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This introduction offers a primer for this special edition of the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. The purpose is to provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars and practitioners to communicate perspectives of criminal justice, criminology, and law; public policy and administration, economics and political science; social work and sociology; behavioral health, counseling and psychology; public health, emergency medicine, and psychiatry around diversion. While disciplines share objectives of diversion as (1) rehabilitation, (2) efficient case processing, and (3) reducing resources, the defining and reporting of diversion differs. Justice-involved individuals with mental health issues making successful re-entry into the civil society, however, becomes convoluted. Diversion in practice has taken many shapes. Diversion in theory has taken many meanings. This special edition offers a variety of empirical and theoretical articles that attempt to provide clarity to an often implemented and understudied area of criminal justice and health care. Interviews with street-level officials, quantitative analyses of programs, and philosophical challenges to innate assumptions about individuals and systems are seen from a wide variety of scholars. The authors showcase their varied backgrounds with graduate students, university faculty, and practitioners, offering the fields of criminal justice and health care insight into diversion at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conclusion provides a brief synopsis of the research articles presented in this special edition of The Journal of Contemporary Justice. The research findings clearly demonstrate that when the objective of diversion is sought by diversion-based programs where the criminal justice and health care systems intersect, processes and services frequently break down. As this collection of articles highlights, our collective understanding of diversion is siloed by academic discipline; thus, the broader picture of diversion remains muddled. It remains muddled because the reporting of diversion is scattered across disciplinary journals where a more robust understanding of diversion becomes unwieldy if not impossible for researchers and practitioners alike without sifting through multiple books, journals, manuscripts, and websites. Therefore, diversion will continue to elude efficacy without the coordination and cooperation of numerous disciplines spanning both the criminal justice and health care systems diversion. As this collection of articles strongly suggests, there is a need to create a transdisciplinary understanding of diversion as well as publication outlets so best practices can be developed and shared in one place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinguishing an obesity growth pattern that originates during infancy is clinically important. Infancy based obesity prevention interventions may be needed while precursors of later health are forming. Infant obesity and severe obesity growth patterns in the first 2-years are described and distinguished from a normal weight growth pattern. A retrospective chart review was conducted. Body mass index (BMI) growth patterns from birth to 2-years are described for children categorized at 5-years as normal weight (n = 61), overweight (n = 47), obese (n = 41) and severely obese (n = 72) cohorts using WHO reference standards. BMI values were calculated at birth, 1-week; 2-, 4-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, 18-months; and 2- and 5-years. Graphs of the longitudinal Analysis of Variance of Means of BMI values identified the earliest significant divergence of a cohort's average BMI pattern from other cohorts' patterns. ANOVA and Pearson Product Moment correlations were also performed. Statistically significant differences in BMI values and differences in growth patterns between cohorts were evident as early as 2-6 months post-birth. Children who were obese or severely obese at 5-years demonstrated a BMI pattern that differed within the first 2-years of life from that of children who were normal weight at 5-years. The earliest significant correlation between early BMI values and 5-year BMI value was at 4-months post-birth. The study fills an important gap by demonstrating early onset of an infant obesity growth pattern in full-term children who were healthy throughout their first 5 years of life. Keywords Infant obesity * BMI growth patterns * Predictive modeling * Infant growth, Objectives Childhood obesity begins in early life [1-5], dramatically increasing lifespan costs of obesity [6]. Early onset obesity is also a precursor to a life-long weight struggle [7] and numerous [...]

Substance use disorder (SUD) stigma persists in society despite a movement toward people-first language in the mental health field. Stigma creates barriers to treatment and marginalizes already at-risk populations. Opioid use disorder (OUD) is of particular relevance to this discussion because recent increases in OUD can be traced to iatrogenic origins, and as such, power differentials between prescriber and patient may complicate stigma and/or create additional barriers for those who develop opioid dependence. We examine the shift to use destigmatizing language surrounding OUD, explores the unique power dynamics associated with the rise of OUD prevalence, and presents a manifest content analysis of phrases related to OUD to observe the emergence of opioid use as a public health issue. Whereas SUD has long had visibility in public health discourse, OUD has emerged as a major theme in this discourse as its prevalence and mortality rate reached epidemic levels. We advocate for public health practice and research discourse to more uniformly adopt destigmatizing language alongside clinical SUD practitioners toward the goal of reducing stigma and barriers to treatment seeking for OUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood obesity is a major health concern. The associated health risks dramatically reduce lifespan and increase healthcare costs. The goal was to develop methodology to identify as early in life as possible whether or not a child would become obese at age five. This diagnostic tool would facilitate clinical monitoring to prevent and or minimize obesity. Obesity is measured by Body Mass Index (BMI), but an improved metric, the ratio of weight to height (or length) (WOH), is proposed from this research for detecting early obesity. Results of this research demonstrate that WOH performs better than BMI for early detection of obesity in individuals using a longitudinal decision analysis (LDA), which is essentially an individuals type control chart analysis about a trend line. Utilizing LDA, the odds of obesity of a child at age five is indicated before the second birthday with 95% sensitivity and 97% specificity. Further, obesity at age five is indicated with 75% specificity before two months and with 84% specificity before three months of age. These results warrant expanding this study to larger cohorts of normal, overweight, and obese children at age five from different healthcare facilities to test the applicability of this novel diagnostic tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]