The forensic science needs of law enforcement applicants and recruits: A survey of Michigan law enforcement agencies

Many colleges and universities offer forensic science courses ranging from a single introductory class to majors. Previous research has not addressed how valuable these courses are to undergraduate criminal justice students who aspire to enter the law enforcement field. A random sample of law enforcement agencies in Michigan were surveyed. Seventy-eight percent of respondents agreed that knowledge of forensic science was important and 46% preferred that applicants have a forensic science background prior to hiring. The knowledge areas deemed most important were interviewing techniques, crime scene documentation, evidence collection, and latent fingerprint analysis.     

The effects of acute stretching on hamstring muscle fatigue and perceived exertion

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an acute stretching regime on hamstring muscle fatigue and rating of perceived exertion during a dynamic, sub-maximal bout of resistance exercise. Sixteen healthy males (age 25.7 +/- 4.3 years, height 1.81 +/- 0.06 m, body mass 87.5 +/- 15.1 kg; mean +/- s) and 16 healthy females (age 24.9 +/- 4.5 years, height 1.67 +/- 0.06 m, body mass 62.9 +/- 9.4 kg) volunteered to participate in two experimental sessions. After establishing their one-repetition maximum for the hamstring curl, the participants were assigned at random to one of two groups. Group 1 performed three bouts of 20 s hamstring stretches with the assistance of one of the investigators, while group 2 did not perform the stretches; instead, they sat resting for 3 min. Then, after stretching or resting, the participants performed as many hamstring curls as they could at 60% of their one-repetition maximum established earlier. All participants were assessed for their perceived exertion using a modified Borg category ratio (CR-10) scale. The participants returned within 1 week to complete the experiment. This time group 1 did not perform hamstring stretches, whereas group 2 did. As on the first occasion, all participants performed hamstring curls after stretching or resting. The participants in group 1 were able to perform more curls on the second day of testing than their counterparts in group 2. There were no significant differences between males and females or between the stretch and non-stretch conditions. There was a significantly higher first repetition rating of perceived exertion for the stretch condition (2.88 +/- 1.01) than for the non-stretch condition (2.50 +/- 0.95); there was no significant difference in the median ratings of perceived exertion between the stretch and non-stretch conditions. Significantly higher power function exponents were exhibited in the non-stretch (0.57 +/- 0.16) than in the stretch condition (0.51 +/- 0.12). In addition, females exhibited significantly higher power function exponents than males, irrespective of stretch condition and day (females: 0.59 +/- 0.12; males: 0.49 +/- 0.11). In conclusion, we found a small but statistically significant effect of an acute bout of stretching on ratings of perceived exertion during fatiguing hamstring muscle resistance exercise.     

Universities and the Professional Development of Teachers: credentialling and beyond

In recent times, in a context of salary award restructuring, government and employer concerns for raising the educational standards and skill levels of Australia's workforce through retraining, and changes in career patterns and pathways to promotion, attention has focused on the role of universities in continuing professional education (CPE). Typically, the focus has been on credentialling and opening up access to award courses in universities, but also there are implications for universities themselves and their educational interface with government and the education industry. This paper focuses on this aspect of current trends in the professional development of teachers and considers its implications for the universities, teacher employers and the profession. It also aims to go beyond credentialling in the professional development of teachers by addressing alternatives to credentialling by universities.     

Substance abuse and behavioral correlates of sexual assault among South African adolescents

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is twofold: first, to examine the prevalence of being the victim of actual and attempted rape among a large representative sample of Cape Town high school students; and second, to identify the correlates of sexual assault for both boys and girls, including alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, behavioral problems, and suicidality. METHOD: Data for this study were derived from the 1997 South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU) school survey. A stratified sampling procedure was used to select students in Grades 8 and 11 at non-private high schools in Cape Town. A total of 2,946 students completed a survey consisting of socio-demographic questions and items about substance abuse, sexual activity, and other adolescent health risk behaviors. A subsample of 939 was randomly selected to complete items about sexual violence. RESULTS: The results revealed that 8.4% of respondents were victims of attempted rape, while 5.8% were victims of actual rape. Ordinal logistic regression showed that girls were 3.9 times more likely than boys to have been victims of sexual abuse. Family structure was also significantly related to rape as persons who lived with a single parent (OR = 1.74, CI = 1.00-3.04) and those who resided with one biological parent and one step parent (OR = 2.59, CI = 1.34-5.01) were more likely to have been have been victims of sexual abuse than those living with both biological parents. Alcohol use (OR = 2.0, CI = 1.10-3.62), anti-social behavior (stolen property, caused physical damage to property, bullied others, or been in physical fights) (OR = 1.44, CI = 1.12-1.86), suicidal dialogue (OR = 2.48, CI = 1.19-5.19), and suicidal attempts (OR = 3.2, CI = 1.65-6.30) were also significant predictors of sexual abuse victimization. Racially classified social groups (RCSG), age, drug use, and cigarette smoking were not significant predictors of sexual abuse victimization, while socioeconomic status was found to be marginally significant. CONCLUSION: This study reinforces the importance of multiple factors including alcohol use, anti-social behavior, suicidal thoughts and actions, and family structure with respect to sexual assault of adolescents in South Africa. Establishing and strengthening intervention programs, school based child protective protocols, professional education of teachers and school personnel, community prevention programs, and initiatives could help prevent adolescent sexual violence and reduce the sequelae associated with this problem.     

The study of academic department performance

The paper proposes a systems model of academic department performance and reports an empirical test of the model in a set of 20 departments. Departmental input and process variables related to eight departmental outcomes were identified: (1) student satisfaction with their overall learning experience, (2) student satisfaction with faculty, (3) student satisfaction with academic advising, (4) student graduate school admissions ratio, (5) student employment in field ratio, (6) faculty satisfaction with departmental research quality, (7) faculty job satisfaction, and (8) degrees conferred per faculty member. The eight departmental outcomes were found to be largely independent of one another and predicted by relatively unique patterns of departmental characteristics. Salient among the correlates of departmental outcomes were faculty workload, tenure pattern, and disciplinary differences.Presented at the Nineteenth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Diego, California, May 1979.     

Emotional support and adult depression in survivors of childhood sexual abuse

The goals of this study were to evaluate the effects of emotional support from friends and parents at two time points (adolescence and adulthood) on adult depression in a nationally representative sample of survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and examine whether the associations were moderated by the identity of the perpetrator (parent/caregiver vs. not). Data were taken from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The study sample included 1,238 Add Health participants with a history of CSA and an equivalently sized comparison group of individuals with no history of CSA. Parental support was measured using four items from each wave that assessed the warmth of participants’ relationships with their parents and their satisfaction with those relationships. Friend support in adolescence was measured using participants’ perceptions of how much their friends cared about them and in adulthood using participants’ self-reported number of close friends. Depression was measured using a 10-item subscale of the CES-D. Logistic regressions showed that support from friends and parents in adulthood were significantly associated with lower odds of adult depression in CSA survivors who reported non-parent/caregiver abuse. Among survivors of parent/caregiver abuse, emotional support was not significantly associated with adult depression regardless of when or by whom it was provided. In conclusion, emotional support in adulthood from friends and parents is associated with reduced odds of adult depression in CSA survivors, but only in cases where the abuse was perpetrated by someone other than a parent or caregiver.     

Zinc phosphate dental cements

A spectrophotometric method of determining total visual transmission and visual density of non-neutral light filters is described. In addition, this method is utilized in determining density and gamma intensification produced by tones in color motion picture work and the importance of intensification control is emphasized.     

Analyzing repeat consumption of identical cultural goods: some exploratory evidence from moviegoing

This study offers a preliminary exploration of repeat consumption of identical cultural goods, specifically moviegoing. The term ‘identical’ in this study refers to cases where, for example, individuals view the same film at a movie theater, in a short time interval, on more than one occasion i.e. experiencing the cultural good in precisely the same format. It is not meant to embrace the case of individuals who, for example, view a particular film at a movie theater and then see it some time later in another format, such as via a DVD player. The repeat viewing phenomenon is discussed and then considered empirically. Films aimed predominantly at children attract the highest number of repeat views, while those aimed at an older audience attract significantly fewer repeat views. The profile of repeat viewers of the 10 films which attracted the greatest number of repeat viewers was subject to more detailed scrutiny. In general, repeat viewers tend to be younger but the gender balance differs markedly according to film content. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 3rd European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics, University of Oviedo in Aviles, Spain 14–16 June 2007 and the 9th International Conference on Arts and Cultural Management (AIMAC), Fundación Universidad Empresa (ADEIT), Valencia, Spain 8–11 July 2007. We are grateful for comments received and the usual caveat applies.