Zur Gefährlichkeit ehemaliger Patienten des Maßregelvollzugs (§ 63 StGB)

Background

The prediction of dangerousness in mentally ill offenders – and here mainly the issue of safety – is still of primary interest for forensic experts and also the public. The effectiveness of treatment and therefore of the whole German forensic system is generally measured by recidivism rates of this clientele.

Methods

The Essen prospective Multi-Centre Prognosis Study began in 1997, and 23 forensic hospitals in Germany took part. Data of 321 subjects were collected with a follow-up of up to 10 years (mean 7.5 years). This article presents topical recidivism rates.

Results

Currently the general recidivism rate is 31.5% and for severe reoffences 10.3% which is relatively low in comparison to other recent studies.

Conclusions

The rate of general recidivism of forensic patients in Germany has been reduced in the last years while the rate of severe reoffence was constant. In order to reduce the number of reoffences further studies should analyze the forensic aftercare.     

Invalid status in neurologic diseases

Authors analysed causes of invalidity in neuropsychiatric diseases within a single district. The share of neurological complaints amounts to 24%. Multiple sclerosis and epilepsy are the most important classes of syndromes. The results was compared with data known by pertinent literature. Demands appearing relevant for expert valuation of that kind of diseases are referred.     

Subordinates' perceptions of leaders in task-performing dyads: Effects of sex of leader and subordinate,method of leader selection,and performance feedback

Two hundred twenty-four subjects worked as subordinates in dyads with unseen, bogus leaders, attempting to solve a simulated business problem in personnel decision making. Members of each dyad communicated and reached a decision by exchanging written notes. Sex of subject, sex of leader, method of selection of the leader (on the basis of skill or on a random basis), and feedback about the dyad's performance (success or failure) were manipulated in a factorial design. Results revealed sex-related effects in subjects' attributions of responsibility for task performance, and in both their direct and indirect evaluations of the leader's and their own relative performances. Willingness to continue working with the leader, however, did not differ as a function of the sex of either the subjects or the leader. Instead, subjects showed a preference for continuing to work with a successful leader rather than an unsuccessful one.     

Memory connections between thematically similar episodes

Recent theories about the representation of thematic information in memory propose that two episodes that share a theme are connected together through a thematic structure. We investigated the use of such cross-episode connections in comprehension and memory in six experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 used a priming technique; it was found that verification time for a test sentence from one story was speeded by an immediately preceding test sentence from a thematically similar story but only when subjects were given instructions to rate the similarities of the stories. In the remaining experiments, a single test sentence was presented immediately after a story was read, with timing controlled by presenting the story one word at a time. Response time for a test sentence from a previously read story was facilitated if the immediately preceding story was thematically similar, but only if the previously read story was extensively prestudied. We conclude that, during reading of an episode, thematic information may be encoded so as to lead to activation of similar episodes and formation of connections in memory between episodes, but such encoding is not automatic and depends on subjects' strategies and task difficulty.     

Memory for impasses during problem solving

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the relative memorability of solved versus unsolved problems in long-term memory. In each experiment, subjects worked on a set of potentially solvable word problems, with the time spent on each problem held constant. Problem memorability was then measured with a free-recall task. In Experiment 1, in which a majority of problems were solved, unsolved problems were better remembered. In Experiments 2 and 3, we expanded on these results by manipulating problem difficulty and thus the ratio of solved to unsolved problems. When unsolved problems were as frequent as or more frequent than solved problems, no memory differences were found. Across all three experiments, the ratio of solved to unsolved problems was found to be a significant predictor of unsolved-problem memorability, but was not significantly related to the memorability of solved problems. The results illustrate that when impasses in problem solving are infrequent, they are more available in memory than are solved problems. It is speculated that this memory phenomenon may facilitate the recognition of opportunities to return to problems that have been terminated short of solution.     

Psychiatrischer Beitrag

Ohne Zusammenfassung