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Substance abuse and crime patterns among persons with traumatic brain injury referred for supported employment.

The present investigation examined the incidence of alcohol use, drug use and criminal behaviour among persons with traumatic brain injury referred for supported employment services. Primary caretakers of 74 consecutive referrals completed the General Health and History Questionnaire, the brief version of the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test, and the Quantity-Frequency-Variability Index. Pre-injury, a fifth of the sample were abstinent from alcohol and 66% were labelled as moderate or heavy drinkers. Post-injury alcohol use declined. Half of the sample were abstinent and 28% were moderate or heavy drinkers. Thirty-six percent reported illicit drug use pre-injury. Reportedly, post-injury drug use declined to an incidence of 4%. Nearly 20% of the sample had been arrested pre-injury and 10% were arrested post-injury. Implications for further research and programme development are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2002

A cross-sectional study of psychosocial and criminal factors associated with arrest in mentally ill female detainees.

In this study, the relationship was examined among clinical, criminal, and sociodemographic characteristics and the severity of the criminal charge of mentally ill female detainees admitted to the women's psychiatric unit at a large urban jail. In a cross-sectional study, 96 randomly selected female detainees were interviewed by one of two trained interviewers using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID)-IV, the Addiction Severity Index, the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF), and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey. Criminal offense categories were based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Altogether, 48 percent of the detainees had been charged with committing at least one Part I crime; 27 percent were charged with committing a violent crime against persons. Lower GAF score and previous conviction(s) for a serious crime were associated with current arrest for a Part I crime. The data also suggest that a lower GAF score may be associated with a current charge of committing a violent crime, and placement on probation or parole before the current arrest may be protective against this charge. Mentally ill women who are more functionally impaired may be at higher risk of being arrested and charged with committing more serious and more violent crimes than those with lesser impairment.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

[5-HTOL--a new biochemical alcohol marker with forensic applications].

The concentration of ethanol in blood and urine provides important evidence in criminal and civil litigation when alcohol-related crimes are investigated (e.g., drunk driving). The determination of ethanol in body fluids is a routine procedure at forensic chemistry and toxicology laboratories and when gas chromatographic methods are used accurate and precise results are obtained. However, the risk for artifactual formation of ethanol, especially in postmortem specimens, always needs to be considered. The ratio of 5-HTOL/5-HIAA in urine provides a useful way to distinguish between ethanol produced after death, or generated in vitro after sampling, from the ethanol consumed. This article describes the application of the 5-HTOL/5-HIAA ratio as a biochemical marker for acute alcohol intake in various forensic situations. Examples include suspected drunk drivers, rape victims, and medico-legal autopsies where forensic ethanol analysis is requested.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1988

Cosmetic surgery and criminal rehabilitation.

The contribution of physical appearance to criminal behavior has long been a matter of general interest. We investigated the influence of cosmetic surgery on recidivism rates in the Texas state prison system. The baseline prison population recidivism rates have been 14%, 32%, and 36% at one, two, and three years, respectively. The study group consisted of 253 inmates who had cosmetic procedures between 1982 and 1984 and who were released from prison between the time of operation and the end of 1986. The recidivism rates, calculated by life table analysis, were 8% at one year, 17% at two years, and 25% at three years. All were significantly less than baseline (P less than .01, P less than .001, P less than .01). The rates for those who had been incarcerated for violent crimes were 3.3%, 7.7%, and 15.0% (all P less than .001). We conclude that a positive relationship exists between cosmetic surgery and criminal rehabilitation, as measured by a decrease in recidivism.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed2006

Investigating investigators: examining witnesses' influence on investigators.

This research examined the influence of eyewitness identification decisions on participants in the role of police investigators. Undergraduate "investigators" interviewed confederate "witnesses" and then searched a computer database of potential suspects. The database included information on each suspect's physical description, prior criminal record, alibi, and fingerprints. Participants selected a suspect and estimated the probability that the suspect was guilty. Investigators subsequently administered a photo lineup to the witness and re-estimated the suspect's guilt. If the witness identified the suspect probability estimates increased dramatically. If the witness identified an innocent lineup member or rejected the lineup, investigators' probability estimates dropped significantly, even when pre-lineup objective evidence (e.g., fingerprints) was strong. Performance of participants acting as witnesses in two baseline studies was at chance. Therefore, participant-investigators greatly overestimated the amount of information gain provided by eyewitness identifications.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2000

Outlet density and criminal violence in Norway, 1960-1995.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship between criminal violence and number of outlets for on-premise sales of alcohol. METHOD: The data comprise aggregate time series for Norway for the period 1960-95. Two crime indicators were used: (1) crimes of violence investigated by the police per 100,000 inhabitants aged 15 years and above (15+) and (2) convictions for criminal violence per 100,000 inhabitants (15+). Outlet density was measured as number of public drinking places per 10,000 inhabitants (15+). RESULTS: On the basis of autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) analyses of differenced data, a positive and statistically significant relationship (p = .03) was found between outlet density and crimes of violence investigated by the police. This replicates the findings that are reported from cross-sectional studies. The relationship was also positive, but of borderline significance (p = .06), when convictions for criminal violence were used as outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that increases in the number of public drinking places are associated with increases in criminal violence. Although other kinds of data support the findings, these are the first to be based on longitudinal data. To test for robustness and cultural specificity it, therefore, seems warranted to replicate the study on data from other drinking cultures.

Alcoholic Beverages↗
PubMed2005

Protective factors for youth considered at risk of criminal behaviour: does participation in extracurricular activities help?

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of research investigating the potential protective effect of participation in extracurricular activities on youth who are at risk of engaging in delinquent activity. AIM: This study examined the potential for participation in extracurricular activities to act as a protective factor for youth deemed at risk of engaging in delinquent activity. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-nine secondary students from Glasgow, Scotland completed two questionnaires (the Youth Self-Report and an additional information sheet) requesting information about their participation in extracurricular and delinquent activities as well as their possible risk factors. Activities included sports, non-sports (hobbies and games), current activities (youth clubs and other organisations) and previous involvement in activities. Risk factors included residing in a broken home, having four or more siblings, academic failure and lacking a non-parental very important person. Delinquent activities included rule-breaking and aggressive behaviours. RESULTS: Independent samples t-tests found that females participated in significantly more non-sports and previous activities than males and that males participated in significantly more rule-breaking behaviour than females. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that gender and participation in sports were strong predictors of rule-breaking behaviour. A significant positive correlation was found between participation in sports and involvement in aggressive behaviour. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that participation in extracurricular activities does not act as a protective factor for youth, regardless of whether or not they are considered to be at risk of engaging in delinquent activity. The significant correlation found between participation in sports and involvement in aggressive behaviour suggests that youth participation in sports may act as a risk factor.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Believing is seeing II: Beliefs and perceptions of criminal psychological profiles.

This study built upon previous research by Kocsis and Hayes (2004) by investigating whether a bias exhibited by police officers in their perception of profiles would replicate in a sample of nonpolice participants. Additionally, the relationship, if any, between the degree of belief harbored by an individual concerning the merits of profiling and their perceptions of a given profile was also investigated. The findings of this study add to the contention that the biases observed in Kocsis and Hayes's previous study with regard to author label may be related to some intrinsic feature of the previously sampled police participants. Additionally, evidence was found to support the proposition that an individual's degree of belief in profiling is related to their perceptions concerning the merits of a profile. Namely, the more an individual believes in the profiling technique, the greater the merit that will be perceived in a profile.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Effects of antisocial or social attitudes on neurobiological functions.

Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by triats like a failure to conform to social norms, impulsivity, hostility, irritability and aggressiveness, recklessness, irresponsibility, criminality, a lack of guilt or remorse, and deceitfulness. A large number of investigations revealed that there is evidence for a neurobiological underpinning of antisocial behavior. The precise nature and causal aspects of the relationship between neurobiological abnormalities and antisocial behavior is still unknown. There is, however, some evidence that some antisocial patients are able to influence their neurobiological functions, which are related to sensation seeking, aggressiveness, impulsivity, criminality and a lack of fear (associated with an inability to learn from experiences). The author hypothesizes that a reduction of antisocial behavior/attitude, may consequently result in normalization of neurobiological functions, which are linked to specific attitudes and behavioral dimensions.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1996

Causal attributions for criminal offending and sexual arousal: comparison of child sex offenders with other offenders.

Causal attributions for their offending, and for sexual arousal and sexual behaviour, were investigated for 50 males convicted of child sex offences. These attributions were compared with those obtained from 150 males convicted of one of three other criminal offences: rape, property offences and violent offences against persons. In semi-structured interviews, the Offence and Sexual Arousal and Behaviour Attribution Questionnaires were administered. Offenders offered causal attributions for their offending and for their sexual arousal, and they rated these causes on attribution dimensions. Results showed that child sex offenders attributed both their offending and their sexual arousal to internal, stable and uncontrollable causes. Rapists and property offenders attributed their offending behaviour to external, stable and uncontrollable causes; and violent offenders to internal, stable and uncontrollable causes. In contrast to child sex offenders, the other three groups all attributed their sexual arousal and sexual behaviour to external, unstable and controllable causes. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention programmes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Underage alcohol use, delinquency, and criminal activity.

Since 1988, the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) has been 21 years for all 50 US states. The increasing prevalence of teenagers driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and the resulting traffic accidents were two main reasons for raising the MLDA to 21 years. Following the passage of this legislation, several published studies have found that the higher MLDA is associated with a significant reduction in both fatal and non-fatal accidents. While the relationship between MLDA and DUI events among young adults has been extensively studied, less information is available on other potential consequences of underage drinking. The present study uses data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a recent nationally representative survey, to investigate the effects of underage drinking on a variety of delinquency and criminal activity consequences. After controlling for the endogeneity of alcohol use where appropriate, we find strong evidence that various measures of alcohol consumption are related both to delinquency and to criminal activity. However, the findings are not uniform across gender as we find striking differences between males and females. These results have interesting policy and public health implications regarding underage drinking.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Disruptive behaviors and HPA-axis activity in young adolescent boys and girls from the general population.

It is important to investigate associations between biological factors and disruptive behaviors in children and adolescents. Antisocial, aggressive, and criminal behaviors in adults often begin early in life. Disruptive behaviors are often thought to be associated with low activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Cortisol, the end-product of this axis, can be measured to investigate HPA-axis activity. Previous studies on this topic concerned clinical or high risk samples. The aim of the present study was to investigate to which extent HPA-axis functioning plays a role in disruptive behaviors in pre-adolescents from the general population. One thousand seven hundred and sixty eight 10- to 12-year-olds from the Dutch general population were investigated. Disruptive behaviors were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist, the Youth Self-Report, and the Antisocial Behavior Questionnaire. Baseline morning and evening salivary cortisol levels were assessed. Unexpectedly, small associations were found between disruptive behaviors, including attention problems, and higher cortisol levels. However, all effect sizes of significant effects were very small. Our study indicated that HPA-axis functioning may be more relevant in clinical or high risk samples than at the general population level. The association between HPA-axis functioning and attention problems, that has gotten less attention than that with aggressive or delinquent behaviors, requires further research. Furthermore, because effect sizes were relatively small, it can be concluded that, in pre-adolescence, the measures of baseline HPA-axis functioning that were used for the present study can not be used as biological markers for disruptive behaviors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Sudden death due to tuberculosis.

Forensic pathologists deal not only with criminal, accidental and suicidal deaths, but also with a wide range of deaths from natural causes. Many of these deaths are sudden, unexpected, clinically unexplained or obscure, even though there need be no criminal element in their causation. Unnatural deaths have always to be investigated by the police, but very often natural deaths forms the basis of medico legal investigation, if they had occurred suddenly in apparently healthy persons. Often at autopsy these so called unnatural deaths may turn out to be natural and vice versa. Two cases of sudden death occurring in young individuals under suspicious circumstances are presented. On autopsy they were diagnosed to be secondary to tuberculosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The changing status of forensic medicine in Greece.

The practice of forensic medicine in Greece is similar to that in other European countries. That is Greece follows the continental model of sudden death investigations, whose norms govern the exercise of forensic medicine through Greek criminal procedure law. In Greece, a university and Government system of forensic medicine exist and occasionally work side-by-side. University departments are strategically placed in all districts of the country. State forensic medicine services are located in Athens, Piraeus and Crete and function in parallel with the local University departments of forensic medicine. Forensic examinations on the living are also exclusively performed by the University and State Legal Medicine services. The cases are simply divided according to the countries of these areas. A recent regulation by the Supreme Court eliminated the overlapping of jurisdictions emphasizing the role of the University departments, and finally establishing a new University-oriented medico-legal system throughout Greece.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Dyslexia among Swedish prison inmates in relation to neuropsychology and personality.

Several investigations have reported high frequencies of reading and writing disabilities in criminal populations. The aims of the present study were to assess the frequency of dyslexia among Swedish prison inmates and to relate dyslexia to other indices of neuropsychological functions. Sixty-three prison inmates with Swedish as their native language, age 19 to 57 years, were examined by interviews, tests of academic achievement, and neuropsychological assessment. Twenty-six (41%) were diagnosed as dyslexic. As expected, the dyslexic group performed more poorly on verbal tests as compared to the normal readers among the prison inmates, but they also performed more poorly on tests measuring nonverbal abilities. The dyslexic group had higher frequencies of paranoid and avoidant personality disorders compared to the nondyslexics. They also reported higher levels of anxiety and suspicion and a lower degree of socialization. Previous studies report low IQ to be associated with criminal propensity, supporting the interpretation that a double handicap (dyslexia and low IQ) increases the risk of entering a criminal career and remaining in it.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

The identification of Josef Mengele. A triumph of international cooperation.

In recent weeks, world attention has been focused on the identification of skeletal remains suspected of being those of the most widely sought Nazi war criminal still at large--Josef Mengele. Several important turns in the investigation of his whereabouts led to a small city south of São Paulo, where he had been living until 1979. Mengele was reported to have drowned and to have been buried in a country cemetery near his last residence. The initial processing of the remains was done at the Medicolegal Institute of São Paulo by police officials in consultation with anthropologists and dentists as well as Dr. Wilmes Teixeira of Mogi das Cruzes, a suburb of São Paulo. Dr. Teixeira coordinated the team of authorized international forensic experts officially representing the governments of West Germany and the United States, as well as the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles, who joined Brazilian scientists in completing identification. The success of the investigation was due to complete cooperation among members of the team, resulting in verification, within a reasonable scientific certainty, that these were the remains of Josef Mengele.

Age Determination by Skeleton↗
PubMed2005

Developmental factors related to deviant sexual preferences in child molesters.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between developmental factors and deviant sexual preferences in child molesters. In total, 146 adult males having committed a sexual offence against a child were included in the study. Three types of factors were investigated: negative experiences during childhood, behavior problems during adolescence, and sexual criminal activity in adulthood. Negative experiences and behavior problems were assessed through a semistructured interview. The sexual criminal activity was determined using police records. Sexual preferences towards children were assessed using phallometric assessment. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested the presence of two developmental pathways. The psychosocial deficits pathway is related to a sexual interest for nonviolent sexual stimuli involving children. The sexualization pathway is associated with a sexual interest for violent sexual stimuli involving children. These two pathways are discussed in light of previous empirical findings related to the development of deviant sexual preferences in child molesters.

Adult↗