A National Survey of Mental Health Services Available to Offenders with Mental Illness: Who Is Doing What?

The purpose of this study was to examine the national practices of psychotherapy services for male offenders with mental illness (OMI) in state correctional facilities. Participants consisted of 230 correctional mental health service providers from 165 state correctional facilities. Results indicated that mental health professionals provided a variety of services to OMI that can be conceptualized by six goals considered important in their work: mental illness recovery, emotions management, institutional functioning, re-entry, risk-need, and personal growth. Mental health professionals in this study generally viewed mental illness recovery, institutional functioning, and personal growth as significantly more important and spent more time focused on these goals than emotions management, re-entry, and risk-need. Mental health professionals tended to believe the services they provided were effective across four key treatment foci including mental illness, skill development, behavioral functioning, and criminogenic needs with more progress perceived in areas related to mental illness and skill development than their ability to effectively change behavioral functioning. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Missing links in nanomaterials governance: bringing industrial dynamics and downstream policies into view

In this article we explore some of the analytical and policy implications of widening the focus of nanomaterials governance from risk regulation to the broader issue of the purposeful direction of the innovation process. We focus on the impact of industrial activities on nanotechnology governance, arguing that the specific characteristics of the industrial dynamics of nanomaterials—flexibility in applications and distributed innovation—limit and enable different potential interventions to shape technology. In particular, these characteristics exacerbate the difficulties of attempting to directly influence innovation trajectories. Under these conditions, we argue that policies for nanomaterials governance need to be broadened. The prevailing emphasis in the UK on policy initiatives ‘upstream’ in the R&D process, while commendable, should be complemented with policies aimed further ‘downstream’ at potential users of nanomaterials, such as renewable energy procurement or housing regulations in order to modulate technological development towards socially desirable goals.     

The reincorporation and redistribution of trace geoforensic particulates on clothing: An introductory study

Two experimental studies were undertaken to investigate the processes of reincorporation and redistribution of trace evidence on garments when worn by a suspect or a victim (reincorporation) or after the garments have been seized and packaged for subsequent forensic analysis (redistribution). The first experiment utilised UV powder, an established proxy for geoforensic trace particulates and the second experiment utilised daffodil pollen transferred onto garments under conditions that mimicked forensic reality. It was demonstrated that reincorporation of trace particulates occurs from upper to lower parts of the same garment and also from upper garments to lower garments. Reincorporation also occurred to all areas of the lower garments, however the highest concentration of particulates was found to be the lap area of the jeans. Particulates also tended to be preserved around technical details such as stitching or relief design features of the garments. Thus the decay of particulates after a contact has been made does not necessarily involve a loss of those particulates from the entire system. These findings have implications for the interpretation of trace evidence when seeking to establish the source of initial contacts or the chronology of pertinent events. The second study demonstrated that folding and packaging items of clothing leads to a redistribution of any trace particulate evidence that is present thereby eliciting an alteration in the spatial distribution of that evidence. There is therefore a necessity to take the context of trace evidence into account and also to follow protocols that are sensitive to these aspects of trace evidence behaviour as a failure to do so may have consequences for the correct interpretation of such evidence.     

Assessing Functional Impairment in ADHD: Concerns for Validity of Self-Report

Comprehensive diagnostic assessment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should include consideration of degree of impairment, and documentation of impairment is necessary to make service and accommodation determinations. While there has been increasing use of self-report as a way to document impairment, self-reported impairment could be just as vulnerable to invalid report as self-reported symptoms. We examined the influence of invalid self-report and invalid performance on report of functional impairment in a sample of 49 adults referred for evaluation for ADHD and/or learning disorder concerns. Overall, 26–59% of participants referred for evaluation endorsed at least moderate levels of impairment in the domains of understanding and communicating, household, and school/work. Individuals with evidence of invalid self-report of ADHD symptoms endorsed significantly higher levels of disability/impairment on the WHODAS, particularly in the domains of understanding and communicating, household, school/work, and participation in society. Further, individuals who failed a measure of performance validity reported significantly higher levels of impairment/disability, particularly in the domains of understanding and communicating, school/work, and participation in society. Results emphasize the need to assess for validity of self-report and performance in ADHD assessment. Since self-report of impairment may be suspect, clinicians should include data such as school records, past performance on high-stakes standardized testing, evidence of prior accommodations, and collateral reports before making diagnoses and/or recommendations regarding treatment or academic/workplace accommodations.     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of positive behavioural support within a medium secure mental health forensic service

A number of recent influential reports recommend the use of proactive and preventative approaches such as Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) in the management of challenging behaviours. Although evidence supporting the use of PBS is mainly drawn from studies of learning disability and child populations, it is recognised that PBS could have a much wider utility. In this study, PBS was implemented in a medium secure forensic mental health service, a novel context. Impact was evaluated using an adapted version of the Checklist of Challenging Behaviour at baseline and then at 3 monthly intervals for a year. Significant reductions were observed in aggression frequency, management difficulty and severity and other challenging behaviour frequency and management difficulty. Reductions in challenging behaviour were still evident after six months for the full group and twelve months for the sub-group with the exception of other challenging behaviour management difficulty. In contrast, no such significant differences were found for a control group. This study indicated that PBS was an effective intervention in the management of challenging behaviour in this forensic mental health context.