Examining Predictors of Parole Release in a Rural Female Jail Population

Parole has long been a linchpin of correctional practices but few studies have examined discretionary parole release in a female population. The current study examines factors, both static risk and dynamic needs, that influence parole decision making in a rural female jail population. The researchers collected data on parole releases from a rural county jail over a 3-year period beginning in 2012 (N?=?138). Offenders obtained a recommendation for parole release from a reentry assessment team that met at the jail each month to evaluate cases for parole eligibility. Logistic regression was used to explain variance in the factors considered by the reentry assessment team and it was evident that both static risk factors and dynamic needs play a role in discretionary parole release. We also examined obstacles or challenges that female offenders face when paroling to a rural location. Several policy recommendation related to the study are addressed.     

Operator Exposure to Scatter Radiation from a Portable Hand-held Dental Radiation Emitting Device (Aribex™ NOMAD™) While Making 915 Intraoral Dental Radiographs*

Abstract: Operator exposure to backscatter radiation while using an Aribex™ NOMAD™ radiation emitting device (a portable, self-contained, cordless, hand-held dental X-ray unit) was determined while the operator employed various typical and atypical use scenarios during the exposure of 715 digital and/or film-based dental radiographs and 200 study control exposures. Study data was compared to the radiation safety occupational exposure annual Maximum Permissive Dose (MPD) of 50 mSv (5000 mrem) to determine the possible exposure risk to an unprotected operator using this device. The results showed the reproductive organs received the highest dose and the thyroid the least. The average operator whole body dose for the study was determined to be 0.047 mSv (4.47 mrem) or 0.09% of the annual MPD. Extrapolating the data as an expression of averaged annual operator exposure resulted in a whole body dose of 0.4536 mSv (45.36 mrem) or 0.9% of the annual MPD, These results are well below established occupation exposure limits and are compatible with those published by the manufacturer.     

The Role of Communication in Global Civil Society: Forces, Processes, Prospects

The author examines the concept of global civil society (GCS) through the use of theoretical tools and empirical evidence related to the study of International Communication. He demonstrates that scholarship on GCS tends to simplify the process through which information becomes knowledge and that the state system–GCS relationship often is presented in terms of an ahistorical power dichotomy. In relation to these problems, what the author calls "GCS progressives" tend to underplay political-economic factors shaping GCS, including the implications of structural power; they tend to emphasize the importance of spatial integration while neglecting related changes in temporal norms; and, more essentially, they often under-theorize the importance of socialization processes and relatively unmediated relationships in the ongoing construction of "reality." The author concludes that through a more focused analysis—concentrating on how new technologies can be used to organize nationally and locally, and on lifestyle changes associated with communications developments—more precise analyses and fruitful strategies for GCS progressives may emerge.     

The Drug Court as Postmodern Justice

The drug court is far more than a new version of the old drug-diversion idea. It is a fundamental embodiment of postmodern justice and represents a paradigm shift from criminal court practices. This article compares the drug court to the criminal court in terms of the dimensions of the modernism-postmodernism debate as specified in legal research and public policy scholarship. First, the courts are differentiated in terms of their worldviews, ideas on the nature of society, definitions of truth, and conceptions of the foundation of law. Next, the drug court and criminal court jurisprudence are juxtaposed. Specific dimensions include their collaborative versus adversarial systems and the individualized versus the due process framework. Finally, the two courts are considered in terms of their divergent visions of the drug user. Upon analysis, it appears that the two courts are in an intractable ideological disagreement framed by competing modern versus postmodern intellectual dispositions.     

Ambiguous Measures of Unknown Constructs: The MMPI-2 Fake Bad Scale (aka Symptom Validity Scale, FBS, FBS-r)

The Fake Bad Scale (FBS; Symptom Validity Scale) has fundamental psychometric flaws, interpretive problems, and potentially adverse societal consequences that are not appreciated by Ben-Porath et al. (Psychological Injury and Law 2(1), 62–85, 2009a, b). The FBS was constructed without due consideration to scientifically based guidelines for scale development (Clark and Watson, Psychological Assessment 7, 309–319, 1995; Jackson, Psychological Review 78, 229–248, 1971; Nunnally 1978; Holden and Troister, Canadian Psychology 50, 120–130, 2009). After almost two decades in existence, its face, content, and construct validity have not been established in the empirical literature. Oft-cited discriminant studies that appear to support the FBS are premature because of the scale’s unestablished psychometric foundation. In addition, these studies have significant methodological weaknesses that preclude definitive conclusions about what the scale actually measures. We review these weaknesses and recent legal cases that challenge the scale. We recommend that the FBS’s validity and fairness be addressed in an independent scientific review by the Buros Mental Measurement Test Evaluation System, a non-profit center specializing in the evaluation of commercially available tests.     

The attack on national regulation: why we need a global framework for domestic regulation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• In regulating cross-border capital markets transactions,regulators are employing either an exemptive approach, or aunilateral or mutual recognition approach. The exemptive approachallows market participants wherever located to transact businessin the host countries without complying with local requirements.The recognition approach is limited to a particular market,but is more expansive in terms of access to host country investors.In regulating cross-border transactions, the SEC has traditionallyrelied on the exemptive approach, and has restricted participationto only the largest, most sophisticated US investors. Recently,it has moved to a mutual recognition approach with its agreementwith Australia, which allows a broader range of US investorsto conduct cross-border transactions with Australian exchangesand broker–dealers relying almost entirely on the adequacyof the Australian regulatory system. However, both its exemptiveapproach and mutual recognition approach deal only with secondarymarket transactions, not participation in offerings.
• While. . . [Full Text of this Article]