To incentivize hospitals to provide better quality care at a lower cost, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 included the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), which reduces payments to hospitals with excess 30-day readmissions for Medicare patients treated for certain conditions. We use triple difference estimation to identify the HRRP's effects in Virginia hospitals; this method estimates the difference in changes in readmission over time between patients targeted by the policy and a comparison group of patients and then compares those difference-in-differences estimates in patients treated at hospitals with readmission rates above the national average (i.e., those at risk for penalties) and patients treated at hospitals with readmission rates below or equal to the national average (those not at risk). We find that the HRRP significantly reduced readmission for Medicare patients treated for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We find no evidence that hospitals delay readmissions, treat patients with greater intensity, or alter discharge status in response to the HRRP, nor do we find changes in the age, race/ethnicity, health status, and socioeconomic status of patients admitted for AMI. Future research on the specific mechanisms behind reduced AMI readmissions should focus on actions by healthcare providers once the patient has left the hospital. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Campus police agencies are often the first, if not only, responders to sexual assault incidents occurring on college campuses. Little is known, however, regarding the attitudinal dispositions of these officers, specifically their acceptance of rape myths and the effect this has on case processing. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining attitudes toward and perceptions of sexual assault among a sample of campus law enforcement officers in Texas. This was done through the administration of a short survey to a sample of campus law enforcement officers prior to their attendance at a sexual assault-focused training, as well as all campus police chiefs via the Internet. Survey items inquired about officers’ careers in law enforcement, contact with victims, and perceptions of sexual assault. Results suggest that officers’ adherence to rape myths is strongly related to their perceptions of campus sexual assault incidents and their attitudes toward victims. Suggestions for future research and policy are offered.

Limited attention has been directed at adult children with a history of parental incarceration. The goal of the current study is to expand our understanding of the gendered effects of imprisonment on the adult offspring of incarcerated parents through the exploration of violence perpetration among a sample of young adults. Congruent with problem behavior theory, it is hypothesized that young adults who have been affected by parental incarceration will report greater aversive outcomes (i.e., more risk factors and violence perpetration) than their peers without a history of parental incarceration. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that parental incarceration predicts violent perpetration even after controlling for individual and familial risk factors and demographic characteristics. A series of bivariate and multivariate statistical models utilizing self-report data from 534 college students were generated to test said hypotheses. In addition, the moderating effects of students' sex and exposure to parental incarceration on the relationship between violence perpetration and risk factors were explored through the utilization of split logistic regression models. Roughly 1 in 10 (13.3%) students surveyed had experienced parental incarceration. As expected, students affected by parental incarceration were significantly more likely to perpetrate violence than their peers not affected by parental incarceration, net individual and familial risk. Although only a small percentage of students had experienced the imprisonment of a parent, parental incarceration predicted violence perpetration in young adulthood. These findings highlight the need to explore the long-lasting effects of parental incarceration on prisoners' offspring across the life course.

Gang members are overrepresented among incarcerated populations in the United States. The link between incarceration and gang membership is beyond dispute, but serious questions remain about the causal mechanisms underlying this relationship. In this study, we develop and test theoretical models—origination, manifestation, and intensification—that focus on whether gang membership is exogenous or endogenous to incarceration. We used 7 years of monthly life calendar data nested within an 11‐wave longitudinal study of 1,336 serious offenders in Philadelphia and Phoenix to examine the effects of incarceration on gang membership. Multilevel models indicated that offenders were more likely to be in gangs while incarcerated in jail and prison settings than when not, although longer spells of incarceration corresponded with prolonged gang membership only in Phoenix. Incarceration in juvenile facilities maintained adverse between‐ and within‐individual effects on gang membership only in Phoenix. Additional descriptive findings revealed that gang status was durable to transitions into and out of incarcerated settings, and that more offenders exited than entered gangs while incarcerated. We situate these findings within our theoretical models and the body of knowledge on incarceration, concluding with a call for future research that is focused on the symbiosis between gangs in street and incarcerated settings.