John C. Kilburn

The Public Health Risks of Media Violence: A Meta-Analytic Review

OBJECTIVE To conduct a meta-analytic review of studies that examine the impact of violent media on aggressive behavior and to determine whether this effect could be explained through methodological problems inherent in this research field. STUDY DESIGN A detailed literature search identified peer-reviewed articles addressing media violence effects. Effect sizes were calculated for all studies. Effect sizes were adjusted for observed publication bias. RESULTS Publication bias was a problem for studies of aggressive behavior, and methodological problems such as the use of poor aggression measures inflated effect size. Once corrected for publication bias, studies of media violence effects provided little support for the hypothesis that media violence is associated with higher aggression. The corrected overall effect size for all studies was r = .08. CONCLUSIONS Results from the current analysis do not support the conclusion that media violence leads to aggressive behavior. It cannot be concluded at this time that media violence presents a significant public health risk.

The Effectiveness of School-Based Anti-Bullying Programs A Meta-Analytic Review

Youth violence, including bullying and other serious violent behaviors, has received increased political and scientific attention over the past several decades. Although violent behavior among youth and in the schools has declined over the past decade, the victimization of children by other children in school settings remains a major issue of concern. In response, a number of prevention and intervention programs have been developed to reduce the incidence of bullying and violence in schools. This meta-analysis attempted to examine the effect of school-based anti-bullying programs. Results suggested a significant effect for anti-bullying programs (r = .12). However, this result seemed to be slightly influenced by publication bias and did not meet the adopted threshold for “practical significance.” The effect for programs targeted specifically at at-risk youth was slightly better, but overall, anti-bullying programs produce little discernible effect on youth participants. Reasons that anti-bullying programs may produce little effective change are discussed.

A test of the grapevine: An empirical examination of conspiracy theories among African Americans

This research examines the prevalence of belief in conspiracy theories among African Americans in one Deep South state and identifies the factors related to these beliefs . Overall , there is a surprisingly strong belief in most conspiracy theories involving government . Over 85 % of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that African Americans are harassed by police because of their race and that the criminal justice system is not fair to Blacks . The theories with the least support involved transracial adoption , family planning , and needle - exchange programs as genocide . Through factor analysis , the 11 conspiracy theory questions were combined into conceptual scales . The theories grouped into two distinct factors - malicious intent and benign neglect , with benign theories the more prevalent of the two . Suprisingly , age , gender , and education were not significant in explaining beliefs in malicious intent or benign neglect conspiracy theories . Among the interesting differences between the t...

Private and Collective Protection in Urban Areas

The authors examine security as a multidimensional issue with private and collective aspects. Decisions to provide security occur within the household, the community, and the municipality. Considering the determinants of private avoidance and protective security measures as well as collective neighborhood and municipal measures, the authors examine the potential for trade-offs among forms of security by asking whether these forms are complementary or substitutional. Results show that those who take more protective measures in and around their home are more likely to oppose taxes for municipal criminal justice improvements. However, support for neighborhood security organization does not discourage support for these municipal measures.

Circling the Welcome Wagons: Area, Income, Race, and Legal Handgun Concealment:

Using data from Louisiana State Police records on concealed weapon permits, this article analyzes factors related to regional differences in rates of handgun permit holding. Although protection from victimization may be considered a common motive for carrying a concealed weapon, the authors found no relationship between crime rates and rates of handgpn permit holding. Instead, factors such as median household income and race-related factors were found to be more salient predictors of an areas rate of permit holding.

Boom to Bust or Bust to Boom? Following the Effects of Weed and Seed Zoning in New Britain, Connecticut, from 1995 to 2000

This article addresses the effects of weed and seed zoning operations on arrests and calls for assistance in New Britain, Connecticut, during the 24-month before and 36-month after the inception of operations. Data are taken from New Britain police dispatch statistics and applied to a study of arrests and citizen calls for assistance across 738 U.S. Census block collection units (BCUs). The article employs tests of significance to assess the overall effects of zoning on these police activities across pre- and post-intervention periods and uses both weighted displacement quotient (WDQ) and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) models to test for possible displacement associated with zoning. Results indicate that weed and seed zoning was significantly associated with displacement of arrest activity in pre- and post-intervention time periods but displayed no relationship with displacement of calls for assistance (CFAs). Though WDQ analyses do not indicate proximity effects, local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps show noteworthy changes in the spatial clustering of arrest activity over time. Of principal concern here is the idea that weed and seed may prompt changes in the geography of crime without actually reducing crime rates. An ancillary concern is whether significantly higher arrest rates within weed and seed zones represent advances in community policing.

Do cell phones, iPods/MP3 players, siblings and friends matter? Predictors of child body mass in a U.S. Southern Border City Middle School.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE This study examines the association of childrens (i) micro-social environment, specifically siblings [kin-friends] and friends from school and neighborhood [non-kin-friends], and (ii) ownership of information and communication technologies (ICT), specifically cell phones and iPod/MP3 players, with body mass index percentile (BMIp). SUBJECTS Fifty-five randomly selected 6th graders with a mean age of 12 years, stratified by gender (23 boys and 32 girls), from a Texas middle school located in a city along the U.S. southern border. METHODS The linear regression of BMIp on number of siblings and of non-kin-friends, and ownership of cell phone and of iPod/MP3 player was examined using two models: M1 was based on the manual selection of predictors from a pool of potential predictors. M2 was derived from the predictors specified in M1 using backward elimination technique. Because sample size was small, the significance of regression coefficients was evaluated using robust standard errors to calculate t-values. Data for predictors were obtained through a survey. Height and weight were obtained through actual anthropometric measurements. BMIp was calculated using the on-line BMI calculator of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. RESULTS Findings reveal that childrens social environment and ICT ownership predict BMIp; specifically, number of siblings (M2: β = -0.34, p-value < .001), and ownership of iPod/MP3 players (M2: β = 0.33, p-value < .001). These results underscore the importance of family in configuring, and of new personal technical devices (that encourage solitary, and oftentimes sedentary, activities) in predicting child body mass.

Learning tacit knowledge in life science graduate programs in Taiwan

In this paper we describe preliminary results of a three-year project that examines the enculturation of doctoral students in life science programs in Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. The purpose of the study is to examine how doctoral students in life science enrolled at universities in these three countries learn to become scientists and how information and communication technologies affect such processes. The project is in its first year, and we completed data collection in Taiwan during the summer of 2009. Data was collected using quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, and time-diaries from advisors and doctoral students in life science programs in three Taiwanese universities. Preliminary results show that current students tend to have problems related to too great a reliance on computers, kits, and the Internet, and as a result, they fail to assimilate tacit knowledge that is invaluable in becoming the next generation of scientists.

Becoming Criminal: The Socio-Cultural Origins of Law, Transgression, and Deviance

Is theory necessary? Is reductionism in any form moving us away from ‘‘the truth’’? Don Crewe offers a sharp account of critical criminology. Crewe begins Becoming Criminal discussing the nature of heliocentrism and the battle of accepting and rejecting ideas. It is evident that the author’s intent is to force the reader to think carefully about whether or not the earth really does travel around the sun. Crewe spends much of his text explaining fatal flaws in numerous philosophical suppositions and theories about the sociology of knowledge. He dismisses each theory in a concise and clear manner, so it is hard to argue with him, but his continuous arguments about why these theories fail to explain social-scientific phenomena become exhausting. While he wins all arguments on the technical merits of his rebuttals to many of the great philosophers, he fails to acknowledge that some traditional social science research merits some increased precision over chance predictions of behavior. Crewe explains that we often seek convenience in describing social phenomena more than truth. Of course, theories must make sense. However, the problem with ontology is that making sense overrides the ‘‘truth’’ behind norms. While one may call an act deviant, it does not necessarily offer any real explanation in the terms. For so many years social science scholars have been taught that correlation does not necessarily mean causality—and even if it did imply causality, rarely can we explain the processes and workings of the cause. Chapter One explains what theory is not. It does not explain processes or functions of items. It is not a product of reason. Crewe claims that we live for convenient explanations rather than explanations of society that speak ‘‘the truth.’’ However, these explanations do not serve us well at explaining the real phenomena. Chapter Two critiques Comte’s contention that theory constitutes causal explanations. Crewe explains that theory is not a description of causality. He offers the critique that Einstein’s relativity theory is only true in closed systems that do not exist outside of theoretical models. Of course, as modern theorists use the phrase ‘‘ceteris paribus,’’ they also concede that conditions are very rarely equal among any groups being studied. For this reason, we truly do not know why or how any model works, regardless of the correlation. This leads to a dismissive critique of two commonly used research methodologies: deductive statistical models and inductive statistical models. Crewe implies that even if there are statistics which show a strong relationship, there may be faulty logic (such as, no men taking this wonder drug developed ovarian cancer). Therefore, we may conclude that we live in a world of imperfect systems. Causality is difficult because motives are difficult to understand. Similarly, concepts like social bonds are difficult to measure, as well as whether those bonds are with conformists or deviants. Therefore, the notion of cause is ambiguous. Crewe frequently offers witty and entertaining examples to illustrate his points. Chapter Three describes theories as metaphors filtered by an observer’s perception of a specific phenomenon. Note that the observer’s perception fits their own individual biases. It does not necessarily translate to any other audience member. Therefore, what makes sense to one person may or may not make sense to another person. Any explanation of criminology must avoid being reductive if it is to be accurate. Crewe begins his first assertion of how to explain phenomena by discussing Deleuze and Guattari’s contention that there is no such thing as a simple concept. For example, race is actually a process of racialization between the internal feelings of actors and their external expressions to others as well as all subsequent reactions. Concepts follow visions and images of what is criminal and what is not. Chapter Four analyzes the concept of will. Does pure free will exist or do influences exist? This chapter first addresses the 188 Reviews