Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (“Bath Salts”),Related Death: Case Report and Review of the Literature,

Cathinone derivatives (bath salts) have emerged as the latest drugs of abuse. 3,4‐methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is the primary active ingredient in bath salts used in this country. This article presents the second reported cause of death by MDPV intoxication alone. In April 2011, a delusional man was emergently brought to a hospital, where he self‐reported bath salt usage. He became agitated, developed ventricular tachycardia, hyperthermia, and died. Comprehensive alcohol and drug testing was performed. Using the alkaline drug screen, heart blood contained 0.7 mg/L MDPV and peripheral blood contained 1.0 mg/L MDPV. His bizarre behavior with life‐threatening hyperthermia was consistent with an MDPV‐induced excited delirium state. MDPV is not yet found by routine immunoassay toxicology screens. Testing for MDPV should be considered in cases with a history of polysubstance abuse with stimulant type drugs, report of acute onset of psychogenic symptoms, excited delirium syndrome, or presentation in a hyperthermic state.     

Crime control through saturated community policing: A corporate policing model

Police officers in Western countries do not run day‐to‐day security operations in private companies and corporations. In contrast, Chinese police are directly involved in corporate security management. Responding to the criticisms that comparative studies in the West have overemphasized general and macro‐sociological analyses, this paper will introduce a specific Chinese corporate policing model based on the researcher's two‐month field research recently. The corporation under study is managed through a score keeping system, where security scores are concretely established, and a comprehensive approach is utilized which embodies the use of technical, formal, administrative, educational, and community control measures.     

Wise mind—risky mind: A reconceptualisation of dialectical behaviour therapy concepts and its application to sexual offender treatment

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce a reconceptualisation of dialectic behaviour therapy (DBT), “wise mind–risky mind”, and its application to sexual offender treatment. This reconceptualisation holds some promise in addressing issues around general, affective, cognitive and sexual dysregulation, and may provide an alternative way of thinking about sexual offender treatment. The wise mind–risky mind dialectical construct helps clients and therapists utilise a common language that captures and validates the experiential difficulties that clients go through in effectively managing their risk for sexual offending. The incorporation of DBT principles in standard sexual offender treatment programmes can assist clients in effectively managing problems with dysregulation in various domains. It can also afford a more integrated treatment framework when working with sexual offending dynamics. The authors discuss this new construct and its possible applications within the broader forensic mental health field.     

Gun incidents at the local level: understanding the demographic variables

To maintain public safety and improve system response, a strong need exists for understanding the demographic variables associated with gun offenders and gun cases. This paper was focused on exploring these variables by creating and analyzing a weapon-related database at a local police department. The findings, although limited due to the explorative nature of the study and the quality of case files, shed some light on the personal background variables of suspects such as age, race, residence, and prior record and the weapon offenses they were involved in. The research also reveals certain challenges in developing and analyzing a gun-case database at the local level. Future researchers need to resolve these difficulties before achieving a more accurate and systematic understanding of individuals involved in gun crimes.     

Statistical Critiques of the Democratic Peace: Caveat Emptor

The “democratic peace”—the inference that democracies rarely fight each other—is one of the most important and empirically robust findings in international relations (IR). This article surveys the statistical challenges to the democratic peace and critically analyzes a prominent recent critique ( Gartzke 2007 ). Gartzke's claim that capitalist dynamics explain away the democratic peace relies on results problematically driven by (1) the censoring from the sample of observations containing certain communist countries or occurring before 1966, (2) the inclusion of regional controls, and (3) a misspecification of temporal controls. Analysis of these issues contributes to broader methodological debates and reveals novel characteristics of the democratic peace. Gartzke and other critics have contributed valuably to the study of IR; however, the democratic peace remains one of the most robust empirical associations in IR.     

Yes we can! Valence politics and electoral choice in America, 2008

The claim that the 2008 presidential election was a transformative one is fast becoming part of the conventional wisdom of American politics. Despite the election’s undoubted significance, this paper argues that factors affecting voting decisions were strikingly similar to those operating in many previous presidential elections. Using data from the CCAP six-wave national election survey, we demonstrate that a valence politics model provides a powerful, parsimonious explanation of the ballot decisions Americans made in 2008. As is typical in presidential elections, candidate images had major effects on electoral choice. Controlling for several other relevant factors, racial attitudes were strongly associated with how voters reacted to the candidates. Other models of electoral choice, such as a Downsian issue-proximity model, are also relevant, but their explanatory power is considerably less than that provided by the valence politics model.