Discrimination Distress During Adolescence

Amidst changing patterns of accommodation and conflict among American ethnic groups, there remains a paucity of research on the nature and impact of racial and ethnic discrimination on development in multiethnic samples of youth. The Adolescent Discrimination Distress Index along with measures of caregiver racial bias preparation and self-esteem was administered to 177 adolescents drawn from 9th–12th graders self-identified as African American, Hispanic, East Asian, South Asian, and non-Hispanic white. Youth from all ethnic backgrounds reported distress associated with instances of perceived racial prejudice encountered in educational contexts. Instances of institutional discrimination in stores and by police were higher for older youth and particularly for African American and Hispanic teenagers. Encounters with peer discrimination were reported most frequently by Asian youth. Reports of racial bias preparation were associated with distress in response to institutional and educational discrimination and self-esteem scores were negatively correlated with distress caused by educational and peer discrimination. The importance of research on discrimination distress to understanding adolescent development in multiethnic ecologies is discussed here.     

Australia: Supreme Court of Western Australia orders retrial in case of man convicted of infecting girlfriend with HIV

On 3 October 2002, the District Court convicted an HIV-positive man, Houghton, of unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm to his girlfriend for having unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse with her. Houghton had not told her of his HIV status prior to intercourse. He had been aware of his status for some years before meeting the woman, but testified at his trial that he believed that he could not transmit HIV if he did not ejaculate inside the woman. The woman became HIV-positive as a result of the sexual intercourse. The question put before the jury was twofold: whether there had been bodily injury caused by the applicant to the complainant; and whether that injury was of sufficient severity to constitute grievous bodily harm. The jury found Houghton guilty and in doing so made a finding that the transmission of HIV constitutes grievous bodily harm.     

Murder, Extramarital Affairs, and the Issue of Probative Value

A paper previously published in Law and Human Behavior by D. Davis and W. C. Follette (2002) argued that certain "profiling" characteristics commonly admitted into court have little or no probative value. They argued that this is especially likely to be true when the characteristic used as evidence (e.g., having an extramarital affair) is rather common in the population whereas the act in question (e.g., a man murdering his wife) is rare. Their analysis has prompted a strong response by Friedman and Park and by Kaye and Koehler with a rejoinder by Davis and Follette (all three follow this paper in this issue of Law and Human Behavior). This paper describes some of the nature of this controversy.     

Glycine toxicity and unexpected intra-operative death

A rare complication of the use of glycine irrigation fluid during prostatic surgery in a 69-year-old man is described. Following cystolithopexy and transurethral resection of the prostate for benign prostatomegaly, abdominal distension developed with increasing ventilatory pressures. Despite retroperitoneal fluid evacuation at subsequent urgent laparotomy, cardiac arrest occurred that was not amenable to resuscitation. At autopsy a traumatic defect in the posterior bladder wall filled with calculus debris was confirmed that did not communicate with the peritoneal cavity. Hyponatremia with markedly elevated levels of blood, urine, and body fluid glycine were demonstrated. Death was, therefore, attributed to glycine toxicity following tracking of glycine through a surgical defect in the posterior bladder wall. Careful dissection of surgical sites is required in such cases to demonstrate any additional trauma that may be associated with the fatal episode. Analysis of body fluids for glycine and electrolytes is also necessary to assist in the determination of possible mechanisms of death.     

Experience with urine drug testing by the Correctional Service of Canada

The Correctional Service of Canada implemented a urine drug-screening program over 10 years ago. The objective of this report is to describe the program and drug test results in this program for 1999. Offenders in Canadian federal correctional institutions and those living in the community on conditional release were subject to urine drug testing. Urine specimens were collected at correctional facilities and shipped by courier to MAXXAM Analytics Inc. laboratory. All urine specimens were analyzed for amphetamines, cannabinoids, cocaine metabolite (benzoylecgonine), opiates, phencyclidine, benzodiazepines, methyl phenidate, meperidine, pentazocine and fluoxetine by immunoassay screening (homogeneous EIA and ELISA assays) followed by GC-MS confirmation. Ethyl alcohol was analyzed when specifically requested. Alternative screening and confirmation methods with lower cut-off values were used, whenever urine specimens were dilute (creatinine <20mg/dl and specific gravity 相似文献   

Is there a magical time boundary for diagnosing eyewitness identification accuracy in sequential line‐ups?

We examined whether eyewitness identification latencies for sequential line‐up decisions indicate an optimum time boundary that reliably discriminates accurate from inaccurate decisions. Participants (N = 381) observed a crime simulation and attempted two separate identifications from target‐present or target‐absent sequential line‐ups. As has previously been found with simultaneous line‐ups, the optimum time boundary identified did not reliably discriminate accurate from inaccurate identifications for both line‐up targets. Diagnosticity for choosers was, however, much higher at very high confidence levels than at lower levels. Possible reasons for why one index of signal strength (confidence), but not another (latency), might postdict accuracy within the sequential framework were presented.