2018 - Page 4 of 5 - searchfortruth.info

Law & Psychiatry: Responsibility for Torts: Should the Courts Continue to Ignore Mental Illness?

November 25, 2018 by admin

Abstract

Although courts routinely consider whether a criminal defendant's mental illness makes punishment unfair, the rules are very different for civil liability. When people with mental illness harm others, courts refuse to consider their mental states in determining civil liability. The justifications offered for this rule range from the difficulty of assessing the impact of mental illness on behavior to the desire to place the burden of loss on the person who caused the injury. Undeniably, though, mental disabilities are treated differently from physical impairments, and the law's resistance to change seems largely based on misunderstanding and prejudice against mental illness....

(Psychiatric Services 63:308–310, 2012; doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.20120p308)

A review of tort liability in involuntary civil commitment.

November 25, 2018 by admin

Abstract

The grounds for liability in cases of involuntary civil commitment have been broadened in recent years. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have been found liable for infringement of civil rights under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act and for failure to commit an individual who is subsequently involved in a tragedy. This article reviews recent developments in tort liability in involuntary civil commitment as well as the traditional areas of tort liability, including malpractice, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, and abuse of process. The authors believe that even in this climate of expanded liability, mental health professionals who follow the letter and spirit of civil commitment laws will continue to enjoy the broad protections from liability afforded them in the past...

PMID: 3596501

Weakness and Fatigue

January 29, 2019November 25, 2018 by admin

Definition

Weakness refers to a decrease in muscle strength . Fatigue is tiredness that may be either independent of, or associated with, exertion. The complaints of weakness and fatigue are among the most common and challenging problems encountered by clinicians . Because patients may use these terms to describe a variety of symptoms, the physician should attempt to obtain a precise understanding of the problem . Technique

Weakness and fatigue are nonspecific symptoms that may be encountered in a bewildering number of medical and psychiatric disorders ; they also may be the expected physiologic consequence of normal human activities. Most patients with weakness or fatigue have self-limited conditions and do not seek medical care . Among those who visit a physician, weakness and fatigue are often part of an easily identified symptom complex . The patient who presents with chronic weakness or fatigue as the sole or major complaint may represent a more difficult diagnostic and therapeutic problem ..

Study of the Relationship Between Intelligence and Crime, A

January 29, 2019November 24, 2018 by admin

The question of delinquency, which has ever constituted a grave social problem, is arousing a constantly increasing interest as a result of the recent application of scientific methods to the study of crime in all its varied phases. Indeed, before a truly scientific interest could be developed, it was necessary that there be a development of those sciences which throw light on human conduct and behavior such as biology, psychology, sociology, and psychiatry, and particularly so this last-named science. However, the great significance of the problem is scarcely appreciated as yet, and the field of study, so wide and fertile, is relatively untouched, although significant progress has been made in some directions. Possibly, the most notable of advances made has been the beginning recognition of delinquency as a problem belonging almost entirely to the field of psychiatry rather than to the legal realm or to sociology, that field of normal human relationships.......

The Homicidal Narcissist

December 25, 2018November 4, 2018 by admin

ABSTRACT

Personality type and murder have been linked via several studies on Sadistic personality disorder, Antisocial personality disorder, and psychopathy. The present study focused on the relationship between Narcissistic personality disorder and homicidal propensity. The relationship was examined using a sample of 490 inmates of the Colorado Department of Corrections. The subjects specific to this study were 215 inmates convicted of homicidal crimes including manslaughter, first degree murder, second degree murder, and second degree murder-crime of passion. A control group of approximately 275 inmates was included. The control group consisted of a random sample of crimes with the exception of homicide. Elevations on the Narcissistic, Sadistic, and Antisocial indices of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III were expected from the homicidal subjects. Results showed small but significant differences were found between minorities and whites on years of education and IQ. Significant...

Notice regarding the solicitation “Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program”

November 10, 2018July 11, 2018 by admin

Program-Specific Information

The National Science and Technology Council’s Fast-Track Action Committee on Strengthening the Medicolegal-Death-Investigation System’s (FTAC-SMDIS) report titled Strengthening the Medicolegal-Death-Investigation System: Improving Data Systems notes that death investigations performed by ME/C offices are vital to criminal justice by investigating violent deaths. Of the estimated 2.6 million deaths annually, ME/C offices investigate nearl 500,000 cases in approximately 2,400 jurisdictions. FTAC-SMDIS found that the ME/C community lacks adequate personnel and resources to address the country’s medicolegal death investigation (MDI) needs. In addition, FTAC-SMDIS reports that there are systemic issues with death investigation data quality and infrastructure, inadequate facilities, and inconsistent expertise levels.3 Other reports such as the 2009 National Academy of Sciences Report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward have also asserted a need to address deficient facilities, equipment, staffing, education, and training for MDI.

Psychological Trauma of Crime Victimization

January 29, 2019April 21, 2018 by admin

Psychological Trauma of Crime Victimization

[This paper is drawn from Chapter One of Marlene A. Young, Victim Assistance: Frontiers and Fundamentals, a publication of the National Organization for Victim Assistance. Permission to reprint this paper is granted so long as its source is properly attributed.]

Crime victimization leaves victims, families, and friends—even the community around them—in a state of turmoil. There is often significant financial loss and physical injury connected with victimization. But the most devastating part for most victims is the emotional pain caused by crime and the aftermath. The psychological trauma of victimization can be separated into two phases: the initial crisis reaction to the violation, and the long-term stress reactions it sometimes causes, with the second of these often exacerbated by additional “assaults” by society and its institutions.

I. The Crisis Reaction A. Individuals exist in normal state of equilibrium...

Discrimination and Outrage: The Migration From Civil Rights to Tort Law

January 29, 2019April 21, 2018 by admin

ABSTRACT

It is not always appreciated that proven discrimination on the basis of race or sex may not amount to a tort and that even persistenracial or sexual harassment may not be enough to qualify for tort recovery. This Article explores the question of whether discriminatory and harassing conduct in the workplace is or should be considered outrageous conduct, actionable under the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress. In recent years, courts have taken radically different approaches to the issue, from holding that such claims are preempted to treating the infliction tort as a reinforcement of civil rights principles. The dominant approach views tort claims as mere "gap fillers" that should come into playonly in rare cases that do not fit comfortably under other recognized theories of redress. To place the current approaches in perspective and determine the proper location for harassment claims...

The Forensic Analysis Of Sediments Recovered From Footwear

January 29, 2019April 19, 2018 by admin

ABSTRACT

The forensic analysis of sediments recovered from footwear has the potential to yield much useful information concerning the movements of a person before, during and after a crime has taken place. Three experimental studies and a number of examples of forensic casework provide insight into the complexity of the spatial distribution of geoforensic materials on the soles of footwear and the persistence of these materials over time on the soles and uppers. These findings have implications for both the geoforensic sampling protocols and procedures for footwear submitted for analysis in a criminal investigation and also for the analysis of any materials recovered. The preservation of sediment on a shoe sole will vary, with certain areas generally retaining more sediment than others. The sequential layering of sediments that have been transferred to the shoe will be preserved in some

Allegations Of Profiling: How Much Disclosure Of Investigative Records Is Appropriate? By Roger Rowe

January 29, 2019April 17, 2018 by admin

Background

208 cards are used by police as part of a strategy called the Toronto Anti Violence Intervention Strategy (“TAVIS”) to record information about persons the police consider to be of interest. TAVIS specializes in proactive policing in what it regards as high crime neighbourhoods. The cards include information such as name, address, date of birth, and skin colour.

208 cards are approximately 3” x 5”, printed on both sides, commencing with the words “Person Investigated.” A 208 card is used to record information about a person stopped by the police and includes information such as name, aliases, date of birth, colour, address, contact location, and time. On the back it has a place for “associates,” such as “gangs, motorcycle clubs, drug treatment court.

Typically police stop a resident in a particular community and start questioning them under the guise of....

Begging And Bragging: The Self And The Commodification Of Intellectual Activity

January 29, 2019March 14, 2018 by admin

There are always risks involved in giving a lecture like this. There is a risk that, in assembling such a broad range of people from so many different parts of one’s life one ends up, in the attempt to interest and please everyone, boring or annoying the entire audience. There are the twin risks of under or over preparing: the first leading to drying up; the latter to the woodenness of delivery that comes from remembering (or, worse, reading) words having almost forgotten the meaning they were originally intended to convey. And of course there is the general occupational risk that every writer, teacher, preacher and politician takes, of simply making a prat of oneself. Being more of a fool than an angel, I have managed to add several further risks to these. I have chosen a title that, even allowing for...

Brief Screening For Family Psychiatric History

January 29, 2019January 5, 2018 by admin

Abstract

Background Brief screens to collect lifetime family psychiatric history are useful in clinical practice and for identifying potential families for genetic studies.

Methods The Family History Screen (FHS) collects information on 15 psychiatric disorders and suicidal behavior in informants and their first-degree relatives. Since each question is posed only once about all family members as a group, the administrative time is 5 to 20 minutes, depending on family size and illness. Data on the validity against best-estimate (BE) diagnosis based on independent and blind direct interviews on 289 probands and 305 relatives and test-retest reliability across 15 months in 417 subjects are presented.

Results Agreement between FHS and BE diagnosis for proband and relative self-report had median sensitivity (SEN) of 67.6 and 71.1 respectively; median specificity (SPC) was 87.6 and 89.4, respectively. Marked decrease in SEN occurred when a single informant...

The Measurement of Violence in Television Programming: Violence Indices

January 29, 2019January 5, 2018 by admin

Questions about the amount of violence in the mass media, pa~ticularly television programming, have been voiced almost since the advent of the media. Senate hearings about television violence were held as early as 1954. These concerns stem from fears that television violence leads to aggres,sive behavior, particularly among the young. An equally controversial subject has been how to define, measure, isolate., and analyze that violence. This paper will examine ways in which television violence has been measured, including violence indices. The discussion will be limited to television, even though there has been research about violence in other mass media. It will also be limited to studies of American television. One of the richest sources of information about television -- its content and effects -- is the 1972 six volume report of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee -- Television and Social Behavior. This report...

Public Opinions Of The Police: The Influence of Friends, Family, and News Media

January 29, 2019January 3, 2018 by admin

Executive Summary

Police officers and their supervisors know that news coverage about a citizen’s negative encounter with the police, particularly coverage that erupts to the level of a public scandal, can quickly destroy their efforts to nurture a positive relationship with the public. But what about routine encounters positive or negative that are not covered by mass media? Do they shape the public’s opinion of the police? Do individuals’ vicarious encounters with police encounters they merely hear about from family and friends significantly affect public opinion? The answers to these questions can help police managers decide how best to manage the time and resources they devote to media management and officer training. They also can help officers understand the impact of their everyday encounters with citizens. The Vera Institute of Justice conducted a nine-month study to examine these and other questions about what shapes public opinion

Column One : Murder Or Natural Causes? : Four Years After Crystal Spencer’s Death, Her Case Remains A Mystery. Following The Trail Leads To Rumors, Theories And Mishandled Evidence.

November 21, 2018January 3, 2018 by admin

The death of Crystal Spencer has evolved into a bizarre mystery--a tangled web of rumors and botched evidence, lawsuits and personal obsession.

Nearly four years ago, the 29-year-old topless dancer was found dead in her disheveled Burbank apartment. She was half-nude, her body decomposed beyond recognition. Her telephone was off the hook.

Whether she was murdered, or merely died of a sudden illness, is a lingering question. Authorities labeled the cause of death "undetermined," leaving angry, tormented loved ones to cling to theories: Spencer was killed by the Japanese mafia. Spencer was an FBI informant murdered by strip-club hoodlums. Spencer was strangled by a ruthless suitor.

The case has taken on a "Twilight Zone" quality, as if fate intended some sleight of hand. On the night of her death, the couple downstairs heard what they later described as muffled shrieks and screams, the apparent cries of someone "being tortured." But they never called police...