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The Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

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Abstract.

Consumer Reports (1995, November) published an article which concluded that patients benefited very substantially from psychotherapy, that long-term treatment did considerably better than short-term treatment, and that psychotherapy alone did not differ in effectiveness from medication plus psychotherapy. Furthermore, no specific modality of psychotherapy did better than any other for any disorder; psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers did not differ in their effectiveness as treaters; and all did better than marriage counselors and long-term family doctoring. Patients whose length of therapy or choice of therapist was limited by insurance or managed care did worse. The methodological virtues and drawbacks of this large-scale survey are examined and contrasted with the more traditional efficacy study, in which patients are randomized into a manualized, fixed duration treatment or into control groups. I conclude that the Consumer Reports survey complements the efficacy method, and that the best features...

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The Role Of Eyewitness Identification Evidence In Felony Case Dispositions

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Abstract

We addressed the question of whether felony case dispositions are associated with eyewitness identification evidence. Toward this end, 725 felony cases (rape, robbery, and assault) were randomly sampled from the archives of a District Attorney’s Office in a large south-western city in the United States. A positive identification was present more often in accepted compared to rejected cases, although the association was significant in acquaintance cases (i.e., cases in which one or more of the eyewitnesses was familiar with the defendant), not stranger cases. Additionally, suspect and crime incident factors were associated with case issuing outcomes to a larger extent than eyewitness identification evidence. Analyses further indicated that eyewitness identification evidence was stronger in prosecuted compared to rejected cases in which eyewitness testimony was the sole evidence against the defendant. Neither the presence of multiple identifications nor nonidentifications of the suspect varied across issuing outcomes. The findings are discussed in relation to additional research that is needed at the police and prosecution stages to...

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Compassion Fatigue: When Listening Hurts

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The psychological and emotional demands placed on the practitioner have never been more intense, clinicians and researchers agree. Psychologists are expected to have the broadest of shoulders, absorbing without complaint the suffering and anxiety of their clients. But who takes care of the caretaker when the stress of a clinical case load becomes too great to bear alone? Psychologists should look to their own profession for help, practitioners say, but pride and concerns about confidentiality often stand in the way. In recent years, psychologists have suffered increased stress from the demands of the changing health-care environment, said Daniel Abrahamson, PhD, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the Traumatic Stress Institute/Center for Adult and Adolescent Psychotherapy, or TSI/CAAP, in South Windsor, Conn. Managed-care organizations and other insurance providers require therapists to document their work with each patient in excruciating detail. That leaves providers feeling they must risk breaking a patient's confidentiality to collect reimbursement, Abrahamson said.

But psychotherapy has always been challenging, even...

Additional Resource: Compassion fatigue: when listening hurts (2810 downloads )

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Shooting at Moving Targets or Shooting on the Move

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There is never enough time for all aspects of firearms training. This is an issue that has plagued law enforcement agencies forever. Reviewing the basics (marksmanship, weapon handling & presentation, reloads, malfunction clearance, etc.) is always a priority. But, sometimes there is time left over for more advanced training. So, what is considered advance firearms training? Most instructors would agree that “advance” training is simply mastering the basics. I’ll take it a step further mastering the basics under adverse conditions. So, what would your answer be if you were asked, “What you would rather spend your spare time on shooting at moving targets, or shooting on the move?” To answer that question, you have to ask this question, “Which one would you utilize more?” Shooting at Moving Targets Shooting at moving targets has always been a fun and challenging range drill. Although there are “charging man” mechanical targets systems that allow students to shoot at a target that is charging at them, most mechanical target systems are designed...

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Shooting at Moving Vehicles

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Introduction

The subject of the use of deadly force against the drivers and occupants of moving motor vehicles has become an increasingly troublesome and controversial topic. Sometimes officers have used such force when the driver was accelerating the vehicle towards or near an officer. Some high profile cases in which vehicle drivers or passengers have died or suffered substantial injuries have resulted in large civil liability awards or settlements, such as the $7 million settlement in the Sean Bell case in New York. On the other hand, there certainly have also been instances in which police officers have been seriously injured or even killed by an oncoming vehicle either ignoring the officer’s orders to halt or even intentionally targeting the officer for harm, using the vehicle as a weapon. Indeed, in the Sean Bell case, one of the officers was, in fact, struck by the vehicle driven by Bell. A number of municipal police departments have adopted policies that restrict or prohibit...

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On Shooting a Moving Vehicle with Data Flows

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Abstract

This paper proposes an ITS system that uses not only integrated cellular and ad hoc relaying technologies, but also users’ mobility profiles. It focuses on a subsystem where cellular bandwidth is used mostly for control signals, and an ad hoc distribution network (ADN) is used for file downloading and video streaming. The paper formulates an optimization problem with the objective being to maximize the amount of data to be delivered to a moving vehicles via the ADN, and thereby minimizing the usage of the costly cellular bandwidth for data transfer. Three approaches based on non-linear and linear programs are described and compared, and simulation results indicate that a satisfying performance for file download applications can be achieved.

I. INTRODUCTION

We envision an architecture for ITS in metropolitan areas that integrates the cellular and ad hoc relaying technologies. The proposed architecture, called iCAR-MOPA 1 , will provide various services to vehicles, which include file downloading, stored or real-time video streaming, and customized traffic...

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Gunshot Wounds: A Primer

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Case
9-1-1 receives a call from the owner of a liquor store near the county line who has just been shot in the face by a robber. The man is alert and coherent with slurred speech. He is requesting immediate assistance from police and ambulance. He warns dispatchers that he anticipates the return of the thief because, in his haste to escape with the cash, the perpetrator forgot his wallet. Shortly thereafter, the 9-1-1 operator hears shouting and two distinct sets of gunshots. Introduction
Firearms and gunshot wounds are now common in today’s society. Hot debate continues to rage regarding cause, effect and the best way to handle the ever- increasing number of deaths resulting from guns. Emergency services must also examine their response to such an environment. This article provides a brief overview of current information on the subject. Before You Arrive Prior to arriving on the scene of a shooting, assess the situation. Security is paramount. Has law

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Guns Used in Crime

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According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), almost 43.6 million criminal victimizations occurred in 1993, including 4.4 million violent crimes of rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Of the victims of these violent crimes, 1.3 million (29%) stated that they faced an offender with a firearm.* In 1993, the FBI's Crime in the United States estimated that almost 2 million violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault were reported to the police by citizens. About 582,000 of these reported murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults were committed with firearms. Murder was the crime that most frequently involved firearms; 70% of the 24,526 murders in 1993 were committed with firearms. How do we know about the guns used by criminals? No national collection of data contains detailed information about all of the guns used in crimes. Snapshots of information about the guns used by criminals are available from  official police records concerning the guns recovered in crimes and reports...

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Firearms and Toolmarks

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Firearms and Toolmarks
The Firearm and Toolmarks section conducts a wide variety of examinations ranging from function testing of firearms to serial number restoration to fracture matching. The most commonly requested examination, incorrectly referred to as ballistics testing, is determining whether ammunition components were fired from a particular firearm.

Using valid scientific procedures, the Firearm and Toolmark section conducts safety and function testing on firearms, analyzes fired ammunition components to determine general rifling characteristics, compare fired and unfired ammunition components to determine if they were fired by a specific firearm, restore serial numbers that have been obscured or obliterated, conduct distance determinations to estimate muzzle to target distance, conduct ejection pattern tests, reconstruct shooting scenes, determine if a specific tool made a certain toolmark, and conduct fracture match examinations. The Firearm and Toolmarks section conducts several trainings throughout the year, and testifies in court to the results of examinations.

The Firearms and Tool Mark section is broken down into several sub-disciplines:

  • Firearms Examination
  • Toolmark Analysis
  • Serial Number Restoration

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Gunshot Wounds

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Characteristics of the bullet and of the tissues through which it travels. In addition to the mass and velocity of the bullet, its orientation and whether it fragments or deforms affect the nature of the wound. Two major mechanisms of wounding are described: crushing and stretching of tissue. Understanding the mechanisms by which bullets disrupt tissue can help physicians to evaluate and treat wounds. The characteristics and severity of a gunshot wound are determined by the design of the weapon and projectile, the intermediate targets the projectile encounters between the gun muzzle and the body, and the sequence of tissues encountered along the projectile path. Although the skill of the person firing the weapon affects the trajectory, chance also plays a role. If the missile path includes a large bone, or if the projectile strikes a button, belt buckle, or other hard object, the seventy of the wound often increases [1, 2]. To some extent, whether the bullet hits a particular wound modifying structure...

Additional Resource: Gunshot Wounds: 1. Bullets, Ballistics, and Mechanisms of Injury (2819 downloads )

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Offender Profiling And Criminal Differentiation

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Purpose. The psychological hypotheses that form the foundations for ‘Offender Profiling’ are identified and the research that has tested them is reviewed.
Argument. Offender profiling’ is taken to be the derivation of inferences about a criminal from aspects of the crime(s) s/he has committed. For this process to move beyond deduction based on personal opinion and anecdote to an empirically based science a number of aspects of criminal activity need to be distinguished and examined. The notion of a hierarchy of criminal differentiation is introduced to highlight the need to search for consistencies and variations at many levels of that hierarchy. However, current research indicates that the key distinctions are those that differentiate, within classes of crime, between offences and between offenders,. This also leads to the hypothesis of a circular ordering of criminal actions, analogous to the colour circle, a ‘radex’. The radex model, tested using Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) procedures, allows specific hypotheses to be developed about important constituents of criminal differentiation:...

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Trauma and Gunshot Wounds

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Introduction

By the time you finish reading this story, a dozen Americans will have died from a trauma death. Trauma is the leading killer of Americans from one to 44 years of age. There are 18 deaths per hour from traumatic injury. In the military setting, despite the increase in firepower, the number of deaths during war has decreased. In World War II, 30% of the Americans injured in combat died. In Vietnam, this number dropped to 24%. In the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 10 percent of those injured have died. The reduction of deaths can be attributed to better trauma systems, timely access to medical care, and newer trauma approaches. This is why it is important for you to know what to do in the event of a trauma.An understanding of what to do in different trauma scenarios could make the difference between life and death for you or your partner. This article outlines some basic information on acute...

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Study of Assassination

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PLANNING

When the decision to assassinate has been reached, the tactics of the operation must be planned, based upon an estimate of the situation similar to that used in military operations. The preliminary estimate will reveal gaps in information and possibly indicate a need for special equipment which must be procured or constructed. When all necessary data has been collected, an effective tactical plan can be prepared. All planning must be mental; no papers should ever contain evidence of the operation. In resistance situations, assassination may be used as a counter-reprisal. Since this requires advertising to be effective, the resistance organization must be in a position to warn high officials publicly that their lives will be the price of reprisal action against innocent people. Such a threat is of no value unless it can be carried out, so it may be necessary to plan the assassination of various responsible officers of the oppressive regime and hold such plans in readiness to be used only if provoked...

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Police Surveillance

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New developments in police surveillance are getting a lot of attention. Many people are, of course, impressed by the eye-popping gear which, not long ago, was available only to science fiction writers. But more importantly, today’s surveillance technology is making a difference. For example, surveillance cameras on city streets and in crime-ravaged neighborhoods help provide a safer environment because criminals prefer not to have an audience, especially one that might include officers and jurors. As one commentator observed, “With their long-range and wide-area monitoring capabilities, surveillance cameras have a significant deterring effect, and have helped police foil many of the crimes that take place in public such as vandalism, mugging, car theft, drug distribution, and drive-by shooting.” As a result, surveillance cameras are becoming somewhat commonplace, especially in cities. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “The trend is unmistakable in the Bay Area: San Jose is seeking four cameras downtown. Oakland recently bought about a dozen. Pittsburg has installed 13 cameras, plus a live-monitoring room.”

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Who Killed Mickey Thompson

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On March 16, 1988, Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were killed by two gunmen at their home in Bradbury, California in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.[4]

On the morning of the murder two gunmen waited outside of the Thompson home for Mickey and Trudy to leave for the day - Mickey opened the garage door for Trudy to pull out in her vehicle, and as he headed for his own vehicle.   to pull out of the garage the gunmen attacked, shooting and wounding Mickey and then dragging him out into the driveway, and then one of the gunmen went after Trudy as she was driving down the driveway in her vehicle and shot and killed her.

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