Examining the Traumatic Effects of Sexual Victimization on the Health of Incarcerated Women

Data from the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities were used to examine the effects of sexual abuse on the physical and mental health of incarcerated women. This nationally representative sample consisted of a cross-section of 2,885 female inmates ranging in age from 16 to 74. Using bivariate analysis, we made comparisons between sexually abused (n = 1,205) and non–sexually abused (n = 1,680) inmates. Abused women were more likely to report increases in health problems and mental health diagnoses, as well as other self-reported mental health conditions, such as paranoia, depressive symptoms, anger, and lifestyle changes. Respondents with extensive sexual abuse histories (multiple and across the life cycle) were also more likely to suffer higher levels of paranoia, depression, chronic health problems, and attempted suicide.     

The Acute and Enduring Consequences of Exposure to Violence on Youth Mental Health and Aggression

The bulk of “neighborhood effects” research examines the impact of neighborhood conditions cross-sectionally. However, it is critical to understand whether the effects of neighborhood context are situational and whether they endure over time. In this study, we take seriously the notion that there are enduring consequences of exposure to deleterious neighborhood conditions. Using a rich set of longitudinal data on adolescents from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we estimate the effect of exposure to violence on both internalizing (depression and anxiety) and externalizing problems (aggression). We find that exposure to violence has both an acute and enduring effect on aggression, yet no effect on anxiety-depression, net of individual, family, peer, and neighborhood influences. Part of the enduring effect of violence exposure is explained by changes in social cognitions brought on by the exposure, yet much of the relationship remains to be explained by other causal mechanisms.     

Mental Health Among Incarcerated Women: An Examination of Factors Impacting Depression and PTSD Symptomology

Female offenders experience mental health symptoms at a higher rate than male offenders and females in the community. The current study investigated individual characteristics and experiences that may impact symptoms of depressive disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among a sample of female inmates in a large Southern prison system. Results showed high rates of reported childhood and adult victimization experiences among the sample. Factors such as seeking mental health treatment prior to incarceration significantly impacted the reporting of depressive and PTSD symptoms, as did victimization histories. Findings suggest that women would benefit from screening to identify mental health needs at the onset of incarceration as well as gender responsive needs assessment and programming to address histories of victimization and current mental health symptomatology.     

Incarcerated Mothers of Minor Children: Physical Health,Substance Use,and Mental Health Needs

Mothers of minor children serving sentences in a large Midwestern jail were screened for potential substance use problems and asked to report their physical and mental health status and treatment experiences. Of mothers screened for substance use problems, 72.1% had positive findings on the AUDIT-12, 56.7% reported at least one serious physical health problem, and 67.1% had received mental health treatment. More than two-thirds (68.8%) of the 240 mothers reported a co-occurring condition, and a third (33.8%) reported problems in all three spheres (substance use, mental health, and physical health). The relationship among the three health-related problems is examined as well as the characteristics of mothers related to having co-occurring health conditions. Given that the overwhelming majority of mothers reported more than one health-related problem, the changes to policy and practice need to avoid simplistic solutions.     

Gray Matters: Gender Differences in the Physical and Mental Health of Older Inmates

Although there has been a substantial increase in the number of older female inmates incarcerated in the United States, there has been little scholarly attention paid to this population. The purpose of this study is to extend the current understanding of older inmates by examining gender differences in their physical and mental health. Bivariate analyses of one of the largest known samples of older female inmates (n = 142) revealed significant gender differences. Older female inmates reported a greater number of physical health conditions and mental health disorders in all three time periods: in their lifetimes, since admission to prison, and in the previous year. This research informs the need for gender-specific health programming for older female inmates.     

公安民警心理健康状况及其对策

警察是一种压力密集型职业,因而公安民警的心理健康状况不容乐观。当务之急要采取有效措施,缓解民警的心理压力,开展民警心理保健,提高民警的心理健康水平。从六个方面提出了解决问题的思路和方法。     

精神卫生立法中鉴定条款的改进及相关问题研究——以《精神卫生法(草案)》为基础

以国务院最近公布的《精神卫生法(草案)》中与鉴定有关的条款为基础,结合司法鉴定学理论与实践,针对术语选用、基础理论与制度设计等问题展开评述与分析,最后提出个人建议.     

The Social Ecology of Violent Victimization: Individual and Contextual Effects in the NCVS

Multi-level research has shown that individual and community factors are important predictors of the risk for violent victimization. However, previous analyses have drawn different conclusions about the role of any given factor. These differences likely are related to variations in how violence is measured and to the fact that the data are drawn from different locales. The research presented here uses the 1995 National Crime Victimization Survey and tract-level census data to examine (1) how the risk of violence is distributed across persons and places in the United States and (2) whether empirical findings are sensitive to the operationalization of violence. Results show that some individual-level predictors (e.g., gender and race) are sensitive to the operationalization of violence, whereas others (e.g., age and marital status) are not. In addition, the impact of community characteristics on violence depends on central-city residence. In central cities, persons most at risk are in disadvantaged tracts, with lower proportions of immigrants. Outside central cities, the proportion of immigrants in an area increases risk, while community disadvantage has no independent influence. The importance of an empirical foundation for the development of theories of risk is discussed.     

浅谈在职民警的心理健康教育

警察心理健康教育是当前警察队伍建设中不可忽视的一个重要问题,各级公安机关和公安院校要高度重视警察心理素 质的培养和提高,帮助他们解决因各种压力而造成的心理问题,从而培养良好的个性特征,促进心理品质的不断完善。     

Qualitative Differences Among Rural and Urban Intimate Violence Victimization Experiences and Consequences: A Pilot Study

Relatively little is known about rural women's intimate violence experiences in comparison to urban women's experiences, partly because of the difficulty in accessing rural women. This pilot study used a protective order sample of 23 women (15 urban and 8 rural), which provides an access point that is relatively similar for comparisons across rural and urban areas. The number of participants is low and, therefore, results are preliminary. However, several significant findings emerged. Rural women reported significantly less social support, less education, less income, more physical abuse in the preceding year, more childhood physical and sexual abuse, and worse overall health and mental health, as well as encountering abuse earlier in the relationship. Both groups reported higher rates of illegal drug and cigarette use than those among the general population. The findings highlight some overall important themes in examining rural and urban intimate violence victims by suggesting that rural and urban intimate violence victims have different victimization experiences and service needs. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.     

试论领导干部的心理健康及其调适

随着社会转型速度的加快,领导干部的心理健康问题已经越来越受到全社会的关注和重视.领导干部的心理健康是领导干部素质健全和全面发展的重要标志.本文分析了目前领导干部心理健康存在的问题及成因,并有针对性地提出了领导干部心理健康调适的方法.     

Social Correlates of Delinquency for Youth in Need of Mental Health Services: Examining the Scope Conditions of Criminological Theories

While both traditional criminological inquiry and mental health research have identified internal and external constellations of risk factors associated with juvenile offending, interdisciplinary discourse has been limited. This paper takes a step in bridging the gap between criminological literature and work in the field of children’s mental health by evaluating the combined effects of social and mental health predictors on juvenile delinquency in a sample of youth with diagnosed clinical disorders. Results of multivariate analyses indicate that both traditional social risk factors as well as indicators of the nature and severity of youths’ mental health disorders contribute to delinquency. Moreover, the influence of one well-established risk factor, self-control, on delinquency is moderated by the presence of oppositional defiant disorder. The results of this study suggest that researchers and practitioners should consider the cumulative influence of social risk factors and psychological impairment in the etiology of delinquency.     

Understanding the Role of Repeat Victims in the Production of Annual US Victimization Rates

Victimization incidence rates produced from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) are a generally accepted annual indicator of the amount and type of crime in the United States. However, persons who report a large number of similar victimizations—known as series victimizations in the NCVS—are currently excluded in government reports of annual violent victimizations. This paper quantifies the effect of series incident counting procedures on national estimates of violent victimization. The findings suggest that these high-volume repeat victims can have a significant impact on the magnitude and distribution of violent victimization. Current government counting rules that exclude series incidents do not include about three out of every five violent victimizations and distorts the characterization and risk of violence in the United States. However, the inclusion of series incidents introduces significant estimate instability. One remedy is to use prevalence rates in concert with incidence rates to present a more complete and reliable picture of victimization.

静修与心理健康

西方心理学和精神医学界很早便注重对静修的研究，根据Roger Walsh等人的报告，静修可能导致很多好处，在生理方面，它能降低觉醒程度，增进大脑半球不同区域的同步性；在心理方面，它能促进放检，解除 催眠状态，以及促进领悟，自我理解和自我控制技能的发展，概括地说，就是有助于人的成长。高级的静修还有助于超个人目标的实现，但将静修用于心理治疗，还应该注意预防情绪不稳定，心理冲突等一系列问题。     

检察官心理健康状况实证调查研究

检察官心理健康状况直接关系到其角色发挥和司法公正大局。然而检察工作“三高”现象直接影响着检察官心理健康，检察官心理问题较为突出。检察官心理层面压力表现为工作高要求和任务繁重导致自我提高时间较少的矛盾、工作专注化要求与检察官角色多重性之间的矛盾。调查中发现检察官自我效能感低于普通人，而抑郁程度却显著高于普通人，公诉和反贪部门检察官压力更为明显。为改善检察官心理健康状况，需要从提高检察官队伍素质、完善身份保障及重点调整高压力部门等方面予以改善。     

A comparison of weighted and unweighted analyses in the national Crime Victimization Survey

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data tapes include several variables of weights that reflect how many households or persons are represented by a given data record. While these sampling weights are crucial for estimating overall victimization rates, they do not have as much of an effect on methodological models, because weights in the NCVS are used primarily in ratio estimation adjustments and to compensate for a relatively low nonresponse rate. The general use of weights is discussed, and several examples are given that indicate that although there may be some differences in the coefficients, the basic conclusions drawn from the models are the same with or without weights. It is recommended that weighted analyses in the NCVS be used primarily as a tool in model development.     

The Empirical Limits of Forensic Mental Health Assessment

This article introduces a special issue of Law and Human Behavior, including five articles describing the limits of forensic mental health assessments of (a) risk of violence in female adolescents, (b) sexually violent predators, (c) dangerousness in capital murder cases, (d) child sexual abuse, and (e) PTSD litigants. Knowing the limits of forensic mental health assessment methods is essential in order to recognize their strengths, increase the credibility of forensic mental health assessment, and drive research that will enhance the value of assessments for the courts.     

Service utilization in a cohort of criminal justice-involved men: implications for case management and justice systems

In the era of re-entry, a great deal of attention has been paid to the ‘risk-need-responsivity’ model. Most attention to the utilization of services designed to meet need has focused on post-release behaviors. However, little attention has been paid to the pre-incarceration utilization of services that might influence receptivity to post-release utilization. Using constructs borrowed from health services utilization, the current paper examines the associations among CJ-involvement, social and health services utilization, and health status in a cohort of CJ-involved men living in the community. Results from the current cohort, combined with those of previous research, suggest that follow-through on services by released individuals’ remains problematic. Suggestions for future research and questions about the role of criminal justice agencies in improving follow-through are raised.     

论《精神卫生法》的自愿原则

为了防止正常人"被精神病",更好地保护精神障碍患者的合法权益,《精神卫生法》确立了自愿原则。该原则渊源于私法领域的自愿原则而又与其不同,是在知情的条件下对精神卫生服务的单方接受自愿。它回应了要像人一样保护精神障碍患者,彰显了精神卫生法的福利法本质。它包涵自愿诊断、自愿治疗和自愿出院三个既相互区别又相互联系子原则。非自愿诊断、非自愿治疗、非自愿继续住院治疗只是自愿原则的补充,此种例外旨在寻求患者精神健康权与社会公众安全保护的平衡。     

对《精神卫生法（草案）》的修改意见与建议

国务院法制办公布了《精神卫生法（草案）》征求社会意见，必要而及时。反复修改后的草案在结构和内容上基本合理，但也存在不足之处：对非自愿住院和强制住院产生异议的有关救济程序不完善；未涉及在监狱等特殊场所设立精神卫生医疗机构；“监护人”等名词使用欠周全；部分条款的结构及用语值得商榷。