Search results

The International Criminal Court has institutionalized the concept of individual responsibility for human rights violations. The jurisprudence of international criminal law has developed along with the institution. Affirmative defenses in the mitigation of punishment or avoidance of responsibility are becoming increasingly important in international criminal procedure. We contend that diminished culpability based on advances in neuroscience provides the most challenging set of choices for the international legal community. Of the variety of affirmative defenses, emerging neuroscience-based defense provide the most challenging set of choices for the international legal community. The Esad Landzo case at the ICTY brings these challenges into focus. We discuss the difficult choices the International Criminal Court will have to make to balance the rights and needs of the victims and the due process rights of the accused.

Anxiety disorders have a high prevalence in children. Those children with anxious symptoms are more likely to experience significant disruption in their lives. This disruption can interrupt or even stop a child from participating in a variety of typical childhood experiences. It is understood that genetic and environmental factors may cause this disorder. The purpose of this paper is to focus on environmental factors, namely, the mediating role of maladaptive schemas in mothers’ child-rearing and childhood anxiety disorders.

This study used correlation-modeling to assess the analysis. The sample included 326 students (aged 9-12 years old) and their mothers. The parenting style (Baumrind, 1973), Early Maladaptive Schema (Rijkeboer and de Boo, 2010), and anxiety disorders (Muris et al., 2006) questionnaires were used in this study.

The results showed a relationship between parenting styles of mothers and childhood anxiety disorders, a significant correlation between childhood maladaptive schemas and childhood anxiety disorders, a relation between child-rearing styles and childhood maladaptive schemas, and finally a mediating role on childhood anxiety disorders and mothers’ child-rearing styles for some childhood maladaptive schemas.

This research contributes to the knowledge base of the importance of children’s mental health. The paper analyzes the relationship of mothers’ parenting styles and children’s anxiety. It also focuses on maladaptive schemas as a mediator and its relationship with childhood anxiety disorders.

Although it is well recognised that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent widespread social and economic changes impacted on the levels and distribution of physical health, there is very limited evidence on the social patterning of mental health in the countries that emerged. The aim of this paper is to assess levels of psychological distress and describe its demographic, social and economic correlates in eight former Soviet countries.Cross‐sectional surveys using multi‐stage random sampling were conducted in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. A standardised questionnaire was used for all countries, including the main outcome for this study of psychological distress, which consisted of 12 items on symptoms of psychological distress. Respondents who repor ted 10‐12 of the symptoms were considered to have a high psychological distress score. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was then used to investigate how demographic, social and economic factors were associated with a high psychological distress score.High psychological distress in seven of the eight countries ranges from 3.8% in Kazakhstan to 10% in Ukraine but was substantially higher (21.7%) in Armenia. Factors associated with psychological distress in the multivariate analysis included: being female; increasing age; incomplete secondary education; being disabled; experiencing two or more stressful events in the past year; lack of trust in people; lack of personal suppor t in crisis; being unemployed; and poor household economic situation.The study contributes evidence on the association of impoverishment and social isolation on psychological distress in countries of the former Soviet Union and highlights the impor tance of exploring ways of improving mental health by addressing its social determinants.

National treatment guidelines regarding Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2009) make a number of recommendations relating to system and cultural treatment variables including: access to services, autonomy and choice, developing an optimistic and trusting relationship and managing endings and transitions. The purpose of this paper is to look at a model which could help organisational effectiveness across a range of service settings in relation to personality disorder.

Explanation of why the McKinsey 7S organisational model (Waterman et al., 1980) may be useful in assessing organisational effectiveness in relation to personality disorder.

Cultural and organisational factors across a range of levels need to be aligned to allow for effective service delivery. This is particularly important in working with this client group where strong emotional reactions and subsequent organisational splits are common.

The application of this tool within clinical leadership and service development would be particularly important for coherence within generalist (as opposed to specialist) settings.

To the authors’ knowledge this analysis is unique as a review of NHS culture across a range of settings and discussion of the implications for service delivery for patients with BPD.

In contrast to the attention it has received in related fields of research, body image has remained understudied within the field of public health. This is highly problematic, given a growing body of evidence implicating body dissatisfaction in a range of other public health concerns. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This commentary is based on a review of the public health, body image, eating disorder, and mental health literatures.

Body dissatisfaction is implicated in a range of public health concerns, including impaired psychological health (e.g. depression) and eating- and weight-related problems (e.g. eating disorders, obesity).

Given these associations, as well as the high levels of body dissatisfaction in the population, the authors argue for a critical need to address the prevalence of body image concerns as a public health issue worthy of greater consideration within programs and policies; dedicated funding for research on antecedents, consequences, and intervention strategies; and allocated resources for training.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is distinguishable from suicide attempts (SAs) on a number of psychological and motivational factors. However, in corrective services settings, NSSI and SA are not clearly distinguished in assessment impacting on intervention. The purpose of this paper is to examine if any attributes differentiate lifetime history of SA+NSSI, NSSI and SA presentations in inmates who had recently been assessed in custody by a risk intervention team.

A comprehensive clinical assessment and file review was conducted with 87 male inmates (including a no self-injury control group) in two large correctional centres in New South Wales, Australia, to determine if three self-injury groups differ from the control group and if the three self-injury groups differ from each other across a range of static, trait, environmental and clinical characteristics.

The SA+NSSI group was most different from the control group (27/59 variables), and from the SA group (10/59 variables), predominantly across trait and clinical correlates. The SA group was least different from the control group (2/59 variables: suicide ideation, childhood physical abuse).

It was found that the presence of SA+NSSI history is an indicator of increased psychopathology. A history of SA only appears not readily associated with psychopathology. The self-injury subgroups reflected different clinical profiles with implications for risk assessment and treatment planning.

The modern prison system is not only a necessity to keep the public safe but also a mode of punishment for crimes. The correctional role of prisons is hampered in situations of mental illness, given that mental illness in the prison or correctional setting is a serious security risk. Few studies have given attention to the modifiable factors that may influence the mental health status of prison inmates, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate emotion regulation (ER), dispositional mindfulness and duration of stay as factors in somatic symptoms among prison inmates.

Participants were 209 prison inmates drawn from a prison in Eastern Nigeria, who completed measures of ER (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), mindfulness and somatization.

Results of a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that cognitive reappraisal predicted somatic complaints but it was only among older prison inmates, while expressive suppression was not a significant predictor of somatic complaints. Dispositional mindfulness was a negative predictor of somatic complaints among younger and older prison inmates. Duration of stay in prison positively predicted somatic complaints among prison inmates in emerging adulthood only (younger inmates), but not among older inmates.

Frequent use of cognitive reappraisal strategy of ER by prisoners may not always be productive in reducing somatic complaints, and the length of time in prison may influence somatic symptoms especially for younger prisoners. The possible benefits of incorporating mindfulness-based therapies in psychosocial interventions to reduce somatic complaints in correctional settings deserves further investigation.

To date, there is limited research on somatic complaints of prisoners in the developing societies, particularly the psychosocial factors that may contribute to mental health problems.

This paper will present the mental health needs that women in prison have, both in terms of the mental health problems they have prior to going into prison and those that they may develop while in prison. These issues will be discussed in the context of the international research data. This paper will also provide information on the special needs that Aboriginal and non‐Australian born women in Australian prisons may have.