Crime-related perceptions and walking for recreation inside and outside one's home neighborhood.

It is widely assumed crime and related concerns, including neighborhood incivilities and fear of crime, are barriers to physical activity (PA). Past studies reveal mixed evidence. Studies of impacts for crime-protective factors are less common but have similarly mixed results.

Predicting initiation to treatment for youth on probation: A multi-level approach.

Background: Previous research on youth involved in the juvenile legal system (JLS), who have higher substance use prevalence than other adolescents, has focused on treatment outcomes post-initiation. Scant research has examined factors affecting treatment initiation following JLS referral. The current work addresses this gap by estimating net impacts of state, site, and client attributes on initiating treatment.

Crime and physical activity measures from the SAFE and Fit Environments Study (SAFE): Psychometric properties across age groups.

Valid and reliable measures are needed to better understand the relationship between physical activity and crime. This paper provides a comprehensive psychometric evaluation of measures developed in the Safe and Fit Environments (SAFE) Study to assess a crime-PA conceptual framework. In addition to assessing the basic psychometric properties of each measure (e.

Crime and Physical Activity: Development of a Conceptual Framework and Measures.

Background: A common hypothesis is that crime is a major barrier to physical activity, but research does not consistently support this assumption. This article advances research on crime-related safety and physical activity by developing a multilevel conceptual framework and reliable measures applicable across age groups.

Methods: Criminologists and physical activity researchers collaborated to develop a conceptual framework.

The Longitudinal Association between Perceived Powerlessness and Sexual Risk Behaviors among Urban Youth: Mediating and Moderating Effects.

A distal psychosocial factor, perceived powerlessness, has been found to predict various sexual risk behaviors among youth, yet no studies have assessed mediators or moderators in this relationship. Using a demographically diverse, longitudinal sample of urban youth (N = 257), this study assessed whether the need for sexual validation mediates the relationship between perceived powerlessness and sexual risk behaviors and to assess whether this mediated pathway is moderated by socioeconomic status and gender. The mean age of the participants was 21 years old (range: 15-24) and the majority of the sample identified as Black (65%) and female (62%).

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and invariance assessment of the perceived powerlessness scale among youth in Baltimore.

Generalized perceived powerlessness is an important psychosocial construct that determines a wide range of health behaviors and outcomes. This study has two aims: (1) examine the structure of the newly developed perceived powerlessness scale using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and (2) assess the scale's invariance across key demographic variables using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis among a random household sample of African American and White youth (aged 15-24 years) residing in Baltimore, MD. Our study results demonstrated that the powerlessness scale is valid among a demographically diverse sample of urban youth, showing promise for use in future health behavior and outcome studies.

The Development of an HIV Risk Environment Scale of Exotic Dance Clubs.

Exotic dancers have received little research attention despite evidence of high-risk behaviours within exotic dance clubs (EDCs). We developed and assessed the reliability and validity of a risk environment score, examining differences between dancers (n = 107) and other staff (n = 172). In the summer of 2013, anonymous surveys were administered via A-CASI in EDCs (N = 26) in Baltimore among exotic dancers and staff.

Variable links within perceived police legitimacy?: fairness and effectiveness across races and places.

This work examines connections between two threads of community residents' perceptions of local police legitimacy, effectiveness and procedural fairness, and how those links depend on race, place, and race/place combinations. Previous works have connected these two threads, but have failed (a) to explore the variability of that connection by race, place, and race/place combinations across communities spanning the urban to suburban to rural continuum or (b) to model mutual influence. An extension of the group position thesis and work on minority views of police practices suggest how these variations might be patterned.

Neighborhood drug markets: a risk environment for bacterial sexually transmitted infections among urban youth.

We hypothesized that neighborhoods with drug markets, as compared to those without, have a greater concentration of infected sex partners, i.e. core transmitters, and that in these areas, there is an increased risk environment for STIs.

The available pool of sex partners and risk for a current bacterial sexually transmitted infection.

Purpose: Sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission models propose that incident STIs are related to exposure to infected sex partners. The objective of this study was to determine whether the prevalence of STIs among the available pool of sex partners in a neighborhood, measured indirectly, is an independent determinant of a current incident STI.

Methods: The target population comprised 58,299 English-speaking, sexually active 15- to 24-year-olds in 486 census block groups (CBGs) in Baltimore, MD.

Perceived social cohesion and prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases.

Background: Although physical attributes have been shown to be associated with sexually transmitted disease (SD) rates, there is little information about the association between social attributes and STD rates.

Goal: The objective of this study was to determine the association between gonorrhea prevalence and perceptions of social cohesion in impoverished, urban neighborhoods.

Study Design: We conducted a street-based survey of 18- to 24-year-olds residing in selected census block groups in Baltimore City, Maryland.