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Girls are becoming involved in the juvenile justice system at a remarkable rate. As a result, the juvenile justice system must become more responsive to their physical, mental, and educational needs. Many of these girls bare been victims of childhood emotional, sexual, or physical abuse resulting in serious mental health problems. This article describes a psycho-educational group intervention designed for adolescent girls involved in the juvenile justice system that bare been affected by childhood abuse. The intervention takes place in a residential program for delinquent girls and is a voluntary group. The psycho-education format allows for the participants to gain information about what abuse is and what the impact of abuse can be on their thoughts and actions. The group format provides a supportive environment that promotes group curative factors and mutual aid. KEYWORDS group trauma intervention, gender-specific treatment, abuse, gift delinquency, mental health and delinquency DOI: 10.1080/01609510903092972

This article discusses the American people's attitude regarding both heterosexual and homosexual pornographic videos. The authors maintain the results of their study show more people feel pornography is harmful and pornographic videos should not be made readily available. In addition the opinions are heavily influenced by religious beliefs.

A case management model that the Florida Dept of Corrections Correctional Mental Health Institute (CMHI) developed to improve care for acute psychiatric inmates is presented. Findings that the new approach has reduced length of stay by almost 27% are discussed. Case studies are included.

A survey of Hispanics' opinions, conducted with awareness of differences in countries of origin, indicates no broad differences within the group. Despite this finding, it is important to remember that social workers have to remember the ethnic specificities of their clients. Social service research should also be crafted with this awareness. The major differences in opinion were along gender lines. Crime was seen as the biggest problem facing the country with many women believing that things were improving.

The process-based model of self-regulation has been evaluated throughout various agencies of the criminal justice system. However, the model has yet to be tested within jails. The goal of the current study is to fill this gap in the literature. Using a sample of 290 men and women incarcerated in a county jail, this study examines the association between inmates' procedural justice perceptions of detention officers and their commitment to institutional rules. Results suggest that net of demographic factors, prior misconduct, and a set release date, procedural justice is the strongest predictor of self-regulation in jails. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of life (QOL) is an important area of exploration in U.S. corrections linked closely to well-being and an important indicator of intervention efficacy. Little is known of QOL in U.S. jails despite the admittance of over 10-million people to these settings every year. Research regarding the dimensions, correlates, and gender disparities in QOL in jails is important to shaping gender-responsive supports and reducing recidivism. Independent t tests and correlational and regression analyses were used to explore dimensions, correlates, and gender disparities in QOL among persons incarcerated in a large, southeastern jail (N = 299). All QOL domains were significantly related to overall QOL, and psychological QOL contributed most readily to respondent's overall QOL. Females, on average, reported lower QOL than males with significant differences between the groups in physical health and psychological domains. The importance of psychological QOL intervention and healthcare continuity are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have examined whether social ties influence concerns about reentry among women in prison. Given that a systematic understanding of reentry has the potential to inform research and policy efforts to assist women with transition, this gap is limiting. Our study addresses this void by testing whether social support affects reentry concerns (family, employment, financial, and stigma) among incarcerated women. Results indicate that visits reduced all concerns; receiving letters had a less consistent effect, but they too, were associated with reduced worry. In addition, experiencing multiple types of support influenced reentry concerns among women. Research and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects associated with a trauma and abuse-focused psychoeducation group for incarcerated women on decreasing trauma symptoms. A total of 320 women participated in 34 groups in five prisons that followed a manualized intervention. A one-group pretest–posttest design was used to examine changes on 10 Trauma Symptom Inventory subscales (Anxious Arousal, Depression, Anger/Irritability, Intrusive Experiences, Defensive Avoidance, Dissociation, Sexual Concerns, Dysfunctional Sexual Behavior, Impaired Self-Reference, and Tension Reduction Behavior). Analyses indicated significant improvement on all 10 trauma subscales. Small effect sizes were found on all of the subscales. The findings of this study are encouraging and are the first step toward more rigorous evaluation of this pilot program. These findings provide initial support for the use of group psychoeducation intervention to address traumatic stress symptoms with incarcerated women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious offenders, especially incarcerated individuals, are rarely asked to judge the procedural justice of the police and courts. While serious offenders are rarely studied, even more uncommon are assessments of serious female offenders. In addition, despite a fair amount of research on perceptions of the procedural justice of the police and courts, little research has examined the spill-over of police effects onto the perceptions of the courts. This paper aims to bridge these gaps, by examining a sample of female inmates’ perceptions of the police and courts, and the spill-over of perceptions of the police onto perceptions of the courts. Results indicate that female offenders’ procedural justice perceptions are significantly influenced by their perceived honesty of police officers and the judge, and their perceived opportunity to have their voice heard in police and court encounters. There also appears to be a significant spill-over of police effects onto perceptions about the courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-hundred and ninety-two incarcerated women who were participating in a trauma and abuse psychoeducation program were evaluated for childhood abuse, maltreatment and current dissociative symptoms. The link between childhood abuse and adult criminal behavior has been well studied but the mental health status of adult female inmates and the possible implications for their treatment and behavior is the next step. The participants reported high levels of childhood abuse, 68% reported molestation, 72% rape, 26% emotional abuse, 51% physical abuse. Almost half of the participants reported a clinically significant level of dissociative symptoms. The dissociative group was found to have higher rates of sexual, emotional and physical abuse. They were younger and had shorter sentences. A logistic regression model was developed with only physical abuse being a predictor of clinically significant dissociative symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of how the high level of dissociative symptoms may impact future delinquency and corrections staff and possible future research. doi:10.1300/J229v08n03_02 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the opinions of men and women from a random phone sample of super voters (those persons voting in the last three out of four possible elections) in Florida (N = 413) toward gay men and/or lesbians as adoptive parents. The survey gathered information on whether the respondents would place boys or girls available for adoption with gay men or lesbians. Controlling for various demographic variables, bivariate logistic regressions were performed for each possible parent/child combination. Several variables were consistently significant across the models tested, explaining from 22 to 29% of the variance. These included race/ethnicity, religious identification, respondent's gender, and political ideology. Implications of this study for policy-makers and child welfare practitioners are posited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental claim made in support of private prisons is that they reduce state inmate recidivism. Current knowledge on this empirical question is limited to three prior studies with problematic methodologies. To test this claim better, we use multiple measures of exposure to private prisons to define and analyze multiple treatment/comparison groups of private and public prison inmates. Multivariate survival analysis, controlling for a range of recidivism covariates wider than the prior studies included, is used to compare reoffense and reimprisonment rate differences in a large cohort of Florida prison inmates released from 1995 to 2001. No significant recidivism rate differences are found between private and public prison inmates for adult males, adult females, or youthful offender males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation is an empirical evaluation of Esuba, an abuse awareness program implemented in the Florida correctional system. Research has indicated a link between violent and abusive behavior and criminal activity. This study specifically addressed whether the Esuba program had an impact on offenders' self-esteem, stability of self, faith in people, and sensitivity to criticism as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The results from the application of the Esuba program to an incarcerated offender population are encouraging. The results suggest that the Esuba program does appear to significantly increase offenders' emotional self-preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]