"Why Did She Talk to Him Again?" The Effects of the Justice Motive, Relationship Type, and Degree of Postassault Contact on Perceptions of Sexual Assault.

Victim blaming attitudes are prevalent within the criminal justice system where survivor behavior before, during, and following an assault is heavily scrutinized. Although dispositional characteristics (e.g., strength of one's justice motive) and characteristics of the assault (e.g., the type of relationship between a survivor and an offender) have been found to predict the degree of victim blaming, the effects of these variables on sexual assault myth endorsement are unclear. In addition, a variable that has not been examined in past literature is the degree of contact maintained between a survivor and offender after the assault. The purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which the justice motive (strong vs. weak), the relationship between a fictional survivor and an offender (strangers vs. intimate partners), and contact between a survivor and offender postassault (contact vs. no contact) influenced endorsement of sexual assault myths. Undergraduate students read a vignette depicting a fictional sexual assault that varied with respect to the relationship and the amount of postassault contact between the survivor and offender and completed measures of the strength of their justice motive and their endorsement of sexual assault myths. Results indicated that participants (N = 419) who held a strong justice motive showed higher endorsement of sexual assault myths. Participants were also more likely to endorse sexual assault myths when there was postoffense contact between the survivor and offender. The implications of these findings and their relevance to the criminal justice system are discussed, including the need for further research into the creation of survivor-oriented education and training capable of counteracting bias toward survivors of sexual violence and producing sustained attitudinal changes.

Association of low serum creatinine, abnormal lipid profile, gender, age and ethnicity with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Trinidad and Tobago.

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of low serum creatinine, abnormal lipid profile and demographic variables with type 2 diabetic Trinidadian subjects. METHODS: Data were obtained from a cohort of 1122 diabetic and non-diabetic patients from clinics in Trinidad. Variables measured included demographics, HbA1(c), serum creatinine, lipid profile values and diabetic status. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 476 males (61.6% diabetic) and 646 females (50.3% diabetic). Most patients (59.2%) were Indo-Trinidadian, 23.4% were Afro-Trinidadian and 13.5% were of 'mixed' and 'other' categories. The majority (55.1%) of the patients were diabetic and diabetics were older than non-diabetics (p=0.000). Abnormal lipid profile OR=0.728, CI (0.532, 0.994), serum creatinine categories OR=1.520, CI (1.317, 1.754), gender OR=0.690, CI (0.533, 0.892) and age groups OR=1.305, CI (1.185, 1.437) were useful predictors of type 2 diabetes. Ethnicity was not a useful predictor: OR=1.007, CI (0.869, 1.168). Serum creatinine (mean) was found to be lower in diabetics aged 21-50 than in their non-diabetic counterparts. However, above 50 years old, the reverse was true. Serum creatinine means were higher in males than in females (p=0.000). CONCLUSION: Abnormal lipid profile, gender, age and serum creatinine are associated with type 2 diabetes. While age and gender are non-modifiable risk factors, steps should be taken to monitor and control the serum creatinine and lipid profile values of diabetics and non-diabetics.

Investigating investigators: examining the impact of eyewitness identification evidence on student-investigators.

This research examined the impact of eyewitness identification decisions on student-investigators. Undergraduates played the role of police investigators and interviewed student-witnesses who had been shown either a good or poor view of the perpetrator in a videotaped crime. Based on information obtained from the witness, student-investigators then chose a suspect from a database containing information about potential suspects and rated the probability that their suspect was the culprit. Investigators then administered a photo lineup to witnesses, and re-rated the probability that their suspect was guilty. Student-investigators were highly influenced by eyewitness identification decisions, typically overestimating the information gained from the identification decision (except under conditions that led witnesses to be very accurate), and were generally unable to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate witnesses.