Monstrous Crimes, Framing, and the Preventive State: The Moral Failure of Forensic Psychiatry
Monsters and predators frighten, entertain, and disgust us. The idea of a creature that is a volatile mixture of human and animal parts (the monster) triggers our visual and visceral imagination perhaps more than any other image. The fear of predation – literally, eating another’s flesh – disgusts and repels, but like rubberneckers who slow down to witness accidents, our voyeurism seems unconstrained by shame. The monster and the predator threaten us by threatening to rend the social fabric and bring about a state of nature in which, as Hobbes famously wrote, we are engaged in a war of all against all, and life is nasty, brutish and short. We demand that the government and its legal process protect us from the monsters and predators in our midst, which has resulted in a quest for security at the expense of the protection of the rights of citizens that runs parallel with the quest for protection from “terrorists,” as reflected in the epigram to this book. The referent of the “terrorist,” however, is often simply somebody who looks, acts, or talks in a way that is vaguely Middle-Eastern. Similarly, people who look, act, or talk like our vaguely sketched stereotype of what constitutes a sex offender, an image that has come to constitute a monstrous predator, trigger a panic as well (Lancaster 2011a, b).
Sex Offender Management
Abstract: Few issues within the crime policy arena are as volatile as those involving sex offending, yet there is an enormous ‘knowledge gap’ between research, science, and clinical practice, on the one hand, and the policy and criminal justice practitioner communities, on the other. Recent highly publicized cases involving sex offending, which have elevated the issue in the public eye, provide an opportunity for experts in this field to play an aggressive role in informing this debate. In particular, high priority should be given to developing more effective means of communicating to policymakers, practitioners, the media, elected officials, and the public what is known from science and clinical practice about sex offending and about what works in addressing it. A strong commitment to greater cross‐disciplinary collaboration is also needed, as is federal leadership, particularly in supporting a cross‐department research agenda. Researchers and other experts in this field can play a valuable role in helping ensure rational and effective public policy relating to sex offending that can achieve public safety and help reduce future victimization.
Human exposure to methylmercury from crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in China
Methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in aquatic food raises global concerns about human exposure to MeHg. Crayfish is the world’s third largest farmed crustacean species and a favorite aquatic food in many countries. However, human health hazard due to MeHg exposure via crayfish consumption is unclear, partly because appropriate survey data are lacking. We report on mercury concentrations and speciation in edible tail muscle of crayfish collected from restaurants in 23 Chinese cities. On average, MeHg constituted 99.1 % of mercury in tail muscle, and MeHg concentrations were comparable with those reported for fish in China. Variation in MeHg concentrations was not attributable to broad geographic region (i.e., provinces) or tail length. For different populations, potential health risk (characterized by hazard quotient or HQ) of MeHg exposure through crayfish consumption depended largely on crayfish consumption rates. In particular, a health hazard (HQ > 1) was found for high-rate consumers (i.e., 95 %ile or higher) in some cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLYR), during the peak consumption season. Our results suggest that more attention should be paid to dietary MeHg intake via crayfish consumption in China, particularly for communities with high consumption in MLYR.