Biomedical subjects

John M Roberts

Publications and source records attributed to John M Roberts.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

A large specific deterrent effect of arrest for patronizing a prostitute.

BACKGROUND: Prior research suggests that arrest, compared with no police detection, of some types of offenders does not decrease the chances they will reoffend. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We assessed the specific deterrent effect of arrest for patronizing a street prostitute in Colorado Springs by comparing the incidence of arrest for clients of prostitutes first detected through public health surveillance with the incidence of rearrest for clients first detected by police arrest. Although these sets of clients were demographically and behaviorally similar, arrest reduced the likelihood of a subsequent arrest by approximately 70%. In other areas of the United States, arrest did not appear to displace a client's patronizing. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that apprehending clients decreases their patronizing behavior substantially.

Colorado↗

PubMed2006

Agreement in reported sexual partnership dates and implications for measuring concurrency.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the reliability of reported dates of first and last sexual exposure, as elicited from sexually transmitted disease/human immunodeficiency virus cases during routine contact investigation, and determine their adequacy for assessing concurrency. METHODS: We used contact tracing data from 5 studies in which both members of 774 dyads were interviewed and named each other as sex partners. We assessed partners' agreement on the dates of first and last exposure as related to precision (to the day, month, or year) of reported dates and demographic and behavioral characteristics of the dyad. We performed simulations that introduced reporting error, based on our observed data, to posited "true" temporal configurations of partnerships to assess the impact of unreliability in reporting on the measurement of concurrency. RESULTS: Thirty-two percent of dyads agreed on the exact date of first sexual exposure, and 36% did so for the date of last sexual exposure. Sixty-four percent agreed within 30 days on the date of first sexual exposure, and 81% did so for the date of last sexual exposure. The reliability of reported dates was positively related to the precision of the reports. Agreement on reported exposure dates was not meaningfully associated with any of the sociodemographic and behavioral variables available. Based on simulations, the positive predictive value of reported dates for estimating concurrency is approximately 80% over a wide range of conditions. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the reliability of reported exposure dates is reasonably good but that estimating concurrency with reported dates is subject to some error. Data designed for the purpose and analyzed with adequate attention to the statistical and epidemiologic issues of assessing concurrency are needed.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Extent, trends, and perpetrators of prostitution-related homicide in the United States.

Prostitute women have the highest homicide victimization rate of any set of women ever studied. We analyzed nine diverse homicide data sets to examine the extent, trends, and perpetrators of prostitution-related homicide in the United States. Most data sources substantially under-ascertained prostitute homicides. As estimated from a conservative capture-recapture analysis, 2.7% of female homicide victims in the United States between 1982 and 2000 were prostitutes. Frequencies of recorded prostitute and client homicides increased substantially in the late 1980s and early 1990s; nearly all of the few observed pimp homicides occurred before the late 1980s. These trends may be linked to the rise of crack cocaine use. Prostitutes were killed primarily by clients, clients were killed mainly by prostitutes, and pimps were killed predominantly by pimps. Another conservative estimate suggests that serial killers accounted for 35% of prostitute homicides. Proactive surveillance of, and evidence collection from, clients and prostitutes might enhance the investigation of prostitution-related homicide.

Crime Victims↗

PubMed2006