Can epidemiological studies assist in the evaluation of community treatment orders? - The experience of Western Australia and Nova Scotia

Epidemiological studies using administrative databases have several advantages over other methodologies in studying the effectiveness of compulsory community treatment such as community treatment orders (CTOs). We compared patients placed on CTOs in Western Australia with controls drawn from both within the jurisdiction and from another without this measure (Nova Scotia). Although in different countries, the mental health services in both jurisdictions share common characteristics. Notably, we were able to control for forensic history in our comparison within Western Australia. We analysed predictors of admission and number of bed-days using multiple, logistic or Cox regression as appropriate. Of the 274 subjects placed on a CTO, we were able to find controls for up to 96% (n=265). CTO placement was not associated with reduced admissions or mean bed-days, although there was a threshold effect with a reduced risk of inpatient stays exceeding 100 days. Outpatient contacts were significantly greater for the CTO group. However, we do not know whether the intensity of treatment, or its compulsory nature, effected outcome.     

Restraining auto imports: Does anyone win?

The conventional wisdom suggests that import restraints help the protected domestic industry at the expense of consumers. In the longer term, however, trade restraint may encourage foreign firms to adopt new and more threatening business strategies, such as upgrading the quality of their products or moving plants to the United States. If these long-term dynamic effects of restraint are considered, trade restraints may prove harmful to the domestic industry as well as consumers.     

Family-of-origin characteristics and current family relationships of female adult incest victims

Past and present family relationships of a group of female adult incest victims were examined. The sample consisted of 40 women who were, at the time of assessment, in treatment for childhood experiences of incest. The majority of these women viewed their families-of-origin as generally unhealthy in regard to various dimensions of autonomy and intimacy. Current relationships with their families-of-origin were characterized by less intimacy and more intimidation, triangulation, and fusion than a normed group. Some of these patterns were also evident in the families-of-procreation of these women, including greater triangulation and less spousal intimacy. The subjects also perceived their families-of-procreation as disengaged, controlling, less active in events outside the family, conflict-ridden, and lacking in organization and emotional expressiveness. Finally, based on a circumplex model, a significant number of families-of-procreation were in the extreme range of family functioning.     

Pathways to sexual offense recidivism following treatment: an examination of the Ward and Hudson self-regulation model of relapse

Ward and Hudson (1998, 2000) proposed a self-regulation model of relapse in sexual offenders, which classifies offenders into one of four pathways. This study examined the validity of the model, whether sexual recidivists are characterized by one predominant pathway and offense type, and whether participants would change pathway pre- to posttreatment intervention. Twenty-five sexual offenders who had participated in a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral treatment program during a prison sentence, but committed a further sexual offense on their release from custody, participated in the study. Results supported the content validity of the model. The predominant pathway pre- and posttreatment was approach explicit. The hypothesis that participants would change pathway posttreatment was not supported. These results may have implications for the efficacy of treatment of approach-explicit sexual offenders.     

Who should determine what is best for children in state custody who object to psychotropic medication?

This article explores a child's right to refuse medical treatment, in contrast to giving the state or the parents this choice. The article specifically explores a child's right to refuse psychotropic drugs, which are more limiting of personal liberty than physical restraints and can have long-lasting side effects. With a focus on children's competence and the significant side effects of psychotropic drugs, the author concludes that caseworkers do not know the best interests of children in state custody and thus adolescents should be allowed to make their own decisions about psychotropic medications.     

Reviews

Karen Dawisha (ed.), The International Dimension of Post‐Communist Transitions in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xvii + 462 pp., $29.95 p/b.

Peter Truscott, Russia First: Breaking with the West. London: I. B. Tauris, 1997, x + 278 pp., £24.50.

Karen Henderson & Neil Robinson, Post‐Communist Politics: An Introduction. London: Prentice Hall, 1997, xxiii + 424 pp., £14.95.

Klaus Segbers & Stephen De Spiegeleire (eds), Post‐Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgessellschaft, 4 vols, 1995, 145 Dm. Vol I: Against the Background of the Former Soviet Union, 297 pp., Vol II: Emerging Geopolitical and Territorial Units, 511 pp., Vol. III: Emerging Societal Actors— Economic, Social and Political Interests, 735 pp., Vol. IV: The Emancipation of Society as a Reaction to Systematic Change, 179 pp.

Bertram Silverman & Murray Yanowitch, New Rich, New Poor, New Russia: Winners and Losers on the Russian Road to Capitalism. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xv + 159 pp., $21.95.

Stephen Crowley, Hot Coal, Cold Steel: Russian and Ukrainian Workers from the End of the Soviet Union to the Post‐Communist Transformations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997, x + 273 pp., £29.95.

Andreas Pickel & Helmut Wiesenthal, The Grand Experiment: Debating Shock Therapy, Transition Theory, and the East German Experience. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997, x + 262 pp.

Gregory Gleason, The Central Asian States—Discovering Independence. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press, 1997, xix + 220 pp., £51.95 h/b, £15.95 p/b.

Karen Dawisha & Bruce Parrott (eds), Conflict, Cleavage and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xviii + 423 pp., £55.00 h/b, £19.95 p/b.

Mark Slobin (ed.), Retuning Culture. Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Duke University Press, 1996, vi + 310 pp., £16.95.

Karen Dawisha & Bruce Parrott (eds), Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South‐East Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xx + 472 pp., £19.95.

Marju Lauristin et al. (eds), Return to the Western World. Cultural and Political Perspectives on the Estonian Post‐Communist Transition. Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1997, xvi + 388 pp.

Andrejs Plakans, Historical Dictionary of Latvia. London: Scarecrow Press, 1997, xxvi + 193 pp., £32.80.

Carl Linden & Jan S. Prybyla, Russia and China on the Eve of a New Millennium. New Brunswick: Transaction, 1997, x + 341 pp., $44.95.

Christopher Pierson, Socialism after Communism. The New Market Socialism. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 1995, x + 249 pp.

Nancy Ries, Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997, xii + 220 pp., £31.50 h/b, £13.50 p/b.

Bruce A. Elleman, Diplomacy and Deception: The Secret History of Sino‐Soviet Diplomatic Relations, 1917–1927. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xviii + 322 pp., $72.95.

Sarah Davies, Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia: Terror, Propaganda, and Dissent, 1934–1941. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xix + 236 pp., £15.95.

Michael Parrish. The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953. Westport: Praeger, 1996, xxi + 424 pp., £69.50.

Eric Naiman, Sex in Public. The Incarnation of Early Soviet Ideology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, x + 307 pp., £27.50.

Petrus Buwalda, They Did Not Dwell Alone. Jewish Emigration from the Soviet Union, 1967–1990. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, xviii + 297 pp., £31.50.

Marco Carynnyk, Lubomyr Y. Luciuk & Bohdan S. Kordan (eds), The Foreign Office and the Famine: British Documents on Ukraine and the Great Famine of 1932–1933. Kingston, ON: Limestone, 1988, lxiv + 493 pp.