In addition, SVG provides a means to spatially capture, map and archive institutional knowledge.ConclusionsSVG GIS output can be used to advance theory by being used as input into qualitative and/or spatial analyses. SVG can also be used to gain near-real time insight therefore supporting applied interventions. Advances over existing geonarrative approaches include the simultaneous collection of video data to visually support any commentary, and the ease-of-application making it a transferable method across different environments and skillsets.

Context and Spatial Nuance Inside a Neighborhood's Drug Hotspot: Implications for the Crime–Health Nexus

New geographic approaches are required to tease apart the underlying sociospatial complexity of neighborhood decline to target appropriate interventions. Typically maps of crime hotspots are used with relatively little attention being paid to geographic context. This article helps further this discourse using a topical study of a neighborhood drug microspace, a phrase we use to include the various stages of production, selling, acquiring, and taking, to show how context matters. We overlay an exploratory data analysis of three cohort spatial video geonarratives (SVGs) to contextualize the traditional crime rate hotspot maps. Using two local area analyses of police, community, and ex-offender SVGs and then comparing these with police call for service data, we identify spaces of commonality and difference across data types. In the Discussion, we change the scale to consider revealed microspaces and the interaction of both “good” and “bad” places. We enrich the previous analysis with a mapped spatial video assessment of the built environment and then return to the narrative to extract additional detail around a crime-associated corner store next to a community center. Our findings suggest that researchers should reevaluate how to enrich typical hotspot approaches with more on-the-ground context.

Association of being bullied in school with suicide ideation and planning among rural middle school adolescents.

BACKGROUND This study examined the association of ever being bullied in school with suicide ideation (ever thinking about killing oneself) and ever seriously making a plan to kill oneself (suicide planning) among rural middle school adolescents. METHODS Using the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey instrument, 2 cross-sectional surveys were conducted among middle school adolescents (N = 1082) in a rural Appalachian county in Ohio in 2009 and 2012. Multivariable logistic regression models assessed the relationship of ever being bullied in school with suicide ideation and planning. RESULTS Overall, a total of 468 participants (43.1%) reported ever being bullied in school, and 22.3% and 13.2% of the adolescents surveyed reported suicide ideation and planning, respectively. In the multivariable analyses, ever being bullied in school was significantly associated with both suicide ideation (odds ratio [OR] = 2.4; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.7-3.5) and planning (OR = 2.5; 95% CI: 1.6-3.8). CONCLUSIONS The results show a strong association between being bullied in school and suicide ideation and planning among rural middle school adolescents. Prevention of bullying in school as early as in middle school should be a strategy for reducing suicide ideation and planning among adolescents.

Poly-traumatization and harmful behaviors in a sample of emergency department Psychiatric Intake Response Center youth

The purpose of this study is to examine risk factors for poly-traumatization, and the impact of poly-traumatization on harmful behaviors (suicidal, self-harm, and violent), among a group of pediatric patients presenting at an emergency departments psychiatric intake response center. We employed a retrospective medical chart review in a childrens hospital for a 2-year span (N=260). The study employed 2 statistical analyses. The first analysis used multinomial logistic regression to model the odds of harmful behaviors comparing increasing numbers of co-occurring traumatization types. The second analysis employed latent class modeling techniques in three ways to (a) define different poly-traumatization populations, (b) examine the relationship between predictors and class assignment, and (c) examine the relationship between class assignment and harmful behavioral outcomes. About 62% of the sample presented with at least 1 traumatization type and about 50% one harmful behavior type. Compared to those with 1, 2, or 3 traumatization types, patients with 4 or more traumatization types have higher odds of harmful behaviors. The latent class analysis revealed 2 populations: High serious victimization and minimal traumatization. History of family mental health issues was the only significant predictor of class membership. Class membership was associated with all of the harmful behavioral outcome categories. These findings support consideration of poly-traumatization as a risk factor for the high occurrence of harmful behaviors in this sample of pediatric psychiatric patients and that history of family mental health issues may contribute to the high co-occurrence of poly-traumatization.

Risk factors for rehospitalization and inpatient care among pediatric psychiatric intake response center patients.

BackgroundThe study sought to explore the characteristics, risk factors for inpatient recommendation, and risk factors for revisits to a pediatric psychiatric intake response center (PIRC). There are three research questions: 1. What is the general profile of pediatric patients who present at the PIRC? 2. What are the risk factors for patients who repeatedly visit the PIRC? 3. What are the risk factors for PIRC patients who are recommended to inpatient care?MethodsThe study utilized a retrospective medical chart review of a random sample (n = 260). A PIRC profile was created using frequency and prevalence calculations, in addition to a survival analysis of patients who return to the PIRC in order to determine how long it takes for PIRC patients to return to the PIRC. Factors that contribute to increased odds of returning to PIRC and being recommended for inpatient treatment were calculated using two logistic regression analyses.ResultsThe average pediatric PIRC patient is about 13 years old, Caucasian, with Medicaid and comes from a divorced or single parent household. About 43% of patients presented at PIRC for suicidal thoughts, ideation, intentions or actions. At least 63% of patients have a history of victimization. The average time to return to PIRC is about 90 days. Patients with a history of victimization, suicidal behavior, learning problems, problems with peers, and a history of violence were at an increased odds of returning to the PIRC. Those patients who were previously admitted to inpatient care and had a family history of mental health issues were at increased odds of being recommended to inpatient treatment.ConclusionsThis sample presents with a multitude of issues that contribute to increased odds of revisits to PIRC and inpatient recommendation. These issues seem to come from multiple levels of influence. Future research should expand to similar treatment facilities and use a prospective design to confirm risk factors. Treatment for pediatric psychiatric patients may focus on multiple factors that influence patients’ mental health.