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The Psychiatrist’s Role in Determining Accountability for Crimes: The Public Anxiety and an Increasing Expertise

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I. INTRODUCTION

In conjunction with the criminal law, the psychiatrist witness has been asked to evaluate people at four different stages. He has been asked to give his opinion whether the defendant understands the charges and is able to aid his defense, whether the defendant should be held responsible for his activity, to recommend a disposition and finally to recommend a stay for execution of sentence.' This comment will discuss the second of these functions, the role of the psychiatrist in determining whether someone should be held accountable for the consequences of his acts who has accomplished activity classified by society as criminal. This comment will discuss the legal tests for insanity only peripherally, by illustrating the legal semantical difficulty produced by the attempts of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to deal with this problem. The legal tests have been so overtreated and overemphasized that one noted authority has remarked: "Rivers of ink, mountains of printer's

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The Postmortem Examination in Cases of Suspected Homicide

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The postmortem examination in cases of suspected homicide represents one of the most important applications of medicolegal science to the needs of the community. Its proper performance is of paramount concern to those agencies of government responsible for law enforcement and the effective administration of justice. In view "of the desire of the medical and legal professions, increasingly evident in recent years, to improve the standards and quality of medicolegal practice throughout the country, it was considered timely and appropriate to review again the subject of the postmortem examination in cases of homicide, and to point out what is expected in the way of performance of the person entrusted with it. In a paper published several years ago, the author described and discussed the routine procedures necessary in such examinations.' Inadequacies of Medicolegal Agencies and of the Statutes Pertaining to Them At present, in most sections of the country, the postmortem investigation of homicide is... inexpertly and

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The Confidential Relationship Theory of Constructive Trusts-An Exception to the Statute of Frauds

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The constructive trust, often referred to as a trust "implied in law," has been generally recognized as an exception to the Statute of Frauds. Fraud, duress, mistake, undue influence, or the breach of a fiduciary relationship may all be the basis for a constructive trust. Promises to convey or to hold property in trust, which would ordinarily be unenforceable under the statute, have often resulted in the imposition of a constructive trust when the abuse of a confidential relationship has been found.3 The "abuse of confidence" exception to the statute, which defies accurate definition, has provided courts of equity with an elastic means for intervention whenever such is considered just and proper.and confidence can be found in every transaction involving a fiduciary. To this extent, the fiduciary relationship is undoubtedly "confidential." The true fiduciary relationship and the duties and obligations which adhere thereto, however, can generally be placed into distinct categories wherein an underlying legal relationship also exists. Such would...

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The Checkered Flooring Freemason Information

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The mosaic pavement of the lodge is discussed in the lecture of the first degree. This is commonly described as the checkered carpet which covers the floor of the lodge. The lecture says that the mosaic pavement “is a representation of the ground floor of King Solomon’s Temple” and is “emblematic of human life, checkered with good and evil.” In the account of King Solomon’s Temple in the Bible, the ground floor is said to be made of pine or fir, depending on which translation of the Bible that you read (1 Ki 6:15). It is hard to imagine that pine or fir flooring would be particularly mosaic in nature. However, it can be agreed that the mosaic pavement represents the ground floor of King Solomon’s Temple in the Entered Apprentice degree because that ceremony symbolically takes place in that location. While these facts may not be particularly intriguing,.. ..

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Terror Management Theory: Interplay between Mortality Salience, Death-Thoughts, and Overall Worldview Defense

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This study examines both the generalizability of Terror Management Theory (TMT) and the mechanisms by which individual difference variables work in the TMT model. A plethora of research exists to support TMT, a theory that explains much of human behavior as attempts to buffer the potential for anxiety provoked by being aware of one‟s own inevitable mortality (Pyszczynski et al., 2003). This dissertation investigated the generalizability of Terror Management Theory (TMT) and the mechanisms by which individual difference variables work in the TMT process. In order to do so, an operationalization of the variable “overall worldview” was provided. Participants consisted of 367 college students from the Psychology Department Experimental Subject Pool of a mid-sized Midwestern university. Subjects were quasi-randomly assigned to a 2 (mortality salience vs. control) x 2 (death-thought word stems vs. neutral word stems) between subjects design. Results suggested that humanists defended humanism more in the mortality salience condition than in the dental pain condition.

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Students And Teachers Perceptions Of Conflict And Power

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Abstract:

Social and economic changes have altered the traditional view of the teacher as the primary power holder in the classrooms making way for a reciprocal power relationship with students in which students and teachers share control of the learning environment. This study examined four urban high school teachers' and their students' perceptions of power. Data were collected through class observations and interviews and were analyzed via constant comparison. Teachers and students attempted to resolve the perceived conflict of interest over preferred class focus by using the power resources available to them. Students reported using non participation, personality power, disruptions, and teacher rewards to influence the class. Teachers felt their power had eroded, yet they were pressured by administrators in their schools to maintain order. They used strategies of strategic withdrawal and student rewards to pursue their values. The mutual influence on one another resulted in a negotiated curriculum of order, rather than education....

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False Belief and Emotion Understanding in Post-Institutionalized Children

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Abstract

Deficits in social cognition may impair the ability to negotiate social transactions and relationships and contribute to socio emotional difficulties experienced by some postinstitutionalized children. We examined false belief and emotion understanding in 40 institutional care-adopted children, 40 foster care-adopted children and 40 birth children. Both groups of adopted children were adopted internationally. Controlling for verbal ability, post-institutionalized children scored lower than birth children on a false belief task. Almost half of the post-institutionalized children performed below chance levels. The foster care group did not differ from either group on false belief understanding. The groups did not differ on emotion understanding after controlling for verbal ability. The results suggest that some post-institutionalized children are delayed in false belief understanding.Since 1995, over 130,000 children have been adopted internationally into the USA. (US Department of State, 2004). Many of these children have been reared in institutions around the world prior to adoption, and they exhibit delays in physical and...

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Symbolic, Relational, and Ideological Signifiers of Bias-Motivated Offenders: Toward a Strategy of Assessment

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Hate crimes constitute a special class of violence. In the United States, since the enactment of federal hate crime laws in 1990, bias-motivated crimes have garnered national attention. Although social psychological research concerning hate crimes has provided insight into the factors that lead to intergroup violence (Ehrlich, 1992; Green, Glaser, & Rich, 1998; Herek, Gillis, Cogan, & Glunt, 1996), information concerning individual difference variables of bias offenders is to date unavailable. There is significant debate about whether an offender’s bias motivation can be reliably identified (Sullaway, in press). This has led some theorists to argue for the repeal of hate crime laws altogether (Jacobs & Potter, 1998). The successful prosecution of the bias-motivated offender requires that there is a discernible behavioral and volitional component present in the offense. This is essential if the offense is to meet the standard of legal intent, as defined under state and federal laws (Levin, 1999). Determining the validity of the bias motivation is compromised by the

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Super-Predators or Victims of Societal Neglect? Framing Effects in Juvenile Crime Coverage

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An impressive array of scholarly research demonstrates that language has a profound influence on human thought (see Carroll 1956; Seidel 1975; Sanford, 1987; Rosch 1973; Lakoff 1987). In the realm of political communication, the use of particular forms of presentation or modes of discourse (also known as "frames") -- strongly influences perceptions of public issues, events, and leaders (Iyengar 1991; Neuman, Just, and Crigler 1992; Gamson 1992; Anderson 1996). For example, the public is more likely to endorse increases in government welfare spending when the beneficiaries are said to be "poor people" rather than "people on welfare" or "black people" (Bobo and Kluegel 1993; Gilens, 1996; 1999; Gilliam, 1999; Smith 1987). Of course, the most common forum for the presentation of public issues is broadcast news. The overwhelming majority of broadcast news reports are "episodic" or event-oriented, focusing on concrete acts or live events rather than general contextual material. Television...

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Suicide Responsibility of Hospital and Psychiatrist

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SUICIDE IS NOW THE TENTH GREATEST CAUSE of death in the UnitedStates. It has become an increasingly larger factor statistically, because, as other causes of death come under medical control, the prevalence of suicide becomes more noticeable. In the last ten years, at the very minimum, two-hundred thousand (200,000) Americans have killed themselves, and in all likelihood, more Americans have died in the last twenty years at their own hands than were killed in World War II and the Korean War combined. It is also possible that suicides outnumber those killed in automobile accidents as is clearly the case in England.2 Thus the problem of suicide is a prominent public health problem in this country. Physicians and hospitals have an obvious concern, as do the law courts, where actions for wrongful death and negligence may involve suicide as a result of a tortious act. An example of the extremes reached in law was

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Sudden Accidental Death

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This article will touch on a few of the problems we encounter in traumatic grief experienced from the sudden accidental death of a child: shock, guilt, unfinished business, lack of closure, negative attitudes or obstacles to recover, and anger. I don’t pretend to have any concrete answers for you, but hopefully, a few insights on how to cope with grief. We all grieve differently. What works for one may not work for another. We don’t want to make judgments on which kind of grief is more difficult, but sudden death is recognized as one of the most difficult to recover from because of the tremendous shock involved. It will be longer, lonelier, and more hazardous to your lasting emotional stability than if you had been able to anticipate the loss and to communicate with your child before death. One of the large differences between sudden accidental death and death by long-term illness or anticipatory death is the shock involved. It is the primary

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The Gravity Guidance System

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Former NFL 3 Roman Gabriel has flipped for them. William Shatner has gone head over heels for them too. They’re called Inversion Boots, and according to their creator, California physician Dr. Robert Martin, some 200,000 people around the world are now using them to help eliminate physical hang-ups ranging from pot bellies to chronic back pain.

Inversion Boots are part of what Martin calls his Gravity Guiding System, a jungle gym of chrome-plated steel bars, clamps and hooks plus an oscillation bed that rotates 180°. With ankles strapped into the thickly padded metal cuffs, subjects hook their boots onto a metal bar, lean back on the bed and, raising their arms, allow their bodies to fall backward toward the floor. Experienced users may disengage from the bed and hang freely.

Some people experience fear and discomfort at first. “My eyeballs felt like they were coming out,” reports a first-time dangler, who nevertheless tried it again. “

See Also: Robert Martin's Boots Were Made for Hanging and for Overturning Back Pain

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The Stock Market Credit and Capital Formation

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1. The various types of borrowers, WILO compete for the limited supply of credit, evoke very different sentiments among critical observers of the economic system.The class of borrowers which is least sympathetically regarded by the critics is that which uses the purchasing power, put at its disposal, on the stock exchange. This is not surprising considering the exchange attitude adopted by a large section of the community towards stock exchanges, towards the business that is transacted thereon, and towards the people who frequent them. In so far as this is the mere expression of the resentment of the general public toward the "easy" and "effortless" gains of traders on the stock exchange, or the contempt of the moralists for "unscrupulous" speculation or even the lack of respect of naive economic politicians for every kind of activity which is unproductive in a technical-physical sense, there is no scientific problem involved.

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Stranger Violence: Perspectives, Issues, and Problems

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I. INTRODUCTION

Stranger violence represents one of the most frightening forms of criminal victimization. Conklin' and McIntyre have argued that the fear of crime is basically a fear of strangers. It is suggested that people fear the unknown person who commits an unpredictable and violent attack on a vulnerable and innocent citizen going about routine daily activities. The perceptions that the attacker is indiscriminate in his selection of the victim and that the victim can do little to avoid attack or protect himself also elicit fear in society. The urban dweller, in particular, confronts what Silberman refers to as a "startling paradox": Life in metropolitan areas . . . involves a startling paradox: we fear strangers more than anything else, and yet we live our lives among strangers. Every time we take a walk, ride a subway or bus, shop in a supermarket or department store, enter an office building lobby or elevator,

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Integrated United States Security Database (IUSSD): Data on the Terrorist Attacks in the United States Homeland, 1970 to 2011

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About This Report and the Global Terrorism Database

The authors of this report are Gary LaFree (START Director, UMD), Laura Dugan (START Associate, UMD), Erin Miller (GTD Project Manager). Questions about this report should be directed to Gary LaFree (garylafree@gmail.com).

The initial collection of data for the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) data was carried out by the Pinkerton Global Intelligence Services (PGIS) between 1970 and 1997 and was donated to the University of Maryland in 2001. Digitizing and validating the original GTD data from 1970 to 1997 was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Justice in 2004 (PIs Gary LaFree and Laura Dugan; grant number: NIJ2002-DT-CX-0001) and thereafter in 2005 as part of the START Center of Excellence by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), Office of University Programs (PI Gary LaFree; grant numbers N00140510629 and 2008-ST-061-ST0004). Data collection funding for GTD from 1998 to 2007 was supplied by the DHS S&T Human Factors/Behavioral Sciences

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Countering Radicalization in America

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Summary

• The recent surge in the number of American Muslims involved in terrorism has led U.S. authorities to question the long-held assumption that American Muslims are immune to radicalization, and to follow the example of other Western democracies in devising a comprehensive counterradicalization strategy.

• Radicalization is a highly individualized process determined by the complex interaction of various personal and structural factors. Because no one theory can exhaustively explain it, policymakers must understand the many paths to radicalization and adopt flexible approaches when trying to combat it.

• The role of religion in the radicalization process is debated, but theories that set aside Ideology and religion as factors in the radicalization of Western jihadists are not convincing. Policymakers who choose to tackle religious aspects should do so cautiously, however, cognizant of the many implications of dealing with such a sensitive issue.

• Policymakers need to determine whether a counterradicalization strategy aims to tackle violent radicalism alone or, more ambitiously, cognitive radicalism.

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