Reading level and the prevalence of a dyslexic profile among patients in a forensic psychiatric clinic

This study aims to investigate Swedish language reading ability of forensic patients and the number of them that present a dyslexia profile. Another aim is to compare the reading level in different subtypes of psychiatric diagnoses. Assessments were made of 185 patients by a battery of reading tests. They were also interviewed about their schooling and their self-estimated reading and writing ability. The results show that the patients’ reading level is below average for grade six children in Swedish compulsory school, and that 16 per cent show a dyslexic profile. Male patients with an immigrant background and a diagnosis of psychosis and anxiety disorders perform the lowest when measuring literacy skills. This proportionately low reading ability can cause difficulties in understanding texts as presented in broadsheet newspapers, civic information and patient records, and might even jeopardize the understanding of adult spoken language.     

Romalpa and Contractual Innovation

Socio‐legal studies have given relatively little attention to the mechanisms by which change occurs to the boilerplate that constitute modern contracts. Contrary to the impression left by neo‐classical contract theory (and its descendant, Chicago School law and economics), contracts are not routinely revised to provide an optimal solution. As recent empirical studies show, change is sporadic, even within high‐value contracts drafted by expert practitioners. Improvements to contractual form only arise after some external shock, which reveals the weakness in the prior norm. In the first application of this principle within the United Kingdom, the article considers the reputed rapid change in ‘retention of title’ clauses in sales transactions in the mid‐1970s, and identifies the factors, and personalities, that led to such rapid legal innovation and change.     

Predictive accuracy of dynamic risk factors for aboriginal and non-aboriginal sex offenders: an exploratory comparison using STABLE-2007

Although Aboriginal offenders are overrepresented in Canadian prisons, there is limited research examining the extent to which commonly used risk factors and risk scales are applicable to Aboriginals. Aboriginal (n = 88) and non-Aboriginal (n = 509) sex offenders on community supervision were compared on the dynamic risk factors of STABLE-2007. Data on sexual, violent, any crime, and any recidivism (including breaches) were collected with an average follow-up of 3.4 years. Aboriginal offenders scored significantly higher than non-Aboriginal offenders on STABLE-2007 total scores and on several items measuring general criminality. STABLE-2007 did not significantly predict recidivism with Aboriginal offenders (although it did for non-Aboriginals). The general antisociality items were generally significantly less predictive for Aboriginals than non-Aboriginals, whereas items assessing sexual self-regulation and relationship stability predicted similarly for both groups. These exploratory results suggest that Aboriginal sex offenders are a higher-needs group but that some STABLE-2007 items are not predictive with this population.     

Guidelines for Brief Focused Assessment: AFCC Task Force on Brief Focused Assessments.

The Association of Family and Conciliations Courts (AFCC) Task on Brief Focused Assessment was convened in 2007 to study the issues inherent in the use of brief focused assessment models in family courts. The resultant “Guidelines for Brief Focused Assessment” were approved by the AFCC Board of Directors in 2009 and are presented here to prompt discussion and further dialogue about this clearly needed practice.

Key Points for the Family Court Community
• Issue‐specific assessments are increasingly requested by family court judges
• Practice guidelines for clinicians conducting brief focused assessments (BFAs)
• Types of issues/questions appropriate for BFAs
• Advantages and pitfalls of BFAs
• Comparison of BFAs and comprehensive child custody evaluations

     

Scavenging behavior of Lynx rufus on human remains during the winter months of Southeast Texas

Animal-scavenging alterations on human remains can be mistaken as human criminal activity. A 32-day study, documenting animal scavenging on a human cadaver, was conducted at the Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science facility, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. A Stealth Cam Rogue IR was positioned near the cadaver to capture scavenging activity. An atypical scavenger, the bobcat, Lynx rufus, was recorded feeding on the cadaver. Scavenging by bobcats on human remains is not a predominant behavior and has minimal documentation. Scavenging behaviors and destruction of body tissues were analyzed. Results show that the bobcat did not feed on areas of the body that it does for other large animal carcasses. Results also show the bobcat feeds similarly during peak and nonpeak hours. Understanding the destruction of human tissue and covering of the body with leaf debris may aid forensic anthropologists and pathologists in differentiating between nefarious human activity and animal scavenging.     

Voluntary and involuntary care: three-year study of demographic and diagnostic admission statistics at an inner-city adult psychiatry unit

Individuals with mental disorders can, under specific circumstances, be detained and treated against their wishes. In 2009, there were 1633 involuntary admissions in Ireland, accounting for 8.1% of all psychiatric admissions. We examined demographic and diagnostic factors associated with involuntary admission in a general adult psychiatry service in Dublin's north inner-city over a retrospective three-year period. The overall admission rate was 450.5 admissions per 100,000 population per year (deprivation-adjusted rate: 345.7), which is lower than the national rate (476.3). The involuntary admission rate was 67.7 (deprivation-adjusted rate: 51.9), which is higher than the national rate (38.5). Fifteen per cent of admissions were involuntary (for all or part of the admission), which is higher than the national proportion (8.1%) but the same as that reported in another inner-city psychiatry service (15.7%). The proportion of admissions that was involuntary was higher amongst individuals from outside Ireland (33.9%) compared to those from Ireland (12.0%) (p<0.001). Country of origin was, however, related to diagnosis: 53.2% of admissions of individuals from outside Ireland were with schizophrenia, compared to 18.5% of admissions of individuals from Ireland (p<0.001). Diagnosis was, in turn, related to admission status: 37.5% of admissions with schizophrenia were involuntary compared to 15% overall (p<0.001). On multi-variable testing, diagnosis was the only independent predictor of admission status (p=0.01) (R(2)=35.2%); country of origin was not an independent predictor of admission status. Deprivation accounts for part, but not all, of the high rate of involuntary admission in Dublin's inner-city. Diagnosis accounts for one third of the variance in admission status between individuals. Further study is required to determine what factors account for the remaining two thirds (e.g. symptoms, insight) and to clarify better the relationships between admission status, diagnosis and country of origin. There is a strong need for enhanced focus on the mental health needs of individuals from outside of Ireland, especially in Dublin's north inner-city.     

Schizophrenia, AIDS and the decision to prescribe HAART: results of a national survey of HIV clinicians

Individuals with schizophrenia are at risk of developing HIV and are known to experience barriers to optimal medical care. Our goal was to determine, among a cohort of HIV clinicians, whether or not the diagnosis of schizophrenia affected the clinical decision to offer highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to AIDS patients. This is a cross-sectional study of a random, national sample of HIV experts drawn from the membership of the American Academy of HIV Medicine. Participants were mailed a self-administered questionnaire with a case vignette of a new onset AIDS patient and were specifically asked whether or not they would recommend HAART treatment. Vignettes were randomly assigned to include a diagnosis of schizophrenia or not. We located 649 clinicians (93%); 347 responded (53.4%). Responders and non-responders did not differ in demographics or work characteristics. Recommendation of antiretroviral treatment did not differ between those who received a case vignette with schizophrenia versus those who did not(95.8% vs. 96.6%, p=0.69). Compared to those who received a case vignette without schizophrenia, those who received vignettes with schizophrenia were more likely to avoid prescribing efavirenz, a medication with known neuropsychiatric side effects(17.7% vs. 45.5%, p < 0.01), more likely to agree to be helped by a specialist(34.5% vs. 12.9%, p < 0.01), and more likely to recommend directly observed therapy (20% vs.10%, p = 0.01). HIV clinicians recognize the importance of recommending HAART treatment to individuals with schizophrenia and AIDS and avoid using antiretroviral medication with known neuropsychiatric side effects.     

The defiant still worker: Ramiro Gomez and the expressionism of abstract labor

This essay looks at a selection of paintings by Los Angeles-based visual artist Ramiro Gomez. Departing from the traditions of ethnic studies and Marxist criticism that focus on workers’ resistance as action, I turn to the domestic worker, who remains still and perpetually at work, in his paintings. I propose that stillness is both an abstract aesthetic form and a racialized and feminized mode of being abstract and not fully knowable to both spectators and employers. Stillness, I argue, is the limit to following the worker’s subsequent actions, movements, thoughts, and expressions. While, for Marx, abstraction is the very effect and violence of the capitalist production, I ask what possibilities emerge from a mode of stillness that further abstracts, displaces, and obscures the worker within the scene of domestic labor. Bringing together Marx’s analysis of abstract labor, the tradition of abstract expressionism, and Chicana/o aesthetic practices in Gomez’s paintings, I offer a theory of stillness, and by extension abstraction, as a subtle yet defiant refusal to be concrete and graspable.