The Evolving Construct of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): DSM-5 Criteria Changes and Legal Implications

In the DSM-5, the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has undergone multiple, albeit minor, changes. These changes include shifting PTSD placement from within the anxiety disorders into a new category of traumatic and stressor-related disorders, alterations in the definition of a traumatic event, shifting of the symptom cluster structure from three to four clusters, the addition of new symptoms including persistent negative beliefs and expectations about oneself or the world, persistent distorted blame of self or others, persistent negative trauma-related emotions, and risky or reckless behaviors, and the addition of a dissociative specifier. The evidence or lack thereof behind each of these changes is briefly reviewed. These changes, although not likely to change overall prevalence, have the potential to increase the heterogeneity of individuals receiving a PTSD diagnosis both by altering what qualifies as a traumatic event and by adding symptoms commonly occurring in other disorders such as depression, borderline personality disorder, and dissociative disorders. Legal implications of these changes include continued confusion regarding what constitutes a traumatic stressor, difficulties with differential diagnosis, increased ease in malingering, and improper linking of symptoms to causes of behavior. These PTSD changes are discussed within the broader context of DSM reliability and validity concerns.     

Correlates of subjective stress among drug court clients

Psychosocial stress is consistently found to promote initiation, intensification, and relapse in drug abuse. It would, therefore, be desirable to identify characteristics of offenders who are at heightened risk for stress-induced exacerbations of addictive behavior. In this cross-sectional, correlational, interview study, 500 clients of two Kentucky drug courts averaged 30 years of age and were predominantly male, White, employed, high school educated, single, and adjudicated in small- and medium-size cities. Five independent correlates of greater subjective stress emerged in stepwise multiple regression analysis (R2 = .395): use of escape-avoidance coping, positive reappraisal coping (inversely associated), more negative life events, better self-rated health (inversely associated), and access to social support related to work problems (inversely associated). Treatment interventions emphasizing effective coping styles and building of social support as well as managing of negative life events and perceptions of health may serve to lessen subjective stress and its consequences in drug-abusing criminal populations.     

On the Complexity and Accuracy of Geographic Profiling Strategies

Geographic profilers have access to a repertoire of strategies for predicting a serial offenders home location. These strategies range in complexity—some involve more calculations to implement than others—and the assumption often made is that more complex strategies will outperform simpler strategies. In the present study, we tested the relationship between the complexity and accuracy of 11 strategies. Data were crime site and home locations of 16 UK residential burglars who had committed 10 or more crimes each. The results indicated that strategy complexity was not positively related to accuracy. This was also found to be the case across tasks that ranged in complexity (where complexity was determined by the number of crimes used to make a prediction). Implications for police policies and procedures, as well as our understanding of human decision-making, are discussed.To whom correspondence should be addressed. Phone: +1-709-737-3101; E-mail: bsnook@play.psych.mun.ca     

Co-occurrence and Correlates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depression in Physically Abused Women

Ninety two women presenting for treatment for marital problems and who were physically victimized by their spouses (e.g., pushing, shoving, punching) within the past year participated in this study. There were three study objectives: (1) document rates and co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), (2) identify predictors of PTSD and depression symptom frequency/severity, and (3) systematically evaluate disorder-specific group differences in marital- and marital violence-related factors. Within the month prior to assessment, 29.8% of the sample met diagnostic criteria for PTSD and 32% for MDD. MDD and PTSD were significantly, but moderately, correlated at both the symptom and diagnosis levels. However, PTSD symptom frequency and depression symptom severity were predicted by different marital- and marital violence-related factors. PTSD symptoms were predicted by spouse's dominance/isolation tactics and intensity of husband-to-wife physical aggression while depressive symptoms were predicted by marital discord and intensity of husband-to-wife physical aggression. Comorbid women and those with PTSD only reported significantly more spousal fear and husband-to-wife physical aggression than those with MDD only or neither disorder. No group differences were found on rate of marital discord or spouse's controlling/isolating tactics. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and treatment implications for abused women seeking treatment for marital conflict.     

Toward Interest Inarticulation: A Major Consequence of Corporatism for Interest Organizations

The main issue discussed is the difficulties in collective action. Three logics of collective action are identified and discussed in terms of their implications for solidarity within interest organizations and for organizational action. Both solidarity and organizational action are important for successful policymaking. Policies can be decided without the support of the members, but their implementation may thus prove difficult. The theoretical issue of interest articulation by interest organizations is the important one here. The article concludes that encompassing organizations will most likely have difficulty in articulating a definite organizational policy. It is maintained that corporatism and public responsibility-taking can severely hamper the articulation of organized special interests. They lead to interest inarticulation. This may lead to legitimacy problems for the organization and be one explanation for the recent decline in certain established interest organizations in Sweden and recent discussions on the future of corporatism.     

Does Policy Stability Increase the Constitutional Court's Independence? The Case of Italy During the First Republic (1956–1992)

In this paper, we consider thesentences of constitutional illegitimacy bythe Italian Constitutional Court in theFirst Republic (1956–1992) as a measure ofits independence from politicians. We focuson the Court's incidental review and testwhether the Court's independence increaseswhen there is more policy stability, namelywhen politicians are less able to changethe policy status quo by legislation. Wefollow Tsebelis (2002) in assuming thatlegislative policy change is less likelywhen either the number and/or ideologicaldistance of veto players increases. As aproxy for the size of the veto players'Pareto set, we use either the number ofparties in government, or the number ofparties forming a constitutional majorityin Parliament, or the number of effectiveparties in Parliament, or measures ofideological distance based on Laver andHunt (1992). By controlling for the Court'sdegree of internal cohesion, cointegrationanalysis shows that there is a stable andpositive long-run relationship between theCourt's independence and proxy measures ofthe degree of policy stability.