Impacto sobre la vulnerabilidad psicótica del abordaje terapéutico en el Hospital Psiquiátrico Penitenciario de Sevilla / Impact on the psychotic vulnerability of the therapeutic approach in the Prison Psychiatric Hospital in Seville (Spain)

Objetivos: analizar los cambios en la vulnerabilidad psicótica tras la aplicación de un programa de tratamiento psiquiátrico penitenciario, la reincidencia delictiva tras realizar un seguimiento posterior a la excarcelación y variables de interés criminológico. Material y método: revisión de una muestra de 50 pacientes diagnosticados de esquizofrenia ingresados en el Hospital Psiquiátrico Penitenciario de Sevilla. Resultados: Se aprecia una reducción estadísticamente significativa de la vulnerabilidad psicótica, evaluada mediante el Inventario Psicopatológico de Frankfurt (FBF-3), tras realizar un abordaje integral psiquiátrico, psicológico, social y rehabilitador en el ámbito penitenciario. También se reducen significativamente los síntomas básicos en percepción compleja y lenguaje. La disminución es particularmente apreciable en el número de pacientes categorizados como de gravedad media-alta y alta. La reincidencia delictiva en el seguimiento posterior a la excarcelación de los pacientes de la muestra en estudio es baja (6%) y en ningún caso por delito grave o que haya supuesto un daño físico. La reincidencia delictiva, cuando se produce, no es inmediata. Aunque existe cierta versatilidad delictiva, es limitada. Las víctimas más frecuentes con relación previa con el paciente son los padres. La mayoría de los pacientes de la muestra, y la totalidad de los reincidentes, tienen consumo comórbido de sustancias (patología dual). Discusión: Son necesarios estudios más amplios para poder establecer relaciones de causalidad entre la reducción de la vulnerabilidad psicótica y el abordaje integral psiquiátrico, psicológico, social y rehabilitador en el ámbito penitenciario; o para atribuir el escaso índice de reincidencia delictiva a esa disminución de la vulnerabilidad psicótica (AU)

Objectives: to analyze changes in psychotic vulnerability following the implementation of a program of prison psychiatric treatment, recidivism after the release and various descriptive variables of criminological interest. Materials and methods: review of a sample consisting of 50 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia admitted to the Prison Psychiatric Hospital of Seville. Results: there was a statistically significant reduction of psychotic vulnerability according to an assessment using the Frankfurt psychopathological inventory (FBF-3), after conducting a complete psychiatric, psychological, social and rehabilitation approach in the prison environment. The core symptoms relating to complex perception and language also decreased significantly. The reduction is particularly noticeable in the number of patients categorized as medium-high and high severity. Recidivism in the follow-up of release of patients in the study sample is low (6%) and there were no cases of serious felony or grievous bodily harm. Recidivism, when it occurs, is not immediate. Although there is some criminal versatility, it is limited. The most frequent victims are parents with a previous relationship with the patient. Most of the patients in the sample, and all recidivists, have comorbid substance abuse (dual diagnosis). Discussion: we need more comprehensive studies to establish causal relationships between the decrease in psychotic vulnerability and an integrated psychiatric, psychological, social and rehabilitation approach in prisons; or to attribute the low rate of recidivism to the decline of psychotic vulnerability (AU)

"Veneno para la mente". La participación de los especialistas en salud mental en la campaña anti-cómic estadounidense (1940-1960) / "Poison for the mind". Mental health experts' involvement in the US anticomic campaign (1940-1960)

Entre 1940 y 1960 se desarrolló en Estados Unidos una intensa campaña anti-cómic impulsada por ciudadanos que consideraban que aquellas revistas no solo suponían una mala influencia para sus niños, sino que eran responsables de un incremento en la delincuencia juvenil. Un punto de inflexión se produjo en el momento en que psiquiatras y psicólogos se incorporaron a la citada campaña. Su líder fue Fredric Wertham, un psiquiatra de origen germano que acusó a los cómics de dañar la mente de los niños debido a su contenido cargado de violencia, sexo, horror y racismo. Algunos psiquiatras y psicólogos siguieron los planteamientos de Wertham, aunque otros los consideraron equivocados toda vez que no había evidencias científicas sobre el daño causado por los cómics en la mente de los niños. La intervención de los especialistas en salud mental fue esencial para la campaña anti-cómic, y fueron citados por la prensa, la radio, la televisión e incluso el Senado de los Estados Unidos, quien convocó a algunos de ellos como testigos en sesiones celebradas para analizar la relación entre los cómics y el comportamiento infantil. Por este motivo, Wertham y los especialistas en salud mental son vistos como responsables de la caída que sufrió el negocio de los cómics a finales de los años cincuenta (AU)

Between 1940 and 1960 comic books were in the United States the target of an intense campaign developed by citizens who thought that they were a bad reading for their children as well as responsible for an increase in juvenile delinquency. An inflection point arrived when psychiatrist and psychologists took part in this campaign. Their leader was German-born psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, who charged comic books of damaging children’s mind due to their content full of violence, sex, horror and racism. Many other psychiatrists and psychologist participated in the discussion: some of them followed Wertham's ideas, but other thought that he was wrong as there was no scientific evidence about this damage. The involvement of mental health specialists was essential for the anti-comic book campaign, as they were quoted by newspapers, radio and television and even called as experts at the US Senate’s hearings about the relationship between comic books and infantile behavior. For this reason, Wertham and his colleagues are seen today as responsible for the fall in the sales of comic books at the end of the 1950s (AU)

La pericia médico legal como forma de producir la verdad y sus adversarios en los tribunales brasileños de entreguerras / The medico-legal examination as a means of producing truth and its oponents in brazilian courtrooms during the interwar period

La pericia médico legal confería impacto social a las tesis de la criminología positivista de orientación biodeterminista que ejerció gran influencia en el Brasil de entreguerras. Esa pericia transformaba los conocimientos especializados, o sea, los saberes científicos, en documentos aceptables y eficientes, inteligibles y utilizables. Disciplinaba las relaciones entre derecho y medicina y acababa viabilizando el poder de juzgar. Pero en ese recorrido debía afirmarse contras otras tradiciones y saberes. Sus principales «adversarios» eran: el conocimiento policial producido por constreñimiento del sospechoso del crimen, principalmente a través de tortura; las decisiones tomadas por el tribunal del jurado y la producción de pruebas a partir de las declaraciones de los testigos; y el saber del propio individuo delincuente. Todas estas otras formas de «producir la verdad» tenían en común el hecho de originarse en el mundo indocto, extra científico, lo que acabó constituyendo el principal argumento de los médicos legistas contra ellas. Las reflexiones a continuación se ocupan de las disputas por las prerrogativas en producir la verdad en los espacios institucionales dedicados a combatir el acto antisocial y tratan de demostrar las estrategias del discurso médico-científico para imponerse a las formas legas que con él convivían en esos ambientes (AU)

The medico-legal examination ensured the existence and the social impact of the biological positivist approaches to criminology that gained influence in Brazil during the interwar period. This examination turned scientific knowledge into accepted and acceptable documents that were also intelligible and useful. Examinations were social currencies used to facilitate the relationship between the power and knowledge of legal medicine and criminology. They disciplined the relationship between law and medicine and made feasible the power of judging. However, along the way they had to assert themselves against other traditions and knowledge. Their main «opponents» were the information obtained by the police from an offense or crime suspect through coercion, especially by means of torture; the decisions made by the jury and the evidence obtained from witnesses; and the delinquent’s knowledge. What all these forms of «truth production» had in common was their non-expert origin, which became the main argument of forensic medical examiners against them. The aim of this article is to discuss the dispute over the prerogatives to produce the truth in institutional spaces that dealt with combating antisocial acts, and to point out the medico-scientific strategies used to prevail over the lay forms present in that shared environment (AU)

Complete republication: National Association of Medical Examiners position paper: Recommendations for the investigation, diagnosis, and certification of deaths related to opioid drugs.

The American College of Medical Toxicology and the National Association of Medical Examiners convened an expert panel to generate evidence-based recommendations for the practice of death investigation and autopsy, toxicological analysis, interpretation of toxicology findings, and death certification to improve the precision of death certificate data available for public health surveillance. The panel finds the following: 1. A complete autopsy is necessary for optimal interpretation of toxicology results, which must also be considered in the context of the circumstances surrounding death, medical history, and scene findings. 2. A complete scene investigation extends to reconciliation of prescription information and pill counts. 3. Blood, urine, and vitreous humor, when available, should be retained in all cases. Blood from the femoral vein is preferable to blood from other sites. 4. A toxicological panel should be comprehensive and include opioid and benzodiazepine analytes, as well as other potent depressant, stimulant, and anti-depressant medications. 5. Interpretation of postmortem opioid concentrations requires correlation with medical history, scene investigation, and autopsy findings. 6. If death is attributed to any drug or combination of drugs (whether as cause or contributing factor), the certifier should list all the responsible substances by generic name in the autopsy report and on the death certificate. 7. The best classification for manner of death in deaths due to the misuse or abuse of opioids without any apparent intent of self-harm is "accident." Reserve "undetermined" as the manner for the rare cases in which evidence exists to support more than one possible determination.

Libre albedrío y ciencias penales / Free will and criminal sciences

No disponible

[Ideal type and history--a critical review of applied criminology]. / Idealtyp und Geschichte--Zur Kritik der Angewandten Kriminologie.

Applied Criminology describes an established criminological school in the German-speaking area, which was founded by Hans Göppinger and Michael Bock, criminologists at Tübingen, in the 1980s and has meanwhile published a number of comprehensive basic methodological papers. The conceptual centrepiece with interdisciplinary approach is the formation and application of concepts referring to the so-called ideal type, which has been essentially inspired by the epistemology of Max Weber. However, the result of a critical reconstruction of these fundamentals is that the claimed interdisciplinary approach comes into conflict with a second much more phenomenological approach of Applied Criminology which is unable to comply with the political implications of criminological research and thus disavows the necessary historical relationality of the ideal type concepts.

Expertise in crime scene examination: comparing search strategies of expert and novice crime scene examiners in simulated crime scenes.

OBJECTIVE: The strategies of novice and expert crime scene examiners were compared in searching crime scenes. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that experts frame a scene through reconstructing the likely actions of a criminal and use contextual cues to develop hypotheses that guide subsequent search for evidence. METHOD: Novice (first-year undergraduate students of forensic sciences) and expert (experienced crime scene examiners) examined two "simulated" crime scenes. Performance was captured through a combination of concurrent verbal protocol and own-point recording, using head-mounted cameras. RESULTS: Although both groups paid attention to the likely modus operandi of the perpetrator (in terms of possible actions taken), the novices paid more attention to individual objects, whereas the experts paid more attention to objects with "evidential value." Novices explore the scene in terms of the objects that it contains, whereas experts consider the evidence analysis that can be performed as a consequence of the examination. CONCLUSION: The suggestion is that the novices are putting effort into detailing the scene in terms of its features, whereas the experts are putting effort into the likely actions that can be performed as a consequence of the examination. APPLICATION: The findings have helped in developing the expertise of novice crime scene examiners and approaches to training of expertise within this population.

Prevención social del delito a través de los derechos humanos: un vínculo ignorado / Social prevention of crime through human rights: an ignored bond / Prevenção social do crime através dos direitos humanos: um vínculo ignorado

El presente escrito expone, de manera sencilla, la base de ideas para la prevención del delito, a través del fomento y desarrollo de los derechos humanos, desde las garantías individuales. Los derechos humanos en el ámbito criminológico tienen una mayor tendencia a lo policiaco y penitenciario, pero se ha olvidado un vínculo importante, que es el referente a la política pública de prevención social del delito. Así, se analizan algunos aspectos de cómo el Estado criminaliza a sus ciudadanos y los hace desviados, y cómo debe facilitar los elementos necesarios para que cada persona logre su desarrollo individual, de modo que tenga consecuencias en lo social. Al verse frustrado o dificultado este, la persona comienza a desviarse de los objetivos que una sociedad tiene, y cae en el dilema de que todos tenemos derechos humanos, pero no todos los logramos obtener

This article displays in a simple manner the base ideas for crime prevention through promotion and development of human rights from individual guarantees. The trend of human rights in the criminological environment is mostly police-based and of a penitentiary nature. However, an important bond has been ignored: the link referring to the public policy dealing with social prevention of crime. Thus, some aspects such as how the State criminalizes its citizens and lead them astray, and how should it provide the necessary elements required for each person to achieve an individual development with social consequences. If this individual development is frustrated, individuals begin to stray from the society’s objectives and face the old dilemma: we all are supposed to have human rights, but not all of us do actually enjoy them

O presente documento expõe, de forma simples, a base das ideias para a prevenção do crime através da promoção e desenvolvimento dos direitos humanos, desde as garantias individuais. Os direitos humanos no campo criminológico são mais propensos ao penitenciário e aos aspectos da polícia, mas esqueceu-se um vínculo importante, que é o referente à política pública da prevenção social da criminalidade. Assim, foram analisados alguns aspectos de como o Estado criminaliza os seus cidadãos e os torna alienados, e assinala como deve fornecer os elementos necessários para que cada pessoa possa alcançar o seu desenvolvimento individual, de modo a ter consequências no social. Ao ver-se frustrado ou impedido, o individuo começa a afastar-se dos objetivos que uma sociedade tem, e enfrenta o dilema que todos nós temos direitos, mas não todos os conseguimos

Metamorfosis del delito de secuestro en el Estado Zulia, Venezuela / Metamorphosis of the offense of kidnap in the State of Zulia, Venezuela

El delito de secuestro es un flagelo social que ha experimentado mutaciones en el tiempo. El año 2009 terminó con una cifra sin precedentes en cuanto a los secuestros reportados en Venezuela. Los datos aportados por los organismos oficiales revelan que durante el 2008 hubo 537 secuestros, lo cual representa un aumento de 52% respecto al total del 2007, mientras que en el 2009 la cifra se incrementó en un 62,82%, en relación con el año anterior.Esta investigación tiene como objetivo describir el delito de secuestro enVenezuela, con especial referencia al Estado Zulia, población fronteriza limítrofe con Colombia. Para ello se emplea una metodología de tipo documental-descriptiva. Se revela que no existen esquemas predefinidos que permitan caracterizar este tipo penal, pues, tal y como ha venido sucediendo, es susceptible de llevarse a cabo en cualquier momento y circunstancia, no de modo exclusivo en sujetos de alto estatus socioeconómico, sino con mínimos medios para responder a las exigencias de los plagiarios; de aquí laproliferación de la modalidad del llamado secuestro exprés. El delito de secuestro en Venezuela ha cambiado en forma notable sus patrones: de ser un delito predominantemente político, fronterizo y ejecutado por grupos organizados, ha pasado a ser uno de objetivos sobre todo económicos, urbano, y ejecutado con un fin de lucro por la delincuencia común. En verdad, el Estado Zulia sigue repuntando en la lista de los estados con mayor incidencia de este delito en Venezuela, pero no es el principal, pues ha sido desplazado en posicionamiento por otras urbes del país, encabezadas en la actualidad por la ciudad capital de Caracas.

The offense of kidnap is a social calamity having experienced mutations in the course of time. Year 2009 ended with an unprecedented figure of kidnappings reported in Venezuela. Data contributed by official agencies reveal that, during 2008, there were 537 cases which accounts for a 52% increase with respect to the total reported in 2007, while the figure in 2009 grew by 62.82% with relation to the previous year. The objective of this research is describing the crime of kidnap in Venezuela, with special reference to the State of Zulia, a zone bordering Colombia; for this purpose, a methodology of the documentary-descriptive type is used. It reveals that no predefined schemes exist to characterize this criminal type because, in the way it has been occurring, it is likely to take place at any time under any circumstance, not exclusively amid subjects with a high socio-economic or political status, but even at the level of people with the lowest economic means, thus unable to meet the demands of the kidnappers; hence the proliferation of the so-called “secuestro exprés” (“express kidnapping”) mode. The patterns of the offense of kidnap in Venezuela have been changing in a very significant manner: from being a predominantly political and bordering crime carried out by organized groups, it has become one of the most usual - particularly economic – urban objectives, committed by common criminals for a profit-driven purpose. Actually, the State of Zulia continues to rise in the list of states with the highest incidence of this crime in Venezuela, though it has not remained in the first place now that various cities in other regions have began to occupy its position, currently lead by Caracas, the capital city.

Explaining feast or famine in randomized field trials. Medical science and criminology compared.

A feast of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in medical science and comparative famine in criminology can be explained in terms of cultural and structural factors. Of central importance is the context in which the evaluation of interventions is done and the difference in status of situational research in the two disciplines. Evaluation of medical interventions has traditionally been led by practitioner (clinical) academics. This is not the case in criminal justice, where theory has had higher status than intervention research. Medical science has advanced in, or closely associated with, university teaching hospitals, but links between criminology and criminal justice services are far more tenuous. The late development of situational crime prevention seems extraordinary from a medical perspective, as does the absence of university police schools in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. These structural and cultural factors explain concentration of expectation, resource, and RCT productivity in medical science. The Campbell Collaboration and the Academy of Experimental Criminology are forces which are reducing this polarization of feast and famine in RCTs. But unless scientific criminology is embedded in university schools which are responsible for the education and training of law, probation, and police practitioners, convergence in terms of RCTs and implementation of findings in practice seems unlikely.