Use of the MMPI-2 to predict the employment continuation and performance ratings of recently hired police officers

The MMPI-2 is one of the most frequently employed instruments for the selection of police officers. Serafino and Serafino (1997) collected data which involved information about employment continuation and ratings by supervisors of 32 police officers who had recently been hired and who had been given the MMPI-2 during the hiring process. In this study, the Paranoia Obvious (Pa) and Paranoia Subtle (Ps) scales proved to be the significant. Pa Subtle correlated with removal whereas Pa Obvious correlated with rating. Higher scores on Pa Subtle correlated significantly with being removed from the job, whereas low scores on the Pa Obvious correlated with higher ratings of performance by supervisors. Discussion of the results involved the fact that Subtle Pa scores would suggest paranoid tendencies not easily detected during the interview. Since most high Pa Obvious individuals would have been eliminated in the hiring process, expression of this tendency was at a low level after being hired but if present resulted in low ratings. Significant predictors were noted to be very much a function of the type of criterion variable employed in the study.     

Three Strikes Legislation and Sentencing Commission Objectives

Between 1993 and 1997, state legislatures across the country passed legislation popularly known as "three strikes and you're out" laws. These laws appeared at a time when sentencing commissions existed in many states, and the commissions were involved in the legislative debates leading to the votes on three strikes laws. Thus, the passage of three strikes laws can shed light on one type of interaction between sentencing commissions and legislatures. This article posits a variety of objectives for sentencing commissions during three strikes debates, each a response to the recurring "pathologies" that appear when legislative, judicial, and executive branch officials create sentencing policy. A survey of states that have passed three strikes laws indicates that sentencing commissions have not made any systematic difference in the legislative debates on these statutes. Commissions have little reason to oppose these laws absolutely, and could lose political credibility by doing so. Commissions have incentives instead to argue for limiting the scope of these statutes. Where commissions have been involved in the debates about habitual felon legislation, they have emphasized limits on judicial discretion, focused on the quality of legislative deliberations rather than on legislative outcomes, and devoted little attention to prosecutorial charging decisions.     

Police grantsmanship: A case study

Police leadership is increasingly dependent on community oriented policing (COPS) federal grants because of diminishing financial resources. This paper demonstrates the importance of excellent police grantsmanship skills while simultaneously providing theoretical and concrete steps for achieving a successful grant package. Furthermore, a case study example is presented where COPS grants and federal funding assisted in the acquisition of community-oriented and problem-solving strategic objectives.     

Sharing governmental authority: Blue Cross and hospital planning in New York City.

Hospital planning in New York has been since the 1930s an intensely political process with high stakes. The leaders of Blue Cross and their allies used the hospital planning process in the city and the state as a means to extend and protect corporate authority in what they took to be the public interest. When Blue Cross was established in the 1930s, its leaders used the mechanisms of formal planning as part of their solution to pressing problems in the organization and distribution of hospital services. In the decade after World War II, Blue Cross had an immense impact on hospital planning in New York as a result of its growth and its underwriting policies. Conflicts between Blue Cross and state regulators beginning in the 1950s led to a new formulation of the politics of planning. Blue Cross became a partner with the state in regulating hospitals. The state and Blue Cross behaved as co-regulators until the 1980s. The interpretation in this paper revises the earlier accounts of health politics in New York by Law (1976) and Alford (1975).     

Toxic environmental factors in sudden infant death (SIDS)

The increasing number of discussions on the influence of toxic environmental factors, including SIDS, prompted systematic postmortem chemical-toxicological investigations to be carried out on 54 SIDS cases and 2 control cases of the same age group. Tissue levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and pentachlorphenol, as well as other organic noxious agents, were measured in several organs. In addition, the COHb concentrations were determined. In spite of the widely scattered values, the extreme levels measured and the arithmetic means and median averages of As, Pb, Cd, Hg, PCP, and COHb had no more range in concentrations than can be expected for toxic effects - according to present knowledge anyway. It was observed that infants from an urban environment showed no greater concentration of noxious agents than did infants from rural regions. There were also no differences between SIDS cases and the controls, nor was there a correlation between infections of the respiratory system that are often morphologically detected - including laryngitis - and higher concentrations of these agents in the organs of SIDS cases.     

Analysis of 2-hydroxyimipramine in an imipramine-related fatality

A fatality following ingestion of the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine (Novopramine), acetaminophen, and ethyl alcohol is described. Imipramine, desipramine, acetaminophen, and 2-hydroxyimipramine were quantitated by high performance liquid chromatography, and ethyl alcohol by gas liquid chromatography. Concentrations of imipramine, desipramine, 2-hydroxyimipramine, and acetaminophen were: in blood--9.0, 1.1, 3.9, and 11 mg/L; in urine--92, 14, and 42 mg/L (acetaminophen not quantitated in urine). Ethyl alcohol concentration in blood was less than 10 mg/dL and 105 mg/dL in the urine by headspace gas chromatography. These findings are compared to previous reports of imipramine-related fatalities. To our knowledge, this is the first fatality reported involving imipramine where analysis included quantitation of 2-hydroxyimipramine in blood and urine.