In this commentary, I explore two questions raised by Angelotta and Appelbaum's study. First, I offer an English legal perspective on the protection of children from their mothers, looking at both civil (family) and criminal law. Second, I discuss the idealization of motherhood that is implied by the prosecution of pregnant women; the denigration of those who fail this ideal; and the way that i...

Recent research has tried to calculate the “total cost of publication” in the British academic sector, bringing together the costs of journal subscriptions, the article processing charges (APCs) paid to publish open-access content, and the indirect costs of handling open-access mandates. This study adds an estimate for the other publication charges (predominantly page and colour charges) curren...

The Criminal Sentiments Scale (CSS) purports to measure attitudes and values pertaining to and in support of criminal conduct (Andrews & Bonta, 2003). A sample of 72 sex offenders treated in a high intensity sex offender program completed the CSS pre- and post-treatment and was followed up for approximately 3 years. The CSS demonstrated high internal consistency. Correlational and ROC analyses ...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the characteristics of boys who become fathers at young age. Some studies have suggested that antisocial adolescents are more likely to be young fathers. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of psychosocial factors in childhood with becoming a young father, and to assess if they are independent of criminal behavior in adolescence. METHODS The ...

The wrongful conviction of an innocent person is the worst nightmare to anyone who cares about justice. Eighty years ago, Judge Learned Hand said, “Our procedure has always been haunted by the ghost of the innocent man convicted. It is an unreal dream.”1 The good judge was,as events of the last decade have conclusively proved, simply wrong.Although the criminal justice system has a number of sa...

In criminal law, the mental state of the defendant is a crucial determinant of the grade of crime that the defendant has committed and of whether the conduct is criminal at all. Under the widely accepted modern hierarchy of mental states, an actor is most culpable for causing harm purposely and progressively less culpable for doing so knowingly, recklessly, or negligently. Notably, this hierarc...

For over 30 years, criminal justice policy has been dominated by a “get tough” approach to offenders. Increasing punitive measures have failed to reduce criminal recidivism and instead have led to a rapidly growing correctional system that has strained government budgets. The inability of reliance on official punishment to deter crime is understandable within the context of the psychology of hu...

Theoretical debates about how best to address cybercrime have their place but, in the real world, companies and individuals are facing new harmful criminal activity that poses unique technical and investigatory challenges. There is nothing virtual about the real damage online crime can inflict offline to victims. At the same time, technology is inviting uses that may result in significant, thou...

Prenatal alcohol exposure can have serious and permanent adverse effects. The developing brain is the most vulnerable organ to the insults of prenatal alcohol exposure. A behavioral phenotype of prenatal alcohol exposure including conduct disorders is also described. This study on a sample of Brazilian adolescents convicted for criminal behavior aimed to evaluate possible clinical features of F...

Background Some evidence suggests that the prevalence of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is elevated among male criminal offenders. It is not presently known whether offending, and violent offending, are limited to those presenting comorbid Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) who have a childhood history of conduct problems and whether offending is linked to psychopathic traits. Meth...