This study tested societal effects on caregiver/teacher ratings of behavioral/emotional problems for 10,521 preschoolers from 15 societies. Many societies had problem scale scores within a relatively narrow range, despite differences in language, culture, and other characteristics. The small age and gender effects were quite similar across societies. The rank orders of mean item ratings were similar across diverse societies. For 7,380 children from 13 societies, ratings were also obtained from a parent. In all 13 societies, mean Total Problems scores derived from parent ratings were significantly higher than mean Total Problems scores derived from caregiver/teacher ratings, although the size of the difference varied somewhat across societies. Mean cross-informant agreement for problem scale scores varied across societies. Societies were very similar with respect to which problem items, on average, received high versus low ratings from parents and caregivers/teachers. Within every society, cross-informant agreement for item ratings varied widely across children. In most respects, results were quite similar across 15 very diverse societies.

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A B S T R A C TThis study analyses new data on the service demands of gender and age subpopulations of occasional and frequent offenders shared by health, social care and criminal justice agencies in the UK. Using a case-linkage methodology borrowed from health studies, we tracked the population of offenders across multiple agencies within a Health Authority jurisdiction in an English county over a three-year period. We show that offenders and frequent offenders demanded services in larger proportions than non-offenders and occasional offenders, particularly drug and alcohol services. We find that overrepresentations of males and youngsters among offenders were more marked among frequent offenders. Using categorical principal component analyses, we identify three typologies of frequent offenders making heavy demands on public services, and detect key discrepancies between their problems and levels of service provision. Our findings indicate the need to devise inter-agency strategies for the treatment and care of different groups of offenders, while providing useful data on their characteristics so as to make these strategies more effective. K E Y W O R D SCase-Linkage Methods / Categorical Principal Component Analysis / Needs / Service Provision / Typologies.