SAGE Podcast

Author Ted Goertzel discusses his article from the February 2013 issue of Homicide Studies, Homicide Booms and Busts: A Small-N Comparative Historical Study. Homicide booms and busts are long-term phenomena that can best be studied with comparative historical methods. They cannot easily be explained by enduring socioeconomic inequalities because these persist during boom and bust periods alike. Historical changes that may help to lower homicide rates in the long run sometimes cause homicide booms in the short term. Modern policing methods have helped to end homicide booms without first resolving underlying social problems, but this may be possible only when the conditions are propitious. http://hsx.sagepub.com/content/17/1/59.abstract

Author Shana Maier discusses her article from the December 2012 issue of Violence Against Women, The Complexity of Victim-Questioning Attitudes by Rape Victim Advocates: Exploring Some Gray Areas. Despite efforts to educate and create community awareness, rape myths and victim-blaming attitudes persist in society. This research explores whether advocates express victim-questioning attitudes or questions, negative judgment, or frustration regarding victims’ behavior or choices. Data from interviews with 58 advocates reveal that the majority (76%) of advocates never expressed any victim-questioning attitudes during the interview. However, responses from 14 advocates (24%) show that victim-questioning has evolved into a much more complex, subtle form than historical victim blaming or acceptance of rape myths. http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/18/12/1413.abstract

Author Lindsay Sewall discusses her article from the February 2013 issue of Sexual Abuse, A Test of Two Typologies of Sexual Homicide. Published typologies of sexual homicide lack theoretical grounding and empirical support. They also conceptualize the phenomenon of sexual homicide as somewhat discrete, though offenders are not typically specialists. Here, we propose a model that situates the phenomenon of sexual killing into broader categories of antisocial behavior, positing three types of perpetrators of serial sexual homicides: competitively disadvantaged, psychopathic, and sadistic offenders. Using biographical data of 82 serial sexual homicide offenders, we tested our model as well as the influential organized/disorganized model. Principal components analysis produced five components consisting of offender and offense characteristics, and cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups of perpetrators (sadistic offenders, competitively disadvantaged offenders, and slashers), as well as a fourth, heterogeneous group; this cluster solution, however, may be unstable. In summary, there is only mixed support for either model. http://sax.sagepub.com/content/25/1/82.abstract

Dr. Rebecca Jacobsen and Dr. Tamara Young discuss their special issue in Educational Policy on "The Politics of Accountability."

In this podcast, Nicola Botting discusses the dynamic assessment of preschoolers proficiency in learning English (DAPPLE) with Natalie Hasson and Bernard Camilleri, two of the authors of the article published in volume 29 issue 1 of Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

In the editorial Introduction to Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies, published in 2001, can be found the exemplary statement that among the norms for acquiring scientific knowledge is "skepticism (all claims should be scrutinized for errors)". In this article, I address a section relating to historical contentions in the same volume that, I argue, fails to live up to this basic standard of scholarly research. It is now quite widely believed that Mileva Marić, Einstein's first wife, played an active role in Einstein's early scientific work until well after they married in 1903. Some commentators go so far as to argue that she coauthored his three major 1905 papers, while others contend that she solved the mathematical problems for him. I examine the claims made in relation to Marić in the section in question in the above-cited volume, and investigate the sources of the evidential claims that have been adduced to support them. I conclude that the several claims are without reliable evidential bases.

Kristl Davison on peer evaluations in classroom teams: a distributive justice perspective.

Author Kim Anderson discusses her article from the November 2012 issue of Violence Against Women, Recovery: Resilience and Growth in the Aftermath of Domestic Violence. This mixed-methods study explored the recovery process and outcomes for 37 women formerly in an abusive intimate partner relationship. Standardized measures of current psychosocial functioning indicated participants were largely asymptomatic for posttraumatic stress disorder and had relatively strong resilience. Qualitative analysis revealed how social and spiritual support was instrumental to participants’ recovery, growth, and resilience. Implications for helping professionals include gaining a more comprehensive understanding of recovery from domestic violence. This type of knowledge may contribute to interventions that build on women’s strengths and resourcefulness. http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/18/11/1279.abstract

Author Jessica Hardie discusses her article from the January 2013 issue of Sociology of Education, Other People's Racism: Race, Rednecks, and Riots in a Southern High School. This article uses data drawn from nine months of fieldwork and student, teacher, and administrator interviews at a southern high school to analyze school racial conflict and the construction of racism. We find that institutional inequalities that stratify students by race and class are routinely ignored by school actors who, we argue, use the presence of so-called redneck students to plausibly deny racism while furthering the standard definition of racism as blatant prejudice and an individual trait. The historical prominence of rednecks as a southern cultural identity augments these claims, leading to an implicit division of school actors into friendly/nonracist and unfriendly/racist and allowing school actors to set boundaries on the meaning of racism. Yet these rhetorical practices and the institutional structures they mask contributed to racial tensions, culminating in a race riot during our time at the school. http://soe.sagepub.com/content/86/1/83.abstract

Author Bridget Goosby discusses her article from the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Early Life Course Pathways of Adult Depression and Chronic Pain. Applying cumulative inequality theory, this study examines the extent to which childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and maternal depression increase the risk of major depression and chronic pain in U.S. working-aged adults. Further, I assess whether low socioeconomic status amplifies the risk of adult depression and/or pain. Using data from the 2003 National Comorbidity Survey Replication (N=4339), I find that socioeconomic disadvantage and maternal depression during youth increases the risk of adult depression and/or chronic pain. The probability of having chronic pain increases in magnitude over the life course for adults whose parents have lower educational attainment relative to those with more highly educated parents. Childhood socioeconomic circumstances are not completely explained by adulthood socioeconomic status indicators. These findings help illustrate the far-reaching influence of childhood context on adult physical and mental health. http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/54/1/75.abstract

Author Emily Rauscher discusses her article from the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Genetic Interactions with Prenatal Social Environment: Effects on Academic and Behavioral Outcomes. Numerous studies report gene-environment interactions, suggesting that specific alleles have different effects on social outcomes depending on environment. In all these studies, however, environmental conditions are potentially endogenous to unmeasured genetic characteristics. That is, it could be that the observed interaction effects actually reflect underlying genetic tendencies that lead individuals into certain environments. What is critical to move this literature forward is random environmental variation that we know is not correlated with innate characteristics of subjects. We exploit a natural experiment that randomizes a particular stressor—birth weight discordance within twin pairs—to address this challenge and ask: Do random differences in early environment (prenatal nutrition) moderate genetic effects on depression, delinquency, or GPA? Using Add Health data, the only consistently significant allele–birth weight interaction we reveal works in the opposite direction of Caspi et al.'s classic finding regarding the interaction of maltreatment with genetic variation in the serotonin transporter promoter. Less robust interactions found for DRD2 and MAOA are consistent with this pattern that reverses prior findings. These results do not necessarily overturn existing research but support our methodological point that gene-environment research must address endogeneity. http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/54/1/109.abstract

Dr. Brett Owens discusses 5 articles from the March 2013 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 5 minutes.

Dr. Peter J. Millett discusses his article from the March 2013 issue of AJSM, The "Bony Bankart Bridge" Technique for Restoration of Anterior Shoulder Stability. Background: Bony deficiency of the anteroinferior glenoid rim can cause recurrent glenohumeral instability. To address this problem, bony reconstruction is recommended in patients with glenoid bone loss more than 20% to 25%. Recent advances in shoulder surgery techniques allow for the arthroscopic reconstruction of glenoid bone defects to restore stability. http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/01/22/0363546512472880.abstract

David Houchins and Margaret Shippen, Co-Editors of the November 2012 special issue on the School-to-Prison Pipeline, speak with a few of the participating authors, David Osher, Simon Gonsoulin, and Brenda Townsend Walker.

Tom Angotti, issue editor of the March 2013 Latin American Perspectives, and author Alfonso Valenzuela Aguilera discuss the March 2013 issue titled "Urban Latin America: Violence, Enclaves, and Struggles for Land," with Armando Alvarez, Outreach Coordinator for LAP.