Publications by authors named "Wesley Jennings"

Despite the wealth of research investigating the adverse consequences of bullying, few studies have tested how bullying victimization is related to risky sexual behavior, such as unprotected sex among adolescents. To fill this gap, the current study examined the association between bullying victimization and the non-use of condoms, considering the moderating role of teacher and parental relationships. We employed a series of logistic regression models to examine these relationships among a sample of sexually active Korean adolescents (n = 153; ages 11-17 years old).

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Intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) is a concerning, yet understudied form of intimate partner violence. Using data from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), the current study builds on prior research to explore variation in tactics used to facilitate IPSV and their relationship with physical and mental health outcomes. Further, this study examines sex differences in both tactics and their associated health outcomes.

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Despite a recent growth in studies on cyberbullying, extant knowledge on the underlying mechanisms of cyberbullying remain limited. The objective of the present study is to explore the dynamics of cyberbullying via traditional bullying, self-control, and delinquent peer association. Specifically, the following hypotheses guide the present study: (1) traditional bullying, low self-control, and delinquent peer association are predictive of cyberbullying, respectively, (2) the interaction between traditional bullying and low self-control has a significant impact on cyberbullying, and (3) the interaction between traditional bullying and delinquent peer association has a significant impact on cyberbullying.

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This review aims to synthesize the evaluation evidence for parent-engagement programs that focus on reducing juvenile truancy as the primary outcome. Delinquent behavior will be assessed as a secondary outcome when included. This objective is guided by the following research questions: (1) what is the effectiveness of parent-engagement programs for children in preschool (ages 4-5) through secondary education (ages 13-19) on primarily (a) reducing student truancy (i.

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Purpose: The aim of this review was to estimate the effect of COVID-19-related restrictions (i.e., stay at home orders, lockdown orders) on reported incidents of domestic violence.

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During pandemics, like COVID-19, law enforcement agencies are responsible for working with government and public health officials to contain spread, serve the local community, and maintain public order. Given the person-to-person spread of COVID-19 through respiratory droplets, law enforcement officers are also at a heightened risk of exposure due to their close contact with members of the public. To protect officers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies have made numerous recommendations for law enforcement agencies to protect officers and the public.

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One of the goals of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was to improve law enforcement responses to sexual and domestic violence by providing funding to expand prevention, enhance investigations, and increase victim services. Since VAWA's enactment, police responses to these crimes have evolved, including officer responses to victims and offenders, and various agency operations. This article highlights some noteworthy changes in law enforcement related to facilitating victim reporting, enhancing victim advocacy and services, crime reduction and investigative tools, supplementing personnel and training, and encouraging multiagency collaborations as a result of VAWA.

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Purpose: To examine the longitudinal relationship between depression, delinquency, and trajectories of delinquency among Hispanic children and adolescents.

Methods: Propensity score matching is used to match depressed and non-depressed youth and a combination of group-based trajectory and multinomial logistic regression techniques are used.

Results: After adjusting for pre-existing differences between depressed and non-depressed youth, the causal relationship between depression and delinquency and the association between depression and trajectories of delinquency appears to be largely spurious.

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The current study assessed attrition in batterer intervention treatment programs (BIPs). The influence of 25 risk and protective factors on treatment "no shows," "dropouts," and "completers" were examined for a large sample of male and female intimate partner violence offenders ( = 1,553). Multinomial regression analysis demonstrated that the relationship between risk/protective factors and treatment engagement was different across most factors: No shows were less likely to have a high school diploma/general educational development (GED), be employed, or to be on probation, and more likely to report a mental health problem, or have a history of drug crimes than completers (but not dropouts), while dropouts were more likely to have a history of general violence or property crimes than completers (but not no-shows).

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The American prison system is overcrowded with minorities in general, and African Americans, in particular. The Department of Justice notes that more than 50% of the prison population have some type of mental disability. In this study, we examine the intersection between race and disabilities in the U.

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Previous empirical inquiries into the etiology of juvenile sex offending have been largely atheoretical. Consequently, a call for studies conducted utilizing developmental and life-course (DLC) criminological theory has been made to better understand the onset, development, risk, and protective factors of juvenile sex offending. Therefore, this study contributes to the discussion by testing key predictions proposed by the DLC framework regarding the theoretical correlates of early onset offending, as applied to juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) and juvenile nonsex offenders (JNSOs).

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There has been a considerable amount of scholarly attention to the relationship between neighborhood effects and conduct disorder, particularly in recent years. Having said this, it has been nearly two decades since a comprehensive synthesis of this literature has been conducted. Relying on a detailed and comprehensive search strategy and inclusion criteria, this article offers a systematic and interdisciplinary review of 47 empirical studies that have examined neighborhood effects and conduct disorder.

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Objectives: To examine how sublethal use-of-force patterns vary across officer-civilian race/ethnicity while accounting for officer-, civilian-, and situational-level factors.

Methods: We extracted cross-sectional data from 5630 use-of-force reports from the Dallas Police Department in 2014 and 2015. We categorized each officer-civilian interaction into race/ethnicity dyads.

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Two prominent criminological theories offer time discounting, or the preference for an immediate reward over a later one, as a central part of understanding involvement in criminal activity. Yet, there exist only a few studies investigating this issue, and they are limited in a few respects. The current study extends prior work in this area by using multiple measures of time discounting collected at three different periods of the life course to examine the link to criminal offending into late middle adulthood in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development.

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Using a cycle of violence framework, we investigated experiences with physical intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, perpetration, and both IPV victimization and perpetration (IPV overlap). Data included the U.S.

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Background: In this commentary, we discuss a study by Caetano and colleagues (in press) that examines the relation between depression, employment status, and drinking behaviors among adults (aged 18 to 64) living in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Methods: We discuss the contribution of Caetano and colleagues' (in press) study to the understanding of socioeconomic risk and protective factors associated with depression and drinking behaviors among Hispanics, specifically Puerto Ricans. We focus on 3 topics: (i) gender differences in the relation between depression and employment status, (ii) the relation between participation in the workforce and drinking behaviors, and (iii) the potential role of family and contextual factors mitigating the effects of unemployment on drinking behaviors.

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The current study examined the role of race in juvenile court outcomes across 3 decision-making stages. This analysis was conducted with a random sample of all delinquent referrals in a Northeast state from January 2000 through December 2010 (N = 68,188). In addition to traditional logistic regression analysis, a propensity score matching (PSM) approach was utilized to create comparable samples of Black and White youth and provide a more rigorous methodological test of the relationship between race and juvenile court processing.

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The link between child sexual abuse and adult intimate partner violence surfaces throughout prior research. Nonetheless, methodologies investigating this cycle of violence predominantly involve descriptive, correlational, or traditional regression-based analyses that preclude more definitive statements about the empirical relationship between child sexual abuse and adult partner violence. In recognition of these limitations, the current study presents a quasi-experimental investigation into the relationship between sexual abuse in childhood and physical partner violence victimization and/or perpetration in young adulthood.

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Intimate partner violence disproportionately occurs among young adults and relates to a range of health and behavioral problems throughout the life course. Although numerous studies substantiate the prevailing cycle of violence perspective, methodological limitations in prior research prohibit the conclusion of a causal relationship between childhood physical maltreatment and dating violence perpetration and victimization in young adulthood. The current research applies a quasi-experimental propensity score matching approach to a large sample of young adults ( n = 4,168) to isolate the causal effect of childhood physical maltreatment on dating violence perpetration and victimization.

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Current sex offending legislation and public opinion present an image of sexual offenders as specialized predators who are likely to exhibit continued sexually deviant behavior over the life-course. Although sex offending continuity and post-release recidivism has been independently assessed in prior research, the potential link between sex offending continuity and post-release recidivism has yet to be investigated. Using data collected at two different time points from a sample of sex offenders who served a prison sentence for an adult sex offense, the present study examines the prevalence of sex offending continuity, and its potential linkages with subsequent sex and general recidivism as well as identifying risk factors related to these outcomes.

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Much research has examined Moffitt's developmental taxonomy, focusing almost exclusively on the distinction between life-course persistent and adolescence-limited offenders. Of interest, a handful of studies have identified a group of individuals whose early childhood years were marked by extensive antisocial behavior but who seemed to recover and desist (at least from severe offending) in adolescence and early adulthood. We use data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to examine the adult adjustment outcomes of different groups of offenders, including a recoveries group, in late middle adulthood, offering the most comprehensive investigation of this particular group to date.

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A small body of prior research has examined the impact of victim sex on jury death penalty decision-making and the majority of this research has demonstrated some evidence of a "female victim effect" such that cases involving a female victim are more likely to receive the death penalty than similarly situated cases with a male victim. However, within this line of research studies have suggested that victim sex may work in conjunction with other case characteristics. In order to further explore this phenomenon, the current study examines a near-population of death penalty cases from North Carolina (n=1069) from 1977-2009 using propensity score matching.

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