Criminal Justice and Community Psychology: Our Values and Our Work-The Introduction to the Special Issue.

This special issue of The American Journal of Community Psychology originated from the Society for Community Research and Action Criminal Justice interest group, with a goal of exploring the work of community psychologists intersecting with criminal justice research, practice, and policy and shaped by our shared values-equity, collaboration, creative maladjustment, social justice, and social science in the service of social justice. In this introduction, we discuss the socio-historical context of the special issue, followed by an outline of the special issue organization, and brief summary of the included papers. Across 13 papers and an invited commentary, we see the ways in which community psychologists are: (1) delivering and evaluating services, programming, or other supports to address the needs of system-involved people; and (2) working to improve the systems, structures, and interactions with units of criminal justice systems. Across these two sections, authors highlight the guiding role of our values to influence change within and outside of criminal-legal systems.

Are we SAFE now? An evaluation of the Seatbelts Are for Everyone teen traffic safety program in Kansas.

Objective: Teens represent the highest risk group for automobile accidents and are almost 3 times as likely to be killed in an accident. Seat belt use interventions are one way to address this issue, and a student-led program in Kansas called Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE) has increased seat belt use for the past decade. An evaluation of SAFE enabled decisions to be made about program improvement and expansion.Methods: Mixed methods examined multiple aspects of the SAFE program, including summative and formative results. Researchers investigated the program through (1) a quasi-experimental observation to explore whether seat belt use at schools implementing SAFE for the first time was higher than at non-SAFE and (2) stakeholder interviews at SAFE schools. Each method examined whether SAFE programs accomplished goals set by program staff and how SAFE could better meet schools' needs.Results: Summative results suggest that SAFE affects seat belt use. It is less influential on distracted driving but has a small but significant influence on that behavior. Stakeholders cited infrastructure and functional challenges affecting implementation, highlighting ways in which SAFE program staff could improve program compliance and outcomes. Formative recommendations included curriculum support, sharing among SAFE schools, and increasing student leadership opportunities.Conclusions: The evaluation of SAFE suggests that students are receptive to programs about seat belt and traffic safety. States may consider the recommendations for improvement of this program with other published evaluations and programs to determine how best to implement similar programs in their communities.

Exposure to maternal diabetes induces salt-sensitive hypertension and impairs renal function in adult rat offspring.

OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological and experimental studies have led to the hypothesis of fetal origin of adult diseases, suggesting that some adult diseases might be determined before birth by altered fetal development. We have previously demonstrated in the rat that in utero exposure to maternal diabetes impairs renal development leading to a reduction in nephron number. Little is known on the long-term consequences of in utero exposure to maternal diabetes. The aim of the study was to assess, in the rat, long-term effects of in utero exposure to maternal diabetes on blood pressure and renal function in adulthood. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Diabetes was induced in Sprague-Dawley pregnant rats by streptozotocin on day 0 of gestation. Systolic blood pressure, plasma renin activity, and renal function were measured in the offspring from 1 to 18 months of age. High-salt diet experiments were performed at the prehypertensive stage, and the abundance of tubular sodium transporters was evaluated by Western blot analysis. Kidney tissues were processed for histopathology and glomerular computer-assisted histomorphometry. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that in utero exposure to maternal diabetes induces a salt-sensitive hypertension in the offspring associated with a decrease in renal function in adulthood. High-salt diet experiments show an alteration of renal sodium handling that may be explained by a fetal reprogramming of tubular functions in association or as a result of the inborn nephron deficit induced by in utero exposure to maternal diabetes.

Expression of matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and MMP-9 is altered during nephrogenesis in fetuses from diabetic rats.

Remodeling of extracellular matrix (ECM) is an important physiological feature of normal growth and development. Recent studies have emphasized the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in normal mouse nephrogenesis. We have demonstrated previously in the rat that in utero exposure to maternal diabetes impairs renal development leading to a 30% reduction in the nephron number. Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) are known to mediate high glucose effects on matrix degradation. The aim of the present study was to address the expression of type IV collagenase and TGF-beta1/CTGF systems in rat kidney during normal development and after in utero exposure to maternal diabetes. Both MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA metanephric expressions and activities were dramatically downregulated in kidneys issued from diabetic fetuses and in metanephros cultured in the presence of high glucose concentration. TGF-beta1 and CTGF expressions were significantly enhanced in diabetic fetal kidneys and in high glucose cultured metanephroi. Conditioned media obtained from metanephroi grown with high glucose concentration upregulated functional TGF-beta activity in transfected ATDC5 cells. In conclusion, in impaired nephrogenesis resulting from in utero exposure to maternal diabetes, alteration of both type IV collagenase and TGF-beta1/CTGF systems may lead to abnormal remodeling of ECM, which may, in turn, induce defects in ureteral bud branching leading to the observed reduction in the nephron number with consequences later in life: progression of chronic renal disease and hypertension.