Noncoercive sexual contact with similarly aged individuals: what is the impact?

A community sample of 610 adults were grouped into those who reported no sexual abuse experience, others who reported noncoercive sexual contact with an individual that was at most 4 years older, and those who reported more severe sexual abuse. The first two groups did not differ from each other on current social support, trauma-specific symptomatology, and somatic complaints whereas the more severe sexual abuse group reported more problems on these dimensions. Further analyses suggested that of the two variables, coercion was more closely associated with problematic outcome than was the existence of an age difference.     

Sexual and nonsexual offenders with intellectual and learning disabilities: a comparison of characteristics, referral patterns, and outcome

This article reports an evaluation of a community intellectual disability offender service over the period from 1990 to 2001. Men who committed sex offenses or sexually abusive incidents (n = 106) and men who committed other types of offenses and serious incidents (n = 78) are compared on personal characteristics, referral sources, forensic details, and outcome up to 7 years after referral. The cohorts are older than one would expect from the criminology literature, and, at about 33%, the incidence of mental illness is consistent with some previous studies. A greater proportion of sex offenders had criminal justice involvement and a formal disposal from court. Fire raising was not overly represented as an offense. There was a higher rate of reoffending in the nonsexual cohort, which persisted up to 7 years. Investigating only reoffenders, there was a considerable amount of harm reduction recorded up to 7 years, statistically significant up to 5 years following initial referral.     

Is there an acceptable answer to rising medical malpractice premiums?

This article explores the key issues involved in the attempts at reform of the present medical malpractice system. Investigating the effects that federal tort reform legislation would have on physicians, patients, lawyers, and the medical malpractice insurers, Dr. Gunnar succinctly outlines the issues surrounding the present "crisis in healthcare" and explores the separate interests involved. The article examines the economic forces influencing the medical malpractice insurance industry, reviews previous tort reform, and predicts the future of federal tort reform legislation. Dr. Gunnar concludes by proposing alternatives for malpractice reform.     

Intentional and unintentional injuries across health regions in Alberta, Canada: an implication for policy

The growing practice of including intentional injuries (suicide and interpersonal violence) under the injury control umbrella has produced some controversy. The present study was designed to determine whether or not there might be an empirical basis for this initiative from an ecological point of view by examining the associations among unintentional and intentional injuries across 17 geographically defined health regions. The study was set in the Province of Alberta, Canada, where health services were delivered to a population of 2.96 million persons in 1999 through 17 regional health authorities. The results of a principal components analysis showed that nearly all causes of injury-hospitalization loaded on a single factor. It was not possible to produce separate factors for intentional and unintentional injuries. The strong intercorrelation among all measures suggests that there is an empirical basis for the view that intentional and unintentional injuries belong under the same conceptual umbrella, at least at the ecological level.     

Toward an Empirical Approach to Evidentiary Ruling

This paper responds to criticisms/misconstruals of our measure of the maximum probative value of evidence (D. Davis & W. C. Follette, 2002), and our conclusions regarding the potentially prejudicial role of intuitive profiling evidence, including motive. We argue that R. D. Friedman and R. C. Park's (2003) criticisms and example cases are largely based on inappropriate violation of the presumption of innocence. Further, we address the merits of our absolute difference measure of probative value versus those of the Bayesian likelihood ratio championed by D. H. Kaye and J. J. Koehler (2003). We recommend methods for presentation of measures of evidence utility that convey complexities of interdependence between new and existing evidence. Finally, we propose a probable cause standard for admission of potentially prejudicial evidence, dictating that admissibility of such evidence should be contingent upon other substantial evidence of guilt.     

Context effects in forensic science: a review and application of the science of science to crime laboratory practice in the United States.

This article discusses the phenomenon of "context effects" by reviewing the findings and practices of a range of scientific fields, including astronomy, physics, biology, medicine, and especially the relevant research and theory from psychology. Context information, such as expectations about what one is supposed to see or conclude, has been found to have a small but relentless impact on human perception, judgment, and decision-making. The article then considers the vulnerability of forensic science practice to context effects, and concludes by suggesting that forensic science adopt practices familiar in other fields of scientific work, in particular blind or double-blind testing and also the use of evidence line-ups.