Providentia

Are There Biomarkers for Child Abuse?

Child maltreatment (CM) is a widespread problem associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes. The underlying mechanisms of this link are not always well understood, however certain biological changes observed in maltreated individuals may play a role in connecting experience and outcome. A new review published in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy  specifically focuses on 2 markers of biological embedding, DNA methylation (DNAm) and telomere length (TL) in maltreated children and youth. As biomarker changes are not uniform among maltreated children, we additionally discuss biological and environmental resilience factors that may contribute to variability. Method: We conducted a systematic review of Medline, Embase and PsycINFO databases for studies examining DNAm and/or TL in maltreated children and youth. Methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) checklists for cohort studies and randomized control trials. Data extraction focused on various factors including population and CM (type, chronicity, severity, and duration) characteristics. Results: The initial search returned 1,688 nonduplicate results, with 417 full text articles reviewed. Twenty-six articles from 16 studies were ultimately included of which 8 examined telomere length and 18 examined DNA methylation. Conclusions: While some heterogeneity of findings was found, evidence supports differential changes in both biomarkers associated with CM. This review enhances understanding of the constellation of biological changes related to CM and consideration of the important role of resilience factors in mitigating risk. Elucidating these factors may highlight targets for future study and intervention development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

The Utah POW Massacre

It should have been a routine night at the temporary prisoner of war camp that had been set up at the end of Main Street in Salina, Utah. 

Two months following Germany's formal surrender on May 7, 1945, the 250 German prisoners of war who were still housed at the camp were waiting to be repatriated back to Europe. Due to the limited space available, the prisoners were kept in 43 tents scattered across the campgrounds with guards posted on towers to watch them. On July 8, 1945, Private Clarence Bertucci climbed one of the guard towers and relieved the guard there to begin his midnight shift. Bertucci then took this regulation .30-caliber machine gun, threaded it in the belt of cartridges, and took aim at the tents where the prisoners were sleeping.  He methodically fired 250 rounds and managed to hit thirty tents in his fifteen-second rampage. By the time a corporal managed to disarm Bertucci, six prisoners were dead and an additional twenty-two were wounded (three would later die of their injuries).

Beginning in World War I, camps in Utah were frequently used to house German nationals and prisoners of war.  With the 38th Infantry located at Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City,  Utah's location seemed ideal for housing German POWs following the United States' entry into World War II.  Hundreds of German prisoners were held in the camps during the course of the war and often housed in tents due to the limited space available. Guarding the prisoners was not a popular duty for the soldiers stationed at the camps.

Due to low morale and the generally poor quality of training that the guards were provided, discipline was a continuing problem. According to one well-known history of the Utah prison camps, many of the guards were described as being "of low mentality, non-intellectual, (who) could neither understand nor see the reason for the Geneva Convention. Many drank and went AWOL. They read comic books rather than listen to the news.  They liked to think of themselves as heroes, their one desire being 'to shoot a Kraut'."  While guards with more military experience and better training became common towards the end of the war, numerous guards with disciplinary problems still remained.

Clarence Bertucci was definitely one of them.

Born in New Orleans in 1921, Bertucci was a sixth-grade dropout who enlisted in the army in 1940.  Despite his long service in the military, he seemed incapable of being promoted beyond the rank of private and was a frequent discipline problem (including facing a court-martial on two occasions). He never served overseas except for an eight-month stint with an artillery unit in England and, like many other problem cases, was eventually transferred to Fort Douglas to serve as a guard. Despite his pathological hatred of Germans, he seemed to manage his duties well enough.

According to later testimony, Bertucci had reportedly felt "cheated" due to being unable to serve in combat. He was also quoted as saying, "Someday I will get my Germans; I will get my turn."   He kept it to himself if he was upset by the news of the war's end and that the prisoners he had been guarding would soon be going home. When Bertucci went out drinking on the evening of May 7, he showed no indication of what he was planning. According to the waitresses at his favorite bar, he simply told them that "something exciting" would happen that night and then he went back to the fort to begin his shift.

After being taken into custody, Bertucci was completely unrepentant about what he had done. As far as he was concerned, the killings were justified due to his victims being German soldiers. Following his placement in a local hospital for a psychiatric assessment, the military was forced to deal with the political fallout. The killing of nine prisoners by a U.S. soldier was a public relations disaster during what should have been a time of celebration. Despite the absence of any real evidence of mental impairment, Clarence Bertucci was declared insane by a military panel and sent to a New York mental hospital. There is little information available on what happened to him afterward or how long he spent in hospital. He died in 1969.

His victims, ranging in age from 24 to 48, were buried at Fort Douglas Cemetery. Dressed in U.S. military khaki uniforms, they were buried with military honors (there was no military flag on the caskets since the new German flag wasn't available). Only their common death date and the inscription on their tombstones distinguish their graves from all the others in the military cemetery. The other injured soldiers were repatriated when they were declared medically fit for travel. Bertucci's rampage marked a sad end to the otherwise successful internment of hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers in U.S. territory during World War II and is still remembered as the worst massacre at a POW camp in U.S. history.

In 1988, the German Air Force funded the refurbishment of the memorial statue at Fort Douglas Cemetery. A moving ceremony was held on the third Sunday in November (the German national day of mourning) and the statue was rededicated in honor of the deceased prisoners and all victims of despotic governments around the world.

Sleep, Stress, and the Pandemic

Stress associated with global health threats such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and related containment efforts may be associated with significant sleep disruption. Stress-related sleep disturbance is an established transdiagnostic risk factor; thus, identifying associations with coping strategies may inform future intervention efforts. A new study published in the journal Health Psychology examined secondary control-oriented coping strategies, including positive reappraisal, which may be particularly effective in the context of stressors characterized by high uncertainty and low controllability such as a pandemic. Method: The current study (total N = 227 undergraduate students, predominantly female) examined the associations among primary and secondary control-oriented coping strategies, positive and negative affect (PA, NA), and the development of acute sleep disturbance in the month after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Control of prepandemic reported sleep disturbance allowed for prospective analyses of pandemic-related change. Results: Participants reported high levels of stress due to the pandemic onset, including difficulties with time management, difficulties with work or school, and worry about the future. Reappraisal and acceptance were both associated with higher concurrent PA, lower NA, and less increase in sleep disturbance; however, positive reappraisal was the only coping strategy that predicted unique variance in increased sleep disturbance. Conclusions: Current findings add to our understanding of stress adaptation in response to stressors characterized by high severity, high uncertainty, and low controllability, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggest that positive reappraisal and PA may foster resilience to stress-related sleep disturbance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

The precarious masculinity of firearm ownership

Men are more likely than women to harm themselves and others with firearms. Central to this problem is men’s interest in owning firearms. The precarious manhood paradigm (PMP; Vandello et al., 2008) suggests that masculinity is tenuous and must be outwardly displayed. In a new study published in the journal Psychology of Men & Masculinities, researchers conducted a PMP-informed experiment to test whether threats to masculinity were associated with increased interest in owning firearms. Community participants in the United States (Men n = 388, Women n = 243) completed an online “marketing survey” and were then given false personality feedback profiles. All feedback was standardized with exception of the masculinity/femininity profile. Men were randomly assigned to a masculinity threat (masculinity reported as below average; MThreat, n = 131), boost (masculinity reported as above average; MBoost, n = 129), and control (masculinity reported as average; MControl, n = 128) conditions. Women were randomly assigned to a femininity threat (n = 84), boost (n = 87), and control (n = 72) conditions (conditions were identical except women received femininity threats/boosts). Participants were then asked about their interest in owning various firearms. MThreat participants reported significantly higher interest in owning every firearm shown compared to MControl participants, and significantly more interest than MBoost participants for half of the firearms. No differences in firearm interest were evident between MBoost and MControl conditions. No differences in firearm interest were evident across all conditions in the women sample. All participants were then debriefed. Results suggest men’s desire to own firearms maybe connected to masculine insecurities. Efforts should be made to socially defuse the masculinity-firearm connection. Further research implications and limitations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

New True Crime Book Out

I am pleased to announce that my new book True Crime Stories You Won't Believe: A Cavalcade of Chaotic Justice is finally out on Amazon (Kindle and  paperback).

This book is a compilation of  some of Providentia's true crime stories, revised and updated, that defy simple description. 

They include:

• The strange tale of a psychotic geisha who severed her lover’s genitals to carry as a token of her love and who inspired a cult following
• How a small-town murderer helped inspire the movie Psycho and left his hometown with a reputation they never lived down
• A father who sacrificed his daughter to prove his faith in God and his followers who fully expected her to be raised on the third day (she wasn’t)
• A Sorbonne graduate student who killed and cannibalized the woman he loved and went on to become a bizarre media celebrity
• A 19^th century serial killer who earned the title of “the worst woman in the world” by killing a series of husbands for profit
• The assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy you never heard about but which very nearly succeeded.
• George Stinney, the fourteen-year-old child who died in the electric chair for a crime he didn’t commit.
• Joseph Vacher, the “French Ripper” whose crimes shocked France but tried to blame it all on the rabid dog that bit him.
• How mob boss Vincent Gigante earned himself the nickname of “the Oddfather”
• Leonarda Cianciulli, the Corregio “Soapmaker” who killed three women as a sacrifice to protect her own children.

These stories, and more, are all featured here making this book a must for any connoisseur of true crime and bizarre justice.   And a great gift idea with Mother's day coming up (or not).   For now, it's available for free on Kindle Unlimited and I'd really appreciate some honest reviews from any of my readers.   Contact me directly if you'd like a free epub version for examination and to review for your own blog or web page.  I hope to do an entire series of Providentia books in time so keep an eye out for future titles.


To order the book on Amazon

To see my Amazon Author page.

 

  

Bigotry and the human–animal divide: (Dis)belief in human evolution and bigoted attitudes across different cultures.

A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology tested if people’s basic belief in the notion that human beings have developed from other animals (i.e., belief in evolution) can predict human-to-human prejudice and intergroup hostility. Using data from the American General Social Survey and Pew Research Center (Studies 1–4), and from three online samples (Studies 5, 7, 8) we tested this hypothesis across 45 countries, in diverse populations and religious settings, across time, in nationally representative data (N = 60,703), and with more comprehensive measures in online crowdsourced data (N = 2,846). Supporting the hypothesis, low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States (Study 1), with higher ingroup biases, prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups, and less support for conflict resolution in samples collected from 19 Eastern European countries (Study 2), 25 Muslim countries (Study 3), and Israel (Study 4). Further, among Americans, lower belief in evolution was associated with greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups (Study 5). Finally, perceived similarity to animals (a construct distinct from belief in evolution, Study 6) partially mediated the link between belief in evolution and prejudice (Studies 7 and 8), even when controlling for religious beliefs, political views, and other demographic variables, and were also observed for nondominant groups (i.e., religious and racial minorities). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of belief in human evolution as a potentially key individual-difference variable predicting racism and prejudice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Illinois Mother Appeals Murder Conviction in Five-Year-Old Son's Death

A Chicago-area woman sentenced to 35 years in prison for the brutal murder of her five-year-old son is appealing her sentence on the grounds that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.  In her statement to the court, 39-year-old Joann Cunningham said that she had asked the boy's father, 60-year-old Andrew Freund, and a local priest for an exorcism as she was "seeing demons" and believed that she and her son were possessed.    Along with her postpartum psychosis defense, she also insists that she failed to receive adequate counsel.

On April 15, 2019, Cunningham, who was pregnant with her second child at the time, had reportedly become angry at her son, A.J., over the soiled underwear he had tried to conceal.  She then forced the boy to stand under a cold shower for twenty minutes, struck his head with the showerhead, and put him to bed wet and naked.  After realizing their son was dead, Cunningham and Freund then kept his body hidden in a plastic tote in their basement for two days.  Meanwhile, they maintained the pretense that he was still alive with family members until burying his body in a shallow grave in a nearby field.  Freund then called 911 on April 18 reporting his son missing.  This led to a community-wide search involving local police and the FBI which continued for a week before Freund was finally persuaded to lead authorities to A.J.'s grave.  After repeatedly denying any role in the death, Freund has since been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his own role in the death as well as concealing the boy's body afterward.

A.J.'s death has also led to a major upheaval in the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services over perceived mismanagement of his case and failure to detect signs of abuse earlier.   Though he was born with heroin in his system and spent much of his early life under court-ordered foster care,  he was later returned to the custody of his parents.  Along with other health care needs, he also showed behavior problems.   Their other child has since been placed in foster care.

While Andrew Freund is currently serving a thirty-year sentence, the judge in JoAnn Cunningham's case is still deliberating over Joann Cunningham's petition for postconviction relief.  Judge Robert Wilbrandt announced that he has 90 days to decide whether the post-conviction petition has merit. If relief is granted, Cunningham’s guilty plea and sentence could be set aside and a date set for a new trial.

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