OBJECTIVES: This study examined the extent to which being abused and/or neglected in childhood increases a person's risk for promiscuity, prostitution, and teenage pregnancy. METHODS: A prospective cohorts design was used to match, on the basis of age, race, sex, and social class, cases of abused and/or neglected children from 1967 to 1971 with nonabused and nonneglected children; subjects were followed into young adulthood. From 1989 to 1995 1196 subjects (676 abused and/or neglected and 520 control subjects were located and interviewed. RESULTS: Early childhood abuse and/or neglect was a significant predictor of prostitution for females (odds ratio [OR] = 2.96). For females, sexual abuse (OR = 2.54) and neglect (OR = 2.58) were associated with prostitution, whereas physical abuse was only marginally associated. Childhood abuse and neglect were not associated with increased risk for promiscuity or teenage pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: These findings strongly support a relationship between childhood victimization and subsequent prostitution. The presumed causal sequence between childhood victimization and teenage pregnancy may need to be reevaluated.

Research on procedural justice and legitimacy has expanded greatly across the social sciences in recent years. The process-based model of regulation, which links people's assessments of procedural justice and legitimacy to their compliance with the law and legal authorities, has become particularly influential in criminology and sociolegal studies. A review of the previous research on perceived legitimacy highlights two important features. First, legitimacy has been conceptualized and measured in many different ways. Second, most of the research on legitimacy has focused on only a handful of developed nations. Using survey data from Trinidad and Tobago, this article examines the conceptualization and measurement of the perceived legitimacy of the law and legal authorities. The findings indicate that some of the prominent conceptual and measurement models used in previous research are not empirically valid in the Trinidadian context. The implications of the results for conceptualization, theory, and future research are discussed.Wi th roots in philosophy, political theory, and social psychology, the idea of legitimacy occupies an important role in scholarship across the social sciences, including psychology (e

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To date, most community policing research has taken place in large urban areas. Only a handful of studies, most using case study or small-N cross-sectional methodologies, have explored patterns of community policing in the small police agencies and nonurban areas that exist throughout much of the United States. Using data from the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, this study examines levels and patterns of community policing implementation in a sample of nearly 6,000 American law enforcement agencies serving populations less than 50,000. The authors find significant variations in levels of community policing activity by geographic region and department size, with larger agencies and those from the Western region of the United States practicing a wider range of community-policing-related activities. The implications of these findings are discussed for three areas: future research on the police, current federal community policing programs and policies, and the broader community policing reform movement.

Alcohol toxicology test results remain an important method for measuring the success of efforts to manage the consequences of alcohol. However, future toxicology studies should focus upon collecting information on evidence processing time, establishing measurement standards for reporting data and ensuring that subgroup estimates are included for purposes of cross-site comparisons.

This study meta-analyzes 23 independent studies that included information from 28,265 homicide offenders across nine countries. On average, 48% of homicide offenders were reportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offense and 37% were intoxicated. We found no demographic variations across age, gender, or race, although the proportion testing positive within the United States appears to be decreasing over time. Further, the proportion of offenders who were under the influence of alcohol was lower among those who committed the homicide with a firearm. Communities that have high homicide rates should work to reduce alcohol consumption rates.

Contingency theory argues that the performance of an organization is contingent on how well it fits the context within which it is embedded. This study explores the public-safety concerns of nearly 6,000 law enforcement agencies serving populations less than 50,000. Property offenses, domestic violence, and drugs were the most frequently reported concerns, whereas gangs and violent crimes were often ranked lower. Rankings of public-safety concerns varied across agencies and were affected by population density, violent and property crime, type of agency, department size, and region. Findings suggest that the context in which police organizations are located plays a role in shaping public-safety concerns, which is an important step in broadening our knowledge about the priorities, goals, and behaviors of police organizations.

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