Park Elliott Dietz

Threatening and Otherwise Inappropriate Letters to Hollywood Celebrities

In this paper, the authors examine the characteristics of threatening and otherwise inappropriate letters sent to Hollywood celebrities. Such communications, known colloquially as “nut mail,” “hate mail,” obscene letters, and threat letters, are received by the famous in enormous volume. We studied approximately 1800 such letters to entertainment celebrities from 214 subjects, who averaged 8 letters apiece. We quote excerpts from these letters, describe objects enclosed with them, and provide quantitative data on such variables as the form, appearance, volume, and duration of such letters; the subjects perceived relationship to the celebrity; the thematic content of the letters; and the messages and threats they communicate. Comparisons between 107 subjects who pursued encounters with the celebrities and 107 who did not revealed 15 factors associated with such pursuit. Contrary to expectation, the presence or absence of threats was not associated with pursuit behavior.

The Sexually Sadistic Serial Killer

This article explores characteristics and crime scene behavior of 20 sexually sadistic serial murderers. The pairing of character pathology with paraphilic arousal to the control and degradation of others is examined as it manifests itself in their murders. Commonalities across murders and across murderers are highlighted, i.e., the execution of murders that are well-planned, the use of preselected locations, captivity, a variety of painful sexual acts, sexual bondage, intentional torture, and death by means of strangulation and stabbing.

Asperger's Syndrome in Forensic Settings

Researchers and clinicians have devoted increasing attention to Aspergers syndrome during the past two decades. Although Aspergers syndrome is a developmental disorder, professionals in a variety of settings have begun to consider the diagnosis among adults who manifest social and communication abnormalities. Case studies (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 1988; Kohn et al., 1998) and prevalence research (Scragg & Shah, 1994) from forensic settings indicate that a small subset of Aspergers syndrome patients come into contact with the legal system due to their social impairments and idiosyncratic interests. We provide case histories of individuals with Aspergers syndrome encountered in forensic contexts and discuss the implications of this disorder for forensic clinicians. Our six cases were notable for certain commonalties, including deficient empathy. The cases also revealed ways in which Aspergers patients tend to differ from most individuals in forensic settings.

Autoerotic fatalities with power hydraulics.

We report two cases in which men used the hydraulic shovels on tractors to suspend themselves for masochistic sexual stimulation. One man developed a romantic attachment to a tractor, even giving it a name and writing poetry in its honor. He died accidentally while intentionally asphyxiating himself through suspension by the neck, leaving clues that he enjoyed perceptual distortions during asphyxiation. The other man engaged in sexual bondage and transvestic fetishism, but did not purposely asphyxiate himself. He died when accidentally pinned to the ground under a shovel after intentionally suspending himself by the ankles. We compare these cases with other autoerotic fatalities involving perceptual distortion, cross-dressing, machinery, and postural asphyxiation by chest compression.

Acute dissociative responses in law enforcement officers involved in critical shooting incidents: the clinical and forensic implications.

The authors examine the prevalence of acute traumatic dissociative responses in a group of 115 law enforcement officers involved in critical incidents. Law enforcement officers were retrospectively surveyed for the presence of dissociative symptoms at the time of the critical incident, as well as for the presence of acute stress symptoms and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Results show that 90% of the officers reported experiencing a dissociative response during the critical incident. Thirty percent meet the Dissociative Criterion B of acute stress disorder under the DSM-IV. The mean number of dissociative symptoms in this group was two and one-half. In addition, 19% of the law enforcement officers reported varying forms of memory impairment for details of the incident. There were no reports of amnesia for the entire event. The clinical, forensic, and legal implications of these preliminary findings are discussed in this paper.

Preserving the Integrity of the Interview: The Value of Videotape

This article addresses the value of videotape in forensic mental health evaluations. Literature reviews were conducted using Medline and PsychInfo Databases. The authors briefly describe the general use of videotape, explore the use of videotape within the legal process, respond to opposition to videotape use, discuss confidentiality and consent issues, address possible exceptions to the use of videotape, and express their unwavering support for the use of videotape during forensic evaluations. The authors also provide a detailed set of instructions designed to assist professionals with establishing their own videotaping system. The authors conclude that videotape performs an essential function in the preservation of the integrity of forensic mental health evaluations.

Gender and Violence Risk Assessment in Prisons.

Our study examines the association between Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20: Version 2; Psychopathy Checklist–Revised; and Violence Risk Assessment Guide scores and violence perpetrated during incarceration by male and female inmates. Using a sample of 288 men and 183 women selected from prisons in 2 states, we used receiver operating characteristics analyses to assess the potential of these 3 measures to predict threatened, physical, or sexual prison violence measured in 2 ways: inmate self-report and formal institutional infractions. We found all 3 instruments to demonstrate moderate to good levels of predictive accuracy for both the male and female inmates, a finding that suggests that actuarial, structured professional judgment and personality measures perform in a broadly comparable manner in assessing institutional violence for both men and women. Our findings did vary on the basis of the way violence was measured: Women self-reported significantly higher levels of prison violence than was suggested by their institutional infractions, and the associative power of the instruments diminished substantially, particularly among the men, when institutional infractions alone were used in the analyses. These findings suggest that the 3 risk measures are likely to be gender neutral in their association with prison violence, albeit with gender-related differences in the frequency of violent behavior and the relevance of particular subscales.

Organization and Delivery of Mental Health Services

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the services provided by physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and other full-time mental health workers. Mental health services are divided into three delivery sectors: the general medical sector, the private mental health sector, and the public mental health sector. The general medical and private mental health sectors deliver care to more patients than the public mental health sector. The chapter focuses on the public mental health sector because of its greater degree of formal organization, its increasing importance in the delivery of services, and the likelihood that the forthcoming national health insurance programs would approximate the programs developed in the public mental health sector. Understanding of the use and effectiveness of mental health services is handicapped by a lack of appropriate comparative data. The delivery of services in the private mental health sector is not organized but is regulated by state licensing authorities, professional associations, peer relations, and third-party payment sources. The delivery of services in the public sector is regulated by state and federal regulations and guidelines. The most visible regulating influences in the private and public mental health sectors achieve their power through controlling payment and funding.