U.S. psychiatrists' beliefs and wants about involuntary civil commitment grounds

This article presents results of a national U.S. survey of psychiatrists' views about legal grounds for involuntary civil commitment. Data from 739 Respondents revealed strong support for "danger to self," "danger to others," and "grave disability" as grounds, but weak support for "illness relapse." Psychiatrists did not support commitment for addiction to drugs or alcohol nor for sexual predators. Logit regression revealed few significant associations between Respondents' choice of grounds and other variables, such as race, employment setting, experience with commitment, and political climate of the state. Respondents' support for the various commitment grounds was found to be most significantly associated with what Respondents believed the law to be in their state; Respondents tended to support the grounds they believed to be the law. The reasons for the strong association between Respondents' beliefs and wants concerning commitment grounds is explored. It is suggested that Respondents have adopted their states' commitment grounds as their preferences through a process of internalization of norms. Implications of this hypothesis are discussed.     

The evidential value of cosmetic foundation smears in forensic casework

Cosmetic foundation products are easily transferred to clothing and other surfaces as a result of contact with such objects. Examination of past cases involving cosmetics in New Zealand has shown cosmetic foundation to be one of the more common cosmetic products encountered. The aim of this research was to determine the most discriminating method for the comparison of transferred foundation with samples obtained from a known source in forensic casework. Fifty-three foundation samples were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (SEM-EDX). It was found that a 5 mm2 section of a light smearing was enough to provide detectable results. The discriminating powers for FTIR, SEM-EDX and GC-FID were 98.3, 93.8, and 82.0% respectively. A combination of all three techniques provided a discriminating power of 99.7%, meaning that almost complete discrimination was achieved between the foundation samples.     

Vicarious trauma: a comparison of clinicians who treat survivors of sexual abuse and sexual offenders

This study compared vicarious trauma in a random sample of male and female clinicians who treat survivors (n=95) and those who treat offenders (n=252). A national survey was conducted with members of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) and the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC). These data were used to test the relative contribution of variables theorized to contribute to two vicarious trauma effects (avoidance and intrusions) using the Impact of Event Scale. The sample reported high levels of avoidance and intrusions. Variables associated with vicarious trauma differed based on client population served. Sequential regression analyses were used to examine theoretically derived variables. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.     

Differential effects of high‐quality child care

In policy research a frequent aim is to estimate treatment effects separately by subgroups. This endeavor becomes a methodological challenge when the subgroups are defined by post‐treatment, rather than pre‐treatment, variables because if analyses are performed in the same way as with pre‐treatment variables, causal interpretations are no longer valid. The authors illustrate a new approach to this challenge within the context of the Infant Health and Development Program, a multisite randomized study that provided at‐risk children with intensive, center‐based child care. This strategy is used to examine the differential causal effects of access to high‐quality child care for children who would otherwise have participated in one of three child care options: no non‐maternal care, home‐based non‐maternal care, and center‐based care. Results of this study indicate that children participating in the first two types of care would have gained the most from high‐quality center‐based care and, moreover, would have more consistently retained the bulk of these positive benefits over time. These results may have implications for policy, particularly with regard to the debate about the potential implications of providing universal child care. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Parental contexts of adolescent self-esteem: A developmental perspective

Relationships between parental behaviors and adolescent self-esteem were analyzed in a group of 95 early adolescents from multiple settings. The study was designed to investigate hypotheses regarding associations between observed parental interactions (e.g., accepting and devaluing) and adolescent self-esteem. Parents' verbal interactions with their adolescents were assessed through application of the constraining and enabling coding system to transcribed family discussions, generated through a revealed differences procedure. Adolescent self-esteem was measured with the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Parent interaction-self-esteem associations were examined in the pooled sample, as well as in specific sub-groups based on gender, health, and ego development (measured by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test). Boys had more numerous associations between their self-esteem and parental interactions than girls, and psychiatrically ill boys had particularly high associations. Parental interactions were found to be most strongly related to adolescent self-esteem for adolescents at the lowest levels of ego development. Our findings are consistent with the view that increasing individuation in self-esteem regulation occurs during adolescent development, such that adolescents at higher levels of ego development evaluate themselves more independently of parental feedback than do their less mature peers.This study was supported through a Research Training Grant No. MH16259 (Dr. Isberg) from the NIMH, a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD Grant No. 5 R01 HD18684-02), and a Research Scientis Development Award No. 5 K-02-MH-70178 (Dr. Hauser) from the NIMH.Received M.D. from Harvard University. Currently studying adolescent development and working with the school consultation program of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center.Received M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Harvard University (Psychology). Currently studying family contexts of adolescent development.Received M.D. from The University of Chicago. Currently studying psychological consequences of diabetes mellitus.Received Ed. D. from Harvard University (School of Education). Currently studying family coping processes in response to stressful events.Received Dipl. Psych. from Freie Universitat, Berlin (Clinical Psychology). Currently studying relationships between psychopathology and development among adolescent psychiatric patients.Received Ph.D. from Ohio State University (Psychology). Current interests in assessing ego development and family systems.Received Ph.D. from the University of Miami (Clinical Psychology). Research interests in family studies and adolescent development.     

People and Performance: Challenges for the Future Public Service— the Report from the Wye River Conference

What are the key challenges for the public sector at present, and what will the future public service look like if it is to meet these challenges? These questions were put to public‐sector leaders at a conference at the Wye River Plantation in June 1999. The leaders agreed on aspects of a broad vision for the future and the urgent need for a detailed debate on the transition questions that arose.     

Role of Nanomaterials for Forensic Investigation and Latent Fingerprinting—A Review

The imminent nanotechnology and progressive instrumentations together have vast applications in the field of forensic science. Few prominent examples are gold nanoparticles for improvising the efficiency of polymerase chain reaction and atomic force microscopy for examining ink and bloodstains. Characteristics like distinct ridge details of fingerprints could be obtained by applying different nanoparticles such as silver, zinc oxide, silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, gold (with silver physical developer), europium, fluorescent carbon, and amphiphilic silica on a range of object surfaces, and among all, gold is most commonly used. Fingerprint is considered noteworthy evidence in any crime scene, and nano-based techniques hold immense future potential in fingerprint investigations. Therefore, this paper focuses on the applications of nanoparticles in developing and detecting the latent fingerprints.