Identification of potential juvenile offenders

Conclusion In this article, we have reviewed the guidelines, from the criminological prediction tradition, that should be followed while developing a screening device for the identification of potential juvenile offenders. We were also able to recognize an appropriate screening strategy for prevention, even if more validation studies have to be conducted. Screening of juvenile offenders should rest on multiple stages, informants, methods, and variable domains. In addition, it was not possible to identify a satisfactory instrument for prevention screening. The candidate devices all have significant methodological deficiencies. Also, it was not possible to identify the particular predictors to retain for screening, even if there is a large consensus about the variable domains that are most important. To summarize, there is much technical work still to be done before we can develop appropriate screening instruments for the identification of potential offenders. Some screening strategies and instruments are promising, but none can be recommended for immediate use to policy-makers and practitioners. The state-of-the-art for the identification of potential juvenile offenders is such that the research community can only indicate how to develop good screening instruments. The research for this article was commissioned by the Study Group on Serious/Violent/ Chronic Offenders of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Justice of the United States of America. This paper is an adaptation of a more comprehensive review on screening for that study group.     

The Stagnation in Terrorism Research

Despite over a decade of government funding and thousands of newcomers to the field of terrorist research, we are no closer to answering the simple question of “What leads a person to turn to political violence?” The state of stagnation with respect to this issue is partly due to the government strategy of funding research without sharing the necessary primary source information with academia, which has created an unbridgeable gap between academia and the intelligence community. This has led to an explosion of speculations with little empirical grounding in academia, which has the methodological skills but lacks data for a major breakthrough. Most of the advances in the field have come from historical archival research and analysis of a few field interviews. Nor has the intelligence community been able to achieve any breakthrough because of the structure and dynamic of this community and its lack of methodological rigor. This prevents creative analysis of terrorism protected from political concerns. The solution to this stagnation is to make non-sensitive data available to academia and to structure more effective discourse between the academic and intelligence communities in order to benefit from the complementary strengths in these two communities.     

Authoritarianism,Threat, and Americans’ Support for the War on Terror

In the years following 9/11, surveys have revealed high levels of public support for policies related to the war on terror that, many argue, contravene long‐standing American ideals. Extant research would suggest that such preferences result from the activation of authoritarianism. That is, the terrorist attacks caused those predisposed toward intolerance and aggression to become even more intolerant and aggressive. However, using data from two national surveys, we find that those who score high in authoritarianism do not become more hawkish or less supportive of civil liberties in response to perceived threat from terrorism; they tend to have such preferences even in the absence of threat. Instead, those who are less authoritarian adopt more restrictive and aggressive policy stands when they perceive threat from terrorism. In other words, many average Americans become susceptible to “authoritarian thinking” when they perceive a grave threat to their safety.     

An unusual case of accidental poisoning: fatal methadone inhalation

In this report, the authors present a case of unusual, accidental methadone intoxication in a 40-year-old man, who had inhaled methadone powder. The drug dealer was a pharmacy technician; methadone had been stolen from a pharmacy and sold as cocaine. After having inhaled methadone powder, he suffered cardiopulmonary arrest. He was admitted to hospital where he died after 24 h of intensive care. The autopsy revealed congestion of internal organs and cerebral and pulmonary edema. Microscopically, the heart showed no changes. The toxicological analyses performed on blood and urine taken at the hospital revealed methadone, cannabinoids, and ethanol. The blood methadone concentration was 290 μg/L. The urine methadone concentration was 160 μg/L. Midazolam and lidocaine, which were administered to the patient at the hospital, were also detected in the blood. The cause of death was determined to be methadone intoxication. The literature has been reviewed and discussed. To date, and to our knowledge, only very few cases of accidental death resulting from methadone inhalation have been described up to the case presented herein.     

Shifting perspectives: a confirmatory factor analysis of the working alliance inventory (short form) with high-risk violent offenders

The Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) is the most widely used measure of the therapeutic alliance. However, previous studies of the factor structure of the WAI have obtained disparate results. This study examined ratings from three rater perspectives (therapists, clients, and observers) in a rehabilitation program for high-risk violent prisoners with high PCL-psychopathy scores. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis with a short version of the WAI and examined one-, two-, and three-factor models. It was hypothesized that the context and client characteristics could alter the factor structure of the ratings. However, no differences were found in factor structure by perspective; the results from all rater perspectives suggested that a two-factor structure was the best fit for the data. Thus, we concluded that therapists, observers, and prisoners all saw the goals and task aspects of the therapeutic alliance as distinct from the bond component.     

CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATION PRACTICES: A 20‐YEAR FOLLOW‐UP

This study surveyed 213 experienced child custody evaluators utilizing the same questionnaire in the Ackerman & Ackerman 1997 and Keilin & Bloom 1986 studies. Demographic information, evaluation practices, custody decision‐making, and recommendations were surveyed. Comparisons were made across all three studies to identify the similarities and differences in child custody evaluation practices over the past 20 years. This study added questions about risk management and ethical issues, and current practices in placement/access schedules. The reader is advised that not engaging in the practices performed by a majority of psychologists could result in a difficult testimony experience.