Remorse Can Go A Long Way.

Man who bit his four-week-old baby escapes prison ... Part of the reason the offence occurred was St Clair-Newman's history of drugs and alcohol abuse and, from that, a propensity for violence, Judge McGuire said ... he, St Clair-Newman, mopped his tears with a handkerchief as he stood in Rotorua District Court dock today ... The offending was out of character and had had a long lasting affect on St Clair-Newman, who was "deeply remorseful".
Judge McGuire said St Clair-Newman had "particular issues with drugs and alcohol" but had since done a lot to rehabilitate himself ... aha, so he restored himself to good health or useful life, as through therapy or education. One has to wonder, if such restoration is so readily achieved, why the Hamner Springs unit was demised.

Oh yes ... but it's probably OK because There were no lasting scars.

It must be really amazing being able to enter the inner sanctums of the working mind, to be able to deduce intent, at what point there has been sufficient remediation to obviate future violations or trangressions, to be able to differentiate between real and 'crocodile tears' ... gosh, when I went to university I wanted to be a lawyer too .... and a judge.

One presumes there is a good research base to such statements from the 'legal team,' for it is that they are increasingly demanding from their 'experts.'

Reaping What You Sew, or I Told You So.

Anger courses failing violent inmates: "Anger management is only going to assist people who have difficulty in regulating their emotions, such as in cases of domestic violence," Riley, the man who heads psychological services in our prisons, said. He said Corrections has been re- thinking its approach and has developed high intensity programmes that will be more effective with people with anti-social tendencies who have histories of violence. "

... and indeed, superficially anger management is to do with helping those with impulse problems, not those for whom it is a calculated means to an end ... but then, how effective is the former (anger management) before looking at adding what must, in large part, be another talk therapy of further questionable effectiveness? Can these people really be 'talked' out of their extreme behaviour ... it would appear that teachers are quite unsuccessful at doing this ... it would also appear that psychological services in our prisons are quite unsuccessful at doing this as is testified by a reimprisonment rate of 29% after 12 months and 37% after 24 months following release ... and
Serious violent/sexual offenders constitute about 40% of the prison population at any one time and it is well known that criminal behaviour passes down through the different generations of a family?

... and the genesis of this extreme behaviour?
Sweden's no-smacking Nivarna had produced an increasingly violent child population since it's introduction. Direct child to child violence had increased by 489% since Sweden criminalised parental smacking of children for the purposes of discipline. What's worse, is that Sweden "now has one of the worst assault and sexual violence rates in the EU" according to a European Crime and Safety Safety Report commissioned by the UN and European Commission.
This empowerement of children through legislation that correction for unacceptable behaviour is illegal has already resulted in ...
Children too young to be prosecuted have been implicated in more than 8500 crimes in one year, and police say they are often powerless to intervene. It is consequently little wonder that this problem is manifest across other situations - Teachers meet over violence - in which those in charge of their care are powerless to effect that responsibility ("Police were called after a nine-year-old boy went berserk at a Palmerston North primary school leaving teachers fearing for their safety").

... and at the same time as this disempowerment of caregiver, logically one would expect an increase in impulsive excess, hence ...
According to The Swedish Daily, there has been a 14% increase in child abuse cases in 2006 compared with 2005 figures.
This backs up earlier research showing that child abuse increased 489% in the 13 years following a ban on smacking, and assaults by minors against minors increased 672%. Which of course provides a substantive base for effective functioning as a 'constructive member of society,' probably something to do with having acquired a reasonable level of 'rule governed behaviour,' which is sort of basic to society ... instead we have a 'vicious circle' establishing as is evidenced by dad4justice (on NZ Conservative) ...
My friend works in a child care center - pre school kids in Christchurch and they have had to call police three times this year to help them settle out of control children ? What the hell is going on ?
Monday, October 1, 2007 4:58:00 PM NZDT

But then Christchurch is the 'heart' of ritualised child sexual abuse in NZ ... and unfortunately this concern for the consequences of their actions in intervening on themselves, before intervening to protect the welfare of their charges, this abrogation of basic responsibility as a teacher or caregiver, will at some time have horrendous ramifications ... this action or inaction violates one of the principal requirements of schools, 'to provide a safe environment.'
... and of the future?

Violent crime increasing - police figures
Offences involving violence were up by 4 per cent in the 12 months to June, while offences against property rose by 8 per cent ... Murders dropped from 59 in the year to June 2006, to 50 in the year to June ... this is no cause for glee at all however, for while there remains a high and increasing level of violence, a decrease in murder rates can only be fortuity ... and while there are people, who appear to have the 'ear of our politicians,' who feel they can talk these people out of their excesses at the same time as protecting them (as children and mitigatory factors) from explicit consequences for their excesses ... then violent crime will keep increasing ... we have sewn the seeds in such fertile fields, it is inevitable.

Abandoned Qian Xun

Professor Chris Goddard, director of the National Research Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse, said, As harsh as it may seem, abandoning ... Qian Xun Xue ... may have saved her from further trauma and possibly saved her life.
Well, yes.

Her father's actions reflect a man who was desperate, possibly depressed.
Well, yes, desperate to get away ... desperate to avoid raising the alarm before effecting his escape, desperate to avoid the consequences of his actions.

For her, it's terrible circumstances ... depression was an illness that clouded people's judgment and decision-making.
Oh, yes ... so he wasn' responsible for his actions? Mmmm.

If you are depressed, severely depressed, you can certainly see things in a jaded way ... A depressed person may have a different version of the world and themselves. People may see themselves as a burden on the world and that it would be a better life if they weren't in it.
Oh yes ... but didn't this chappy allegedly repeatedly beat his wife and then kill her and then hide her? So really, she was the burden?

... depressed people could do things they later regretted because they were not thinking clearly.
Mmmm, not responsible, diminished capacity?

... her father had "deep down, feared for the girl's well-being".
Mmmm ... not for his own well-being? Did he not take her to provide that delay in raising the alarm, providing that 'window of opportunity' that enabled his escape and as soon as this was achieved she was an encumbrance, an impediment to effecting a 'clean get away' and maintaining anonymity?

Perhaps, simply very very calculated?

Huge Increase In Youth Bipolar Disorder Diagnoses Since 1994

In 1994 twenty-five per 100,000 people aged 19 and under were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in the USA. In 2004 the figure jumped to 1,003 per 100,000. The number of adults diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder during the same period almost doubled. You can read a report about this in Archives of General Psychiatry (JAMA/Archives), September issue ...
90.6% of the youths and 86.4% of the adults who were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder were prescribed medications for bipolar disorder, including mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics and antidepressants ... and New Zealand tends to follow ... what are these people doing to our self concepts, how we see ourselves ... reframing our behaviour such that they can ensure greater dependence on them by us and greater independence for them ... after all, diagnosis is really just a 'powerful other' ascribing certain qualities to what we do, defining it as illness and throwing psychotropics or other at it to reputedly try and quell it.
... and for those of you who believe, try googling those new, new generation SSRI's (seratonin reuptake inhibitors) or norepiniphrine reuptake inhibitors and also mortality rates in the USA ... now is it that medical iatrogenic effects constitute the leading rate of deaths in the country (760,000) or the third behind cardiac and cancers at 300,000? The effects of detachment, depersonalisation, those precursors to excess towards kids and other, the increased probability of self harm/mutilation suicide/homicide ... yep, and let them try to get off this stuff ... difficult to deprive people of the treatment of choice ... unethical in fact.
... and these self same guardians of public health can scream about tobacco, fast foods and obesity ... there may just be a touch of the hypocrite here somewhere?
perhaps we are at a point where the integrity of the FDA itself is questionable??

"you talk too much ..."

A study has found that teenage girls who endlessly rehash their problems and dwell on negative feelings are more likely to develop anxiety and depression than boys are.

Now I seem to recall something similar to this from our own police force, something to the effect that a 'shot of whisky' was often more palliative' than 'counselling' after traumatic events. Mind you, after having seen a particularly nasty car accident and non involved personnel coming for a look and taking photos ... I dunno.

And also something similar in regard to the dangers of counselling post close friend or family member suicide

Not that I am suggesting alcohol to remit kids' problems, but ... talking about problems keeps them fresh in your mind. If there are not times when there is a break from these, if you are not very socially adept, have few friends, or the friends you do have are 'problem talkers,' then there has got to be a high probability that you will become more preoccupied, more functioning in accord with your problems, more insular and so it goes on ... all the way to the local house of psychiatry.

Auckland psychologist Sara Chatwin said she agreed with the findings. "Talking to the same peer group means the people who hear and advise on the problems are not qualified," she said. "They have the same fears and jealousies.
"To reduce anxiety, they need to speak to a professional with no agenda, bias or preconceptions."

But I am not so sure ... I would have thought that talking with any group of people ... like talk psychiatrists, talk psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors - even or particularly sexual abuse counsellors - would under the same conditions have the same effect i.e. result in a more debilitated person. To exempt a group from the findings seems a little precious.