A Pilot Study Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Cortisol Awakening Response and Health Outcomes among Law Enforcement Officers

As first responders who are frequently exposed to job-related trauma, police officers are at an elevated risk of adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Evidence-based approaches to stress reduction are sorely needed to address the complex variety of problems that police officers face. In this pilot study we examined the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention designed to address police officer stress. A total of 43 police officers completed an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT) program, which was designed to improve mindfulness, resilience, stress, health outcomes, and emotional functioning. Using multilevel models we found significant improvement in self-reported mindfulness, resilience, police and perceived stress, burnout, emotional intelligence, difficulties with emotion regulation, mental health, physical health, anger, fatigue, and sleep disturbance. Although there were no significant pre-to-post-MBRT changes in cortisol awakening response (CAR), while controlling for pre-MBRT increase area under the curve (AUC_I), change in mental health was a significant predictor of post-AUC_I. Implications of these findings and areas for future research are discussed.     

A case study in public child welfare: county-level practices that address racial disparity in foster care placement

Racial disproportionality has been a longstanding issue within child welfare. The continued overrepresentation of black children in the foster care system is troubling. The authors of this article conducted a case study of two counties in New York State that have steadily decreased the number of black children in foster care in an effort to identify what aspects of their child welfare practice impacted the decline. The case study employed document analysis, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with child removal decision makers. Utilizing a grounded theory approach to content organization and analysis, several themes emerged as noticeable factors. Some of the most salient themes included preventive services and resources, community collaborations, case practice development, family meetings, workforce diversity, the court system, and, the most unique, blind removal meetings. The themes found in this study present promising practices to assist in decreasing the racial disparity in child welfare removal decisions.     

Aggression and sleep: a daylight saving time natural experiment on the effect of mild sleep loss and gain on assaults

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of a mild, short-term sleep loss/gain on assault rates.

Methods

Using National Incidence Based Reporting System data and city-reported data from Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, we calculated the difference in assault rates on the Monday immediately following daylight saving time (DST) as compared to the Monday a week later using a Poisson quasi-maximum likelihood estimator model. The same analyses were performed to examine effects of the return to standard time in the fall. We employed several falsification checks.

Results

There were 2.9% fewer (95% CI: –4.2%, ?1.6%, p < 0.0001) assaults immediately following DST, when we lose an hour, as compared to a week later. In contrast, there was a 2.8% rise in assaults immediately following the return to standard time, when an hour is gained, as compared to a week later (95% CI: 1.5%, 4.2%, p < 0.0001). Multiple falsification analyses suggest the spring findings to be robust, while the evidence to support the fall findings is weaker.

Conclusions

This study suggests that mild and short-term changes in sleep do significantly affect rates of assault. Specifically, there is support for the theory that mild sleepiness possibly associated with an hour loss of sleep results in reduced assaults. This contradicts the simple inverse relationship currently suggested by most of the correlational literature. This study and the mixed findings presented by experimental studies indicate that measurement variability of both sleep and aggression may result in conflicting findings.

     

Tabet v Gett: the end of loss of chance actions in Australia?

This article critically analyses the recent High Court decision in Tabet v Gett (2010) 84 ALJR 292; [2010] HCA 12 which considered whether a person should be able to obtain compensation on the basis of a loss of a chance of a better medical outcome. The appellant argued that the High Court should regard a plaintiff as entitled to compensation when a breach by a defendant of their duty of care causes the plaintiff to lose a possibility, but not a probability, of a better medical outcome. The High Court held that it was not possible for a person in the position of the appellant to obtain compensation for the loss of a chance of a better medical outcome.     

Achieving the Promise to Leave No Girl behind in Commonwealth Countries

ABSTRACT

The education Sustainable Development Goal includes a commitment to ensuring that all children – regardless of their gender and circumstances within which they are born – should complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April 2018 re-affirmed the importance of 12 years of quality education for all, particularly marginalised groups including disadvantaged girls. To inform these commitments, this paper aims to situate the current evidence on girls’ education across the 53 countries in the Commonwealth, with a particular focus on low- and lower-middle income countries where the challenges are the greatest. It identifies the current status of access to school and learning, and highlights trends in domestic and aid financing to support the targets. It then presents evidence on interventions aimed at tackling barriers to girls’ access and learning to achieve the commitments. The paper argues a need not only to focus on gender parity in education – i.e. an equal proportion of girls and boys in school and learning – but also to pay greater attention to the more ambitious target of gender equality, which requires an end to discrimination if a truly level playing field is to be achieved.     

Optimization of Performance Validity Test (PVT) Cutoffs across Healthy and Non-Referred Clinical Research Samples

Performance validity tests (PVTs) effectively detect suboptimal test performance, but cutoff scores for a given test may differ between populations. This research examines how optimal PVT cutoffs differ in a collegiate research population when mental health and clinical conditions are considered. Healthy controls (n = 328) and non-referred students with self-reported clinical conditions (n = 42) were assigned to perform their best while others simulated ADHD symptoms (n = 123). PVT indices were derived from a stand-alone measure (Victoria Symptom Validity Test) and embedded measures (California Verbal Learning Test – Second Edition; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition, Digit Span). PVT cutoffs with the highest sensitivity, while maintaining adequate specificity, were identified when the control groups were considered together, and when students with reported clinical conditions were considered separately. Mean differences in PVT performances were found between the simulation group and control groups, but not between clinical and nonclinical controls. The optimized cutoffs differed for five of eight PVT indices when all controls were considered together versus the clinical control group, only. When discordance was observed, cutoffs tended to be lower (less stringent) for the non-referred clinical control group. Together, these optimized cutoffs tended to be more stringent than previously established cutoffs. This study suggests that PVT cutoffs may be responsibly altered in a research context in the presence of a clinical condition. Future research should investigate if PVT classification accuracies can be improved in clinical and forensic samples while considering clinical conditions.     

Public Outrage,Media Spectacle and the Kapunda Road Royal Commission

The article focuses on the relationship between the executive and the judiciary in respect of a legal case that provoked public outrage. This outrage entered into the media spectacle and was channelled by the executive into calling a royal commission. The royal commission was charged with re‐examining the police actions and the legal case. However, hidden behind its narrow terms of reference was the larger question of justice being ‘blind’ to a network of privilege. As such, the royal commission had the potential to threaten the independence of the judiciary.     

Effect of public transit on crime: evidence from SEPTA strikes in Philadelphia

Journal of Experimental Criminology - We use the temporary closings of subway stations in Philadelphia to examine the effects of public transit on crime in the nearby communities. The Southeastern...     

Field-portable detection of fentanyl and its analogs: A review

The need to detect fentanyl and its analogs in the field is an important capability to help prevent unintentional exposure or overdose on these substances, which may result in death. Many portable methods historically used in the field by first responders and other field users to detect and identify other chemical substances, such as hazardous materials, have been applied to the detection and identification of these synthetic opioids. This paper describes field portable spectroscopic methods used for the detection and identification of fentanyl and its analogs. The methods described are automated colorimetric tests including lateral flow assays; vibrational spectroscopy (mid-infrared and Raman); gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; ion mobility spectrometry, and high-pressure mass spectrometry. In each case the background and key details of these technologies are outlined, followed by a discussion of the application of the technology in the field. Attention is paid to the analysis of complex mixtures and limits of detection, including the required spectral databases and algorithms used to interrogate these types of samples. There is also an emphasis on providing actionable information to the (likely) non-scientist operators of these instruments in the field.