Secular Change in Morphological Pelvic Traits used for Sex Estimation

This research evaluates secular change in Phenice's (Am J Phys Anthropol, 30, 1969 and 297) three morphological traits of the pubis, as described by Klales et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol, 149, 2012 and 104): medial aspect of the ischio‐pubic ramus, subpubic contour, and ventral arc. Ordinal scores were collected for these traits and compared between a sample of innominates from the historical Hamann–Todd Collection (n = 170) and modern Bass Donated Collection (n = 129). Using the Freeman–Halton test, significant differences between temporal sample score frequencies were found for all traits in females and for the subpubic contour and ventral arc in males. Despite these findings, classification accuracy using logistic regression between the temporal periods remained low (68.7%). These results suggest that secular changes in trait expression are occurring; however, sex estimation methods using these traits and created with historical samples are still applicable to modern forensic cases. In fact, the secular changes occurring in these traits contribute to better classification accuracy between sexes in modern populations.     

Desistance and Legitimacy: The Impact of Offender Notification Meetings on Recidivism among High Risk Offenders

Legitimacy-based approaches to crime prevention assume that individuals will comply with the law when they believe that the law and its agents are legitimate and act in ways that are “fair” and “just.” Currently, legitimacy-based programs are shown to lower aggregate levels of crime; yet, no study has investigated whether such programs influence individual offending. Using quasi-experimental design and survival analyses, this study evaluates the effectiveness of one such program—Chicago’s Project Safe Neighborhoods’ (PSN) Offender Notification Forums—at reducing individual recidivism among a population of returning prisoners. Results suggest that involvement in PSN significantly reduces the risk of subsequent incarceration and is associated with significantly longer intervals that offenders remain on the street and out of prison. As the first study to provide individual-level evidence promoting legitimacy-based interventions on patterns of individual offending, out study suggests these interventions can and do reduce rates of recidivism.     

A Criminal Career Study of the Continuity and Discontinuity of Sex Offending during the Adolescence-Adulthood Transition: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Incarcerated Youth

Longitudinal research has seriously challenged assumptions that juvenile sex offenders (JSO) are characterized by high level of dangerousness, mental health problems, and crime specialization in sex offenses. The current study examines the longitudinal pattern of offending among a sample of JSO and a sample of juvenile nonsex offenders. The research design includes longitudinal data over a nine-year period allowing the examination of offending patterns and the crime mix from age 12 to age 23. The findings highlight that, while JSO are prone to persist offending in adulthood, there is limited continuity of sex offending. Further, the findings stress the importance of taking into account nonsexual juvenile delinquency, more specifically, youth violence, to make a better assessment of early adult offending outcomes of JSO.     

Characteristics and offences of women with borderline personality disorder in forensic psychiatry: a multicentre study

Although female forensic patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are generally considered taxing in clinical practice, little is known about their specific characteristics or offences. In this study, 156 female forensic psychiatric patients diagnosed with BPD were compared to 113 diagnosed otherwise. Information on demographic and psychiatric characteristics, victimization, index offences, and incidents during treatment was gathered from patient files. Risk factors for recidivism were assessed using the PCL-R and historical items of the HCR-20, including items from the new Female Additional Manual (FAM). Compared to non-BPD women, BPD women were more likely to have been abused as children and to have a history of outpatient treatment. While less likely to be convicted for (attempted) homicide, a higher percentage of BPD women was convicted for arson. Comorbid substance abuse was more frequent in the BPD group and incidents towards others and themselves were more violent in nature. The PCL-R and the H-scale of the HCR-20/FAM indicated several risk factors especially important for BPD women, such as poor behavioural control, impulsivity, and irresponsibility. The results support the clinical impression that women diagnosed with BPD are a subgroup within the female forensic psychiatric population, with specific focus points for treatment and management.     

“Supporting me through emotional times,all different kinds of behaviour.” Forensic mental health service users understanding of positive behavioural support

This service evaluation project explored service users’ experiences of positive behavioural support (PBS) within a medium secure mental health service. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse interviews with ten service users. Four main themes emerged from the data: My plan; How I understand PBS; How PBS has helped me, the benefits; and Making the plan work. Overall, service users viewed their experience of having a PBS plan positively. They reflected that the plans offered staff greater understanding of their behaviours and needs, enabling them to receive appropriate support. Service users valued the experience of being involved in the process, offering important insights into their experiences. They also expressed frustrations about staff not following the plan and not understanding why they had a plan whilst others did not. Limitations of the study, clinical implications and ideas for future research have been discussed.     

社会性别视角中的两性平等

社会性别相对于生理性别而产生的,是近年来国际上分析男女平等的重要概念。从社会性别的视角来看,影响两生平等的因素,主要有理论、经济、政治和文化等方面。实现两性平等对于弘扬先进文化,建设和谐社会具有十分重要的意义。     

Competing Risks, Persistence, and Desistance in Analyzing Recidivism

A statistical procedure is developed to analyze recidivism in samples whichare subject to the presence of desisters and to multiple modes ofreconviction. This allows for a more accurate study of individuals'transition and hazard in the type and timing of offenses following aspecific type of conviction. The use of a nonparametric approach forinvestigating failure in the presence of other acting causes is shown;initial estimators of the probabilities of reconviction for different typesof offenses are obtained, and the method can be used both to display thedata and to choose an appropriate parametric family for the survivaltimes. An exponential mixture model for competing risks is presented insuch a way that it allows us to adjust for concomitant variables and toassess their effects on the probabilities both of reconviction forpredetermined types of offenses and desistance and of the hazards ofreconviction; a method for assessing calibration of predicted survivalprobabilities is suggested. A 21-year follow-up of persons convicted ofindecent assault on a female in 1973 illustrates the methods; we find ahigh probability of sexual reconviction for individuals with previoussexual convictions and evidence of diversity and a raised hazard ofreconviction for young chronic offenders.