Ageing in forensic psychiatric secure settings: the views of members of staff

Background: Although the prevalence of older patients in forensic psychiatric services is increasing, research around service provision for this population is very limited. We aimed to gather the views of members of staff on how well secure services are meeting the challenges of an ageing population.

Methods: Three focus groups were carried out with 13 members of staff working with older patients in secure services. A topic guide, based on the research team’s previous research, guided the sessions. The focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed through thematic analysis.

Results: Two themes were identified: (1) Identifying patients’ needs, which focused on how promptly any emerging issues in the older patients are identified and reported; (2) addressing patients’ needs, which focused on how the unique needs of the older patients are addressed, once established.

Conclusions: There are unique age-related issues that may have an impact on the older patients’ opportunities for recovery, including a lack of specialist training for members of staff, prolonged stay in secure care and a limited number of age-relevant activities. Far from optimal, provision requires improvement through the active involvement of the primary stakeholders.     

Fighting for survival: responding to state capacity and terror group end

ABSTRACT

The well-established argument in the literature suggests that the higher state capacity is associatedwith the lower chance of experiencing civil conflict or higherchance of defeating the violent non-state groups. However, theliterature does not sufficiently address how these groups respondto increasing state capacity, and how their responses to that shapethe dynamic of political violence. I investigate the impact of statecapacity on terrorist group termination by exploring the waysterrorist groups respond to increasing state capacity. I argue thatincreasing state capacity might lead to a set of responses fromthe terror group in a way that it might induce the group to producemore terrorist violence to show that the group can still persist. Itmay also encourage the group to provide positive and negativeincentives to its constituents in order to rehabilitate its physicalcapacity to operate, and to prevent a shift of popular support a wayfrom the group towards to the government. Thus, such responsesof the group will decrease the likelihood of its terror campaign. Ialso expect that these arguments are especially relevant for ethnicor religious terror groups. The results of the empirical analysessupport these theoretical expectations.     

国际和国家安全视角下的美国“星链”计划及其影响

星链计划是美国太空探索计划公司(Space X)提出的一项太空高速互联网通信计划,初衷是在地球的近地轨道建设卫星互联系统,进而为全球提供高速的互联网服务。然而,在星链计划的发展过程中,不断闪现着美国政府与军方的身影。星链计划发展也对应着美国太空安全战略转型的新模式,其目的在于实现由美国技术主导的、全覆盖的新一代"全球卫星互联网通信系统"。从技术和市场竞争层面上看,星链计划的实施对现存的5G通信技术和未来的天基互联网系统将产生重大的冲击和影响。从深层次的国际和国家安全角度看,星链计划背后依托的是美国高度成熟的军民融合体系和太空安全战略转型,将从国防、产业价值链、信息主权与监管、轨道与频谱资源使用、太空空间利用和天文探索等方面,对国际安全及其他国家的安全构成"复合型、交叉型"新挑战。     

关于积极促进职工董事、监事工作的思考

坚持和完善职工董事、监事制度 ,是工会工作的一个重要方面。国有独资和控股的公司制企业 ,工会主席应当作为职工代表进入董事会 ,这不是一般的方法问题 ,而是建立有中国特色现代企业制度的根本原则问题。     

俄罗斯劳动关系与劳动立法现状及几点启示

俄罗斯在推行自由市场经济改革的过程中 ,企业的劳动关系发生了根本性变革 ,这些变革对劳动立法及未来走向产生了深远的影响。本文对俄罗斯的劳动关系与劳动立法现状进行了概括性描述 ,并提供启示。     

云南少数民族古籍方面的法律保护研究

民族古籍是光辉灿烂的民族文化的重要组成部分。本文作者针对有关法制不完善的现状 ,从运用法律保护少数民族古籍的角度提出了一些见解。     

Smoke in the Looking Glass: Effects of Discordance Between Self- and Peer Rated Crowd Affiliation on Adolescent Anxiety, Depression and Self-feelings

Peer crowds serve as an identity marker for adolescents, indicating their image and status among peers; but adolescents do not always endorse peer appraisals of crowd affiliation. We report on two studies—one with 924 adolescents in grades 7–12 and a second with a more diverse population of 2,728 students in grades 9–11, followed for 2 years—that examined how congruence between peer and self-appraisals of crowd affiliation relate to self-esteem and internalizing symptoms. Analyses indicate that high-status crowd members may suffer and low-status crowd members benefit by denying their peer crowd affiliation, but effects are modest in size and not entirely consistent across the two studies. Findings underscore the value of symbolic interactionist principles concerning reflected appraisal processes in understanding how peer crowd affiliation affects adolescent self-image.

关于东北优化开发主体功能区建设的战略定位论证

根据国家"十一五"规划纲要关于主体功能区的类型界定,跟从党的十七大关于加强主体功能区建设的战略部署,以老工业基地和粮食主产区为主要开发对象的东北综合经济区,应当从整体上认定为优化开发主体功能区的现实价值,具有从整体上认定东北地区为优化开发主体功能区的资本依托、制约因素、发展目标,特别是优化开发主体功能区的推进措施,加快东北优化开发主体功能区建设进程,才能在东北老工业基地振兴进程中建成东北优化开发主体功能区。     

四川工业产业集群发展的现实基础分析

工业经济集群式发展是推进四川新型工业化的关键举措。目前,四川产业集群发展处于初始的企业集聚阶段,在这一阶段,弄清四川工业产业集群发展的客观现实基础是制订产业集群促进政策的前提。四川产业集群发展之所以可行,在于以下三个方面的基础条件,即大规模企业集聚的微观基础;迅速扩张的市场和不断升级的需求结构;不断完善的社会主义市场经济体制。     

Fragile Proxies: Explaining Rebel Defection Against Their State Sponsors

Foreign governments frequently intervene in armed conflicts by sponsoring rebels against their adversaries. A sponsorship is less costly than a direct military intervention, but rebels often defy orders, desert fighting, or turn guns against their sponsors. Under what conditions do rebels defect against their sponsors? Drawing on organizational theory, I argue that as rebel organizations become less centralized and formalized, the rebels are likely to defect against their sponsors. This occurs because non-centralized organizations have weak central leadership and allow for dispersed decision-making, both of which narrow the manipulative capacity of sponsors. Due to these disadvantages, non-centralized rebel movements are less accountable to their sponsors, cannot credibly commit to rapidly change their policies in response to changes in the sponsor’s demands, and suffer from frequent and destructive quarrels between the top and lower echelons. Using multilevel logistic models for panel data, I test my argument on a novel dataset. My quantitative analysis shows that rebel structure is a robust predictor of defection.