Simulating Emotional Responses in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An fMRI Study

This study tested the extent to which coached participants can simulate the neural responses of participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when they are presented with signals of fear. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study blood oxygenation level-dependent signal during the presentations of fearful and neutral faces under both conscious and nonconscious (masked) conditions. Participants comprised 12 patients with PTSD and 12 trauma-exposed controls who were instructed to simulate PTSD. During conscious fear processing, simulators showed greater activation in the left amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) than PTSD participants. By contrast, during nonconscious processing, PTSD participants had greater MPFC activation than simulators. These findings suggest that coached simulators produce a profile of ‘over-responding’ to fear when controlled conscious processing is possible, but are not able to simulate the exaggerated medial prefrontal responses observed in PTSD participants under conditions of nonconscious processing.     

An Economic Exclusion/Male Peer Support Model Looks at “Wedfare” and Woman Abuse

In recent years “welfare reform” has become a vehicle for many neo-conservative social commentators to invoke marriage vows as a cure for poverty and the abuse of poor women. Their basic claim is that cohabiting relationships are not only more violent than marriages, but that married couples are happier, healthier, and wealthier than cohabiting ones. A policy then of encouraging cohabitants to marry, they claim, would lead to increased family wealth and decreased family violence. We examine these claims in this article, along with the alternative argument that marriage per se is not a solution to these problems. Alternatively we propose an economic exclusion/male peer support model that explains why many cohabiting men abuse women in intimate relationships. If forcing these couples to marry is not a solution, then structural solutions are necessary, along with progressive policy suggestions that address the antecedents of poverty and abuse. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 Trapped by Poverty/Trapped by Abuse Conference, Austin, Texas. The authors would like to thank Desmond Ellis, Claire Renzetti, Barbara Sims, Tom VanderVen and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and criticisms.     

Gesundheitsverträglichkeitsprüfung bei bergbaulichen Vorhaben

Zusammenfassung  Im Saarland trat am 23.2.2008 ein bergbauinduziertes starkes Erdbeben auf. Dieses zeigt: Bei entsprechenden Gef?hrdungen für Leib und Leben bedarf es insbesondere einer Gesundheitsvertr?glichkeitsprüfung.     

Public Attitudes in Australia to the Reintegration of ex-Offenders: Testing a Belief in Redeemability (BiR) scale

We report the results of a large scale Australian survey of public attitudes to offender reintegration. A representative sample of 1215 respondents gave their views about the possibility that offenders could make a good life for themselves after having committed crime. Views expressed were significantly positive with around four out of five respondents indicating they believed reintegration was possible and should be attempted. On the basis of the responses an overall score was calculated for each respondent. Analysis of the data suggested that three factors contributed to the overall score. We named these: Human capital, Possibility of change and Agency and the rationale for these is discussed. Some demographic factors (age, gender, presence of children in the household and highest level of schooling) were significantly related to scores in one of the components. Respondents also reported whether they, or someone close to them, had been a victim of crime or had been arrested, and whether they had worked in the field of law enforcement or the field of human services. Inclusion in these categories was found to be significantly related to certain components of the overall score. These findings are discussed in the light of related surveys in other jurisdictions and we invite other researchers to use the scale and suggest improvements.