1.

GETTING THE CALL RIGHT: GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS FOR DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY IN SEX OFFENDER CIVIL COMMITMENT.

Roy Aranda, Psy.D., J.D., Jeffrey Singer, Ph.D.

Sex offender civil commitment hearings require the highest standards of diagnostic accuracy and competency.  Unclear diagnostic criteria for Paraphilias have resulted in poor interrater diagnostic reliability.  Since Paraphilias are often the conduit to the "Mental Abnormality" standard, consequences of inaccurate findings are substantial. This is even more salient when evaluating Hispanic sex offenders.  Cultural ignorance and language barriers create added obstacles in what already presents as a slippery slope.  As an example, an “acceptable” evaluation involved the use of an examiner who spoke some Spanish and performed the evaluation via videoconference using a Spanish-English dictionary as needed.  And treatment provided in a facility in which bilingual patients helped translate what English monolingual therapists were saying to a Spanish-dominant patient, and handouts were translated with the help of Babel Fish. Recent state of the art research has provided empirically-supported guidelines on how to use the DSM-IV-TR in such commitment proceedings.  To enhance diagnostic accuracy, this presentation will review that literature using actual case material.

2.

PARENTING ASSESSMENT IN CHILD PROTECTION CASES WITH LATINO CLIENTS.

Helen Raytek, PsyD

In this presentation, Dr. Raytek will address how a psychologist can develop cultural competence to provide comprehensive, accurate, and fair evaluations.  She will discuss the available assessment instruments in English and Spanish and some of the nonstandard assessment procedures that may be used with this population.  She will make recommendations on how to integrate the assessment results into a comprehensive report.  Dr. Raytek will also discuss the particular challenges of being a bilingual psychologist who is not bicultural and the range of resources available to psychologists who are not bicultural.

3.

A MULTISYSTEMIC, MULTIMODAL APPROACH TO GANG PREVENTION AMONG AT-RISK LATINO YOUTH.

Daniel Gaztambide, MA, PsyD Candidate, Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology, Rutgers University

This paper will present the work of the Rutgers/Somerset Counseling Project, a multisystemic, multimodal program that targets gang involvement among at-risk ethnic minority youth. This program integrates traditional levels of care—individual, group, and family counseling—with an ecological perspective that promotes advocacy and intervention on the systems (academic, legal, and communal) that impact the lives of at-risk youth. In order to address to specific needs of Latino youth and families, the Rutgers/Somerset program has adopted the philosophy of “it takes a village to raise a child” by drawing on indigenous resources, leadership, and mentoring in the local community.

4.

ETHNICALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE JUVENILE OFFENDERS: CURRENT CHALLENGES AND IDEAS FOR FUTURE PROGRAMMING.

Keisha Lynn Hill, Public School # 2 in Paterson, NJ; Forensic Psychology Post-Graduate Student,  John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

This paper will present a brief summary of the historical aspects concerning African-American and Latino youth offenders followed by an analysis of educational background, rights, and current trends in sentencing. Historical aspects will include some discussion of case law such as Graham v. Florida, in which the United States Supreme Court addressed the developmental issues of juvenile offenders.  Participants will also learn about post rehabilitation options which may or may not be limited to release care and transitioning. Particular emphasis will be placed on juvenile offender rehabilitation and related outcomes in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area but may also include statistics from California, Texas, and other areas with significant populations of Latino youth.  As a final addition, this paper will present recommendations for understanding the needs of ethnically and culturally diverse juvenile offenders with special needs and will provide resources for the design and implementation of effective prevention programs in the public and private sectors.

5.

THE “UNEASY ALLIANCE” BETWEEN LAW AND PSYCHOLOGY

Mark Kitzie, PsyD

This presentation will provide an overview of the differences between law and psychology and what accommodations are necessary for optimal overlap and integrations of the two systems.  The practical implications of what is necessary to achieve this and how psychological expertise can best aid the court will be emphasized.  Law and Psychology have fundamental differences in their philosophical assumptions and how these assumptions are applied to determinations of fitness to stand trial, criminal culpability and sentencing The presentation will reference the landmark Supreme Court cases (Frye, Daubert and Kumho) that set the parameters for establishing who can be considered an “expert” and the standards for expert testimony.  Some of these parameters require that expert testimony not only assist the factfinder, but that its theoretical and methodological foundations be generally accepted in the relevant field, that scientific testability, error rate, peer review, and general acceptance as factors are considered in determining admissibility of testimony and that the expert have  “technical and specialized knowledge”.  Yet quantitatively rigorous measurement of many legally relevant mental states, especially highly normative ones such as insanity, may be impossible, at least in the foreseeable future.  Finally, the concept of “factor-based incremental validity” will be addressed as a set of guidelines in providing evaluations or testimony.  This will include a discussion of the description, interpretation, categorization/diagnosis, relationship to legally relevant behavior and how to best address the “ultimate legal issue” in question.

6.

THE EFFECT OF MALINGERING ON SENTENCE ENHANCEMENT: A STUDY USING MOCK JURORS

Richard Conti, Ph.D. and Elizabeth MacKenzie, M.A.; College of Saint Elizabeth

This study explores the effects of defendant malingering on sentencing recommendations in a criminal case.  Mock jurors (N = 127) read a summary of an armed robbery case including the competency to stand trial evaluation. Participants were randomly assigned to either one version of the case in which an expert testified that the defendant was malingering or another version where no such evidence was presented. In addition, participants completed the Belief in Just World Scale (BJW), the Revised Legal Attitudes Questionnaire (RLAQ), and a demographic questionnaire. According to the law, malingering is considered obstruction of justice and a defendant’s sentence may be enhanced by the Court. Results indicated that malingering, scores on the BJW, RLAQ, and demographic indices were related to the recommended sentence. Legal and policy implications will be discussed.

1.

LATINOS/AS IN FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY EMPIRICAL STUDIES: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

Silvia Mazzula, PhD & Whitney Fujii-Doe, BS; John Jay College of Criminal Justice

2.

CURRENT INTERPRETATION GUIDELINES OF THE TEST OF MEMORY MALINGERING (TOMM) MAY REQUIRE MODIFICATION WHEN ADMINISTERED TO SPANISH-SPEAKING LATINO PATIENTS

Lorna Myers, PhD  & Marcela Bonafina , Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group -International Program

3.

WHAT PSYCHOLOGISTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IMMIGRATION LAW

Aileen Torres, PhD , Youth Consultation Services & Nicole Miller, Esq., American Friends Service Committee

1.

Dr. Ricardo Martinez, Forensic Psychologist

Ricardo Martinez, PhD earned his doctorate in clinical/forensic psychology from Fordham University and his masters in psychology with a concentration in Latino mental health from Montclair State University. Since 1991 he has worked as a clinician and program coordinator in various mental health settings, serving child and adult survivors of sexual abuse, sexual offenders, stalkers, and various other mentally ill offenders. He is currently providing mental health services to combat veterans at the Bloomfield Vet Center and is clinical director of a community based treatment program for youth adjudicated for sexual abuse or accused of fire setting behaviors. His professional interests include forensic psychology, post-traumatic stress, cognitive neuroscience, and mindfulness based psychotherapy.

2.

Dr. Denise Johnson, Sports Psychologist

Dr. Johnson earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Emory University in Atlanta Georgia. She is a New Jersey Licensed Psychologist who has been in private practice for 18 years. Dr. Johnson has worked with professional athletes for the past 7 years. This is the beginning of her 8th season working on Performance Issues with the Super Bowl Champion New York Football Giants. She is one of the few psychologists who has regularly worked with a professional sports team “from the inside”, by having a weekly or greater presence at the training facility.

3.

Dr. Chris Gates, Army Psychologist

Christopher B. Gates, Ph.D., is a Licensed Psychologist in New Jersey and Alabama. He received his B.A. from Muhlenberg College (Philosophy), his M.A. in Addictions Counseling from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and his Ph.D. from Seton Hall University. Dr. Gates is a commissioned officer in the United States Army who completed his internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and spent his active duty service commitment in the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY. During a one year combat deployment to Afghanistan and stateside he worked in a variety of specialized areas to include helping individuals cope with trauma, adjustment issues, anxiety, depression, smoking cessation, stress management, sleep disorders, as well as resilience training for aviation and special operations personnel. Dr. Gates provides in-service trainings and lectures nationwide in trauma and crisis management and has recently authored an article in the New Jersey Psychologist on his experience as a military psychologist. He has advanced training in Addictions Counseling, is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress by the National Center for Crisis Management, is a Board Certified Disability Analyst and Fellow by the American Board of Disability Analysts, and is a certified Aeromedical Psychologist by the US Army School of Aviation Medicine. Dr. Gates continues his military service as a Captain in the Army Individual Ready Reserve and is currently Co-Chair of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Psychological Needs of US Service Members and Their Families.

4.

Dr. Susan Nolan, Clinical Psychologist/Statistician

Dr. Nolan started her academic career at Seton Hall University in 1999. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University and completed her clinical psychology internship through the Vanderbilt University Internship Consortium. She currently is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Seton Hall. Dr. Nolan conducts two lines of research – one on the role of gender in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers and one on perceptions of depression and anxiety and how these perceptions affect interpersonal interactions. She has co-authored statistics textbooks, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (Worth, 2008, 2011) and Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (Worth, 2010). Dr. Nolan also is involved in international psychology, serving as a United Nations representative for the American Psychological Association. She has traveled the world and has lived in Paris, Montreal, and Livno (Bosnia and Herzegovina). She is planning to teach an undergraduate course in International Psychology in the Dominican Republic next May.