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The result of investigations of child abuse and neglect allegations may include the State's taking action to terminate parental rights (TPR). Though unification is ostensibly the goal in the early stages of the proceedings, the defendants with the most difficulty complying with the demands of the child-protection agency—those with mental illness, developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, and other cognitive deficits—often find themselves on an inexorable course toward termination. The authors have drawn upon a sample of 300 cases from New Jersey to explore the diagnostic types among defendants in these cases. The results include a significant proportion of individuals with readily treatable conditions, such as mood and anxiety disorders, as well as those with varying degrees of cognitive deficits, whose needs often go unmet. The authors identified a high percentage of defendants with learning disorders and borderline intellectual functioning. The article concludes by discussing ways in which defense expert witnesses can enlighten the parties in TPR cases, thereby enhancing prospects for reunification where appropriate.

Prevailing research indicates that corporal punishment in schools may aggravate the risk of violence among students. The authors hypothesized that personality characteristics of educational personnel may contribute to the risk that corporal punishment will be applied. Study 1 investigates the relationship between attitudes toward corporal punishment and two personality variables: authoritarianism and pupil-control ideology. Data were collected from 20 public schools and three parochial schools in Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Jersey. A total of 387 school personnel served as research participants for the study. The Corporal Punishment Scale (CPS) was used to measure the attitudes of school personnel toward corporal punishment. The CPS correlated positively with authoritarian personality traits (r = .78), and pupil-control ideology (r = .76). These findings support the convergent and concurrent criterion validity of the CPS. The predictive validity of the CPS is supported by a correlation with self-report of actual use ofcorporal punishment in Study 2 (r =.71). The authors conclude that the use ofthe CPS in screening school personnel may be important in preventive risk management with violent students.

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In the age of postinstitutional care, less attention is paid to the residual population of developmentally disabled persons within public facilities. Many such individuals are court ordered from the criminal justice system; they require varying intensities of mental health services. Level of risk to self and others is one component assessed by service providers as they plan resource allocation to meet the residents' support needs. Although it may be presumed that lower-functioning clients need more mental health services, this has not been tested systematically. The Developmental Disability Risk Inventory (DDRI) was designed to measure high-risk behavior in adults with developmental disability. This study investigated intellectual functioning, adaptive functioning, and high-risk behavior in 92 persons with mental retardation. The results indicated that DDRI scores correlated positively with level of intellectual functioning but did not show a statistically significant relationship with level of adaptive functioning. Together, these findings suggest construct validity for the DDRI. Implications for the clinical and forensic utility of the DDRI are discussed.