Suchergebnisse

We examined the effects of child race, perpetrator race, and abuse disclosure status (within the context of a formal forensic interview) on abuse substantiation outcomes. Specifically, we coded child sexual abuse disclosure, abuse substantiation, and race of 315 children (80% girls, M age = 10, age range = 2–17; 75% White, 9% Black, 12% Biracial, 3% Hispanic, 1% Asian) who underwent a child forensic interview in a Midwestern child advocacy center. Supporting hypotheses, abuse substantiation was more likely in cases involving (a) abuse disclosure (vs. no disclosure), (b) White children (vs. children of color), and (c) perpetrators of color (vs. White perpetrators). Also supporting hypotheses, the effect of abuse disclosure on increased abuse substantiation was greater for White children than for children of color. This research suggests that even when children of color disclose their experiences of sexual abuse, they nonetheless face barriers to abuse substantiation.

The present study reflects an exploration of student race and attitudes toward the legal system as predictors of teachers' and administrators' support for police-to-student physical intervention. We experimentally manipulated student race (Black vs. White) in a hypothetical scenario depicting physical police intervention stemming from a student's misbehavior. Teachers and administrators were significantly more punitive (i.e., requested juvenile detention and expulsion) toward the Black student than the White student. Moreover, endorsement of police legitimacy and legal authoritarianism (LA) predicted increased punitive attitudes toward the student, the belief that the student is dangerous, perceived likelihood that the student would recidivate, and perceived appropriateness of police officer behavior. Finally, the relationships between police legitimacy, LA, and perceived police behavior appropriateness were stronger when the student was portrayed as Black than White.

"The Legacy of Racism for Children: Psychology, Law, and Public Policy is the first volume to review the intersecting implications of psychology, public policy, and law with the goal of understanding and ending the challenges facing racial minority youth in America today. Proceeding roughly from causes to consequences - from early life experiences to adolescent and teen experiences - each chapter focuses on a different domain, explains the laws and policies that create or exacerbate racial disparity in that domain, reviews relevant psychological research and its implications for those laws or policies, and calls for next steps. Chapter authors examine how race and ethnicity intersect with child maltreatment (including child sex trafficking, corporal punishment, and memory for and disclosures of abuse), child dependency court decisions, custody and adoption, familial incarceration, the "school to prison pipeline," police/youth interactions, jurors' perceptions of child and adolescent victims and defendants, and U.S. immigration law and policy"--

Because COVID triggered elevated rates of child abuse, but diminished rates of child abuse reporting, we explored predictors of nurses' attitudes toward reporting suspected child abuse during the COVID pandemic. In particular, we expected that compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction would mediate the effects of COVID-related stressors (i.e., exposure to COVID patient death and suffering; COVID-related family income loss; frequent direct care of COVID patients; and parental burnout) on nurses' negative attitudes toward reporting suspected child abuse. Employing chain-referral sampling, we recruited a sample of 244 registered nurses (83% White; 87% women). Supporting hypotheses, compassion fatigue mediated the effects of job-related COVID stressors (exposure to COVID patient death and suffering; COVID-related family income loss; and frequent direct care of COVID patients) on nurses' negative attitudes toward reporting suspected child abuse. In addition, among nurses who were also parents, nurses' self-reported parental burnout mediated the relation between compassion fatigue and negative attitudes toward reporting suspected child abuse. In addition, compassion satisfaction mediated the effect of nurses' parental burnout on nurses' negative attitudes toward reporting suspected child abuse.

Registered sex offenders' family members perceive themselves to be the direct targets of public scrutiny, ostracism, harassment, and employment discrimination. Study 1 offers a preliminary exploration of the stereotypes of registered sex offenders' romantic partners. Participants' open‐ended responses were coded and subjected to inter‐rater reliability, using a coding scheme that was both exploratory in nature, while also informed by theory and research. Partially supporting our hypotheses, participants primarily perceived sex offenders' romantic partners as fearful, vulnerable, deviant, and mentally ill, but also as good, forgiving people who want to help reform the offender. In Study 2, we developed an attitudes toward sex offenders' partners scale, designed to measure participants' endorsement of stereotypes about offenders' partners. As predicted, endorsement of negative stereotypes about offenders' romantic partners (i.e., that they are deviant and predatory, as well as fearful and vulnerable) predicted greater support for sex offender legislation and less support for hiring offenders' partners across a variety of employment contexts. Moreover, political conservatives were more likely than liberals to discriminate against offenders' partners in job hiring contexts—an effect statistically explained by conservatives' endorsement of negative stereotypes about offenders' partners.

We explore the possibility that disgust sensitivity predicts attitudes toward a stigmatized, yet vulnerable population: juvenile sex offenders. Participants were 125 undergraduates (66% women, M age = 19) who read a case depicting a 17‐year‐old boy convicted of aggravated child molestation for receiving oral sex from an intoxicated 15‐year‐old girl. Participants subsequently indicated the degree to which they supported registering the juvenile offender as a sex offender and completed a series of case judgments (i.e., belief the defendant is a threat, the dehumanizing belief the defendant is a superpredator, and defendant empathy). Finally, participants provided demographic information and completed the Disgust Sensitivity Scale. In line with our hypotheses, as disgust sensitivity increased, support for juvenile sex offender registration also increased. Yet, this relationship was explained by various mediating factors. Specifically, a series of models tested via path analysis showed that as disgust sensitivity increased, participants' were more likely to dehumanize the offender as a "superpredator" and experience diminished empathy. In turn, dehumanization and diminished empathy predicted the belief the defendant is a threat to society, which predicted greater registration support.

Although abuse prevention programs have proliferated, little research has explored the direct effects of such programs on actual child sexual abuse disclosure rates, and no research has explored the effects of such programs on child sexual abuse substantiation. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the present research reflects an exploration of the effects of exposure to the Think First and Stay Safe™ abuse prevention program on abuse disclosure rates of 319 children who underwent a child forensic interview within 2015–2018 in a Midwestern child advocacy center. Supporting our mediational hypotheses, children exposed (vs. not exposed) to the Think First and Stay Safe™ program were significantly more likely to disclose abuse during the forensic interview, which in turn predicted significantly increased abuse substantiation likelihood.