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Lies And Coercion: Why Psychiatrists Should Not Participate in Police and Intelligence Interrogations

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Police interrogators routinely use deceptive techniques to obtain confessions from criminal suspects. The United States Executive Branch has attempted to justify coercive interrogation techniques in which physical or mental pain and suffering may be used during intelligence interrogations of persons labeled unlawful combatants. It may be appropriate for law enforcement, military, or intelligence personnel who are not physicians to use such techniques. However, forensic psychiatry ethical practice requires honesty, striving for objectivity, and respect for persons. Deceptive and coercive interrogation techniques violate these moral values. When a psychiatrist directly uses, works with others who use, or trains others to use deceptive or coercive techniques to obtain information in police, military, or intelligence interrogations, the psychiatrist breaches basic principles of ethics.

Direct or indirect participation of a psychiatrist with police, military, or intelligence personnel when interrogators use deception or psychological or physical coercion violates basic principles of ethical forensic psychiatric practice. Such involvement leads our profession down the slippery slope of designing, endorsing, and participating in

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Behavioral Patterns among (Violent) Non-State Actors: A Study of Complementary Governance

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This article is part of a multi-year study of governance structures in the midst of insecurity and organized crime in fragile sub-state regions where, in the absence of a strong state, non-state actors (like insurgents, traffickers and tribal warlords) engage in political and socioeconomic governance. Building on our prior work on West Africa and the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal belt, this paper focuses on the Andean borderlands, drawing on recent fieldwork in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. We explore patterns of behavior in which competition among violent non-state actors is not the norm. Instead, several instances were found in which violent non-state actors work collaboratively or have tacit non-interference agreements to provide public goods through arrangements we characterize as ‘complementary governance.’ We therefore argue that, to understand how illicit authority emerges, it is not sufficient to consider one armed non-state actor in isolation or in a dichotomy to the state. As we contend, we have to take into account the complex connections and interactions

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The History Of The Child Pornography Guidelines

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I. Introduction

The United States Sentencing Commission (“Commission”) was created by Congress to “establish sentencing policies and practices for the Federal criminal justice system” that implement the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (“SRA”), including the purposes of sentencing enumerated at 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2). In establishing such policies and practices, principally 2 through the promulgation of federal sentencing guidelines and policy statements, the Commission’s efforts are guided by the substantive and procedural requirements of the SRA and other congressional sentencing legislation. The SRA directs that the Commission “periodically shall review and revise, in consideration of comments and data coming to its attention, the guidelines.” To this end, the Commission has established a review of the child pornography guidelines as a policy priority for the guidelines amendment cycle ending May 1, 2010. This report is the first step in the Commission’s work on this priority. Congress has been particularly active over the last decade creating new offenses, increasing penalties,

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Teresa Sheehan Plaintiff-Appellant v. City And County Of San Francisco…

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I. Introduction

The United States Sentencing Commission (“Commission”) was created by Congress to “establish sentencing policies and practices for the Federal criminal justice system” that implement the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (“SRA”), including the purposes of sentencing enumerated at 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2). In establishing such policies and practices, principally 2 through the promulgation of federal sentencing guidelines and policy statements, the Commission’s efforts are guided by the substantive and procedural requirements of the SRA and other congressional sentencing legislation. The SRA directs that the Commission “periodically shall review and revise, in consideration of comments and data coming to its attention, the guidelines.” To this end, the Commission has established a review of the child pornography guidelines as a policy priority for the guidelines amendment cycle ending May 1, 2010. This report is the first step in the Commission’s work on this priority. Congress has been particularly active over the last decade creating new offenses, increasing penalties,

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Law and Psychiatry Doing Forensic Work, III: Marketing your Practice

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“Marketing” refers to the entire process of bringing a product or service to the public and creating a demand for it. It is not simply advertising. There are good and bad ways to market one’s practice, and some that are distasteful or even unethical. The quality and credibility of your work are your most important marketing tools. Reputation and word-of-mouth among attorneys is the largest referral source for most private forensic practitioners. Your professional and business practices, the quality of your staff and their interactions with clients, and your day-to-day availability are all critical. The Internet is important for some practitioners. Practice websites are inexpensive, but they should be carefully constructed and avoid appearing sensational or overly self-serving. Research the basics of websites and website traffic, and don’t expect great results for the first year or so. A Web consultant may be helpful, but avoid those who charge lots of money or make grand promises. Paying for advertisements, listings, or brochures is

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The Changing Nature of State Sponsorship of Terrorism

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The U.S. approach toward state sponsorship of terrorism rests on a flawed understanding of the problem and an even more flawed policy response. The U.S. Department of State’s current formal list of state sponsors includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. But Cuba and North Korea have done almost nothing in this area in recent years, and Sudan has changed its ways enough that elsewhere the Bush administration credits Sudan as a “strong partner in the War on Terror.” Of those on the list, only Syria and Iran remain problems, and in both cases their involvement in traditional international terrorism is down considerably from their peaks in the 1980s. What seems like a brilliant policy success, however, is really an artifact of bad list management, because much of the problem of state sponsorship today involves countries that are not on the list at all. Pakistan has long aided a range of terrorist groups fighting against India in Kashmir and

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Administrative Discharge Procedures for Involuntary Civilly-Committed Mental Patients:An Alternative

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Historically, state practices governing institutionalization of mental patients have escaped serious challenge. Sparked, however, by a rising societal concern for individual rights' and an increasing recognition of the pervasiveness of mental illness,2 litigators and commentators are now demanding a more critical examination of the treatment of mental patients. In accord with these realizations, this note will focus on involuntary, civilly-committed patients in state mental hospials and will examine both highly protective systems recently enacted by some states as well as failures of discharge procedures in others. An alternative system, providing a second level of administrative review, with some improvements on judicial review, will be recommended for those states which currently maintain inadequate procedures and which realistically cannot or will not bear the cost of more protective systems.

IMPORTANCE OF ADEQUATE DISCHARGE PROCEDURES

Most litigation involving the rights of involuntary civil patients focuses on the lack of due process in commitment procedures and on deprivations and abuses occurring within institutions.' Discharge procedures

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Talent Agents, Personal Managers, And Their Conflicts In The New Hollywood

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I. INTRODUCTION

Hollywood is an impersonal, uncaring, and unforgiving place, and artists need the sophisticated assistance of third parties to help them locate employment opportunities and to assist them in making career decisions. This is where talent agents and personal managers step in. Agents and managers represent artists, and their collective role in the entertainment industry is straightforward. According to agent Joel Dean, they “try to put [artists and producers] together to make a match . . . . It couldn’t be simpler.” To be more specific, agents procure employment for talent.Their job is to get the artists they represent as much work as possible. Managers, on the other hand, shape artists’ careers.Their job is to serve their clients in an advisory capacity and to counsel them on the career options that have been made available to them through their agents.7 When looked at this way, things seem very black-and-white: Agents present artists with employment opportunities, and managers suggest which of those opportunities artists should accept.

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Editorial. Surveillance Studies: Understanding Visibility, Mobility And The Phenetic Fix.

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Abstract

Surveillance studies is described as a cross-disciplinary initiative to understand the rapidly increasing ways in which personal details are collected, stored, transmitted, checked, and used as means of influencing and managing people and populations. Surveillance may involve physical watching, but today it is more likely to be automated. Thus it makes personal data visible to organizations, even if persons are in transit, and it also allows for comparing and classifying data. Because this has implications for inequality and for justice, surveillance studies also has a policy and a political dimension.

Introduction

At the start of the twenty-first century it is clear that ‘surveillance studies’ is a rapidly developing field of analysis and theory. Diverse practices and processes for dealing with personal data are multiplying, and the speed with which records can be accessed is accelerating. The old top-heavy bureaucracies of the earlier twentieth century are being replaced with computerized and networked systems. While it should be noted that some surveillance relies on physical...

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Victim Precipitated Criminal Homicide

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In many crimes, especially in criminal homicide, the victim is often a major contributor to the criminal act. Except in cases in which the victim is an innocent bystander and is killed in lieu of an intended victim, or in cases in which a pure accident is involved, the victim may be one of the major precipitating causes of his own demise. Various theories of social interaction, particularly in social psychology, have established the framework for the present discussion. In criminological literature, however, probably von Hentig in The Criminal and His Victim, has provided the most useful theoretical basis for analysis of the victim-offender relationship. In Chapter XII, entitled "The Contribution of the Victim to the Genesis of Crime," the author discusses this "duet frame of crime" and suggests that homicide is particularly amenable to analysis.' In Penal Philosophy, Tarde frequently attacks the "legislative mistake" of concentrating too much on premeditation and paying too little attention to motives,

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Theatre Research International, Summer 1995 Introduction: Theatricality: A Key Concept In Theatre And Cultural Studies

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Abstract:

The meaning of 'theatricality' was an issue at the Theatre Historiography Symposium held at Helsinki in 1993. The word 'theatre' has not only been used in a metaphorical sense but has also been used as a cultural model in different disciplines. Four papers presented at the Helsinki Symposium examines the meaning, function and use of the word 'theatre' in different discourses. The publication of these papers aims to spur a vigorous discussion on theatricality and to intensify the study of theatre history in relation to other disciplines.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1995 Oxford University Press

At the Theatre Historiography Symposium, held during the 1993 Helsinki IFTR/FIRT Conference, a specific term came into circulation which infiltrated and permeated the discussion to such an extent that it appeared to adopt the position and function of a key term in theatre historiography: 'theatricality'. This was no great surprise, however. For the symposium set out to consider two basic issues:

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I Do Not Take Rejection Well

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I do not take rejection well at all. I have had a crush on a man for a long time, even though we have never talked to each other. For a long period of time he would look at me and give me signals that he liked me, but that has since stopped. I have tried to think of someone else who I might like, but somehow my mind always seems to wander back to this man. Part of me wants to stop liking him and move on, but I don’t know how. I’m afraid to tell anyone about this, because once I spoke of things to a friend, but when we parted ways she told everybody everything I had told her in confidence. This usually brings down my self-confidence. My parents say that they worry that I have emotional issues and want me to see a psychologist instead of a therapist. Why? I have emotional issues, not psychological issues!

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Factors of Attraction and Relationship Satisfaction: The Love-is-Blind Bias and Perceived Risk of Infidelity

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Abstract

Attraction and relationship satisfaction have been topics of increased investigation over the past several decades (Yela & Sangrador, 2001; Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Hall & Taylor, 1976). The love-is-blind bias hypothesizes that individuals within fulfilling relationships exhibit the phenomenon of rating their partner’s attractiveness higher than self-ratings of their own attractiveness, a product of positive partner illusions (Swami & Furnham, 2008; Gagné, & Lydon, 2004). Using the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) and novel measures for attraction and perceived infidelity, this study applied the love-is-blind hypothesis against relationship satisfaction and perceived risk of infidelity. The creation of two new subscales for measuring the love-is-blind bias, self-perceived love-is-blind bias (SPB) and externally-perceived love-is-blind bias (EPB) were instrumental in computations. Significant positive interactions between both scales of the love-is-blind bias and both attraction, and relationship satisfaction were found. Perceived risk of infidelity was negatively related to all positive scales. The findings suggest a system of interactions among the love-is-blind bias, perceived risk of infidelity, relationship

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Acid Phosphatase Reaction as a Specific Test for the Identification of Seminal Stains

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In a variety of sexual offences, the seminal stain is usually encountered in a dried form on clothing worn by the participants of the offence as well as on other extraneous objects such as carpets, floor, grass, linoleum, mat; turf, wool, wood, and on the vaginal and rectal parts of the passive agent, depending upon the nature and circumstances of offence. The acid phosphatase reaction has now become an indispensable chemical test in the hands of a forensic scientist to identify the presence of semen which is an abundant source of the enzyme acid phosphatase (1). This enzyme acts optimally on monoesters of phosphoric acid at pH values around 5 to 6 (2). This test has been successfully employed to obtain a proof of the presence of seminal stains (3-12). The acid phosphatase reaction is a typical test in which the suspected seminal stain or an extract of it on a filter paper is reacted with a solution of the substrate,

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Descriptive Study Of Recall Of Local And Network News Anchors And Their Association To Television Affiliates And Networks

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INTRODUCTION

Since the dawn of network television news in 1944, the news anchor behind the news desk was in a position to influence audiences. The anchor was the person Americans trusted and depended on to deliver the nightly news. CBS, NBC and ABC created the anchor person who influenced the way the American public received its news. These three networks continue to provide the nightly news to millions of Americans in thirty-minute time periods. The anchors who represent the big three networks are icons to the public (Diamond, 1986). The news coverage may be the same on the three networks on any given night, but the messengers are quite different. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw may appear to be three white middle aged males, but their differences go beyond the surface. And the audience, subconsciously, knows this. Viewers have read the implicit iconography of the evening news and aligned themselves in accordance with their understanding of...

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Naked Suicide | Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

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Marilyn Monroe was found lying nude, face down, with a sheet pulled over her dead body.1 After much publicity and controversy, the coroner ruled that she had died of acute barbiturate poisoning by overdose. The controversy about the cause of her death continues to this day. The naked body of Robert Maxwell, billionaire British tycoon, was found floating some distance from his yacht in the waters off Grand Canary Island. Maxwell was facing a scandal on his return to England involving the disappearance of corporate assets and pension fund monies. Although his death was ruled an accidental drowning, there was much doubt about the cause of his death. Theories of his demise included murder, suicide, heart attack, and accident. Cleopatra completed suicide shortly after Mark Antony fell on his sword. The legend is that she committed suicide by allowing herself to be bitten by a poisonous snake, an asp. A famous painting by the French artist Jean Andre´ Rixens (1846 –1924) depicts

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