Place matters: Contextualizing the roles of religion and race for understanding Americans' attitudes about homosexuality.

As laws and policies related to homosexuality have evolved, Americans' attitudes have also changed. Race and religion have been established as important indicators of feelings about homosexuality. However, researchers have given almost no attention to how county characteristics shape Americans' attitudes.

Religiosity and reactions to terrorism.

Although many of the world's most serious outbreaks of conflict and violence center on religion, social science research has had relatively little to say about religion's unique role in shaping individuals' attitudes about these events. In this paper we investigate whether Americans' religious beliefs play a central role in shaping attitudes toward the continuing threat of terrorism and their willingness to assist officials in countering these perceived threats. Our analysis of an original data collection of almost 1600 Americans shows that more religious respondents are more likely to express concerns about terrorism.

Reactions to research participation in victims of childhood sexual abuse.

We examined whether adults with a documented or self-reported history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) report more emotional reactions and negative responses to research participation and whether psychiatric symptoms play a moderating role in their reactions. Using a prospective cohort design, individuals with documented histories of CSA and non-abused matched controls were followed up and interviewed in adulthood (n = 460). Reactions to research participation were measured with a brief questionnaire.

Procedural justice in mental health courts: judicial practices, participant perceptions, and outcomes related to mental health recovery.

Research on mental health courts (MHCs) to date has been disproportionately focused on the study of recidivism and reincarceration over the potential of these problem solving courts to facilitate the recovery process and affect the slope of recovery. This study attempts to shift the focal point of interest from well-established criminal justice outcomes to the experiences and perceptions of MHC participants. The authors hypothesize that the actions of MHC judges that are consistent with procedural justice theory will engender high perceptions of procedural justice among this sample of divertees with SMI.

Competency to stand trial among female inpatients.

Competency to stand trial evaluations are conducted by forensic mental health professionals to opine whether defendants possess the mental abilities to understand, appreciate, and reason in regard to their court proceedings. The majority of research on competency to stand trial evaluations has focused on males, with research on female defendants being relatively underexplored. Even less is known of diverse female samples referred for competency evaluation.

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA): Online Research Data, Tools, and References.

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) currently archives over 400 local, national, and international data files, and offers a wide range of research tools to build surveys, preview data on-line, develop customized maps and reports of U.S. church membership, and examine religion differences across nations and regions of the world.

Cross-National Moral Beliefs: The Influence of National Religious Context.

International surveys have documented wide variation in religious beliefs and practices across nations, but does this variation in the national religious context make a difference? Building on existing theory we explain why religion should have both micro and macro-level effects on morality not sanctioned by the state and why the effects of religion differ from other forms of culture. Using two international surveys and Hierarchical Linear Modeling Techniques (HLM) we sort out the effects of national context and personal beliefs on morality with and without legal underpinnings. We find that national religious context, the respondent's age, and religious beliefs and practices are the most consistent predictors of the sexual morality index.