Sexual risk taking among female delinquents represents a significant public health problem. Research is needed to understand the pathways leading to sexual risk taking among this population. This study sought to address this issue by identifying and testing two pathways from child maltreatment to non-condom use among 329 White and 484 African…

The number of people identifying as biracial is rapidly growing, though little is known about the experiences of interracial families. Previous work indicates that biracial children may be at elevated risk of entering the child welfare system. This could underscore additional risks faced by these families. This document includes data from the…

Research indicates that female offenders are far more likely to have experienced intimate partner violence than women in the general population. Despite extensive research on women's pathways into offending, very little is known about why these women are at increased risk for partner violence. The authors use data from a sample of incarcerated…

Many child welfare systems are unable to effectively identify and address co-occurring domestic violence and child maltreatment. In response, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence implemented a protocol to identify indicators of domestic violence in families involved with child protection proceedings. This article…

The current study extended previous research with adults and boys to girls in the juvenile justice system (N = 122; M = 16.7; SD = 1.3). Using a longitudinal research design, neighborhood disadvantage and exposure to violence (i.e., physical abuse by parents, physical abuse by peers, and witnessing violence) were assessed during incarceration.…

This brief summarizes the findings of the larger study, "Just Learning: The Imperative to Transform Juvenile Justice Systems into Effective Educational Systems. A Study of Juvenile Justice Schools in the South and the Nation." With awareness growing that schools are disciplining and suspending minority students at alarming rates, the…

With awareness growing that schools are disciplining and suspending minority students at alarming rates, the report provides powerful evidence that young people placed in the juvenile justice system-predominately minority males incarcerated for minor offenses-are receiving a substandard education. The report, "Just Learning: The Imperative to…

During in-depth, individual interviews, seventeen battered women involved in the public child welfare system discussed the effects of domestic violence on their children, and their strategies for protecting and supporting them. Most mothers articulated the detrimental effects of domestic violence on their children and coherent strategies to…

Drawing from past research on women's motives for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, correlates of women's perpetration, and correlates of nonviolent conflict, we created a scale containing 125 possible motives, representing 14 broad domains (e.g., self-defense, retaliation). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of women who…

The literature on racial and ethnic factors in childhood sexual abuse is limited. The purpose of this exploratory study was to document Hispanic-Anglo differences in childhood sexual abuse experiences and assess whether these differences may be explained by socio-demographic and family environmental differences. Adult Hispanic (n = 69) and Anglo…

The study identifies some of the greatest disparities for boys and men of color relative to their white counterparts across specific socioeconomic, health, safety, and school readiness indicators in California and provides information about different strategies for reducing the disparities--including effective programs, practices, and…