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Victims of crimes have been granted increasing procedural rights to participate in the juridical process since the mid 1990s. However, knowledge about the (anti)-therapeutic effect of participation is limited. We examined the associations between symptom levels of persistent complex bereavement disorder (PCBD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression and the intention to participate in a criminal trial. Furthermore, we investigated the mediating role of state anger in these associations. People who lost loved ones after a plane disaster with flight MH17 (N = 203) completed questionnaires within three weeks before the start of the criminal trial. Mediation analyses indicated that people, who did not intend to actively participate in the trial by delivering a written or oral victim statement, were less likely to experience anger, which is, in turn, associated with attenuated psychopathology levels. State anger explains 68% of the effect of the intention to exercise the right to speak on PCBD levels. An important limitation is the cross-sectional study design, which precludes conclusions about temporal associations. More research is needed to improve preparation and support of bereaved people when they intend to exercise their victim rights during a criminal trial., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In the Netherlands, in approximately 30% of the more serious criminal cases, a pretrial forensic mental health report (FMHR) is requested to inform the court whether a mental disorder was present at the time of alleged crime, whether this disorder affected behavior and decision-making at the time of the offense and how this disorder may affect future (criminal) behavior. While informative for sentencing decisions, information about mental disorders or risk is irrelevant for the question whether the defendant committed the alleged crime. Yet based on cognitive psychological theory of evidence evaluation and integration, we hypothesized that information in an FMHR would affect the evaluation of evidence as well as the ultimate decision about guilt. Using an experimental vignette study among 200 law and criminology students with manipulation of the presence and content of an FMHR, we found a main effect of the presence of an FMHR report on decisions about guilt. The proportion of guilty verdicts increased with almost 20% when an FMHR was present compared to when this report was absent, irrespective of the type of disorder (schizophrenia or personality disorder) or level of recidivism risk (low or high) present in the report. We did not find support for our hypothesis that this effect could be explained by assimilation of other available evidence. Implications for further research and practice are discussed., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objectives: Negative automatic associations towards the self and social cues are assumed to play an important role in social anxiety disorder. We tested whether social anxiety disorder patients (n = 45) showed stronger dysfunctional automatic associations than non-clinical controls (n = 45) and panic disorder patients (n = 24) and whether there existed gender differences in this respect., Methods: We used a single-target Implicit Association Test and an Implicit Association Test to measure dysfunctional automatic associations with social cues and implicit self-esteem, respectively., Results: Results showed that automatic associations with social cues were more dysfunctional in socially anxious patients than in both control groups, suggesting this might be a specific characteristic of social anxiety disorder. Socially anxious patients showed relatively low implicit self-esteem compared to non-clinical controls, whereas panic disorder patients scored in between both groups. Unexpectedly, we found that lower implicit self-esteem was related to higher severity of social anxiety symptoms in men, whereas no such relationship was found in women., Conclusions: These findings support the view that automatic negative associations with social cues and lowered implicit self-esteem may both help to enhance our understanding of the cognitive processes that underlie social anxiety disorder., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)