The Application of Bystander Intervention Scripts: Implications for Guardianship in Action.

Responding to high rates of interpersonal victimization and perpetration among adolescents, schools have implemented bystander intervention (BI) training to educate students to intervene to prevent or stop violence. These trainings function much like an application of scripts for guardianship in action. The current study builds on the overlapping and complementary bodies of BI and routine activities research by testing whether participation in BI training, namely Green Dot (GD), influences individuals' underlying ability to intervene. Using four years of survey data collected from high school students (N = 2,374-3,443), we use item response theory to model the difficulty of engaging in different BI behaviors. We then estimate multivariate ordinary least squares regression models, one for each year, to estimate the effect of GD training on students' ability to intervene. The item response theory results show that BI behaviors differ in terms of how "difficult" they are for respondents to engage in. Findings show that in each year, GD training increased students' underlying ability to intervene. Our findings suggest BI training and guardianship in action scripts should take into account this varying difficulty of intervention behaviors to best train individuals for successful intervention to prevent victimization.

Who Are the Mavens of Bystander Intervention? Implications for the Social Diffusion of Intervention Norms.

A recent randomized controlled trial reported that Green Dot (GD)-a bystander intervention training program that targets popular opinion leaders for intensive training-reduced school-level interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization. Expanding GD's targeted group members to include "mavens" of bystander intervention-those who spread bystander intervention norms to others by communicating with peers-may increase the effectiveness of such training. Self-report data collected from students at the 13 intervention high schools in Kentucky are analyzed to identify characteristics of those who engage in discussions with peers about preventing interpersonal violence. Findings show that students who engage in more frequent bystander behaviors are more likely to have such conversations with peers, but GD participants were no more likely than nonparticipants to discuss preventing interpersonal violence with peers.

Effect sizes and intra-cluster correlation coefficients measured from the Green Dot High School study for guiding sample size calculations when designing future violence prevention cluster randomized trials in school settings.

PURPOSE: Cluster randomized controlled trials (cRCTs) are popular in school-based research designs where schools are randomized to different trial arms. To help guide future study planning, we provide information on anticipated effect sizes and intra-cluster correlation coefficients (ICCs), as well as school sizes, for dating violence (DV) and interpersonal violence outcomes based on data from a cRCT which evaluated the bystander-based violence intervention 'Green Dot'. METHODS: We utilized data from 25 schools from the Green Dot High School study. Effect size and ICC values corresponding to dating and interpersonal violence outcomes are obtained from linear mixed effect models. We also calculated the required number of schools needed for future studies utilizing available methods that do and do not consider variation in school size. RESULTS: Observed effect sizes for DV outcomes range from 0.06 to 0.11. Observed ICC values for DV outcomes range from 0.0006 to 0.0032. The upper limit of 95% CIs for the true ICCs range from 0.0023 to 0.0070. CONCLUSION: School-based evaluations with violence outcomes are expected to have small effect sizes. Observed ICCs are less than 0.005 and upper limit of of 95% CIs for the true ICCs are less than 0.01. Designing school-based cRCTs should account for the ICC, even if its value is assumed to be negligible. Furthermore, variation in school sizes should also be accounted for to avoid having too few schools to achieve the desired power.

The Green Light for Green Dot: A Qualitative Study of Factors Influencing Adoption of an Efficacious Violence Prevention Program in High School Settings.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate factors influencing the adoption of an effective bystander-based sexual violence prevention intervention. High schools participating in a cluster-randomized controlled trial that found significant declines in sexual violence over time and with full implementation were invited to adopt this program (Green Dot) at no cost. Three emergent themes arose from interviews with 10 intervention implementers. These findings have implications for researchers, practitioners, and high school administrators and may facilitate future program marketing efforts and the development and testing of strategies for targeted dissemination of this and other bystander programs for violence.

Análise econômica do sistema da reciclagem em Portugal / Economic analysis of the Portuguese recycling system

A reciclagem de resíduos de embalagens é um grande objetivo da União Europeia. A legislação comunitária impõe metas muito ambiciosas relativamente às taxas de reciclagem a atingir por todos os Estados-membros. Por conseguinte, a análise das operações e dos custos acrescidos que resultaram dessa política ambiental constitui um relevante tópico de investigação. Uma vez que cada Estado-membro tem seu próprio sistema de reciclagem, existe uma clara falta de informação acerca dos custos reais das várias etapas do ciclo de vida dos resíduos e de como esses custos têm sido distribuídos por todos os intervenientes. Este artigo caracteriza o caso português e discute as transferências financeiras feitas pela organização que gerencia o Sistema Ponto Verde. Essas transferências são posteriormente comparadas com os custos reais dos prestadores locais (operadores de resíduos), pelo que é possível discutir a eficiência e justiça do sistema. Conclui-se que cada tonelada de resíduos de embalagens triada custa cerca de 289€ aos prestadores de resíduos (custos de investimento, operação e manutenção com a coleta diferenciada e processo de triagem). Se os custos evitados com a coleta indiferenciada e a destinação final desses resíduos forem contabilizados como benefícios do sistema, então os benefícios correspondem a 127% dos custos totais. Contudo, se os custos evitados com a coleta indiferenciada e a destinação final não forem considerados, os benefícios dos prestadores de gestão de resíduos cobrem apenas 77% dos seus custos.

Recycling packaging waste is a major objective for the European Union. The European law sets clear targets for the recycling rates to be attained by all member states. Hence, to analyze the operations and added costs resulting from this environmental policy is an important research topic. Since every member state has its own recycling system, there is a clear lack of information regarding the true costs of the life cycle of packaging waste and how these costs have been allocated to the various participants. This study illustrates the Portuguese case and discusses the financial transfers made by the company that manages the Green Dot scheme. These transfers are compared with the true costs of the local authorities (waste management operators), which allow us to discuss the efficiency and justice of the national framework. Each ton of sorted packaging waste costs about 289€ to waste management operators (investment, operation and maintenance costs with selective collection and sorting). If the avoided costs with undifferentiated collection and final disposal of this waste are accounted for as benefits of the system, then the total benefits correspond to 127% of the total costs. However, if these “opportunity" costs are not considered, the benefits of the waste management operators only cover 77% of the costs.

Packaging waste recycling in Europe: is the industry paying for it?

This paper describes and examines the schemes established in five EU countries for the recycling of packaging waste. The changes in packaging waste management were mainly implemented since the Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste entered into force. The analysis of the five systems allowed the authors to identify very different approaches to cope with the same problem: meet the recovery and recycling targets imposed by EU law. Packaging waste is a responsibility of the industry. However, local governments are generally in charge of waste management, particularly in countries with Green Dot schemes or similar extended producer responsibility systems. This leads to the need of establishing a system of financial transfers between the industry and the local governments (particularly regarding the extra costs involved with selective collection and sorting). Using the same methodological approach, the authors also compare the costs and benefits of recycling from the perspective of local public authorities for France, Portugal and Romania. Since the purpose of the current paper is to take note of who is paying for the incremental costs of recycling and whether the industry (i.e. the consumer) is paying for the net financial costs of packaging waste management, environmental impacts are not included in the analysis. The work carried out in this paper highlights some aspects that are prone to be improved and raises several questions that will require further research. In the three countries analyzed more closely in this paper the industry is not paying the net financial cost of packaging waste management. In fact, if the savings attained by diverting packaging waste from other treatment (e.g. landfilling) and the public subsidies to the investment on the "recycling system" are not considered, it seems that the industry should increase the financial support to local authorities (by 125% in France, 50% in Portugal and 170% in Romania). However, in France and Portugal the industry is paying local authorities more than just the incremental costs of recycling (full costs of selective collection and sorting minus the avoided costs). To provide a more definitive judgment on the fairness of the systems it will be necessary to assess the cost efficiency of waste management operators (and judge whether operators are claiming costs or eliciting "prices").