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Oliver, W. M. & Meier, C.
Limited research has been conducted on conservation officers and their levels of stress. Due to the complexities of their job design and the rural nature of their work environment, it is anticipated that these officers would exhibit high levels of stress, specifically related to security, social factors, working conditions, and inactivity/inadequacy. This study is an attempt to expand upon the limited research by analyzing the response of 98 conservation officers (80% of the agency) from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Law Enforcement Section. The findings of this study are limited in that only working conditions were associated with high levels of stress for these officers.
Bailey, K. A. & Ballard, J. D.
This study examines the effects of social skills training on a group of first-time adjudicated male offenders from the juvenile justice system. Three types of groups were used to evaluate the effects of such programs on behavioral change. These groups included youth who received: 1) social skills training with parents or guardians; 2) social skills training without parents or guardians; 3) no skills training. Differences in the scales and subscales scores from the Jesness Inventory standardized test were evaluated and analyzed in conjunction with the type of offenses (status, misdemeanor, and felony) for the three groups. This exploratory study yielded some recommendations for further research and suggests specific program modifications that can assist those who contemplate the administration of such training for youth.
Marsh, D. P. & Greenberg, M. S.
Participants watched a videotape depicting a street robbery and completed a questionnaire relating to their recall of the stimulus. It was predicted that recall would be biased as a result of motivation to reduce threat posed by viewing a similar victim not engaging in culpable behavior. Results showed that those who viewed a similar victim who was not culpable tended to exaggerate the distance between the criminal and the victim and the duration of the incident. The results are consistent with the assumption that such biased recall allowed participants to reduce the threat by blaming the victim for not taking advantage of the opportunity to avoid the victimization.
Lambert, E. G.
Voluntary turnover is costly and disruptive to most correctional organizations. Turnover intent is the best predictor of voluntary turnover. This study examined the impact of personal characteristics (gender, age, position, tenure, educational level, and race), work environment factors (i.e., input into decision-making, instrumental communication, integration, organizational fairness, job variety, supervision, dangerousness of the job, role stress, work-related family conflict, and family-related work conflict), and work attitudes (i.e., job involvement, job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment) on the turnover intent of Midwestern correctional staff. In multi-variate analysis, gender, tenure, educational level, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment had statistically significant effects on turnover intent, with job satisfaction having the greatest impact.