Social Control Measures Research Articles

Ohio Response to COVID-19 and Its Impact on Interventional Pain Management Practices

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drastically altered daily living and medical care for Ohio residents and the practice of medicine for the interventional pain management physician. As a state, Ohio tends to be demographically representative of the broader US population. Objective: Reviewing the efforts deployed by Ohio to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve and reduce the spread of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an important component of determining optimal procedures for mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Over the course of several announcements and orders during the months of March and April, new policies were put into place to prevent COVID-19 transmission, which included efforts to facilitate social distancing and ensure the health care system could manage the number of COVID-19 cases at peak infection rate. Efforts directed toward medical providers included delay of elective procedures, expansion of telehealth options, and new temporary guidance for prescribing controlled substances. Results: The Ohio COVID-19 containment approach resulted in a substantial reduction in COVID-19 cases compared with early models of disease spread, and the state has begun a phased reopening. Continued vigilance in applying social distancing and infection control measures will be a critical component of preventing or reducing the impact of a second wave of COVID-19 in Ohio. Limitations: A narrative review with paucity of literature. Key words: COVID-19, infection rates, mitigating effects, pandemic, infection control

COVID-19 in a complex obstetric patient with cystic fibrosis

We report the first case of COVID-19 in a pregnant patient with cystic fibrosis. We describe the diagnosis, clinical course and management of the patient and their family with regards to clinical, social and infection control measures around delivery. This case highlights the importance of the cooperation of multidisciplinary teams to achieve good clinical outcomes in complex patients with COVID-19.

Targeting Infectious Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications: Evidence Based Opinion.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has opened the new doors for AI based technology adoption in various health care sectors. This will be bringing opportunities as well as risks. These technologies, upon proper human interventions and directions, will be useful for making faster decisions in current crisis. However, this should not mean that AI could bypass the various regulatory processes. Besides multiple potential applications, we should know that these technologies will be only benefited with proper human interventions and un-biased data. With proper AI based approaches, we will be definitely benefited with rapid diagnosis of disease, early warnings, fastening drug development processes and proper social control measures during this pandemic.

COVID-19 and torture


 
 
 
 Over the past few weeks, and with the Editorial already at completion, the COVID-19 pandemic has invaded our lives. Its systemic impact has affected, and continues to affect in equal measure the provision of rehabilitation to victims of torture.
 Amongst the many areas in which COVID-19 has impacted the field of prevention and rehabilitation of torture survivors, at least 8 areas of concern can be highlighted.
 1. Attacks on basic fundamental rights and unnecessary increase in social control measures (Human Rights Watch, 2020a)
 2. Increases in cases of ill-treatment or torture linked to the pandemic itself. For instance, various media sources have reported cases related to the dissemination of information in countries where this was considered to be against the interest of the State (Wang, 2020; Human Rights Watch, 2020b; Amnesty International, 2020a)
 3. Respect for the rights of detainees and COVID preventive measures in detention settings that are compliant with human rights (Council of Europe, 2020; OHCHR, 2020; Council of Europe, 2010) and especially amnesty processes for political prisoners or the use non-custodial measures (Comninos, 2020; Amnesty International, 2020b).
 4. Increases in cases of gender-based violence (Ford, 2020; UNFPA, 2020; UN Women, 2020) and assaults on homeless populations (Phasuk, 2020; Hartley, 2019), both related to fear and isolation.
 5. Relapse of symptoms, especially night mares, flashbacks and somatic symptoms, in survivors that were ill-treated or tortured while in custody, due to COVID- related self-confinement or measures of medical isolation.
 
 
 6. The reshaping of society: Will there be a change in values towards more egalitarian, empathetic and supportive societies? Or an evolution towards a more fearful society with an increasing lack of solidarity as fear instils?
 7. The use of warlike metaphors (the “war” on the Coronavirus) as a prelude to restrictions in freedoms, censorship or authoritarianism in the name of the collective good (Human Rights Watch, 2020a).
 8. Cutting budget allocations for the most disadvantaged, vulnerable groups in general and survivors of torture specifically, in favour of security policies or market-based post-COVID decisions (UNDP, 2020; European Council, 2020).
 
 
 
 
 These are some of the many areas of reflection on COVID-19 as a global crisis in the field of human rights and the prevention of torture and rehabilitation of torture victims.
 Torture Journal invites our readers to share your experiences, reflections, research and data in the form of a Letter to the Editor, News or Research Report for inclusion in future issues of the Journal. This is a global crisis which may, in turn, foster a shared learning opportunity for all.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Estimates of the ongoing need for social distancing and control measures post-"lockdown" from trajectories of COVID-19 cases and mortality.

By 21 May 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) had caused more than 5 million cases of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) across more than 200 countries. Most countries with significant outbreaks have introduced social distancing or “lockdown” measures to reduce viral transmission. So the key question now is when, how and to what extent these measures can be lifted.Publicly available data on daily numbers of newly confirmed cases and mortality were used to fit regression models estimating trajectories, doubling times and the reproduction number (R0) of the disease, before and under the control measures. These data ran up to 21 May 2020, and were sufficient for analysis in 89 countries.The estimates of R0 before lockdown based on these data were broadly consistent with those previously published: between 2.0 and 3.7 in the countries with the largest number of cases available for analysis (USA, Italy, Spain, France and UK). There was little evidence to suggest that the restrictions had reduced R far below 1 in many places, with France having the most rapid reductions: R0 0.76 (95% CI 0.72–0.82) based on cases, and 0.77 (95% CI 0.73–0.80) based on mortality.Intermittent lockdown has been proposed as a means of controlling the outbreak while allowing periods of increased freedom and economic activity. These data suggest that few countries could have even 1 week per month unrestricted without seeing resurgence of the epidemic. Similarly, restoring 20% of the activity that has been prevented by the lockdowns looks difficult to reconcile with preventing the resurgence of the disease in most countries.

“Hear That Lonesome [Police] Whistle Blow”

When introduced in the nineteenth century, railroads were one of humankind's most transformational technologies. Like similar transformations such as the printing press and the automobile, railroads did more than advance technology. They fundamentally altered the entire social and cultural fabric, including basic relationships between people and time, distance, geography, class, and gender. Railroads also introduced new types of crime and criminal organization to the nineteenth-century West, and indeed to the entire nation and globe. These criminal activities quickly spread across wide geographic expanses. Railroads and society at large responded by altering the measures of social control through new forms of law enforcement, only one of which was the creation of private railroad-company police forces. In our own era, similar revolutionary information and communications technologies erupted upon a cultural and institutional world woefully unprepared to deal with them. As was true for nineteenth-century railroading, the results today have been new, ever-evolving forms of crime that plague individuals, companies, institutions, and governments, while baffling ill-equipped law enforcement agencies. The internet spammers, hackers, phishers, stalkers, swindlers, pedophiles, money launderers, identity thieves, election fixers, and cyberterrorists of today share a lineage with the railroad pickpockets, arsonists, ticket forgers, train robbers and wreckers, and hatchet-wielding hoboes of yesterday. Examining the railroads' transformation of crime and violence can shed light on today's tribulations with information technology, as well as on possible ways to deal with them.

The role of social control in Brazilian homicide rates

Violent crime in Brazil have grown since the 1980s. The state authorities are unable to ubiquitously monitor illegitimate activities. Less effective and more territorially diffused, social controllers can act as a primary control by socializing positive (negative) beliefs of adhering (violating) to rules. The criminal-deviance density of a place could carry information about the moral cost of entering the crime “industry”, because the levels of transgression can indirectly signal the level of this deterrence. We analyze the qualitative effect of social control to illegitimate choices, along with state deterrence. In a sample of comparable minimum areas, the latent factors were extracted from a set of rules-breaking phenomena, by exploratory factor analysis, then associated with homicide rates by fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Lower social coactivity is consistently associated with high homicide rates, when combined with high law enforcement. This research, besides constructing indicators of social coactivity levels based on violation decisions, consistently evidences a conjunctural nature between the measures of social and state control.

Sociological model of life trajectories of women involved in prostitution

The history of the study of prostitution is based on acceptance of one of the explanatory models — that prostitution is violence, deviation or economic choice. The author developed an applied sociological model of the life trajectories of women involved in prostitution, based on the results of her own theoretical and empirical research and the experience of social work with women involved in prostitution. This model is the result of the integration of the sociology of life course and the ecological model. The model consists of five consecutive stages: approximation, entry, adaptation, immersion, and exit. Development of the life trajectory in prostitution occurs in a social context that can be analyzed at four levels: micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-levels. The model is based on the idea of prostitution as a multifaceted phenomenon, and the premise that women involved in prostitution are a heterogeneous group. Within the framework of this model, prostitution is viewed in a dynamic aspect, as a process of an individual’s development in certain socio-ecological contexts, as a life trajectory, which is based on a combination of previous events and circumstances that formed the “path to prostitution”. The proposed sociological model provides a general structure and knowledge base for advancing the study of prostitution; it helps to identify white spots in the study of the phenomenon of prostitution and contributes to the hypotheses. The study discusses the applied value of the model for the development of effective measures of social control of prostitution, which should take into account the existence of different stages of life in prostitution.

The Mediating Effect of Social Controls on Marijuana Use Among Adolescent Bullies, Victims, and Bully-Victims: A Comparison of Various Approaches to Mediation

This study examines the impact of social control measures (e.g. parental attachment and prosocial peer attachment) on marijuana use among adolescents who were pure bullies, pure victims, and bully-victims. Data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey was utilized and consisted of a nationwide cross-section of 12,642 adolescents. Results revealed that adolescents who were pure bullies and bully-victims were more likely to use marijuana. Additionally, parental and peer attachments were significant in decreasing the likelihood of marijuana use for two of the bullying statuses (pure bullies and bully-victims). Further, the social control measures partially mediated the relationship between two of the bullying statuses and marijuana use despite having no significant relation of bullying victimization to marijuana use. Considering that parental and peer attachments had significant and direct effects on adolescent marijuana use in the predicted (inverse) direction, prevention programs should focus on building and strengthening these relationships as a means of reducing deviant behaviors such as marijuana use among adolescents.

Research Progress in Acute Hemolysis and Safe Blood Transfusion of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency-Review

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD) is one of hereditary diseases sariously influencing the human health. G6PD is characterized by wide distribution, high incidence, inducing the hemolysis, complex mechanism of hemolysis and common occurence in children and so on. The blood transfusion is most effective method for acute ouset of hemolysis, but the risk is more high, thereby it is necessary to guarante the safety of blood transfusion. In addition of the routine managementin blood transfusion and standard procedures, the basic rules and indicators of blood transfusion must be grasped, the blood preparations should be known well, the blood protection must be strengthened, and the measures of personalized psychologic interference must be drawn up carnestly and performed strictily so as to improve the therapeutic efficacy and safe of blood transfusion. Through the promotion and development of social pubbicity, elucation activities, preventive and control measures and medical levels, many patients have been freed from healthy problems as soon as possible. In this review, the research progress on acute hemolysis and safe blood transfusion in G6PD are summarized.

De Cuauhtemotzín a las cervecerías. El control oficial del homoerotismo masculino y la construcción estratégica de la geografía disidente, ciudad de México, 1930-1951

A partir de un diálogo crítico con las aproximaciones históricas a las heterodoxias sexuales que tienen como base una hipótesis de férreo control social, uno que llegaría al punto de originar un estado de inacción de los sujetos de tales deseos, el artículo explora las formas de control oficial efectivamente aplicadas en la Ciudad de México durante la posrevolución sobre los hombres de prácticas homoeróticas y reconstruye los espacios y estrategias utilizados por ellos para procurarse una vivencia segura de su disidencia. Al recuperar la huella que dicho control dejó en la hasta ahora inexplorada Cárcel del Carmen, se demuestra que la persecución oficial era reducida –en comparación con otros contextos y periodos, pues de partida no existía una tipificación penal en el país contra estas prácticas–, oscilante –ya que respondía a determinados momentos de «pánico moral» en los que los prejuicios sociales se exacerbaban–, y porosa –en tanto la situación de clase era determinante para su aplicación. Tal contexto, se propone, era leído estratégicamente por los varones con orientación homoerótica. En lugar de sujetos silentes y pasivos frente a la censura, esta investigación devela a individuos que interactuaron con esas condiciones, siendo los artífices de una recurrida geografía disidente.

CRIMINOLOGICAL AND CRIMINAL LAW ANALYSIS OF JUVENILE VIOLENT CRIME

In this article the author studies new forms of destructive violent forms of crimes and other deviations among minors. Among the new forms of destructive aggression in the modern world, the author selected the following: violence in schools (physical and mental), cyberbullying, inducement of minors to suicide. The main purpose of this research is to study the materials of criminal cases, police reports in the world about such violations in order to form the reasons for their commission, as well as offer specific measures of social control and their prevention. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the criminological study of such social phenomena. As one of the main conclusions, we are talking about the need to create an updated and detailed policy for the social control of such deviations.

Enforcing Christian Nationalism: Examining the Link Between Group Identity and Punitive Attitudes in the United States

AbstractThis article examines whether the convergence of an individual's religious and national identities promotes authoritarian attitudes towards crime and deviance. Drawing on theories of social control and group conformity, as well as Christian nationalism's influence on intolerance toward out‐groups, I argue that the inability to distinguish between religious and national identities increases desire for group homogeneity and therefore increases willingness to utilize formalized measures of social control. Analysis of 2007 Baylor Religion Survey data demonstrates that adherence to Christian nationalism predicts three indicators of authoritarian views toward controlling crime and deviance: support for capital punishment, stricter punishment for federal crime, and for society to “crackdown on troublemakers.” These effects are robust to the inclusion of a comprehensive battery of 20 socioeconomic, political, and religious controls, and are consistent with previous research on Christian nationalism showing it is not religious commitment or traditionalism per se that leads to intolerant attitudes, but rather the conflation of one's religious identity with other social identities, in this case national. These findings indicate that, beyond sociopolitical and religious influences, the belief that the United States is, and should be, a “Christian nation” increases desires for group conformity and strict control for both criminals and “troublemakers.”

Sex and the Devil: Homosexuality, Satanism, and Moral Panic in Late Apartheid South Africa

This article discusses the discursive and narrative intersections between two moral panics that appeared in the white South African press in the last years of apartheid: the first around the claimed danger posed by white male homosexuals, the second around the alleged incursion of a criminal cult of white Satanists. This connection was sometimes implicit, when the rhetoric attached to one was repeated with reference to the other, and sometimes explicit, when journalists and moral entrepreneurs conflated the two in public dialogue. Both Satanists and gay white men were characterized as indulging in abnormal practices that were dangerous to the health of the nation, using a long-standing colonial metaphor of sanitation and hygiene. I argue that fears of homosexuality and beliefs in Satanism operated as social control measures for disciplining potentially unruly groups whose sexual or personal practices were not admissible within apartheid’s injunctions on homogenous conformity among whites. The connection between homosexuality and Satanism, like the connection between homosexuality and communism, served to pathologize whites whose disobedient bodies and beliefs were considered treacherous.

Approaches to Regulating Adolescent Sexual Behavior in Ghana: Qualitative Evidence from Somanya and Adidome.

This article examines perceptions of why HIV infection is severe among adolescents in Somanya and less so in Adidome-two seemingly similar communities in Ghana-through analysis of the social control measures employed by these communities to regulate adolescent sexual initiation. Using focus group discussions with parents and caregivers of adolescent children, the study found that parents in Somanya and Adidome used different regulatory mechanisms to influence adolescent sexual initiation. While parents in Somanya relied largely on parental monitoring, parents in Adidome depended more on a combination of neighborhood monitoring and community barriers (informal rules) to control adolescent sexual onset. The study findings showed that contextual factors (socioeconomic and cultural) shaped the social realities of people in these two communities accounting for the differences in HIV prevalence.

A Retrospective Review of Ebola Outbreak in West Africa: Social Determinants and Control Measures

A Retrospective Review of Ebola Outbreak in West Africa: Social Determinants and Control Measures

Effects of Lending Relationship on the Interest Rates of Commercial Banks in Cameroon

Borrowing is the main stream through which small and medium size enterprises obtain funds for investment in Cameroon, and interest rate is a key determinant of how much funds these firms can acquire. It is against this backdrop that this study investigates the effects of lending relationship on the interest rate of commercial banks. Specifically, this study examines the effects of lending relationship factors like duration, pre-existence and trust and firm characteristics such as age, size, incorporation form and the gender of bank borrowers on the lending interest rates of commercial banks. A total of 119 questionnaires were administered to 9 commercial banks and their borrowers in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon and the ordered logistic regression method was employed as the analytical technique. Findings showed that trust in a relationship, preexisting relationship, firm size and incorporation form and gender of bank borrower significantly affect lending interest rate while duration of the relationship and firm age had insignificant effects. It was recommended that commercial banks should consider using relational social control measures.

Working while incapable to work? Changing concepts of permitted work in the UK disability benefit system

This article focusses on the borderland between "work" and "not work" in UK disability benefit systems. People who claim disability benefits often have to prove that they are "incapable of work" in order to qualify. The idea of incapacity for work requires an understanding of the meaning of the term "work," a concept which has a common sense simplicity but which is much more difficult to define in practice. UK disability benefit systems have developed the notion of "permitted work" to allow people to do small amounts of paid work while retaining entitlement to benefit. This concept of "permitted work" has its roots in the early twentieth century when claimants were sometimes entitled to disability benefits if any work that they did was considered to be sufficiently trivial to not count as "work." Policy on this changed over time, with particular developments after the Second World War, as rehabilitation and therapy became the key focus of permitted work rules. Current developments in UK social security policy treat almost everyone as a potential worker, changing the way in which permitted work operates. This article uses archive material on appeals against refusals of benefit, policy documents and case law to consider the social meanings of these moving boundaries of permitted work. Disability benefits are not value neutral: they are measures of social control which divide benefit claimants into those who are required to participate in the labour market and those who are exempted from this requirement.

Некоторые направления совершенствования нормативного правового регулирования государственной антикоррупционной политики с учетом требований международных антикоррупционных договоров

The article describes the main elements of state policy in the sphere of anti-corruption as a system of measures of social control over corruption. It is noted that the norms on combating corruption, the formation of which is attributed to the competence of the Russian Federation, are contained in more than 50 regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation. The anti-corruption legislation of the Russian Federation is constantly being improved and becoming more integral. In particular, the basis of the implementation of the state anti-corruption policy is the “outstripping” model of legal regulation, taking into account the direction of corruption crime. In addition, the state anti-corruption policy, taking into account the requirements of international anti-corruption treaties, is aimed at the consistent implementation of the provisions of international conventions.
 The article shows the tendency of increasing importance of targeted state-legal counteraction to corruption at the international and national levels. The necessity of using the preventive anti-corruption potential provided by the legislation of the Russian Federation is substantiated. In order to improve the system of social control, it is proposed to systematize, streamline the legal norms regulating various aspects of anti-corruption and reflect them in a new version of the Federal Law “On Combating Corruption”. Also systemic measures are required to stabilize the socio-economic and political development of the state while continuing to adopt effective anti-corruption practices. The issue of criminalizing the promise and offering of commercial bribery and bribes as completed crimes is considered. The conclusion is drawn that it should not be about adjusting certain existing provisions of the criminal law, but about a comprehensive change in legislation and the formation of good practices for its application.

Controlling Homeless People? Power, Interventionism and Legitimacy

AbstractThere is intense debate over the legitimacy of interventions which seek behavioural change on the part of street homeless people. ‘Hard’ measures, such as arresting people for begging, are particularly controversial, but ‘softer’ interventions such as motivational interviewing have also prompted objections on grounds that they are paternalistic. At the same time, the ‘non-interventionist’ stance of some service providers has been accused of perpetuating harmful street lifestyles. Inspired by Ruth Grant's philosophically informed interrogation of the ethics of incentives, we propose a normative framework for application in this field. Via systematic exploration of Grant's three ‘legitimacy standards’ (legitimate purpose, voluntary response, effects on character), and an additional outcome-focussed fourth (effectiveness, proportionality and balance), we attempt to unsettle any intuitive assumption that non-interventionist approaches are necessarily more morally defensible than interventionist ones. We also, however, explicate the high ethical and empirical bar required to justify social control measures.