It was not me: attribution of blame for criminal acts in psychiatric offenders

The current article addresses the psychometric qualities of the German Version of Gudjonsson's Blame Attribution Inventory (GBAI), a self-report scale for measuring attribution of blame for crime. The GBAI was administered to a criminal sample of forensic and criminal inmates (n=107). Findings indicate that the German version of the Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory possesses acceptable test-retest stability and good internal consistency. Factor analysis reproduced the three basic dimensions of the GBAI: external attribution, mental-element attribution, and guilt-feeling attribution. Forensic patients had higher mental-element attribution and guilt-feeling attribution scores than the prison inmates. Interestingly, sexual offenders who were prisoners, showed the lowest guilt-feeling attribution, while sexual offenders who were forensic patients had the highest guilt-feeling attribution scores. Since earlier research reported a tendency of faking good in sexual offenders, we suggest that the forensic sexual offenders may demonstrate a social desirable response tendency in an attempt to gain sympathy and/or earlier parole. All in all, our data show that the German version of the GBAI is a valuable tool for measuring attributional styles of offenders.     

Population data from sub-populations of the Northern Territory of Australia for 15 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci

It is a requirement that forensic DNA profiling evidence be accompanied by an estimation of its weight, in order that the court can assign an appropriate probative value to the evidence during legal proceedings. There are various models by which this estimation can be made, but each relies on approximations of the allele frequencies in the relevant population. It is also important to assess relevant population genetic features of the available data. This report provides allele frequencies and estimates of common population genetic parameters for the major sub-populations of the Northern Territory of Australia genotyped at 15 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci.     

Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines V: Determination of the variability of the optimised method

This paper is the fifth in a series of six in relation to the development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamine [L. Aalberg, K. Andersson, C. Bertler, H. Borén, M.D. Cole, J. Dahlén, Y. Finnon, H. Huizer, K. Jalava, E. Kaa, E. Lock, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, E. Sippola, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines I. Synthesis of standards and compilation of analytical data, Forensic Sci. Int. 149 (2005) 219-229; L. Aalberg, K. Andersson, C. Bertler, M.D. Cole, Y. Finnon, H. Huizer, K. Jalava, E. Kaa, E. Lock, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, E. Sippola, J. Dahlén, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines II. Stability of impurities in organic solvents, Forensic Sci. Int. 149 (2005) 231-241]. The third paper [K. Andersson, K. Jalava, E. Lock, L. Aalberg, Y. Finnon, H. Huizer, E. Kaa, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, M.D. Cole, J. Dahlén, E. Sippola, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines III. Development of the gas chromatographic method, Forensic Sci. Int., in press] dealt with the optimisation of the gas chromatographic and detection methods whereas the fourth paper [K. Andersson, K. Jalava, E. Lock, Y. Finnon, S. Stevenson, L. Aalberg, H. Huizer, E. Kaa, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, M.D. Cole, J. Dahlén, E. Sippola, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines IV. Optimisation of sample preparation, Forensic Sci. Int., in press] concerned the optimisation of the extraction method prior to GC analysis. This paper is a study of the optimised method in order to determine its stability. Investigations of within and between day variations were carried out in four laboratories. Moreover, variations between laboratories were also determined. Both flame ionisation detector (FID) and MS detection were used. One laboratory studied nitrogen-phosphorous detector (NPD) detection as well. For this task, 12 batches of amphetamine were prepared. Six of them were synthesised via the Leuckart route, three via the nitrostyrene route and three via the reductive amination route [A.M.A. Verweij, Impurities in illicit drug preparations: amphetamine and methamphetamine, Forensic Sci. Rev. 1 (1989) 2-11]. Taking into account all studied target compounds and the average results from four laboratories, the within day variation was around 6% for FID and 5% for MS, the between days variation was around 10% for FID and 8% for MS. For NPD detection, within day variation was 5% and between days variation 9% (only one laboratory). Finally, the inter-laboratory variation was about 12% for FID (four laboratories) and 10% for MS (three laboratories).     

The unintended impact of the therapeutic intentions of the New Zealand Mental Health Review Tribunal? Therapeutic jurisprudence perspectives

Mental health review bodies engage in complex decision-making that may explicitly incorporate a therapeutic philosophy. Examination of select decisions of the New Zealand Mental Health Review Tribunal offers a foundation for understanding some implications of a pro-therapeutic approach. This analysis draws upon therapeutic jurisprudence scholarship in relation to three aspects of the hearings as documented in the written decisions: advocacy, therapeutic intervention, and the dignitary potential of the proceedings. The research explores the unintended consequences of a pro-therapeutic approach and evaluates the potential application of therapeutic jurisprudence within a mental health law context.     

HPSA and the Anti-Kickback safe harbor: are we sending doctors to the right neighborhoods?

This article explores the problems within a niche area of health law, the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) safe harbor of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The author advocates for its removal by discussing how the HPSA designation is being used incorrectly to curb fraudulent behavior and how the current provision serves few hospitals. The author concludes by suggesting innovative solutions to remedy the problems with the current HPSA designation system.     

Disabled workers and the indexing of Social Security benefits

We examine how benefit amounts and family income would change in response to changing the Social Security (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, OASDI) benefit indexing scheme. We are interested in a class of reform options designed to gradually slow the growth of benefits across the board. These options include the "price indexing" and "longevity indexing" proposals that have been part of the recent Social Security reform debate in the United States as well as a range of proposals developed in Europe. In this article, we focus on the distributional effects on the disabled. This focus leads to two comparisons. First, we compare disabled-worker beneficiaries to another group that would be affected by the changes, retired-worker beneficiaries. Second, we examine relative changes for particularly vulnerable subgroups of disabled workers. In the empirical analysis, we use two illustrative examples of potential indexing changes: Shifting from wage indexing to price indexing of the initial level of OASDI benefits; and Adjusting the initial benefit level for changes in life expectancy at retirement, that is, longevity indexing. We employ a historical counterfactual simulation to evaluate outcomes that would have resulted from changing the indexing scheme at one particular point in time. The hypothetical implementation period begins with the historical start of the current regime of indexing in 1979 and ends with one of the reference periods of the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a 17-year period. However, we briefly assess the extent to which the results would be applicable to other time horizons. The analysis uses a cross-sectional sample of OASDI beneficiaries from the 1996 SIPP matched to Social Security administrative records. Further, we use total income from the SIPP (as adjusted to correspond to the calculated OASDI benefit amounts) to simulate eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and SSI benefit amounts. Our overall findings pertain to three outcomes: (1) effects on OASDI benefits viewed in isolation, (2) the offsetting role of SSI, and (3) the diluting effect of other sources of family income. We find that a broader perspective incorporating all three measures is necessary to obtain an appropriate picture of distributional outcomes. Even though the proposals were designed to have proportional effects, differences between groups--such as disabled and retired workers--can arise from differences in the timing of benefit claiming, mortality, and other factors. Specifically, our cross-sectional estimates suggest that the average change in OASDI benefit levels would be higher for disabled-worker beneficiaries than for retired-worker beneficiaries. These differences are attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of the stock of disabled beneficiaries have been on the Disability Insurance (DI) program rolls for a relatively short period of time and therefore have been affected by the shift in indexing scheme for a longer period of time. These results must be interpreted within the context of the methodology that was used. Further, other methodologies may lead to different results. For example, in previous studies that restricted the sample to a particular birth cohort, a higher proportion of disabled workers than retired workers were observed to have been on the DI program rolls for a relatively long period of time. Longer time on the beneficiary rolls corresponds to less exposure to the new indexing scheme and smaller estimated benefit changes. Thus, the same underlying factor-the timing of benefit claiming-influences both results. When the offsetting role of SSI benefits is also considered, we estimate smaller overall changes, especially for those at the bottom of the income distribution. When OASDI and SSI are considered together, differences in average benefit changes between disabled and retired workers are removed. This is due to a higher rate of SSI program participation among disabled workers than among retired workers. In addition, including SSI substantially reduces the proportion of disabled workers that have large simulated changes in benefit amounts. The estimated effects of changing the indexing scheme are further muted when total family income is considered. This occurs on a roughly equivalent scale for disabled and retired workers. As a result, changing the indexing scheme would produce little change in the status quo differences in poverty status between disabled and retired workers. Finally, we examine the most economically vulnerable subgroups of OASDI beneficiaries. Within the general group of beneficiaries, we find that the most vulnerable would be less affected than average, primarily as a result of the mitigating effect of SSI benefits. Further, within the population of disabled-worker beneficiaries, we examine economically vulnerable subgroups including those in the lowest primary insurance amount quartile, with less than a high school education, with an early onset of disability, or a primary mental impairment. These groups would also be less affected than average.     

撩开森林神秘的帷幔——读《萨满大地的太阳》

正涂克冬·庆胜是一位鄂温克族作家,迄今出版有长篇小说《第五类人》、《跨越世界末日》等,《萨满的太阳》是他的第三部长篇小说。而正是这部长篇小说,撩开陌生森林神秘帷幔,让我们看到了真实的鄂温克族群体,描绘出鄂温克族本真的生活状态和强大的内心世界,修正了我们对于这个民族的模糊感知。在以往的文学叙述中,我们看到的更多的是他者叙述和叙述者俯视的悲悯情怀,因此,往往读者被     

针刺治疗农药中毒

病例1.男性,47岁,白人农民。有长期接触各种农药史。其主要症状为头和四肢震颤,喘息,长期恶心,神志忧郁,脉弦数(92次/分),舌暗红无苔,有舌裂(地图舌)。实验室检查表明,血浆和红细胞中的胆碱脂酶比正常值低20%;血液气体色谱分析显示,循环血液中有九种不同的有机氯化物成份。 治疗采用针刺配合服用维生素C(每次1g,日服3次),八周为一疗程。因维生素C有促进有机氯化物农药的分解代谢和排泄作用,可望对治疗起协同作用。     

Vegetation dynamics as a tool for detecting clandestine graves

The burial of a body can affect plant communities through mechanical disturbance and nutrient balance alteration. We performed an experimental trial using five swine carcasses buried in an open site in Italy. Vegetation dynamics was monitored recording monthly every plant individual on a regular sampling grid during 1 year on the graves, on an empty control grave, and on an undisturbed plot. Plant species composition and cover were significantly different between the disturbed and the undisturbed plots. Disturbed plots showed the increase in ruderal species and the reduction in stress-tolerant ones. Graves and the control grave could not be distinguished from each other. Disturbance was the main factor affecting plant cover, while the presence of a buried body did not affect vegetation dynamics. However, disturbance could be easily detected; the functional approach seems promising for the identification of dynamic patterns to be used in different biogeographic and ecological contexts.