Saleem Shah

This article describes the important ways in which Saleem Shah contributed to the improvement of delivery of forensic mental health services in state mental health systems throughout the nation. In addition, it describes his impact on the development of forensic mental health law, policy, and services internationally, especially in China and the former Soviet Union.     

Dangerousness

Saleem Shah played a major role in the development of both policy and research concerning the prediction of dangerousness to others over two decades. During that period his commitment to the welfare of people with mental illness led him first to challenge the legitimacy of such predictions and later to support research to improve them. His ideas were central to most of the research that has been done in this area. This article suggests a direction for future research concerning the prediction of dangerousness to others that elaborates and extends his thinking by focusing on the research necessary to help individuals with mental illnesses to minimize their involvement in violence.     

Saleem A. Shah

This article introduces a special section ofLaw and Human Behavior entitled Commenorative Articles in Memory of Saleem Shah. The six articles that it introduces describe Shah's lifetime contributions to the development of concepts and research in law and mental health, as well as his substantial influence on the quality of forensic mental health services nationally and internationally.     

In the wake of a negligent release law suit

Several staff members at a state psychiatric hospital were found negligent in a jury trial for having released a psychiatric patient who subsequently killed a member of the plaintiff's family. This study explored the impact of the law suit on the hospital staff members as individuals and on the functioning of the institution. Self-report measures revealed that both named defendants and nondefendant staff experienced symptoms of emotional disturbance associated with the litigation. Self-report measures suggest that the law suit was not instructive in any meaningful way regarding improved procedures for subsequent release decision making. Archival data indicate that the staff did release significantly fewer patients during the trial and follow-up period than prior to the litigation. Results are discussed in the context of Wexler's concept of therapeutic jurisprudence.This study was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Committee of the University of Alabama. The results are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of the Research Grants Committee or the University of Alabama. We are indebted to Saleem Shah for his suggestions regarding methodology and particularly the need to investigate positive and instructive aspects of law suits.     

Evolution of the psycho-legal studies program

This article describes Saleem Shah's role as a mentor and consultant to the author. The author focuses on his influence in the development of the author's research program, examining issues in the police arrest of mentally ill offenders and the need for mental health services for jail detainees.     

Saleem Shah's contributions to forensic clinical assessment

This article describes Saleem Shah's vision for specialized methods that were needed to perform more reliable and valid forensic clinical assessments. He contributed to their development by his consultantion and support as Director of the Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency at NIMH, and the played a major role in their implementation in forensic mental health systems nationwide.     

Developing a research program

This article describes Saleem Shah's early professional years, his development of the Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency at the National Institute of Mental Health, and his use of the Center to stimulate the growth and direction of research on law and mental health.     

A developmental history of the American Psychology-Law Society

The American Psychology-Law Society, now in its 22nd year, began in 1969 after an, organizational meeting in 1968. It played a role in the creation of Division 41 (Psychology and Law) of the American Psychological Association in 1981. The Division became the American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 with the merger of the two organizations in 1984. The present narrative history of the Society's development is based on information from newsletters, documents of Society business, and recollections communicated to the author by individuals who played critical roles in the Society's development. The history is organized according to five stages, with special attention to competitive and cooperative efforts of subgroups as they sought to define the directions and purposes of the Society.This article is based on my address to the American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 at the convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston (August 12, 1990) at the conclusion of my presidency of AP-LS/Division 41. I wish to thank several people who contributed to this history by offering me their memories, their files, and/or their reflections on earlier drafts of this paper: Gordon Bermant, Donald Bersoff, Stanley Brodsky, Shari Diamond, Sheila Dietz, Robert Howell, Felice Levine, Paul Lipsitt, Gary Melton, John Monahan, Stephen Morse, Michael Nash, Steven Penrod, Michael Saks, Bruce Sales, Saleem Shah, June Louin Tapp, and Jay Ziskin. The scholarship and organizational support of many well-known colleagues who are not mentioned in the course of this narrative history significantly influenced the development of the Society and the field of psychology and law during the past two decades. In my early drafts however, I found that a narrative that attempted to mention the majority of them would produce a fragmented work through which the flow of events in the Society's history would not be discerned easily. In selecting who to identify, I focused primarily on individuals who contributed to the organization as visible leaders and who, therefore, would form a cast of characters that would provide the best medium for telling the story of the Society. I have developed and am maintaining a cumulative archival repository (which will be the possession of AP-LS/Division 41) for documents and oral communications related to the history and business of AP-LS/Division 4L, Anyone having pre-1988 copies of newsletters of AP-LS or AP-LS/Division 41, or other documents describing the business of these organizations, are encouraged to send them to me, either for domation or to be photocopied and returned.     

Police GPS Surveillance on Vehicles and the Warrant Requirement: “For a While I’ve Been Watching You Steady”

The global positioning system (GPS) has become ubiquitous to modern American life. The system supplies direction for travel through navigation systems as well as employee monitoring capabilities (Rosenberg Washington Journal of Law, Technology, and Arts 6:143–154, 2010). Law Enforcement has also found GPS to be a valuable tool. The technology provides a relatively cheap and highly effective way to monitor a suspect’s movement. Depending on the device, travel data can be reported in real time or be retrieved from the implanted device at intervals (Shah Journal of Law, Technology, and Policy 2009:281–294, 2009). This paper will first explore the core foundational Fourth Amendment cases that shape the use of GPS devices by law enforcement. Next, the federal circuits and state supreme courts’ decisions that have addressed the use of GPS will be reviewed. Third, the case of U.S. v. Jones (2012), which was recently decided by the United States Supreme Court, will be examined. Last, the policy implications of the current legal landscape regarding the use of GPS by police will be discussed.     

Radiographic demonstration of esophageal and tracheal fistulas at autopsy using a contrasting medium that vulcanizes at room temperature

Esophageal and tracheal fistulas, which occur in 0.05% of medicolegal autopsies, were demonstrated in three cases by a postmortem radiographic technique using silicone rubber/lead oxide as a contrasting medium that vulcanizes at room temperature. In one 83-year-old male, a tracheoesophageal fistula was detected, which had developed after surgical repair of an esophageal rupture caused by a flexible fiberoptic endoscope. In a second case, carcinoma of the esophagus in a 78-year-old male had eroded the trachea and arcus of the aorta creating a fatal tracheoesophagoaortic fistula. In a third case, 55-year-old female developed a tracheobrachicephalic artery fistula as a result of an infiltrating cystic adenocarcinoma of the trachea, resulting in a fatal hemorrhage into the trachea. The results of this study indicate that diagnostic radiologic methods using a vulcanized contrasting medium are useful in supplementing normal dissection in autopsy cases with suspected fistulas of the esophagus or trachea.     

Case report of accidental stab wound to the heart

A 33 year-old Polish field-worker was found by his colleagues kneeling in front of his trailer, with a bloody stab wound in the heart region. In spite of prompt surgical intervention, the man died from his injury a few hours later. Upon examination of the dead man's trailer a blood-smeared vegetable-knife was found in the sink, and on the floor, a pullover with a slit-like cut. On the wall hung a jacket on a hook with a cut in the inner surface of the left breast pocket but not in the outside layer. The examination of the clothes, the autopsy and a reconstruction of the sequence of events led to the following conclusion: The knife had been placed into the breast pocket of the jacket with the tip facing downwards. As the man put down a sack of potatoes, the knife hooked into a pre-existing gap in the sack and was driven into the chest cavity by the pressure weight of the heavy sack.     

Identification of acepromazine in hair: an illustration of the difficulties encountered in investigating drug-facilitated crimes

After a drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA), a woman was found in a drowsy state at home. She remembered having drunk an unknown beverage by the accused. Blood samples (collected 8 hours after the DFSA), two glasses, and a teaspoon seized by the police were analyzed. Acepromazine, a phenothiazine tranquilizer used in human and veterinary medicine, was detected in the residue of one of the glasses. In spite of acepromazine absence in the victim's blood, the possible use of acepromazine in the DFSA was reported to the police. Two weeks later, a suspect admitted having orally administered acepromazine to the victim. Using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method, this compound was subsequently detected (31 pg/mg) in a sample of the victim's hair collected a month and a half after the DFSA. A potential short elimination half-life in humans and/or the well-known in vitro degradation of acepromazine could explain the negative blood result. DFSA toxicological investigations are challenging and can be complicated when a rather unusual substance is concerned. In particular, special care should be taken when interpreting the results, taking into account elimination and/or instability data, when available.     

Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a patient in a minimally conscious state

This column reports on a recent decision, the first in England in which a court was asked to authorise the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from a patient in a "minimally conscious state". Since the seminal decision in 1993 in Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993] AC 789, in which the House of Lords authorised withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from a patient in a persistent vegetative state, the relatively new diagnosis of a "minimally conscious state" has been recognised. In deciding whether it was in the patient's best interests that artificial nutrition and hydration be withdrawn and withheld, the court made a key legal determination, with precedential effect, as to whether the so-called "balance sheet" approach to determining a patient's best interests, as opposed to the (discredited) "futility" principle, applies to a patient in a minimally conscious state. The merit of the former approach is that it forces explicit consideration of quality-of-life assessments in favour of and against withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. A significant pitfall of the English position, as it is currently developing, is the premium it places on accurate diagnosis, whether of vegetative state or minimally conscious state. These issues will have to be faced sooner or later by Australasian courts.     

The Collision of Islam and Terrorism in Central Asia

The five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan gained independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent unexpected independence of Central Asian states in 1991 resulted in a renewal of nationalistic feelings and, in some quarters, a desire to re-establish a Caliphate. Some terrorist groups in Central Asia see the future of the region as being a Caliphate. The question arises whether adherence to Islam and its ideology in Central Asia is significant enough to be a foundation for the formation of a Caliphate. This paper proposes an answer to this question by analyzing the potential connection between terrorism and the revival of Islam in Central Asia.     

Massive systemic silicone embolism: a case report and review of literature

Subcutaneous injections of inert or quasi-inert plastic material designed to smooth out wrinkled skin or to create a more esthetically sought appearance have become very popular with the American public in general, and, in particular, with certain groups highly focused on their physical image. The case of the injection procedure has attracted into the field of plastic medicine a substantial number of illegal, incompetent, and unscrupulous operators. Their ignorance of involved medical risks and procedures not uncommonly results in severe complications, disfigurement, and death of patients. We report the typical pathological and chemical findings of a systemic fatal silicone embolism in a 53-year-old heterosexual woman following illegal chronic injections of silicone in her hips and buttocks. The injected subcutaneous silicone apparently migrated rapidly from the interstitial subcutaneous tissue into the general blood stream resulting in a fatal systemic silicone embolism. An analysis of the presented case in conjunction with a review of the pertinent medical literature, including a recent article, revealed a marked similarity in the clinicopathologic findings between silicone embolism and fat embolism.     

Murder and robbery by vehicular impact: true vehicular homicide

True vehicular homicides are defined as those occurrences in which a motor vehicle is intentionally used as a weapon in taking of a life. A case is presented in which the deceased was traveling in the front passenger seat of a motor car that was deliberately rammed by a heavy jeep that came in the opposite direction, resulting in a serious frontal collision. Immediately after the impact, while the occupants of the car were lying in a dazed condition, the two persons riding in the jeep escaped with a bag containing money that was in the car, leaving the jeep behind. The impact mainly involved the driver's sides of both vehicles. The driver of the car sustained serious injuries but was found to be alive, whereas the front-seat passenger, who did not show any serious external injuries, was found to be in a collapsed state and was pronounced dead on admission to the hospital within 30 minutes of the accident. The autopsy revealed that death was caused by closed hemopericardium from a ruptured right atrium. The evaluation of the external and internal injuries confirmed that the fatal injury and a few serious internal injuries were caused by the seat belt (tertiary-impact injuries). The ruptured right atrium was attributed to blunt abdominal trauma by impacting against the lap belt. The case was a true vehicular homicide in which a motor vehicle had been used as a weapon to kill a person. Various aspects pertaining to road accidents, the safety of the occupants, and the advantage and disadvantage of the safety devices are discussed.     

Strikes: strategy and tactics for managers

The threat of a strike is a powerful weapon in the union's arsenal. Management, caught off-guard when a strike hits, can be faced with insurmountable problems regarding maintenance of business operations and may be put in a position of capitulating to labor's demands. To avert these problems and to be able to effectively cope with the impact of a walkout, management must have a plan of action well in advance of the strike. In the following article, the authors provide a detailed strategy for strike preparation and discuss the issues management must address in dealing with a potential strike.     

Plurality of the Good? The Problem of Affirmative Tolerance in a Multicultural Society from an Ethical Point of View

Starting from the problem of tolerance in a multicultural society, the author undermines the limits of a classical-liberal foundation (negative tolerance) and suggests the need for a new meaning: a positive concern of tolerance implying appreciation of a variety of social cultures and value traditions. On an ethical level, positive tolerance can be grounded in the Discourse Theory, developing the classical Kantian deontological ethics in a transcendental-pragmatic and in a transcendental-hermeneutic sense. In this way, discourse ethics can answer two questions posed by tolerance in a multicultural society: the duty to support all in the pursuit of their ideals and realize positive tolerance as well as its restrictions.     

Damages for Mental Distress and Bad Faith in Disability Claims

This article examines recent changes in the law in Canada in relation to the court’s willingness to acknowledge the significance of, and award compensation for, intangible loss arising from breach of contract. When a claim for benefits is wrongly refused in a disability contract, a primary goal of the contract, which is to provide peace of mind, is unrealized. Where this causes mental distress, Canadian courts are now willing to award compensation. Similarly, if an insurer conducts itself in such a manner as to attract a punitive damages award, a consideration in assessing the quantum of the award is the vulnerability of the insured. The evidentiary basis for these claims will often include expert psychological opinion. Various considerations for determining the existence, nature, and scope of the psychological issues relevant to a claim for damages for mental distress and/or punitive damages are covered in this article.     

论和谐社区建设中的政府角色定位

本文以城市和谐社区建设中的地方政府角色为着眼点,分析了和谐社区建设中政府角色错位的原因.提出在构建和谐社区过程中,政府应与社区之间建立分工合作的新型关系,应扮演好社区建设的服务者和保障者、社区组织的培育者、社区建设的谋划者和组织者、社区关系的协调者等新角色,发挥政府在建设和谐社区中的作用,以期实现社区和谐的战略目标.