Upgrading electronic monitoring, downgrading probation

Reconfiguring 'offender management' in England and Wales

2014-08-18

(Press-News.org) Under the Coalition Government which came to power in Britain in May 2010, major changes in the community supervision of offenders are underway in England and Wales. Under the new contract for electronic monitoring (EM) (the third since 1999), the government is planning a huge increase in the use of GPS tracking by 2015. Using GPS tracking could well come to be seen as a more reliable and credible way of 'doing' offender management. The government is planning to create the largest and most advanced electronic monitoring (EM) scheme in the world, using combined GPS tracking and radio frequency technology.

Using a mix of published and unpublished sources, discussions with some key players in these developments, (and a 'critical policy analysis' perspective), this article begins by documenting the post-2010 development of GPS tracking, and the emergence of strong police support for its large-scale use. INFORMATION:

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Poor health literacy poses risks for pacemaker and defibrillator patients

2014-08-18

(NEW YORK, NY, August 18, 2014) – Patients who rely on pacemakers and defibrillators to maintain a normal heart rhythm run the risk of serious health complications if they don't fully understand how the devices work and what to do when they experience an irregular heartbeat. But a study from Columbia University School of Nursing published this month in the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing found that 40 percent of patients with these devices had little to no ability to understand information about their cardiac health. "As a nurse practitioner, I use every patient encounter ...

IU study examines how genes, gender and environment influence substance abuse

2014-08-18

Social integration, including strong family ties, can protect one's well-being and even reduce the impact high-risk genes have on health. Scientists call this phenomenon a gene-environment interaction. An Indiana University study focusing on substance abuse, however, found that a three-way interplay of gender, genetics and social integration produced the different outcomes for men and women. The study looked at men and women with a genetic sensitivity to stressful situations. Strong family and community ties were protective for such men, reducing their risk of abusing ...

Provider and parental assumptions on teen sex yield 'missed opportunities' for HPV vaccine

2014-08-18

(Boston)—Probing deeper into the complex decisions that parents and providers face regarding the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, researchers found that though both parties appreciated importance of the HPV vaccine, their personal assumptions surrounding timing of administration relative to onset of sexual activity resulted in decreased vaccination rates. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) conducted hundreds of interviews to offer new insights into this frequent—and often controversial—clinic room conversation. Their findings and recommendations ...

Study finds women seek anti-aging clinicians to treat menopausal symptoms

2014-08-18

Feeling that conventional doctors did not take their suffering seriously, women instead sought out hormonal treatments for menopausal symptoms from anti-aging clinicians, according to a Case Western Reserve University study that investigated the appeal of anti-aging medicine. Some women also feared the harmful side effects from conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that had shown increased risks for cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. Yet, they thought that the bioidentical, "natural" hormones their anti-aging doctors prescribed were safe, despite ...

Men viewed more favorably than women when seeking work-life balance

2014-08-18

SAN FRANCISCO — While some suggest that flexible work arrangements have the potential to reduce workplace inequality, a new study finds these arrangements may exacerbate discrimination based on parental status and gender. Study author Christin Munsch, an assistant professor of sociology at Furman University, analyzed the reactions both men and women received when making flexible work requests — meaning that they either asked to work from home or to work non-traditional hours. Among those who made flexible work requests, men who asked to work from home two days a week ...

Study identifies 'bonus effect' for certain multiracial daters

2014-08-18

SAN FRANCISCO — While previous research has documented the existence of a racial hierarchy within the dating world with white women and men on top, a new study finds that in certain circumstances multiracial daters are actually seen as more desirable than individuals from all other racial groups, including whites. "The most interesting and surprising finding from our study is that some white-minority multiracial daters are, in fact, preferred over white and non-white daters," said Celeste Vaughan Curington, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst ...

'Super-parent' cultural pressures can spur mental health conditions in new moms and dads

2014-08-18

SAN FRANCISCO — Mental health experts in the past three decades have emphasized the dangers of post-partum depression for mothers, but a University of Kansas researcher says expanding awareness of several other perinatal mental health conditions is important for all new parents, including fathers. This awareness has become even more critical as "super mom" and "super dad" pressures continue to grow, said Carrie Wendel-Hummell, a KU doctoral candidate in sociology, who will present her study on perinatal mental health disorders at the 109th Annual Meeting of the American ...

Surprising number of older adults weathered the 'Great Recession' without financial strain

2014-08-18

SAN FRANCISCO — The "Great Recession" may have put a dent in many older adults' pocketbooks, but a new study, which will be presented at the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, finds that more than 40 percent reported a decrease in "financial strain" between 2006 and 2010. Researcher Lindsay R. Wilkinson, an assistant professor of sociology in Baylor University's College of Arts & Sciences, drew on 5,205 respondents from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the effect of financial strain on the mental health and use of mood-altering ...

High-intensity exercise found safe and effective in long-term heart transplant recipients

2014-08-18

High-intensity exercise can help stable heart transplant patients reach higher levels of exercise capacity, and gain better control of their blood pressure than moderate intensity exercise, investigators report in a new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation. Recent research shows that high-intensity interval exercise—training for a few minutes at close to the maximum heart rate—is safe and more efficient than moderate exercise for improving exercise capacity in different groups of patients with heart disease. Researchers led by Christian Dall, PhD ...

DNA methylation involved in Alzheimer's disease

2014-08-17

Boston, MA – A new study led by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Rush University Medical Center, reveals how early changes in brain DNA methylation are involved in Alzheimer's disease. DNA methylation is a biochemical alteration of the building blocks of DNA and is one of the markers that indicate whether the DNA is open and biologically active in a given region of the human genome. The study is published online August 17, 2014 in Nature Neuroscience. According to the researchers, this is the first large-scale study employing epigenome-wide association ...

International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change

NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer

Upgrading electronic monitoring, downgrading probation

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