Malingering and Pain: is this a Major Problem in the Medicolegal Setting?

The term malingering has a negative connotation, in that it is considered to intentionally project exaggerated physical and/or psychosocial symptoms for the purpose of gaining some external rewards/secondary gain. The present article will review a number of misconceptions about malingering, as well as the inherent problem in objectively measuring this construct. It will be suggested that a more comprehensive biopsychosocial approach should be used to evaluate potential barriers to recovery, as well as suboptimal performance that may delay, or prevent, recovery over an expected time period for musculoskeletal pain disorders. Such an approach will eliminate the common misuse and misdiagnosis of the construct of malingering.     

New Evidence on the Monetary Value of Saving a High Risk Youth

There is growing interest in crime prevention through early youth interventions; yet, the standard United States response to the crime problem, particularly among juveniles, has been to increase the use and resource allocation allotted toward punishment and incapacitation and away from prevention and treatment. At the same time, longitudinal studies of delinquency and crime have repeatedly documented a strong link between past and future behavior and have identified a small subset of offenders who commit a large share of criminal offenses. These findings suggest that if these offenders can be identified early and correctly and provided with prevention and treatment resources early in the life course, their criminal activity may be curtailed. While researchers have studied these offenders in great detail, little attention has been paid to the costs they exert on society. This paper provides estimates of the cost of crime imposed on society by high risk youth. Our approach follows and builds upon the early framework and basic methodology developed by Cohen (J Quant Criminol 14: 5–33, 1998), by using new estimates of the costs of individual crimes, ones that are more comprehensive and that significantly increased the monetary cost per crime. We also use new estimates on the underlying offending rate for high risk juvenile offenders. We estimate the present value of saving a 14-year-old high risk juvenile from a life of crime to range from $2.6 to $5.3 million. Similarly, saving a high risk youth at birth would save society between $2.6 and $4.4 million.

Increasing Family Reunification for Substance‐Abusing Mothers and Their Children: Comparing Two Drug Court Interventions in Miami

This study provides a quasi‐experimental test of 80 consecutive enrollments in the Miami‐Dade (Florida) Dependency Drug Court in order to examine the impact of a family‐based and gender specific intervention, Engaging Moms Program (EMP), on drug court graduation and family reunification. We compared EMP with case management services (CMS). Results indicated that 72% of mothers in the EMP graduated from drug court, and 70% were reunified with their children. In contrast, 38% of mothers receiving CMS graduated from drug court, and 40% were reunited with their children. EMP, then, appears to be a promising family drug court intervention.     

WHEN IT HAPPENS IN A FAMILY: AIDING PARENTS OF SUBSTANCE‐ABUSING ADOLESCENTS*

This article first summarizes key data on the scope of teen substance abuse and the lack of teen access to needed treatment services. It then describes how and why attorneys may be helpful to parents who discover their teen's drug or alcohol problem and seek advice and counsel about the legal implications of various actions that can or may be taken. The article explores such issues as parents finding illegal drugs in the house or on their teen's person, various modalities of treatment and how family members are involved, how parents might secure residential evaluations for their youth without the necessity of juvenile court involvement (and why this is important), concerns about placing youth in unlicensed residential treatment facilities, health insurance coverage issues, home drug testing, and how past American Bar Association (ABA) policy on youth drug and alcohol abuse is being followed up with a new ABA project to aid parents of substance‐abusing teenagers and their families.     

Popular support for legislatures in Asia

Legislatures have long served as the fundamental organ of democratic rule. They bring together disparate views and competing preferences in one venue as an effort to introduce a equitable means of compromise to produce policies that affect those whom legislatures represent. They also check the authoritarian tendencies of other government actors, notably the executive, and create the conditions for institutionalised, rather than violent, debate. The legislatures of democratic Asia are no different. In this paper, I evaluate popular support for assemblies across the democracies of Asia, in terms of their legitimacy and use as a check on power. Traditional measures of support, including age, education, and liberal values, indicate growing support for legislatures. However, the significant effects of economic evaluations and the limited attachment to political parties suggest that the legislatures of Asia are still far from consolidating their role as assemblies that support democratic regimes in the region.     

Correction to: (Sex) Crime and Punishment in the #MeToo Era: How the Public Views Rape

Political Behavior - The original version of this article mistakenly listed “the Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative at Harvard University” in Acknowledgements section. The proper...     

Effectiveness of hotline, advocacy, counseling, and shelter services for victims of domestic violence: a statewide evaluation

The authors report the results of an evaluation of services provided by 54 Illinois domestic violence agencies. In collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago evaluation team, domestic violence advocates identified services to be evaluated, specified desired outcomes of those services, and participated in developing measures of those outcomes in both English and Spanish. With in the limitations of the study, outcomes were positive in all four program areas: hotline, counseling, advocacy, and shelter. The authors then discuss implications for evaluation of domestic violence programs that maintain victim safety as a guiding principle.     

Obstacles to dependent health care access in Oregon: health insurance or health care?

In the 1980s, Oregon was one of a handful of "states that could not wait" for national health care reform. Oregon's chosen approach to reform was predicated on two widely accepted assumptions. First, universal access to health care is best achieved by universal access to health insurance. Second, universal access to health care could best be achieved, at least politically, by incrementally building upon the existing health care delivery and insurance system. This article questions both of these assumptions in light of Oregon's decade-long experience in trying to expand access to health care among its dependent population.