Pain-Related Symptom Reporting Among Hispanics: Implications for Forensic Psychological Evaluations

Competent forensic psychologists constantly pursue the understanding of cultural differences. The purposes of this paper were to describe and explain the literature regarding the influences of the Hispanic culture on reports of pain-related symptoms and disabilities, and to illustrate ways in which culture-specific factors can impact a forensic psychological evaluation that includes malingering identification. The reviewed literature indicates that, as a group, Hispanics do not consistently differ from other ethnic groups on pain-related symptom reports. However, when examining culture-specific indicators, individuals from a Puerto Rican background and those with high acculturation to the American culture tend to report more pain and psychological distress than non-Hispanic Whites and other Hispanic subgroups. Additionally, language barriers and cultural-structured views of health and illness seem to hinder help-seeking options among the Mexican and less-acculturated Hispanics. Based on these results, we discuss a number of recommendations to make forensic psychological evaluations more sensitive to differences in acculturation and country of heritage. By taking these within-culture characteristics into consideration, the forensic psychologist can most accurately comprehend the meanings associated with the Hispanic client’s pain-related experience.     

The stationarity of inflation in Croatia: anti-inflation stabilization program and the change in persistence

This study examines the impact of the anti-inflation stabilization policies on the behavior of inflation in Croatia in the early 1990s and through the subsequent post-stabilization period using fractional integration techniques. Indeed, the implementation of the stabilization program in October 1993 brought immediate deflation with a relative high degree of inflation stability in the post-stabilization period. With allowance for a structural break corresponding to the stabilization program in October 1993, the degree of persistence was substantially reduced with the fractional differencing parameter being positive but close to zero in the post-stabilization period.     

Coastal Tourism in a Context of Neoliberal Development: Social Change in Mancora,Peru

The case of Mancora, Northern Peru, illustrates a process of neoliberalisation through which conceptions of place, local identities and the recent history of the place have been reformulated due to the rapid expansion of global tourism. In this former fishing village, tourism development altered local conceptions of place, allowing the emergence of contrasting projects for converting it into a beach resort. This process brought about a context governed by land conflicts and tension between local authorities, where local inhabitants reshaped their identities and the recent history of the place in order to gain or maintain ownership over valuable natural resources.     

A Morphological and Morphometric Study of Bite Marks Caused by Mice (Mus Musculus) on Different Baits for Forensic Purposes

In animal bites, the dental attributes can be fundamental in identifying the marks made by various species on different matrices. Although rodent bite marks have been studied in the context of postmortem interference, little research has used different baits to analyze these marks linking not only specific behavior patterns but also the possibility of structural damage. Twenty mice (Mus musculus) were exposed to different baits to study their bite marks in a controlled model. The known pattern of parallel and multiple grooves has been seen in all baits, but polyvinyl chloride and fiber‐optic cable were significantly different between each other and the other baits. Some baits showed patterns of anchorage of the upper incisors and space between the lower incisors when gnawing. This technical note represents a novel model of analysis where veterinarians and/or dentists may be asked to give an opinion on alleged animal bite marks.     

Modelling the relationship between counter‐knowledge and open‐mindedness for policy development

Counter‐knowledge refers to flaws in citizens' mental models arising from utilization of rumours, inappropriate knowledge structures, outdated routines or procedures. When counter‐knowledge is applied to civil servants, it may result in problems of efficiency, equity and motivation. This paper examines the relationship between counter‐knowledge and open‐mindedness to model a framework for improving city marketing and policy development. This study tested two measurement models. While the theoretical model represents the effect of counter‐knowledge on city marketing and that the latter has a negative effect on open‐mindedness, the alternative model involves that counter‐knowledge has a positive indirect impact on open‐mindedness. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 203 Spanish city halls. The results show a potential positive indirect effect of counter‐knowledge on open‐mindedness through city marketing programmes. This paper clarifies the existing literature, which tries to contribute to the discussion of city marketing, and helps us to obtain meaning out of the relationship between counter‐knowledge, city marketing and open‐mindedness. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying Salient Stressors of Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Stressors play a defining role in youth development and, in particular, in adolescent psychological and behavioral adaptation. However, the nature of stressors...     

West Nile virus encephalitis

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus that has caused a large number of deaths in the United States since the first outbreak in New York City in 1998. The outbreak initially was limited to the northeast but has since spread across the entire continental United States. WNV causes a variety of clinical symptoms, but the most severe consequences result from central nervous system infection, resulting in meningitis, encephalitis, or meningoencephalitis. We present a case of a 62-year-old male with metastatic cancer, who died as a result of WNV encephalitis. This is followed by a discussion on the epidemiology of WNV and a detailed summary of the methods and resources available to make a diagnosis of WNV infection postmortem. The material presented in the discussion should provide the forensic pathologist with all the information necessary to make a diagnosis of WNV infection postmortem. If nothing else, the routine collection and storage of serum, cerebrospinal fluid, and tissue for every case can enable the forensic pathologist to make this diagnosis even in cases in which WNV is not suspected until after autopsy.     

Autosomic STR population data in two Caribbean samples from Colombia

In this work, a sample of 124 unrelated individuals from San Andres Island and Santa Marta City (Colombia) was studied for the nine STRs included in the AmpFlSTR Profiler kit (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, FGA, TH01, TPOX and vWA). Although these two populations are geographically apart, San Andres is an Island in the middle of Caribbean Sea (about 480 miles northwest the Colombian mainland) and Santa Marta City located in the coast, exact test showed no differentiation between both population samples (P=0.39445+/-0.0805). Therefore, allele frequencies and parameters of forensic interest were estimated for the global sample.     

The Effect of Question Order on Disclosure of Intimate Partner Violence: An Experimental Test Using the Conflict Tactics Scales

Two plausible but contradictory approaches to question order in research on sensitive or criminal behavior are (1) that presenting the questions in a sequence corresponding to a culturally recognized behavior pattern will facilitate disclosure, and (2) that presenting questions in random order will result in more disclosure because random order disrupts response sets. The question order of the original Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS1) used the culturally recognized sequence approach, and the revised CTS (CTS2) used a modified random order. This experiment was designed to determine which of these two question orders results in more disclosure of physical and sexual assault of a dating partner. The standard version of the CTS2, which has the questions from each of the 5 scales interspersed in a slightly modified random order, was administered to every second student in a sample of 417 university students. The other half of the sample were given the same instrument but with the questions in the culturally recognized sequential order used in the CTS1. The cultural sequence order begins with the socially approved behaviors in the Negotiation scale and ends with scales measuring antisocial and the criminal behavior such as the Physical Assault scale. The results indicate that the CTS2 random order produced significantly higher disclosure rates for the scales that measure criminal behavior (Physical Assault, Injury, and Sexual Coercion) and made no difference for the other CTS2 scales (Negotiation and Psychological Aggression). Although these results suggest that the CTS2 random order is the preferred approach, reasons to treat that conclusion with caution are presented.