Sex work is rarely an occupation of choice for Iranian women and is often described as a last resort. While several factors play a role in creating an environment where individuals become involved in sex work, female sex workers' experiences regarding entry into sex work in Iran are poorly understood. In this qualitative study, a convenience sample of 24 participants was recruited from a drop-in centre for vulnerable women in Kerman, Iran. Through in-depth interviews, participants were asked about their personal lived experiences of initiating sex work. Grounded theory was used to analyse findings from this research. We learned that major factors impacting on women's initiation into sex work circulated around their vulnerability and chronic poverty. Participants continued to sell sex due to their limited opportunities, drug dependence and financial needs. Improving sex workers' economic status could be a vital intervention in providing vulnerable women with options other than sex work. Female sex workers should be provided with government support and educational programmes delivered through special centres. Despite the illegal status of their work, sex workers' needs should be recognised across all aspects of policy and legislation.

The Afghanistan gender inequality index shows that 70% loss in development is due to the limited participation of women in the workforce, low education and poor women's health outcomes. However, since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2002, gender inequalities in health have improved. This paper will review factors that led to these improvements. The review draws upon information from various sources, including formative and applied research, surveys and existing information systems. The review showed gender differentials in morbidity, mortality and accessing and utilising health services. Health professionals have expressed inadequate medical knowledge and interpersonal skills to address sensitive issues, such as domestic, physical and sexual violence. Discussing sexuality and its impact on health remains taboo both within and outside of the medical profession. Strict cultural norms restrict a woman's autonomy to seek health care, choose a marriage partner and have control over her body, indicating a need to increase awareness about how harmful social practices adversely affect health. The policy review showed that the Ministry of Public Health has made a commitment to reducing gender inequity in health and developed a two-pronged action plan to improve health providers' skills in handling gender-sensitive issues and mass media campaigns to change social norms.

The role of psychosocial and structural occupational factors in mental health service provision has broadly been researched. However, less is known about the influence of employees’ occupational factors on inmates in correctional treatment settings that mostly seek to apply a milieu-therapeutic approach. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationships between occupational factors (job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and the functionality of the organizational structure) and prison climate, the number of staff members’ sick days as well as inmates’ treatment motivation. Employees (n = 76) of three different correctional treatment units in Berlin, Germany, rated several occupational factors as well as prison climate. At the same time, treatment motivation of n = 232 inmates was assessed. Results showed that higher ratings of prison climate were associated with higher levels of team climate, job satisfaction and the functionality of the organizational structure, but not with self-efficacy and sick days. There was no significant relationship between occupational factors and the perceived safety on the treatment unit. Inmates’ treatment motivation was correlated with all aggregated occupational factors and with average sick days of staff members. Outcomes of this study strongly emphasize the importance of a positive social climate in correctional treatment units for occupational factors of prison staff but also positive treatment outcomes for inmates. Also, in the light of these results, consequences for daily work routine and organizational structure of prisons are discussed.

Zusammenfassung: Therapiemotivation von Straftäter_innen gilt gemeinhin als wichtige Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Behandlung. Dennoch mangelt es derzeit an reliablen und validen Messinstrumenten. Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte eine Kurzversion des Fragebogens zur Erfassung von therapiebezogenen Einstellungen (TBE-SV) in einer männlichen Stichprobe des Straf- ( n = 215, M = 34.56 Jahre, SD = 14.07) und Maßregelvollzugs ( n = 281, M = 38.08 Jahre, SD = 11.91). Die fünf Faktoren des TBE-SV konnten mit einer konfirmatorischen Faktorenaanalyse weitestgehend repliziert werden χ²‍(242) = 421.46, p < .001, CFI = .92, RMSEA = .039) und eine Messinvarianzprüfung wies auf metrische Invarianz hin. Die Subskalen wiesen niedrige bis akzeptable Reliabilitätskoeffizienten auf (McDonalds ω = .51 – .87). Jüngere Probanden ( r = -.28) und jene mit niedrigerem Bildungsniveau ( r = -.17) gaben ungünstigere Theapieeinstellungen an. Schließlich unterstreichen die Korrelationen mit diversen Selbstbeurteilungsfragebögen die konvergente und diskriminante Validität des TBE-SV. Es kann geschlussfolgert werden, dass der TBE-SV, der ursprünglich für Personen im Strafvollzug konzipiert wurde, auch für die Anwendung im Maßregelvollzug geeignet ist. Ansatzpunkte zur Weiterentwicklung des Fragebogens werden abschließend kritisch diskutiert.

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