摘要:

The Depression, Hopelessness and Suicide Screening Form (DHS; Mills&Kroner, 2002) is a recently developed self‐report instrument to aid in screening inmates in the titled areas. Research has shown the DHS to have good internal consistency, factor structure and construct validity. The present study extends the previous validation research by comparing the disclosure of suicide risk factors on the DHS with both interview‐based and file review information. In addition, the DHS scores were used to predict psychological distress. The results indicate that despite the paper‐and‐pencil self‐report approach of the DHS it is comparably efficient in gathering suicide risk factors to other methods. In addition, the predictive accuracy of the DHS in identifying inmates experiencing psychological distress was confirmed. The current study has implications for the method of collection of suicide screening information. The discussion centres on the potential of self‐report in screening for suicide and self‐harm indicators in inmat

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15295

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.The main aim of the study was to consider the contributions of childhood physical and sexual abuse (CPA and CSA) and different aspects of shame and anger to self‐harming behaviours in 89 women prisoners. A further aim was to examine the mediating roles of shame and anger in any link between childhood abuse and self‐harm.Method.Standardized shame and anger questionnaires and four items assessing self‐harm modified from an impulsive behaviour questionnaire were verbally administered. Women were interviewed to assess the occurrence of physical and sexual abuse in childhood.Results.Over half (57%) the women reported suicidal and other self‐harming behaviours at some time in their lives, with 50% of these occurring just before or during the current sentence. All shame, anger, and abuse variables were significantly related to self‐harm, but only bodily shame showed an independent relationship when all variables were considered together. Bodily shame was most strongly associated with CSA, and a mediational analysis tested these specific links with self‐harm. Both CSA and bodily shame made significant independent contributions to self‐harm; however, bodily shame demonstrated the strongest effect, partially mediating the effect of CSA.Conclusions.This is the first study to demonstrate a significant statistical relationship between shame and self‐harming behaviours in women. The findings have implications for the assessment of the therapeutic needs of women prisoners. Future research direction

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15439

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.Psychopathy has been shown to be related to the onset, frequency, and course of antisocial behaviour in criminal offenders. The purpose of the present study was to use cluster analysis to explore the existence of subtypes of criminal offenders in male inmates, based on the two empirically validated dimensions of psychopathy and several other dimensions previously proposed for differentiating offender groups.Methods.Two hundred male inmates participated in the study. Scores on the two dimensions of the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (Hare, 1991), the Interpersonal Measure of Psychopathy (Kosson, Steuerwald, Forth,&Kirkhart, 1997), DSM‐IV diagnoses for alcohol and drug abuse/dependence, and anxiety were standardized and were included in two different types of cluster analyses. Both Ward's hierarchical method and K‐means non‐hierarchical method revealed the presence of four subtypes of criminal offenders in the sample. The four‐cluster solution was replicated when the sample was split in half and identical cluster analyses were performed on the two subsamples.Results.Two types of cluster analyses identified four subtypes of criminal offenders in two samples of jail inmates. Two of the clusters resembled primary and secondary psychopaths described in the literature, the third group exhibited some antisocial and psychopathic features, and the fourth group was non‐psychopathic.Conclusions.Findings suggest that considering the individual contributions of the two dimensions of psychopathy in lieu of the construct as a whole may prove useful in identifying relatively homogeneous groups of crimina

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15376

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.Laymen and legal professionals frequently make decisions on the culpability of drivers involved in collisions on the basis of incomplete and inconsistent information. Could attributions based on car and driver stereotypes influence decisions on culpability?Methods.In Experiment 1, ratings were collected on the perceived on‐road aggressiveness of drivers of different age and gender, and for models and colours of motorcars driven. In Experiment 2, participants read an accident scenario involving two cars and were asked to estimate relative speed, position on the road and blame. The ages of the drivers, colours, make and model of car driven were manipulated using the aggressiveness ratings collected in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, participants read another scenario and were again invited to allocate blame; colour, model of car and driver's age were varied systematically to establish the relative contribution of the different elements of the stereotype.Results.Combinations of colour, car and driver rated high on aggression were judged as travelling faster, being further across the road and more likely to be the cause of an accident than those rated low on these dimensions.Conclusions.Pre‐existing car and driver stereotypes have a demonstrable influence on judgments of driver behaviour from conflicting accident statements. The possible implications for the handling of accident claims and legal cases are discus

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15394

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.Previous laoratory‐based research suggests that facial composites, or pictures of suspected criminals, from UK computerized systems are named correctly about 20% of the time. The current work compares composites from several such systems following a more realistic interval between seeing an ‘assailant’ and constructing a composite. Included are those used by police in the UK (E‐FIT, PROfit and sketch), and the USA (FACES), and a system in development (EvoFIT).Method.Participant‐witnesses inspected a photograph of a celebrity for 1 minute and then 2 days later constructed a composite from one of these systems using a procedure closely matching that found in police work; for example, the use of a Cognitive Interview and computer operators/artists who were appropriately trained and experienced. Evaluation was assessed mainly by asking independent observers to name the composites. Two common auxiliary measures were used, requiring composites to be matched to their targets (sorting), and photographs to be chosen from an array of alternatives (line‐up).Results.Composite naming was surprisingly low (3% overall), with sketches named best at 8%. Whereas composite sorting revealed a broadly similar pattern to naming, photo line‐ups gave a poor match.Conclusion.With a 2 days delay to construction, the results suggest that, while likenesses can be achieved, few composites would be named in police work. The composite sorting data provide further evidence that the computerized systems tested perform equivalently but are poorer than the manually‐generated sketches. Lastly, the data suggest that line‐ups may be a poor instrument for evaluating

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15358

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.The current study examined whether young children's willingness to assent to, and provide details about, a false (non‐experienced) activity differs depending on whether the activity was allegedly embedded within (a) a specific event or (b) a broad (non‐specified) time frame.Method.Ninety‐nine children aged 4–5 years (from both low and high socio‐economic backgrounds) either (a) participated in a staged event that consisted of two activities or (b) did not participate in the staged event. One or two days later, all children were given false suggestions about a non‐experienced (false) activity that had either high or low plausibility. Approximately 8, 15, and 22 days after the event, children were asked to recall the activities, and to answer a series of specific cued‐recall questions.Results.There was no effect of event context on assent rates, and the rate at which children reported interviewer suggestions. However, children who participated in the staged event provided fewer details about the false activity. Further, among those children who assented to the false activity, fewer subjects, objects, actions, temporal markers, locations, fantastic/improbable details, and confabulation errors were reported when the activity was embedded within the specific staged event.Conclusion.The degree of error in children's accounts of a completely false activity is reduced when the activity is suggested to have occurred within a specified event as opposed to a broad (non‐specif

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15312

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.Previous research has shown that visual information impairs the perception of the sound of individual syllables, often called the McGurk effect. In everyday life sounds are seldom heard as individual syllables, but are embedded in words, and these words within sentences. The purpose of this research is to see whether auditory and visual information interact in the perception of a contextually rich scene that is of forensic importance.Methods.Participants were shown a video of a man following a woman. The man either says ‘He's got your boot’ or ‘He's gonna shoot’. Half the participants saw the actor say the same phrase as they heard, and half saw a different phrase than they heard.Results.When the visual and acoustic patterns did not match, people made mistakes. Many reported the fusion: ‘He's got your shoe’.Conclusions.This is the first demonstration of the interaction of auditory and visual information for complex scenes. The scene is one of forensic importance and therefore the findings are of importance within the emerging field of earwitnes

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15240

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Researchers have suggested that paternalistic attitudes may influence people's perceptions of female offenders. In the current study, we examined the role of benevolent and hostile sexism in people's perceptions of a specific female offender (Myra Hindley), who can be viewed as having violated traditional gender role assumptions. We observed that benevolent sexism (but not hostile sexism) was related to negative evaluations of Myra Hindley. In addition, mediation analyses suggest that the relationship between benevolent sexism and the negative evaluations of Myra Hindley was partially accounted for by participants' perceptions that Myra Hindley possessed traits that violated traditional gender role stereotypes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15277

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives.For the past 20–25 years the assessment of the outcomes of probation supervision and its associated variants has relied upon officially recorded offending as the chief determinant of ‘success’ and ‘failure’. A recent assessment of the impact of accredited programmes aimed at reducing offending called for reconviction rates to be supplemented with other outcome measures to give a more accurate picture of treatment effectiveness.Methods.Self‐reports of offending are one such alternative outcome measure, and this paper responds to recent calls for developments in this field. This paper throws further light on the frequency of offending by probationersduringtheir probation orders, the extent to which their officers knew of this offending and the relationship between self‐reported offending and subsequentconvictions.Results.The data suggest that about a half of the probationers committed at least one offence during the time they were on probation and that about a third of the probationers reported that they had committed more than four offences during this same time. In the main, probation officers reports mirrored the reports gained from the probationers. Generally speaking, the relationship between self‐reported offending and officially recorded convictions was also very close. However, this varied by the offences/convictions under consideration.Conclusion.There were slightly more probationers found guilty of property offences than had admitted to such offending during their interviews. The explanation for this appeared to have been deliberate concealment on the part of the probationer, rather than

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15367

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Purpose.There is little evidence on the effectiveness of interventions with offending children and juveniles, either in Europe or North America. We present the evaluation findings of an innovative intervention and relate these to the existing evidence base for young offenders and to the more extensive literature on older offenders.Methods.Using an established risk predictor, The Level of Service Inventory–Revised (LSI‐R; Andrews&Bonta, 1995), we measured the criminogenic risks and needs of the intervention group and a non‐intervention group of child and juvenile offenders at 6‐monthly intervals. Local police charges data were also collected for both groups as an indicator of offending behaviour.Results.Over the first 30 months of the project, a statistically significant drop was seen in the LSI‐R scores of the project participants, with favourable effect sizes. Effect sizes improved markedly with longer‐term intervention. There were also strong indications that the level of offending behaviour had decreased during the intervention. The comparison group showed no change in risks, needs or offending rate.Conclusions.We suggest this study provides an important contribution to the evidence base ofwhat workswith child and juvenile offenders and we suggest that an increased focus on understanding effective intervention with very young offenders

ISSN:1355-3259    

DOI:10.1348/135532504X15330

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2005

数据来源: WILEY