Child sexual abuse and subsequent offending and victimisation: A 45 year follow-up study

This study investigates whether a disproportionate number of CSA victims subsequently perpetrate offences and experience future victimisation compared with people who have not been sexually abused. In a sample of 2,759 CSA victims who were abused between 1964 and 1995, it was found CSA victims were almost five times more likely than the general population to be charged with any offence than their non-abused counterparts, with strongest associations found for sexual and violent offences. CSA victims were also more likely to have been victims of crime, particularly crimes of a sexual or violent nature. This research highlights the need for therapeutic interventions targeted at adolescent male CSA victims, particularly with regard to offender treatment programs, where many programs currently do not allow for exploration of offenders’ own sexual victimisation

Electrodermal and cardiovascular activity in psychopathy : indicants of a coping response

The most well accepted theory of pscyhopathy, and the one which has spawned the largest amount of research, was developed by Cleckley (1976). Recently, Hare (1980a, 1985b) created the Psychopathy Checklist based upon 16 characteristics of psychopathy elaborated by Cleckley. The checklist is a valid and reliable method for assessing criminal psychopathy (Hare, 1983, 1985a; Hare & McPherson,1984; Wong, 1984). Numerous studies have investigated the psychophysiological responsivity of psychopaths. In a particularly productive line of research subjects' heartrates (HR) and skin conductance responses (SCR) have been measured during a countdown prior to the onset of an aversive stimulus. During the countdown, psychopaths have been found to display accelerated HR accompanied by small increases in SC while non-psychopaths have shown less accelerated HR accompanied by dramatic increases in SC (Hare, 1978; Hare, Frazelle & Cox, 1978). It has been suggested that these findings are indicative of the psychopath's use of an efficient coping system (Hare, 1978; Hare, Frazelle & Cox, 1978; Schalling, 1978). According to this hypothesis, the increased HR demonstrated by psychopaths helps to attenuate the impact of the impending aversive stimulus. This suggestion is substantiated since the psychopath's SC, which may be indicative of anxiety (Hare, 1978; Spziler & Epstein, 1976), does not increase during the countdown. Since the Psychopathy Checklist was only developed recently, it has not been employed to select subjects in these studies. Subjects in the present study were 32 male patient volunteers from the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon. This study was performed to determine; 1) whether the Psychopathy Checklist is a useful measure for assessing psychopathy in psychophysiological research; and, 2) whether the pattern of HR and SCR shown by psychopaths is indicative of a coping response. The present results are consistent with earlier findings (Hare & Craigen, 1974; Hare, Frazelle & Cox, 1978) indicating the efficacy of the checklist for subject selection. In order to test the second point, the HR and SCR of psychopathic and non-psychopathic subjects were compared across two countdown tasks. In the first task, subjects were confronted with a 120 db tone following the countdown. Subjects were given the option of preventing the tone onset in the other task. It was hypothesized that the pattern of increased HR and small increases in SC shown by psychopaths is indicative of a coping response and would disappear in the tone-prevention task where there was no need to "cope" internally. The results substantiated this hypothesis. However, non-psychopaths demonstrated increases in HR and SCR in both tasks. The theoretical implications of these findings and suggestions for future research programs are also discussed

Knowledge, Compliance, and Attitudes of Teachers Toward Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting in British Columbia

Research indicates that teachers, among other professionals, continue to underreport cases of suspected child maltreatment. To better understand factors associated with noncompli- ant behaviour, we investigated teachers’ knowledge of, compliance with, and attitudes toward mandatory child abuse reporting in British Columbia. Results showed that virtually all the participating teachers were aware of the existence of the mandatory reporting law; they were, however, only moderately knowledgeable about the specific components of the legislation. Teachers’ tendency to respond varied as a function of type of maltreatment, with sexual abuse being most likely to be reported and emotional abuse being least likely to be reported. Les recherches indiquent que les enseignants, entre autres, continuent à ne pas signaler tous les cas présumés d’enfants maltraités qu’il y aurait lieu de signaler. Afin de mieux comprendre les facteurs associés à ce comportement, les auteurs ont cherché à savoir si les enseignants connaissent la loi qui les oblige, en Colombie-Britannique, à signaler les cas d’enfants maltraités, s’ils la respectent et quelles sont leurs attitudes vis-à-vis de cette loi. Les résultats démontrent que pratiquement tous les enseignants participants savent que cette loi existe, mais en connaissent plus ou moins les dispositions précises.

Identification of mental illness in police cells: a comparison of police processes, the brief jail mental health screen and the jail screening assessment tool

The study investigated current police practices employed to identify those with a mental illness in police custody, and to evaluate the predictive utility of the Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS) and the Jail Screening Assessment Tool (JSAT). One hundred and fifty detainees were recruited from two police stations in Melbourne, Australia. Measures included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR, BJMHS and JSAT. Axis-I disorders were compared with police decisions regarding identification of mental illness based on their usual practices. Participants were classified as requiring referral for further mental health evaluation according to the screening tools. Results indicated that current police practices produced high false negatives, with many of those experiencing mental illness not identified. There was no significant difference in performance between BJMHS (AUC =0.722) and JSAT (AUC =0.779) in identifying those with a serious mental illness (p=0.109). However, JSAT performed significantly better at identifying any Axis-I disorder, excluding substance use disorders, as compared with BJMHS (AUC =0.815, vs AUC =0.729; p=0.018). Given the high prevalence of mental illness among detainees, there is a pressing need to introduce standardised screening tools for mental illness in police custody. This can assist the police in managing detainees appropriately and securing mental health services as required

Psychopathology in police custody: The role of importation, deprivation and interaction models

People experiencing mental illness are over-represented among police cell detainees, however limited work has sought to investigate the occurrence of psychopathology in police custody. The present study sought to examine the predictive power of personal factors (e.g., history of psychiatric hospitalisation), situational factors (e.g., police cell conditions), and their interactive effects to explain the occurrence of psychopathology in police custody. A total of 150 detainees were recruited from two metropolitan police stations in Melbourne, Australia. Personal factors were significantly associated with psychiatric symptomatology, with situational factors and interaction terms yielding no association. Detainees with preexisting vulnerabilities and those unsatisfied with police cell conditions demonstrated the highest levels of psychopathology. While all detainees experience some difficulties in police cells, it is those with pre-existing vulnerabilities that suffer the most. This may be due to the exacerbation of vulnerabilities by police cell conditions. The implications of these findings for provision of health care services in police cells are discussed

A case-linkage study of crime victimisation in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders over a period of deinstitutionalisation

Abstract Background: Despite high rates of self-reported crime victimisation, no study to date has compared official victimisation records of people with severe mental illness with a random community sample. Accordingly, this study sought to determine whether persons with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders have higher rates of recorded victimisation than the general population, and to explore whether there have been changes in rates of recorded victimisation over a period of deinstitutionalisation. Methods: The schizophrenia-spectrum cases were drawn from a state-wide public mental health register, comprising all persons first diagnosed with a schizophrenic illness in five year cohorts between 1975 - 2005. The criminal histories of 4,168 persons diagnosed with schizophrenic-spectrum disorders were compared to those of a randomly selected community sample of 4,641 individuals. Results: Compared to community controls, patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were significantly more likely to have a record of violent (10.1% vs. 6.6%, odds ratio 1.4) and sexually violent victimisation (1.7% vs. 0.3%, odds ratio 2.77), but less likely to have an official record of victimisation overall (28.7% vs. 39.1%, odds ratio 0.5). Over the approximate period of deinstitutionalisation, the rate of recorded victimisation has more than doubled in schizophrenia-spectrum patients, but stayed relatively constant in the general community. Conclusions: People with schizophrenic-spectrum disorders are particularly vulnerable to violent crime victimisation; although co-morbid substance misuse and criminality both heighten the chances of victimisation, they cannot fully account for the increased rates. Deinstitutionalisation may have, in part, contributed to an unintended consequence of increasing rates of victimisation amongst the seriously mentally ill

Mental Disorder, Substance Use and Criminal Justice Contact

In May 2003, the Minister of State for Mental Health brought together representatives from Ministry of Health Services (MOHS), Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), Ministry of Attorney General (MAG) and the Ministry for Public Safety and Solicitor General (MPSSG) to address the prevalence of people with mental and substance use disorders who are involved in the justice system. The result was a cross-ministry commitment to develop a report about mentally disordered offenders in the justice system in order to identify the high priority and long-term issues for this population and provide recommendations to address these concerns. The many challenges associated with mental health, substance use and the justice system are recognized world wide, and a number of reforms are underway in different jurisdictions. Invariably, these reforms reflect a combination of local needs, resources, legislation and a consideration of available evidence. A critical first step in the process of reform is careful review of available information. In British Columbia, the provincial government has formed an interministerial steering committee, with research support provided through the University of British Columbia. The UBC team, in collaboration with other experts in Canada and abroad, collected and analysed information in the following formats: Literature Review: A scholarly review of the international literature. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive review available of the professional literature pertaining to mental disorders, substance use disorders and criminal justice contact. Survey of Other Jurisdictions: A survey highlighting areas of need and opportunities for reform in jurisdictions across Canada and elsewhere. BC Data Analysis: A report examining the administrative data for addressing mental illness and substance use in relation to the justice system in BC. These analyses are based on an unprecedented linkage of administrative information concerning corrections and health services for the population. In 1999/2000, there were 52,000 individuals (43,859 adults and 8,234 youth) involved with the provincial corrections system. Almost 15,000 (29 percent) of the total cohort were classified as mentally disordered offenders. The prevalence rate is nearly twice the rate for the general British Columbia population. &nbsp

Correlates of criminal victimisation among police cell detainees in Victoria, Australia

People with mental illness are more likely to be crime victims than others; however, little is known about the relationship between offending and victimisation among mentally ill offenders. This study investigated the rates and types of victimisation among people detained in police cells (N = 764), with and without histories of mental illness. Those with mental disorders were 1.56 times (95% CI = 1.11–2.17) more likely to be victims of violent crimes than other detainees. Some subgroups of people with mental disorders were not over-represented as victims, raising the possibility that they were less inclined to report certain types of crimes. Implications are discussed with reference to police practice

A Bifactor Model of the Polish Version of the Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale

The 64-item Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale was translated into Polish with the aim to test construct validity and dimensionality, incremental validity, and composite reliability of the measure in a sample of working adults (N = 319). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the best fitting model was the bifactor conceptualization containing six latent factors; two general factors of psychopathy and four grouping factors represented by interpersonal, affective, antisocial, and lifestyle latent variables (compared to a 2-factor, 4-factor, and 4-factor with 2 hierarchical factors). The scores of the Polish version of Hare SRP evidenced good composite reliability and incremental validity in terms of predicting scores on aggression scale. Implications for theory and future research are discussed

Professional decision making and women offenders : containing the chaos?

This article draws on the findings from research undertaken in south-east Scotland in 2008 which sought to identify the characteristics of female offenders and to document the views of policy makers and practitioners regarding the experiences of women involved in the Scottish criminal justice system. Despite Scotland having retained a stronger 'welfare' focus than elsewhere in the UK (e.g. McAra, 2008), this is not reflected in the treatment of women who offend, with the rate of female imprisonment having almost doubled in the last ten years and community based disposals falling short of a welfare-oriented system. This article explores why the treatment that women offenders receive in the criminal justice system may be harsh and disproportionate both in relation to their offending and in relation to the treatment of men. It is argued that interventions with women need to be initiated earlier in their cycle of offending and at an earlier stage in the criminal justice process but also that the wide-ranging health, welfare, financial and behavioural needs of women who offend cannot be met solely within an increasingly risk-averse and punitive criminal justice environment