Constellations of Interpersonal Trauma and Symptoms in Child Welfare: Implications for a Developmental Trauma Framework

Patterns of trauma exposure and symptoms were examined in a sample of 16,212 children in Illinois child welfare. Data were collected on trauma histories, child and caregiver needs and strengths, and analyzed in light of the proposed Developmental Trauma Disorder diagnostic criteria. Youth exposed to both interpersonal violence and attachment-based (“non-violent”) traumas within the caregiving system had significantly higher levels of affective/physiological, attentional/behavioral, and self/relational dysregulation in addition to posttraumatic stress symptoms compared to youth with either type of trauma alone or in relation to other trauma experiences. These complexly traumatized children exhibited higher levels of functional impairment and were more likely to have placement disruptions and psychiatric hospitalizations. Findings suggest a developmental trauma framework can more adequately capture the spectrum of needs of these multiply traumatized youth than existing diagnostic formulations. Utilizing this framework for assessment, treatment planning, and intervention can lead to more targeted and effective services for these children.     

Examining the relationship between school suspensions/expulsions and felonies

This paper examines the suspensions and expulsions of students. Using individual student pupil (rather than incident) data, this research examines whether these rates are driven by a few high-volume offenders and whether high-volume offenders become felons. This study uses the number of students at three levels of violations: 0 offenses, 1–3 offenses, and four or more offenses. The authors also examined the relationship between the three groups of violators and committing a felony as a juvenile. The number of offenses per student ranged from 0 to 31. Findings indicated that those with 0 school infractions had no felonies, while the other two groups of violators 1–3 and four or more had a similar numbers of felonies. Implications for developmental models of delinquency are discussed.     

For whom does prison-based drug treatment work? Results from a randomized experiment

Objectives

Prison-based therapeutic community (TC) drug treatment followed by community aftercare is widely recognized as the most effective treatment paradigm for drug-dependent offenders. However, few randomized experiments have addressed this question and fewer studies have examined how interactions between treatment modality and individual characteristics may explain variations in outcomes.

Methods

Using a randomized experimental design, this study examined the effects of treatment modality [TC vs. Outpatient (OP) group counseling], individual psychosocial characteristics (e.g., risk, negative affect), and interactions on reincarceration over a 3-year follow-up period. Survival analysis using Cox regression with covariates was used to analyze data obtained from 604 subjects at a specialized drug treatment prison.

Results

The expected advantage of TC failed to emerge. Critical and heretofore unexamined interactions between treatment modality (TC vs. OP), inmate levels of risk, and negative effect help explain these unexpected findings.

Conclusion

The superiority of prison TC to less intensive OP counseling was not supported. The effects of TC appear to be conditioned by critical responsivity factors that have received little empirical attention.     

Massive systemic fat embolism detected by postmortem imaging and biopsy*

Postmortem computed tomography (pmCT) and pmCT angiography (pmCTA) provide a minimally invasive method to determine the cause of death. Postmortem image-guided biopsy allows for precise sampling of histological specimens. This case study describes the findings of lethal systemic fat embolism (FE) on whole-body unenhanced pmCT, pmCTA, and image-guided biopsy, with autopsy and histopathologic correlation. Unenhanced pmCT revealed a distinct fat level on top of sedimented layers of corpuscular blood particles and serum in the arterial system and pulmonary trunk. Subsequent pmCTA showed reproducible results, and image-guided biopsy confirmed fatal FE. pm CT/pmCTA combined with image-guided biopsy established the cause of death as right heart failure as a result of systemic fatal FE prior to autopsy. All imaging findings were consistent with traditional autopsy and histological specimens. This unique case demonstrates new imaging findings in massive, fatal FE and highlights that postmortem imaging, supplemented by image-guided biopsy, may detect the cause of death prior to traditional autopsy.     

Investigating the Latent Structure of the Theory of Planned Behavior and its Effectiveness in Explaining Intentions to Participate in Counseling among a Sample of Police Officers

Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to compare two alternative models of Ajzen??s (Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50:179?C211, 1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The efficacy of the TPB to predict intentions to participate in counseling among a sample (N?=?259) of Irish police officers was investigated using structural equation modelling and based upon responses to a fictitious scenario. The police profession is a highly stressful occupation with many officers suffering from a variety of stress related psychological maladies that could be alleviated with effective psychotherapy. Understanding police officers intentions to participate in psychological counseling is an important endeavour. Results indicated that a modified version of the TPB in which the Perceived Behavioral Control factor was represented by two distinct latent control factors demonstrated superior model fit compared to Ajzen??s original model. Structural equation modelling results indicated that this modified version of the TPB was an effective model in the prediction of counseling seeking intentions explaining 92.6?% of variance in behavioural intentions. Self-efficacy (internal control) was found to be most strongly associated with intentions. Theoretical implications and future research potentials are discussed in light of current findings.     

Scaling Criminal Offending

Objective:

This paper reviews a century of research on creating theoretically meaningful and empirically useful scales of criminal offending and illustrates their strengths and weaknesses.

Methods:

The history of scaling criminal offending is traced in a detailed literature review focusing on the issues of seriousness, unidimensionality, frequency, and additivity of offending. Modern practice in scaling criminal offending is measured using a survey of 130 articles published in five leading criminology journals over a two-year period that included a scale of individual offending as either an independent or dependent variable. Six scaling methods commonly used in contemporary criminological research are demonstrated and assessed using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979: dichotomous, frequency, weighted frequency, variety, summed category, and item response theory ??theta??.

Results:

The discipline of criminology has seen numerous scaling techniques introduced and forgotten. While no clearly superior method dominates the field today, the most commonly used scaling techniques are dichotomous and frequency scales, both of which are fraught with methodological pitfalls including sensitivity to the least serious offenses.

Conclusions:

Variety scales are the preferred criminal offending scale because they are relatively easy to construct, possess high reliability and validity, and are not compromised by high frequency non-serious crime types.     

Will firms consider a European optional instrument in contract law?

The diversity of contract laws is said by the Commission to discourage cross-border trade and hinder the development by SMEs of a pan-European commercial policy. An optional instrument containing both facilitative general contract rules and mandatory consumer protection rules, one of the solutions proposed by the Commission, is gaining rapid support from key stakeholders. Drawing from firms?? own views on the problems of legal diversity, and insights from organisational science, this article sets out the circumstances in which firms will likely consider a European optional code. Results are mixed: some firms may consider it, while others may ignore it. Much depends the firm??s aspirations (i.e. SMEs cannot be assumed as-yet to have pan-European aspirations), how the firm perceives the problems of legal diversity, and how it searches for and decides upon solutions. It would appear that a European optional instrument may not be as useful or widely considered as its proponents would like to believe.