This chapter presents an overview of the restorative justice movement in the twenty-first century. Restorative justice, on the other hand, offers a very different way of understanding and responding to crime. Instead of viewing the state as the primary victim of criminal acts and placing victims, offenders, and the community in passive roles, restorative justice recognizes crime as being directed against individual people. The values of restorative justice are also deeply rooted in the ancient principles of Judeo-Christian culture. A small and scattered group of community activists, justice system personnel, and a few scholars began to advocate, often independently of each other, for the implementation of restorative justice principles and a practice called victim-offender reconciliation (VORP) during the mid to late 1970s. Some proponents are hopeful that a restorative justice framework can be used to foster systemic change. Facilitation of restorative justice dialogues rests on the use of humanistic mediation.

This chapter describes some of the recent restorative justice innovations and research that substantiates their usefulness. It explores developments in the conceptualization of restorative justice based on emergence of new practices and reasons for the effectiveness of restorative justice as a movement and restorative dialogue as application. Chaos theory offers a better way to view the coincidental timeliness of the emergence of restorative justice as a deeper way of dealing with human conflict. The chapter reviews restorative justice practices that have opened up areas for future growth. Those practices include the use of restorative practices for student misconduct in institutions of higher education, the establishment of surrogate dialogue programs in prison settings between unrelated crime victims and offenders. They also include the creation of restorative justice initiatives for domestic violence and the development of methods for engagement between crime victims and members of defense teams who represent the accused offender.

This chapter aims to give the behavioral health specialist (BHS) a basic understanding of pain, knowledge about how to effectively evaluate chronic pain, and a description of effective pain management techniques. Knowledge of the biological and psychological basis of pain is important to understanding the experience of chronic pain. A biopsychosocial assessment is the foundation for providing behavioral health treatment to the chronic pain patient. Chronic pain is less responsive to treatments commonly used for acute pain such as opioid analgesia and avoiding physical activity. A multidisciplinary team approach can substantially improve outcomes in chronic pain treatment. Whatever the format of service provision, utilizing multiple interventions such as physical therapy/exercise, emotional management, pacing, and medication, rather than a single modality can substantially improve outcomes for chronic pain. Providing psychoeducation about chronic pain can be an important strategy.

This chapter explores recent insights from preclinical and clinical studies of cancer induced bone pain (CIBP). There are various neuropathic, nociceptive, and inflammatory pain mechanisms that contribute to CIBP. Neuropathic pain can be induced as tumor cell growth injures distal nerve fibers that innervate bone and pathological sprouting of both sensory and sympathetic nerve fibers. These changes in the peripheral sensory neurons result in the generation and maintenance of tumor induced pain. CIBP is usually described as dull in character, constant in presentation, and gradually increasing in intensity with time. A component of bone cancer pain appears to be neuropathic in origin as tumor cells induce injury or remodeling of the primary afferent nerve fibers that normally innervate the tumor bearing bone. The treatment of pain from bone metastases involves the use of multiple complementary approaches including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, bisphosphonates, and analgesics.

Cancer can affect the autonomic nervous system in a variety of ways: direct tumor compression or infiltration, treatment effects (irradiation, chemotherapy), indirect effects (e.g., malabsorption, malnutrition, organ failure, and metabolic abnormalities), and paraneoplastic/autoimmune effects. This chapter focuses on a diagnostic approach and treatment of cancer patients with dysautonomia, with an emphasis on immune-mediated autonomic dysfunction, a rare but potentially highly treatable cause of dysautonomia. Autonomic dysfunction can be divided into nonneurogenic (medical) and neurogenic (primary or secondary) causes. Orthostatic hypotension is a cardinal symptom of dysautonomia. The autonomic testing battery includes sudomotor, vasomotor, and cardiovagal function testing and defines the severity and extent of dysautonomia. Conditions encountered in the cancer setting that are associated with autonomic dysfunction include Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome, anti-Hu antibody syndrome, collapsin response-mediator protein 5, subacute autonomic neuropathy, neuromyotonia (Isaacs’ syndrome), and intestinal pseudo-obstruction. The chapter describes various pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies for treatment of orthostatic hypotension.

Despite treatment advances in the world of oncology, problems with sexuality, intimacy, and fertility persist for many women and men treated for cancer. Life expectancy of cancer patients, both young and old, has significantly increased due to advances in treatments of malignant diseases. Consequently, medical attention has expanded its focus to improving the quality of life of patients who have undergone cancer treatment. Sexual function and feeling healthy enough to be a parent represent two of the strongest predictors of emotional well-being in cancer survivors, and parenthood can represent a return to normalcy, contributing happiness and life-fulfillment. Often, cancer survivors fear that their disease or treatment history may adversely affect offspring conceived posttreatment, contributing risk for congenital anomalies, impaired growth and development, or even for malignancy. This chapter provides physical psychosocial spiritual dimensions of the fertility issues or symptom followed by its nonpharmacological and pharmacological treatment.

In human cancer, the role of genetic mutations, epigenetic alterations, and cellular repair mechanisms are becoming increasingly apparent. Recent studies have elucidated significant variations of the genetic codes that underpin cancer development in a variety of cancer subtypes. Genetic variations provide a backbone upon which cancer cells can adapt to overcome both intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms designed to limit the growth of abnormal cells. This chapter provides an overview of the types of mutations, various epigenetic modifications, DNA repair mechanisms, and their relationship to the development of cancer, as well as various techniques utilized for the detection of these genetic alterations in cancer. With the development of new, advanced, and sensitive molecular techniques like next-generation sequencing and digital droplet polymerase chain reaction, our understanding of cancer biology is rapidly developing, and a critical appreciation and knowledge of these cancer-associated changes will likely lead to continued development of more effective therapies.

The vast majority of cervical cancer cases are human papillomavirus -mediated. Incidence and mortality significantly declined with introduction of screening with Pap smears. Adenocarcinoma often presents with larger tumors (“barrel cervix”) with higher risk of local failure. Cervical cancers are often asymptomatic and detected on screening, or can present with abnormal vaginal discharge, post-coital bleeding, dyspareunia, or pelvic pain. Three Food and Drug Administration approved vaccines are available that prevent the development of cervical cancer. Imaging includes positron emission tomography/computed tomography (nodal staging), pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (to delineate local disease extent and guide decisions on fertility vs. non-fertility sparing approaches). Treatment at early stages is often surgical, while Radiation therapy (RT)+/− Chemotherapy (CHT) is employed in later stages. When treating definitively, External beam radiation therapy is followed by an intracavitary or interstitial brachytherapy boost. Post-operative RT +/− CHT is occasionally indicated for adverse pathologic features.

World Health Organization grade III gliomas are referred to as anaplastic gliomas. The general treatment paradigm includes maximal safe surgical resection followed by adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy (CHT). The randomized trials that established a survival benefit from chemotherapy used Procarbazine, Lomustine, and Vincristine (PCV). Concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) is given more often and is still subject to ongoing study. An improved understanding of genomics is rapidly informing the clinical behavior and treatment. Histologic subtypes of anaplastic gliomas include anaplastic astrocytoma and anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO). Headache and seizures are the most common symptoms of anaplastic gliomas. Adjuvant radiation improves overall survival after surgery compared to observation or CHT alone and is indicated for all high-grade gliomas. Despite the survival advantage demonstrated with PCV in patients with AOs and AOs, many substitute TMZ as it is easier to administer and generally better tolerated.