The family: Where do we go from here?

His graduate work was done at Ohio University, and he has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Scandinavian Foundation. His major works are Family Questions: Reflections on the American Social Crisis and The Swedish Experiment in Family Politics,both published by Transaction.     

Perspective and procedural justice: Attorney and litigant evaluations of court procedures

A comparison of the procedural justice judgments of attorneys and those of lay people judging the same procedures offers an opportunity to generate new information on what factors affect judgments of fairness. In a survey of reactions to conventional and innovative procedures in a United States district court, attorneys and lay people involved in tort and contract cases were asked to judge the overall fairness of court procedures and the fairness of specific procedures used in arbitration hearings. The respondents were also asked for their judgments concerning the favorability of the procedure's outcome, the opportunity to have the case heard and decided by an impartial third party, and their side's control over what happened in the case, all of which are factors found in previous studies to affect procedural fairness judgments. The results showed that, while attorneys gave higher overall fairness ratings than did litigants, the difference was not affected by the procedure assigned to the case. In addition, attorneys and litigants appeared to use the same standards to evaluate the fairness of procedures, although they disagreed about where the procedures they experienced fell on these dimensions. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Preventing lethal violence in schools: the case for entry-based weapons screening

Violence-related behavior in schools has declined in recent years, but the perception of risk remains high. Disturbingly high percentages of students and teachers report staying home out of fear, and many students bring weapons to school for protection. Current proposals for preventing school violence include punishing the violence-prone, expulsion for weapon carriers, and creating a culture of nonviolence through various behavioral methods like conflict resolution. None of these proposals address the issue of lethal violence and hence personal safety. The risk of lethal violence in schools (related mainly to firearms) could be substantially reduced by creating an effective barrier between firearms and people. This could be achieved by using entry-based weapons detection systems similar to those now used in airports and courts. Decreasing the risk and fear of violence by converting schools into weapons-free zones would also be expected to increase attendance and improve scholastic performance. Randomized, controlled studies should be undertaken to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of entry-based weapons detection systems for achieving these outcomes.     

Streams and stages: Reconciling Kingdon and policy process theory

Use of metaphors is a staple feature of how we understand policy processes – none more so than the use of ‘policy stages’/'cycles’ and ‘multiple streams’. Yet even allowing for the necessary parsimony of metaphors, the former is often criticised for its lack of ‘real world’ engagement with agency, power, ideology, turbulence and complexity, while the latter focuses only on agenda‐setting but at times has been utilised, with limited results, to understand later stages of the policy process. This article seeks to explore and advance the opportunities for combining both and applying them to the policy‐formation and decision‐making stages of policy making. In doing so it examines possible three, four and five stream models. It argues that a five stream confluence model provides the highest analytical value because it retains the simplicity of metaphors (combining elements of two of the most prominent models in policy studies) while also helping capture some of the more complex and subtle aspects of policy processes, including policy styles and nested systems of governance.     

Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (“Bath Salts”),Related Death: Case Report and Review of the Literature,

Cathinone derivatives (bath salts) have emerged as the latest drugs of abuse. 3,4‐methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is the primary active ingredient in bath salts used in this country. This article presents the second reported cause of death by MDPV intoxication alone. In April 2011, a delusional man was emergently brought to a hospital, where he self‐reported bath salt usage. He became agitated, developed ventricular tachycardia, hyperthermia, and died. Comprehensive alcohol and drug testing was performed. Using the alkaline drug screen, heart blood contained 0.7 mg/L MDPV and peripheral blood contained 1.0 mg/L MDPV. His bizarre behavior with life‐threatening hyperthermia was consistent with an MDPV‐induced excited delirium state. MDPV is not yet found by routine immunoassay toxicology screens. Testing for MDPV should be considered in cases with a history of polysubstance abuse with stimulant type drugs, report of acute onset of psychogenic symptoms, excited delirium syndrome, or presentation in a hyperthermic state.     

Crime control through saturated community policing: A corporate policing model

Police officers in Western countries do not run day‐to‐day security operations in private companies and corporations. In contrast, Chinese police are directly involved in corporate security management. Responding to the criticisms that comparative studies in the West have overemphasized general and macro‐sociological analyses, this paper will introduce a specific Chinese corporate policing model based on the researcher's two‐month field research recently. The corporation under study is managed through a score keeping system, where security scores are concretely established, and a comprehensive approach is utilized which embodies the use of technical, formal, administrative, educational, and community control measures.     

Wise mind—risky mind: A reconceptualisation of dialectical behaviour therapy concepts and its application to sexual offender treatment

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce a reconceptualisation of dialectic behaviour therapy (DBT), “wise mind–risky mind”, and its application to sexual offender treatment. This reconceptualisation holds some promise in addressing issues around general, affective, cognitive and sexual dysregulation, and may provide an alternative way of thinking about sexual offender treatment. The wise mind–risky mind dialectical construct helps clients and therapists utilise a common language that captures and validates the experiential difficulties that clients go through in effectively managing their risk for sexual offending. The incorporation of DBT principles in standard sexual offender treatment programmes can assist clients in effectively managing problems with dysregulation in various domains. It can also afford a more integrated treatment framework when working with sexual offending dynamics. The authors discuss this new construct and its possible applications within the broader forensic mental health field.