Why “Trauma-Related Dissociation” Is a Misnomer in Courts: a Critical Analysis of Brand et al. (2017a,b)

Forensic psychologists are sometimes faced with the task of educating triers of fact about the evidential weight of dissociative experiences reported by claimants in litigation procedures. In their two-part essay, Brand et al. (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283–297, 2017a; Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 298–312, 2017b) provide advice to experts who find themselves in such situation. We argue that the Brand et al. approach is problematic and might induce confirmation bias in experts. Their approach is not well connected to the extant literature on recovered memories, dissociative amnesia, memory distortions, and symptom validity testing. In some instances, Brand et al. (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283–297, 2017a; Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 298–312, 2017b) simplify the current body of knowledge about dissociation; in other instances, they ignore relevant empirical studies to an extent that is worrisome.     

Reaching Out versus Lashing Out: Examining Gender Differences in Experiences with and Responses to Bullying in High School

The present study examines gender differences in bullying in high school. Unique contributions include comparisons of both victimization and perpetration rates across four subtypes of bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and cyber. Further, as we conceptualize bullying within the larger framework of literature on social rejection, we also address whether there are gender differences in experiencing social rejection–in the form of bullying–and responding with aggression, as opposed to asocial or prosocial behavior. The literature yields mixed findings across these three questions (i.e., gender differences in experiences with victimization and perpetration and responses to those experiences), suggesting sample variations (Archer Review of General Psychology, 8(4), 291–322, 2004; Archer & Coyne Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 212–230, 2005; Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little Child Development, 79, 1185–1229, 2008). Thus, we explored experiential differences in our sample, and hypothesized based on the tend and befriend model (Taylor et al., 2000) that girls would be more likely than boys to respond to bullying with prosocial behaviors. With regard to victimization and perpetration differences, we found that male students both experienced and perpetrated significantly more physical bullying. Boys were also significantly more likely to report experiencing verbal bullying than girls. No significant differences emerged for relational or cyber bullying. With regard to responses, social withdrawal was more common than aggressive responding, but consistent with the tend and befriend model, girls chose prosocial responses significantly more than boys, whereas boys were just as likely to choose antisocial responding as prosocial responding. These results suggest that gender should be considered in studies addressing the question of when experiences with rejection–in its many forms–results in antisocial versus prosocial behavior.     

“Sealfie”, “Phoque you” and “Animism”: The Canadian Inuit Answer to the United-States Anti-sealing Activism

A corpus made by online Canadian newspaper articles, coming from the archives of CBC News, Vice Canada and Huffington Post Canada, and related multimedia contents such us audio interviews, videos and especially links to images and comments shared on Twitter, allows us to reconstruct the debate on the seal hunt that involved Canadian media in 2014. In specific, we propose an interpretation of the pro-sealing discourse by Canadian Inuit and Newfoundlanders as an ironic and incisive answer to the serious United States animal rights activists discourse, explaining how these two different points of view on animals come from a different experience of the environment and a different conception of nature. The image of the seal became the friction point between Western naturalism against Inuit animism: a multinaturalist (Descola in Beyond nature and culture, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2013) clash in the North America post-colonial situation. A clash solved by people as Tanya Tagaq and other Inuit artists that belong to these two different semiospheres (Lotman in Universe of the mind. A semiotic theory of culture. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1990) and thanks to their border placement can allow a dialog between Inuit and North American cultures traducing aesthetic forms, values and meanings. To study the structures of meaning at the base of this clash and iconoclash (Latour, in Weibel, Latour (eds) Iconoclash. Beyond the image-wars in science, religion and art, pp 14–37, ZKM and MIT Press, Boston, 2002) on the artic seal between opposite cultures, it has been necessary to use the socio-semiotic approach (Greimas and Courtés in Semiotics and language: an analytical dictionary, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1982, Marrone in Corpi sociali. Processi comunicativi e semiotica del testo, Einaudi, Torino, 2001) with the help of semiotics of culture tools (Lotman in Universe of the mind. A semiotic theory of culture. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1990, Culture and explosion. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2009].     

Examining the Long-Term Consequences of Bullying on Adult Substance Use

Violence is a major concern in the school safety literature. With the potential negative impact of bullying victimization, it is imperative that bullying also be seen as an important social problem that has potential long-term mental and physical health consequences (CDC Surveillance Summaries, 65(6), 1-50, 2016). Numerous studies have documented the negative consequences of bullying in childhood, contending that bullying during childhood can lead to a variety of adulthood problems (Farrington, Loeber, Stallings, & Ttofi Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 3(2), 74-81, 2011; Rigby, 2007). Fewer studies have examined the long-term consequences of childhood bullying on adult substance use. This study uses Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997) data to examine the association between school-aged bullying (under the age of 19) and adult alcohol, cigarette, and drug use (using Wave 10 from 2007).     

Self-Defense,Retaliation, and Gender: Clarifying Motivations for Physical Partner Violence

The motivations behind intimate partner violence (IPV) have been a controversial topic. It has been suggested that women’s use of IPV mainly occurs in the context of self-defense (Saunders 1986). However, men also report perpetrating IPV in self-defense (Harned 2001; Makepeace 1986). This article differentiates self-defense from retaliation and reviews findings regarding these motives for perpetrators of IPV. Self-defense motives are common among battered women; however, undergraduates and arrested perpetrators often report other motives. Women do not consistently report using violence in self-defense more than men do. Clinical and research implications are discussed and existing self-defense measures are critiqued.     

Edleson Revisited: Reviewing Children’s Witnessing of Domestic Violence 15 Years Later

A systematic review of literature was conducted using the criteria identified in Edleson’s (Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(8), 839–870, 1999) article titled “Children’s witnessing of domestic violence.” Based on the recommendations in Edleson’s (Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(8), 839–870, 1999) article, four themes were examined in the current research 1) the impact of exposure to domestic violence, 2) the cumulative effects of exposure to multiple forms of violence, 3) potential protective factors that highlight children’s resilience, and 4) the father-child relationship. Using similar methods identified in Edleson’s (Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(8), 839–870, 1999) article, the literature was searched and 46 articles reviewed during the Fall of 2014. The results highlight areas of great success in expanding the understanding of children’s exposure to domestic violence to increase identification and prevalence. However, the results found that after nearly 15 years, there has been little advancement in the research literature on emphasizing children’s voices in their experiences of domestic violence.     

Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect Health Risk Behaviors and Chronic Health of Iowans

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), include childhood abuse and household dysfunction, and are associated with a variety of behavioral risk factors and chronic illnesses in adulthood. This study replicates the original ACEs study (Felitti et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. doi: 10.1016/s0749-3797(98)00017-8, 1998) with a representative sample of adults in Iowa. Data come from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey of 2012 when ACE assessments were first introduced in Iowa by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012). The majority of adults in Iowa (58%) have experienced at least one ACE, and depending on the type of ACE, co-occurrence of ACEs ranged from 76% to 97%. Health risk behaviors in adulthood, such as drinking, smoking, and obesity were significantly related to the number of ACEs experienced. ACEs were also associated with depression. Chronic health outcomes including heart disease, stroke, and COPD were also significantly predicted by the number of ACEs. This replication study demonstrates that the need for intervention and prevention programs in Iowa are similar to the needs found in other states in the U.S. for addressing the consequences of ACEs.     

Before the Law: Criminalization,Accusation and Justice

This review essay critically engages three socio-legal books directed to the changing bases of criminalization; namely, Lacey (In search of criminal responsibility: ideas, interests, and institutions, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017); Farmer (Making the modern criminal law: criminalization and civil order, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016); and Norrie, Justice and the slaughter bench: essays on law’s broken dialectic, Routledge, New York, 2016). The texts explore how modern (largely English) institutions of criminal law proscribe, assign responsibility and appear through contradictory socio-political ‘constellations’. They variously reference criminal law’s expanding punitiveness as it: embraces revived character-based ways of attributing responsibility via ideas of risk; drifts away from a social function of creating civil order; and, works through a ‘broken dialectic’ that fails to recognize its ethico-political auspices. The ensuing ‘overcriminalization’ is referenced variously, but this review questions a tendency to work off legal lexicons, with consequent limitations placed on the scope of social analysis. Referring to Roman and Cape colonial forms of criminalization, this review highlights processes of accusation that call subjects to account as criminals, thereby signalling an initiating socio-political layer upon which unequal forms of overcriminalization rest.     

Relationship Between Motivation to Lead,Mental Health Status,and Job Satisfaction of Male and Female Civil Police Constables

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences in perceptions of motivation to lead, mental health, and job satisfaction of male and female police constables. Police constables (N = 203, male = 144, female = 59) were surveyed at four districts (Varanasi, Mirzapur, Allahabad and Lucknow) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Republic of India. Participants’ responses were obtained on questionnaires which measured demographic characteristics, motivation to lead (Dubrin, 1998), psychological well-being, psychological distress (Heubeck & Neill Psychological Reports, 87:431–440, 2000), and job satisfaction (Dantzker’s Journal of Crime and Justice 16:171–181, 1993). Results of t test analysis indicated that job experience, salary, education, motivation to lead, and psychological well-being were significantly different among the male and female police constables. Motivation to lead was a significantly positive correlate of job satisfaction among male participants only while psychological well-being was significantly, positively correlated with job satisfaction of both male and female participants. Psychological well-being also exercised partial mediator effects on the positive relationship between “motivation to lead” and job satisfaction in male police constables only. However, psychological distress was negatively correlated with job satisfaction of male police constables. The findings have significant implications for increasing job satisfaction in the police department. Findings indicate that the government should concentrate on removing anomalies in the job conditions of the female police constables so as to promote psychological well-being. Simultaneously, the police department should also pay attention to conditions which can increase motivation to lead among its female police constables.     

Current Controversies within Intimate Partner Violence: Overlooking Bidirectional Violence

There is a wealth of research that details the bidirectional nature of the majority of intimate partner violence (IPV; Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al. Partner Abuse, 3(2), 199–230, 2012). However, there is a tendency for interventions to treat perpetrators and victims unilaterally from a gendered standpoint. The current paper discusses the evidence to date that illustrates the extent of the problem, including frequency within several samples and the severity of outcomes. It further argues that the only way to develop effective interventions is to acknowledge that many perpetrators may also be victims, and the need to understand the context in which the violence occurs.     

The Development of a Reduced-Item Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS)

Effort assessment is a relevant area in neuropsychological assessment. There are well-established self-report measures, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) FBS Symptom Validity Scale (FBS; Lees-Haley, English & Glenn, Psychological Reports 68: 203-210, 1991) and MMPI-2 Response Bias Scale (RBS; Gervais, Ben-Porath, Wygant & Green, Assessment 14: 196, 2007). However, there is also a need for brief measures of symptom exaggeration. The Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) appears to be a promising self-report measure of symptom validity (e.g., Smith & Burger, Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 25: 183-189, 1997). In order to understand the psychometric properties of the SIMS, a comprehensive item analysis was performed with the questionnaire. Items were removed due to invariable response or lack of relationship with the total SIMS. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses were completed using RBS and FBS Symptom Validity Scale (FBS) of the MMPI-2 with items grouping from the SIMS indices. The results found that limiting the number of items did not affect overall utility. The abbreviated indices on the SIMS had excellent discrimination with the neurologic impairment (NI) and affective disorder (AF) scales and good discrimination with psychosis (P) and amnesic disorder (AM) scales of the SIMS. The briefer measure allows for less time required to administer the measure, while still maintaining the integrity of the SIMS.     

Gender Role and Gender as Predictors of Behavior Problems in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are likely to develop behavior problems, but findings are mixed regarding whether girls and boys are differentially affected. Bem (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634–643, 1975) argued that gender role is an important predictor of mental health, and this relationship may differ for males and females due to societal gender norms. Given the gendered nature of IPV, we examined whether gender role interacted with gender to predict behavior problems in IPV-exposed children (n = 176). Among four-year-old children, gender-typed gender roles were a risk factor for girls but not boys, and androgynous gender roles were protective for both boys and girls on average. However, post hoc analyses indicated the amount of IPV exposure mattered; androgynous girls exposed to chronic IPV had more behavior problems. Results illustrate the importance of societal and family gender norms in determining children’s risk for behavior problems following exposure to IPV.     

Situating gangs within Scotland’s illegal drugs market(s)

The Scottish government’s (2008) publication ‘The road to recovery: A new approach to tackling Scotland’s drug problem’ elaborates and outlines the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) desire to make Scotland ‘drug free’ by 2019. To achieve this objective, the Scottish Government’s (2015) ‘Serious Organised Crime Strategy’ (SSOCS) entails dismantling networks of drug supply. Yet missing from this strategic planning is a) recognition of how, if at all, different types of gangs are involved in drug supply, and b) how drug supply processes actually work. Therefore, this article seeks to extend McLean’s (J Deviant Behav, 2017) Scottish gang model, which specifies a typology of gangs in Scotland, in an effort to locate precise levels of gang involvement in the drugs market. This is achieved by drawing upon Pearson and Hobbs’ (2001) hierarchical model of the UK’s illegal drug(s) market. In-depth interviews with 35 offenders involved in criminal networks and five practitioners, indicate that recreational Youth Street Gangs are really only involved in ‘social supply’. Youth Criminal Gangs are primarily involved in commercially motivated dealing at the low- to mid-levels, including bulk-buying between the retail-to-wholesale markets. And enterprising Serious Organised Crime Gangs operate from the middle-to-apex market level. Conclusions which situate this gang typology within the illegal drug market(s) are used to put forward recommendations aimed at dismantling of drug supply networks.     

Tensions for Green Criminology

This article examines tensions that for the most part exist outside green criminology that could—and should—be brought under the green criminological gaze—issues that are not necessarily the province of green criminology but which have implications for the study of environmental crime and harm. Examples include: the conflicting messages that Western society encounters with respect to “victims” and “survivors”; claims of a lack of future orientation (Hayward 2012) in contrast to assertions of a risk-aversion in late modernity (Giddens 1999); frictions between the “precautionary principle” (Magnus 2008) and “precautionary logic” (Aas 2013); and the peculiarities of the “war on youth” (Grossberg 2001) in an era of “overparenting” (Kamenetz 2015) and “overindulged youth” (Kolbert 2012). The goal of the article is less to promulgate an agenda for green criminology than to heighten awareness of issues and contradictions that may contribute to environmental despoliation and degradation or frustrate efforts to address such harm.     

Trauma-Related Dissociation Is No Fantasy: Addressing the Errors of Omission and Commission in Merckelbach and Patihis (2018)

Dissociation is commonly a response to trauma that can be associated with significant impairment. In order to deal with dissociation in court from a comprehensive, scientifically informed, and valid perspective, Brand, Schielke, and Brams (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283-297, 2017a, b) provided a balanced view of dissociation, its characteristics, evidence base, and best assessment practices. Without an approach such as this, forensic experts risk having insufficient knowledge in its causation, phenomenology, and assessment and accordingly misunderstand trauma-related dissociation (TRD). Brand et al. (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283-297, 2017a, b) addressed this issue by providing an overview of TRD relevant to forensic contexts, acknowledging some of the erroneous and misinformed approaches to the topic. Merckelbach and Patihis (2018) offered a critique of Brand et al. (Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 283-297, 2017a, b) that illustrated this lack of knowledge and misunderstanding about TRD. Many of the statements made by these authors are conceptually inaccurate or scientifically misinformed. As we show, they were incorrect when they stated that research is lacking about the inter-rater reliability of dissociative disorder (DD) diagnoses. They were unaware of the error rates of tests and interviews among dissociative samples, which we present here. Merckelbach and Patihis challenged Brand et al., arguing their methods and literature review “lacked a connectivity to existing science” (p. 3), despite extensive citations of studies with DD patients. They argued that we failed to adequately consider malingering despite our discussions of empirically supported methods for assessing it. We show that Merckelbach and Patihis overlooked research that does not support their views. As we review their comments, we illustrate their pattern of misreading and misunderstanding our papers, as well as lapses in their reasoning. The current paper reinforces that in the forensic context, experts can acquire adequate understanding of TRD and its evidence base, and put forward arguments against any harsh critique of the area that is uninformed about, misunderstands, or includes omissions and errors in critical conceptualization, state-of-the-art assessment practices, and research methodology and results.     

The 4 Ds of Forensic Mental Health Assessments of Personal Injury

The field of psychiatric/psychological injury and law concerns tort and other legal claims for injuries sustained in events at issue, such as in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), worker compensation, or the veteran affairs (VA). The 4 Ds refer to the requirement that legal action in these types of cases can proceed when there is a duty, the duty has been discharged with dereliction, the resultant act has caused directly tortious harm, and damages are applicable. In contrast, the related 4 Cs refer to the conditions of effective forensic testimony. The principles of forensic mental health assessment (FMHA; Heilbrun et al., 2009) underscore the scientific requirements in forensic assessments, as do the American Psychological Association’s (APA, 2013) forensic specialty guidelines. For example, Brodsky’s maxims for effective work in court (Brodsky & Gutheil, 2016) cover a broad spectrum of ethical and practice guidelines for the profession. Similarly, Young (2016 a, b, c) has specified the parameters of admissible evidence in court, functioning ethically for the court, and the need to be comprehensive, scientifically informed, and impartial in forensic mental health assessments. All these sources lead to an integrated set of the principles for effective and ethical practice in the forensic arena of mental health work, referred here as the 4 Ds for the field of psychiatric/psychological injury and law. These revised 4 D principles involve Dignity, Distance, Data, and Determinations.     

Quality of Will,Private Blame and Conversation: Reply to Driver,Shoemaker, and Vargas

In this paper, I defend my book Conversation and Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2012) in response to three critics: Julia Driver, David Shoemaker, and Manuel Vargas. Driver raises questions about my account of private blame. Shoemaker finds problems with my account of quality of will. And Vargas questions the conversational nature of my account.     

Is Ratnākaraśānti a gZhan stong pa?

The doctrinal position of Ratnākara?ānti (ca. 11th century) is a source of great controversy among modern scholars. As diversified as the modern understanding of Ratnākara?ānti’s doctrinal position is the traditional ways in which the gZhan stong view is defined in Tibet. This paper aims to (1) argue, with special attention paid on his presentation of the three natures, that Ratnākara?ānti defines his own doctrine as Rang bzhin gsum gyi dbu ma / *Trisvabhāva- mādhyamika in his “Core Trilogy”: the Prajñāpāramitopade?a, the Madhyamakāla?kāropade?a, and the Madhyamakāla?kārav?ttimadhyamapratipatsiddhi, (2) demonstrate, by comparing Ratnākara?ānti’s view with that of the orthodox Jo nang authors represented by Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292–1361) and Tāranātha (1575–1634), that Ratnākara?ānti is arguably a gZhan stong pa in its strictest sense, and (3) problematize Brunnhölzl (Prajñāpāramitā, Indian “gzhan stong pas”, and the beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde Heft 74, 2011) and Sponberg’s (Bukkyō bunka kenkyūjo kiyō 21:97–119, 1982) classification of different accounts of the three natures in Indian, Tibetan and Chinese sources.     

Sexual Orientation and the Effects of Intimate Partner Violence

Studies have demonstrated a relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and depression and other mental health issues such as suicidal behavior and posttraumatic stress disorder. Despite the breadth of the literature, there is a dearth of information specifically regarding the effects of IPV in same-sex relationships. Information regarding the prevalence of substance abuse and health issues in non-heterosexual IPV victims when compared to heterosexual IPV victims will be extremely helpful in developing tailored victim services to sexual minorities. This study uses the National Violence Against Women Survey to examine hypothesized relationships between IPV, its effects, and sexual orientation. Given the higher prevalence rates of IPV in same-sex relationships (Messinger, 2011 Messinger , A. ( 2011 ). Invisible victims: Same-sex IPV in the National Violence Against Women Survey . Journal of Interpersonal Violence , 26 , 2228 – 2243 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), logistic regression models are used to test the hypotheses that non-heterosexual victims of IPV will have higher rates of depression, substance use, and health issues.     

Reproducing Whiteness: Feminist Genres,Legal Subjectivity and the Post-racial Dystopia of <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Handmaid’s Tale</Emphasis> (2017-)

This article investigates the critical potential of a contemporary dystopia, The Handmaid’s Tale (Miller 2017-), a U.S. television series adapted from a popular novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood (1985). The text is widely understood as a feminist intervention that speaks to ongoing struggles against gender oppression, but in this article I consider the invitations that the show offers its viewers in treating race the way that it does, and consider what it means to refuse these invitations in pursuit of a critical feminist understanding of authority, legal subjectivity, and violence. Drawing on the recent turn to genre, my reading focuses on how whiteness is reproduced through this cinematic text and its inculcation of particular ways of seeing, modes of identification and attachment. The Handmaid’s Tale’s post-racial aesthetic means that its thematic engagement with gender, sexuality and resistance actively disavows national and international histories of racist state violence and white supremacy. Its problematic feminism is thus uniquely instructive for understanding how whiteness is reproduced in contemporary (neo)liberal configurations of legal subjectivity and state authority.