A strange case of gendercide: fascination, psychotic features, archaic elements, and phantasmatic metamorphosis

This is a strange case of murder: a mafia pentito, an informer, reveals after ten years that the death of a man which had been considered natural, had in fact been a murder. The victim, a loan shark associated with crime people, was the companion of his lover at the time. The strange aspect is the way in which the mobster, with a couple of hired killers and helped by the woman, organised the murder: a shot of pesticide while the man was lying in bed with the woman. This modality was suggested by a veterinarian friend of the mobster who claimed that the pesticide would not be detected. The interviewer's imagination/vision of a metamorphosis while he was interviewing the woman in a forensic setting; the dream he had immediately after the interview; the bizarre construction of the crime; the seductive abilities of the woman linked to the choice and the type of partners she had and the bonds she had created; and the almost dreamlike description of the crime itself, suggest the emergence of primitive mechanisms of mental functioning: splitting, the use of massive projections of partial aspects and projective identification. A fragile and hidden common thread is hypothesised in this work. A common thread whose core is the desire for the narcissistic realisation of a woman who, in order to achieve it, puts eros at the service of thanatos. A red thread that connects all the different events, the real and the phantasmatic ones: from seeking a role as a woman of the criminal underworld to the magic fascination of an archaic Sicily, evoking primitive mechanisms of functioning typical of psychosis.

Acquired Brain Injury and Interventions in the Offender Population: A Systematic Review

Background and Aims: The prevalence of acquired brain injury (ABI) in offender populations appears much higher than in the general population, being estimated at 50% compared to 12%, respectively. Taking into account ABI-related cognitive and social impairments or behavioral changes in forensic treatments might be relevant and may improve treatment outcomes. The aim of the current review is to summarize and integrate the literature on psychological interventions or treatments for consequences of ABI in the forensic setting. Reviewing this literature could provide crucial information for improving treatment options for offenders with ABI, which may contribute to reducing recidivism.Methods: The PubMed/MEDLINE, PsychInfo, CINAHL, COCHRANE, and Web of Science databases were searched for studies in adult offenders with ABI that evaluated the effect of psychological interventions with a focus on ABI-related impairments and recidivism.Results: This review identified four intervention studies that met the inclusion criteria. These included an adult population (≥18-year-old) in a forensic setting (given the focus of the current review on treatment, defined here as an environment in which offenders are treated while being incarcerated or as outpatients), non-pharmacological treatments and were published in English or Dutch between 2005 and 2020. All studies reported some positive effects of the intervention on interpersonal behavior, cognition and recidivism. The aspects of the interventions that seemed most beneficial included personalized treatment and re-entry plans, support for the individual and their environment and psychoeducation about the effects of ABI.Discussion: Although positive effects were reported in the studies reviewed, all studies had methodological limitations in terms of sample size, study design and outcome measures which affects the strength of the evidence. This limits strong conclusions and generalizability to the entire offender population.Conclusion: Despite high prevalence of ABI in offender populations, interventions in forensic settings seldom address the effect of ABI. The few studies that did take ABI into account reported positive effects, but those results should be interpreted with caution. Future studies are warranted, since this does seem an important venue to improve treatment, which could eventually contribute to reducing recidivism.

Translational Application of a Neuro-Scientific Multi-Modal Approach Into Forensic Psychiatric Evaluation: Why and How?

A prominent body of literature indicates that insanity evaluations, which are intended to provide influential expert reports for judges to reach a decision “beyond any reasonable doubt,” suffer from a low inter-rater reliability. This paper reviews the limitations of the classical approach to insanity evaluation and the criticisms to the introduction of neuro-scientific approach in court. Here, we explain why in our opinion these criticisms, that seriously hamper the translational implementation of neuroscience into the forensic setting, do not survive scientific scrutiny. Moreover, we discuss how the neuro-scientific multimodal approach may improve the inter-rater reliability in insanity evaluation. Critically, neuroscience does not aim to introduce a brain-based concept of insanity. Indeed, criteria for responsibility and insanity are and should remain clinical. Rather, following the falsificationist approach and the convergence of evidence principle, the neuro-scientific multimodal approach is being proposed as a way to improve reliability of insanity evaluation and to mitigate the influence of cognitive biases on the formulation of insanity opinions, with the final aim to reduce errors and controversies.

“Back off means stay with me” perceptions of individuals with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning about the group climate in a secure forensic setting

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth account of how individuelas with a mild intellectual disabilitiy or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF; IQ 50–85) perceive their group climate in a secure forensic setting. Giving voice to these service users may provide relevant insights for secure forensic settings. Design/methodology/approach The interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore what individuals with MID-BIF experience with regard to their group climate. Findings In the interviews about the four domains of group climate (i.e. repression, support, growth and atmosphere), five overarching dimensions appeared, namely, autonomy, uniformity, recognition, competence and dignity. Depending on the person and the (treatment) context in which he/she resides, these five dimensions relate to all four factors of the group climate instrument. Originality/value From the perspective of individuals with MID-BIF, this study contributes by providing a framework to “fine-tune” group climate on five dimensions. Training socio-therapists to be sensitive to interpret ambiguous signals on these dimensions can contribute to optimizing group climate in secure forensic settings.