Does the expert witness fit the crime? Injury to a child by starvation--a dietitian's testimony

After the death of their four-month-old infant, the parents were charged with injury to a child by starvation. The medical examiner documented blunt force trauma and severe malnutrition at autopsy, but the cause of death was undetermined. The legal team hired a neonatal dietitian who was able to determine that impaired growth only occurred when the infant was in the care of his parents. This information, along with other testimony, established that the lack of nutrition compromised this infant's ability to grow and develop normally, and thus contributed to the infant's death. A jury found the father guilty of injury to a child with intent, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The mother agreed to a plea bargain serving 25 years. The purpose of this report is to offer insight, information, and facts from this case for the benefit of others.     

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation in Early Childhood Mediates Racial Disparities in Blood Pressure in a College Student Sample

The influence of childhood contexts on adult blood pressure is an important yet understudied topic. Using a developmental perspective, this study examines the association between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage in early childhood (0–5?yrs), middle childhood (6–12?yrs) and adolescence (13–18?yrs) on subsequent blood pressure in young adulthood. Data were from 263 college students (52% Black; M_age?=?19.21 years) and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage was measured using a tract-level Area Deprivation Index. Neighborhood disadvantage in early childhood was significantly associated with diastolic blood pressure and explained 22% of the race difference between Black and White adults. The findings are consistent with the notion that early childhood may be a sensitive period for the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on blood pressure.

     

Building the Evidence Base for Intensive Family Preservation Services

This article examines the state of intensive family preservation services (IFPS) research. Using studies of IFPS in five states, this article seeks to establish whether IFPS can be regarded as an evidence-based practice, an increasingly important standard for publicly funded services. While reporting rates of repeat child maltreatment, the analysis uses placement rates as the main outcome measure and compares effect sizes using Cohen's arcsine transformation for data reported as proportions. Significant differences in rates of child out-of-home placement and repeat maltreatment were found in some studies, particularly for higher risk families. The findings also underscore the difficulty of identifying which families to serve (targeting), ensuring treatment fidelity, and employing rigorous and appropriate evaluation methods. Overall, additional research is needed to move IFPS from a promising practice to an evidence-based practice.     

The incest offender,power, and victimization: Scales on the same dragon

It is contended that incest is a specific case of a larger problem, that being inappropriate use of power, resulting in victimization of a weaker person. The article is primarily an exploration of ideas regarding root causes of such victimization. It is proposed that implied ownership is present in certain traditional family constellations in our society. It is further proposed that many factors, including this implied ownership, contribute to a profound lack of empathy on the part of the offender. Numbered among these factors are our individualistic, compartmentalized culture, developmental deficits, and overt choices on the part of the offender. Concluding comments call for further reflection and attention to the issues raised, with suggestions regarding important areas for focus and investigation.     

Effect of test administration set on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS)

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was administered to 160 male prisoners on admission to a medium-security federal correctional facility. A total of 106 of these inmates completed the PICTS a second time 6 months later in a routine follow-up of the intake PICTS; the other 54 inmates completed the PICTS a second time approximately 6 months later during the initial session of a psychological group. Results showed that inmates participating in the psychological group were less defensive and endorsed more criminal thinking items on the second administration of the PICTS, whereas inmates participating in the routine follow-up were more defensive and less likely to endorse criminal thinking items on the second PICTS. Despite a general increase in the magnitude of PICTS scores for program participants, the overall pattern of scale elevations (correlations between scales and high-point pairs) was comparable across the two groups.     

Criminal thinking as a moderator of the perceived certainty–offending relationship: age variations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the perceived certainty of punishment and general criminal thinking interact and whether the effect varies as a function of age. Data from all 1354 members (1170 males, 184 females) of the Pathways to Desistance study were used to test whether perceived certainty, general criminal thinking, and their interaction predicted subsequent offending during late adolescence (16–18 years of age) and emerging adulthood (20–22 years of age). The results showed that while perceived certainty and general criminal thinking failed to interact at age 17, general criminal thinking moderated the effect of perceived certainty at age 21. During emerging adulthood, offending was more common and varied in young adults with low certainty perceptions and high criminal thinking than it was in emerging adults with high criminal thinking and high certainty perceptions or low criminal thinking and either high or low certainty perceptions.