Prevalence of mental disorders among sexual offenders in forensic psychiatry and prison

The objective of this study was to compare the prevalence of mental disorders among sexual offenders in forensic psychiatry (SF) with the prevalence of such disorders among sexual offenders in prison (SP) and violent offenders in prison (VP). In a cross-sectional study, 40 of 47 SF detained in forensic psychiatry in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, could be included. They were compared with 30 SP and 26 VP. All study participants were interviewed by means of SCID I and SCID II and assessments of functioning (GAF, BSS). There was a high prevalence of mental disorders (DSM-IV: Axis I) in all three groups (SF: 80%, SP: 63%, VP: 73%). Among SP and VP, this was attributed mainly to substance use disorders. The prevalence and comorbidity of personality disorders was significantly higher in the group of the SF (prevalence: SF: 85%, SP: 27%, VP: 39%). In a psychopathological view, SP were all together more similar to the imprisoned non-sexual delinquent VP than to the SF.     

Results of the 2003-2004 GEP-ISFG collaborative study on mitochondrial DNA: focus on the mtDNA profile of a mixed semen-saliva stain

We report here a review of the seventh mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) exercise undertaken by the Spanish and Portuguese working group (GEP) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) corresponding to the period 2003-2004. Five reference bloodstains from five donors (M1-M5), a mixed stain of saliva and semen (M6), and a hair sample (M7) were submitted to each participating laboratory for nuclear DNA (nDNA; autosomal STR and Y-STR) and mtDNA analysis. Laboratories were asked to investigate the contributors of samples M6 and M7 among the reference donors (M1-M5). A total of 34 laboratories reported total or partial mtDNA sequence data from both, the reference bloodstains (M1-M5) and the hair sample (M7) concluding a match between mtDNA profiles of M5 and M7. Autosomal STR and Y-STR profiling was the preferred strategy to investigate the contributors of the semen/saliva mixture (M6). Nuclear DNA profiles were consistent with a mixture of saliva from the donor (female) of M4 and semen from donor M5, being the semen (XY) profile the dominant component of the mixture. Strikingly, and in contradiction to the nuclear DNA analysis, mtDNA sequencing results yield a more simple result: only the saliva contribution (M4) was detected, either after preferential lysis or after complete DNA digestion. Some labs provided with several explanations for this finding and carried out additional experiments to explain this apparent contradictory result. The results pointed to the existence of different relative amounts of nuclear and mtDNAs in saliva and semen. We conclude that this circumstance could strongly influence the interpretation of the mtDNA evidence in unbalanced mixtures and in consequence lead to false exclusions. During the GEP-ISFG annual conference a validation study was planned to progress in the interpretation of mtDNA from different mixtures.     

Cultural Attributes and Adaptations Linked to Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents

This exploratory study examined whether associations between perceived school experiences and achievement motivation varied by language acculturation and generational status among a sample of immigrant and U.S. born Latino adolescents (n = 129). Ogbu's (1993) notion of primary and secondary cultural differences was adapted to better suit comparisons within this Latino group using the terms cultural attributes and cultural adaptations. Academic competence, school belonging, and parent involvement were positively related to achievement motivation. Academic competence and parent involvement were strongly related to achievement motivation among students who spoke English or were born in the U.S., suggesting that these associations may be cultural adaptations. Future intervention programs for Latino students, regardless of acculturation or generational status, should focus on making them feel supported and included. Acculturated Latino youth and youth who have lived in the U.S. for a long time should be targeted for programs that enhance academic competence and parent involvement.     

celling black bodies: black women in the global prison industrial complex

The past two decades have witnessed an explosion in the population of women prisoners in Europe, North America and Australasia, accompanied by a boom in prison construction. This article argues that this new pattern of women's incarceration has been forged by three overlapping phenomena. The first is the fundamental shift in the role of the state that has occurred as a result of the neo-liberal globalization. The second and related phenomenon is the emergence and subsequent global expansion of what has been labeled a ‘prison industrial complex’ made up of a intricate web of relations between state penal institutions, politicians and profit-driven prison corporations. The third is the emergence of a US-led global war on drugs which is symbiotically related and mutually constituted by the transnational trade in criminalized drugs. These new regimes of accumulation and discipline, I argue, build on older systems of racist and patriarchal exploitation to ensure the super-exploitation of black women within the global prison industrial complex. The article calls for a new anti-racist feminist analysis that explores how the complex matrix of race, class, gender and nationality meshes with contemporary globalized geo-political and economic realities. The prison industrial complex plays a critical role in sustaining the viability of the new global economy and black women are increasingly becoming the raw material that fuels its expansion and profitability. The article seeks to reveal the profitable synergies between drug enforcement, the prison industry, international financial institutions, media and politicians that are sending women to prison in ever increasing numbers.     

The Association Between Affective and Problem-Solving Communication and Intimate Partner Violence Among Caucasian and Mexican American Couples: a Dyadic Approach

The present study examined individuals’ subjective evaluation of their effectiveness with regard to affective communication and problem-solving communication, and their relation to intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization. Data from 100 Caucasian American and Mexican American couples were collected during the first and during the third year of marriage. For affective communication, a significant partner effect emerged, indicating that husbands’ higher dissatisfaction with affective communication was related to wives’ higher IPV victimization. For problem-solving communication, a significant actor effect emerged, indicating that husbands’ higher dissatisfaction with problem-solving communication was related to husbands’ higher IPV victimization. While these findings largely generalized to Caucasian Americans, they did not generalize to Mexican Americans.     

Intensive psychological treatment of high-risk violent offenders: Outcomes and pre-release mechanisms

Research on correlates of intervention programmes that reduce expected reconviction rates (‘what works’ literature, Risk–Need–Responsivity model) has been highly influential in criminal justice systems throughout much of the western world. But while this psychological research has been acquiring widespread recognition, a deeper understanding of how programmes work and of mechanisms for desistance more generally, has still to develop. This research reports results of a quasi-experimental recidivism outcome study for a series of prison units that provide intensive psychological treatment to high-risk, persistently violent prisoners. Four outcomes were examined over the first 12 months following release on parole: parole violations, new convictions, new convictions for violence, and imprisonment sentences resulting from new convictions. Alongside these results, we conducted preliminary analyses of two potential pre-release mechanisms for surviving the first 12 months on parole without reconviction: lower dynamic risk for violence, and greater release readiness. We found that dynamic violence risk fully accounted for differences between treatment completers and comparison prisoners in proportions reconvicted for violence. However, in all other cases, the proposed mechanisms did not significantly explain treatment-related differences. We close by considering possible explanations for these unexpected results, and reiterating the importance to our field of more sophisticated treatment outcome research.     

A Dyadic Analysis of Partner Violence and Adult Attachment

Studies of individual attachment features have linked insecure attachment to intimate partner violence (IPV), but these studies have neither taken into account couple-level factors nor evidence of high rates of dual-partner perpetration. The current study examined three forms of IPV as a function of both partners’ adult attachment characteristics in order to better understand the maintenance of relationship violence by using a dyadic statistical design. Heterosexual couples (n = 163) were recruited from the community. Results suggest that one’s own attachment avoidance and a partner’s attachment avoidance and anxiety was associated with perpetration of physical assault. Similarly, one’s own attachment avoidance and a partner’s attachment avoidance and anxiety was associated with perpetration of psychological aggression. Attachment anxiety influenced one’s own perpetration of sexual coercion and their partner’s perpetration. Thus, functional analysis of violence in terms of attachment and risk regulation may afford targeted interventions to certain types of couples.     

Global social media vs local values: Private international law should protect local consumer rights by using the public policy exception?

This article focuses on the relationship between forum selection clauses, choice of law clauses and data protection and privacy protection. In particular, it discusses the question whether and why jurisdiction and choice of law clauses used in the terms of social media providers should not be enforced against social media users located in a different jurisdiction. The article distinguishes between the contractual, private law analysis and the application of public policy as part of the private international law analysis. The contract law analysis is centred on doctrines such as unconscionability, which in turn examines issue such as fairness and overwhelming bargaining power of one party. By contrast, the public policy analysis in private international law focuses on fundamental rights, legality of contractual clauses according to the local law of the forum and the interests of justice. It is argued here that both aspects (contractual and public policy doctrines) are paramount for achieving not only justice between the parties of a dispute but also ensuring good administration of justice in the public interest.