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Peer victimization can negatively impact emotion regulation in youth and is associated with harmful mental health outcomes. One protective factor against the impacts of peer victimization is a strong attachment to family and positive peer relationships. Given that pets are commonly seen as family members and that youth report turning to their pet for emotional comfort, companion animals could provide an avenue of support for youth experiencing victimization. A geographically diverse sample of 5725 adolescents in the United States from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® was used to explore whether the relationship between peer victimization and emotion regulation was moderated by whether a pet lives in the home. Having a pet in the home did not moderate the relationship between peer victimization and emotion regulation; however, mean-level differences were present across types of household pet (i.e., youth with no pets, youth with at least one dog, and youth with non-dog pets). Participants who did not live with a companion animal showed higher levels of both maladaptive emotion regulation (expressive suppression) and adaptive emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal), suggesting that having a pet might lower overall emotion regulation pathways regardless of adaptive directionality. Relational victimization was a significant predictor of expressive suppression regardless of whether there was a pet in the home, although overt victimization was not a predictor of either kind of emotion regulation. This research demonstrates the complex nature of human-animal relationships and suggests more research is needed to understand the nuanced relationship between pets, peer victimization, and emotion regulation., (© 2023 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

Social psychological research on collective victimhood has often focused on comparisons between the ingroup's and outgroups' collective victimization (i.e. comparative victim beliefs such as competitive victimhood or inclusive victim beliefs). This qualitative study examines how people in different contexts of collective victimization and its aftermath make sense of items commonly used to assess comparative victim beliefs, and how they extend or challenge these constructs and their underlying assumptions. We used thematic analysis to analyse eight focus group discussions among four minority groups in the United States with historical or more recent experiences of collective victimization (Armenian Americans, Burundian refugees, Jewish Americans and Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees). Findings extend commonly assessed comparative victim beliefs and reveal participants' critical perspectives on these constructs. The findings also highlight the dialectical structure of collective victim beliefs: Participants not only endorsed but also rejected comparative victim beliefs, and relatedly described both ingroup power and outgroup power in the context of their group's victimization. These findings extend existing social psychological literature on comparative victim beliefs and intergroup relations., (© 2022 British Psychological Society.)

Aim: Engagement in risky behaviours, including substance use, disordered eating, suicidal behaviour, and peer victimization/violence, during adolescence is becoming increasingly prevalent. These risky behaviours are highly comorbid and associated with long-term consequences for health, relationships, and socioeconomic status, representing an important public health concern. Past research has primarily investigated risky behaviours in adolescence using latent variable models, which are based on assumptions that may limit insight into the complex reality of these behaviours., Methods: The current study uses network analysis to examine adolescent substance use, disordered eating, suicide risk, and peer victimization/violence in a national (N = 29 008) and state-level (Kentucky; N = 3455) epidemiological dataset. We calculated central and bridge symptoms and compared network structure based on demographic factors (race, sex, grade) and sample (state vs. nation)., Results: The most central symptoms were suicidal ideation and attempts, stimulant drug use, and prescription drug misuse. The most central bridge symptoms were depression, methamphetamine use, peer violence, and suicide attempts. There were no differences in network structure between samples or across demographic factors in the Kentucky sample. There were differences in network structure across sex and race in the national dataset., Conclusions: These findings suggest stimulant use, suicidal ideation, depression, and peer violence may contribute to the high rates and co-occurrence of risky behaviours in adolescence. Based on network theory, these symptoms may represent important targets for intervention. Due to network differences, special considerations may be necessary to adapt such interventions to meet the needs of students from different backgrounds., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Introduction: There is a concern in many countries about violence from late-night alcohol sales and appropriate regulatory responses. However, economic losses arising from this activity rarely feature in public debate. Credible estimates are lacking because economic evaluations have not taken a 'societal perspective', costing health, policing and criminal justice outcomes. Our aims were to: (i) develop an analytic model capable of informing cost-benefit analysis of policy changes; and (ii) estimate costs of alcohol-related assault (ARA) in a major city., Methods: We employed decision-analytic cohort models of health and judicial consequences of ARA in Sydney, Australia. We constructed two 6-branch decision-analytic models of patient and offender pathways through the health and judicial systems. We produced overall estimates and analysed their sensitivity to key assumptions., Results: Combining results from a Health model comprising 40 pathways and 137 cost events, and a Justice model comprising 20 pathways and 48 cost events, yielded an overall cost estimate of $85 093 per ARA, of which 64% was health-related, while 36% was justice-related. Estimates were sensitive to values assigned for 'pain, suffering, morbidity and wellbeing', and to costs of incarceration. Health service-related costs accounted for 1.3% of the total., Discussion and Conclusion: The costs of ARA are significant and dominated by incidents in which a victim does not necessarily receive acute medical care but suffers loss in quality-of-life, and where a perpetrator is processed through the criminal justice system. Being derived transparently, within a theoretical framework, the estimates are adaptable to inform cost-benefit analyses of policy options in Australia and other countries., (© 2021 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

African American, European American, Mexican American, and Native American adolescents (N = 270) described how they felt and appraised their own actions in response to a peer's victimization. Analyses compared times they had calmed victim emotions, amplified anger, avenged, and resolved conflicts peacefully. Adolescents felt prouder, more helpful, more like a good friend, and expected more peer approval after calming and resolving than after amplifying anger or avenging peers. They also felt less guilt and shame after calming and resolving. Avenging elicited more positive self-evaluation than amplifying. Epistemic network analyses explored links between self-evaluative and other emotions. Pride was linked to relief after efforts to calm or resolve. Third-party revenge reflected its antisocial and prosocial nature with connections between pride, relief, anger, and guilt., (© 2020 Society for Research on Adolescence.)

When people are transgressed against, they are usually motivated to restore personal power that was threatened by the transgression. We argue and test the new idea that while revenge and forgiveness responses are typically seen as opposites, both may be empowering, depending on the offender's intent to harm. Across two studies, one experimental (N = 381) and one employing an autobiographical recall paradigm (N = 251), we tested a moderated mediation model. Notably, we found that revenge is empowering at high levels of intent and forgiveness is empowering regardless of intent. Importantly, we also demonstrate that empowerment provides an explanation for the process by which getting revenge and forgiving are each associated with improved affective outcomes for victims., (© 2019 The British Psychological Society.)

Refugee trauma, as described by Joseph Westermeyer, M.D., is compared and contrasted with traumatization and victimization. Exposure to cruelty complicates the recovery process. Clinicians who treat Vietnam veterans are good candidates for training programs in cross-cultural care of Asian refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shooting distances are utilized, among other forensic input, to position shooters and victims at the crime scene. Shooting distance estimation is done, mainly under the knowledge or assumption, that no intervening object has been present between the target and the muzzle. In the analysis of clothing items of victims that have been involved in a shootout, it is assumed that most of the marks and materials are left on the outer layers of clothing. The outer layers, not the inner layers, are the first objects the bullet meets. Consequently, undergarments are often disregarded for shooting distance estimation as they are not assumed to contain sufficient information in the form of marks or materials. In light of the above, it is the standard operating procedure in some forensic laboratories not to examine underwear. In this case report, the forensic examiners started by the implementation of standard operating procedures, thus examining only the outer layers of clothing of the victims. A thorough visual examination of the various clothing items led a forensic examiner to decide to extend the standard operating procedures, and try and examine an undergarment of one of the victims as well. The interpretation of examination products led to different scene reconstruction, one that may have led to a different interpretation of evidence. In this case, simply sticking to standard operating procedures might have led to less accurate crime scene reconstruction. This case report comes to stress the importance of thorough inspection of forensic exhibits, and scientific and critical thinking about different scenarios. Moreover, it demonstrates how the case‐by‐case approach in shooting distance estimation may add meaningful information, and eventually—bring us even closer to the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US Federal legislation mandates the treatment of underaged youth induced to sell themselves for commercial sex as victims and not criminal offenders of prostitution laws. Nonetheless, state prosecutors often take action in juvenile court against these youth. This study explored the impact of negative moral emotions, victim blame, and victim believability on public judgments of child sex trafficking victims under varying case facts. We presented an online scenario involving a trafficking case to 682 participants and manipulated youth sex, trafficker sex, vulnerability background, and prior arrest history to determine how emotions, victim blame, and believability mediate child sex trafficking decisions. Two different paths emerged depending on the youth's sex. Participants reported greater victim responsibility and greater negative moral emotions towards a male youth trafficked by a female when he had a prior commercial sex arrest, which in turn predicted a lower certainty of recommending social services over legal consequences. With the same facts, participants reported lower believability for a female youth when she had a prior commercial sex arrest, which in turn predicted a lower certainty of recommending social services over legal consequences. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of the findings for practice and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Sexting is common among adolescents and is associated with numerous health risk behaviors and negative psychosocial constructs. This study examined the relationships between high school students' experiences with sexual violence victimization, dating violence victimization, and engagement in risky sexual behaviors with experiences of receiving sexts. METHODS: Cross‐sectional data from the 2014 to 2016 data from Pennsylvania Youth Risk Behavior. Participants were selected using an independent 2‐stage cluster sample design to produce a statewide population‐based sample. The pencil and paper surveys were conducted in school. Participants included 6734 Pennsylvania high school students in grades 9‐12. RESULTS: Overall, 29.0% of Pennsylvania high school students had received a sext, which varied by sex, race/ethnicity, school grade, and sexual identity. Students who engaged in sexual risk behaviors, experienced dating violence, or experienced lifetime sexual violence outside of the dating context had a significantly higher prevalence of receiving a sext than students who did not engage in those behaviors or have those experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Early screening and prevention efforts that include discussions about sexting behaviors may help prevent other negative outcomes, such as risky sexual behaviors and interpersonal violence. Addressing sexting in the education and health sectors may help to prevent other related harmful health and violence experiences during adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, individuals with low levels of coercive power are at greater risk of victimization than those who are more powerful. However, in some circumstances, superior coercive power increases an individual's vulnerability. In this paper, I show how coercive power can increase vulnerability (offsetting its protective effect) by its effects on targeting and tactics. Individuals with greater coercive power can increase their risk of getting targeted because they tend to be less vigilant and more likely to behave in ways that provoke others. They generate more grievances and have more enemies because they are less compliant and more verbally aggressive and confrontational. Powerful parties are also at greater risk of being targeted by adversaries seeking to gain status. An attack on a strong adversary is more likely to enhance status than an attack on a weaker adversary since it is a greater achievement. Individuals with coercive power are also at greater risk because of the tactics used by their weaker adversaries. Weaker parties are more likely to engage in pre‐emptive attack and use weapons. They are better able to attract and rely on allies because of the norm of social responsibility, that is, the tendency to protect those in need. Finally, they are more likely to attempt to kill more power adversaries in order to incapacitate them and, thereby, avoid retaliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many children continue to be sexually abused worldwide. In Ghana, relatively high figures of child sexual abuse (CSA) are reported by the police daily. Although there are laws that seek to protect children from sexual abuse, in reality, there is a wide gulf between legislation and practice. This paper explores why this is so by examining the measures adopted in sanctioning perpetrators of CSA in the Ga community in Ghana. The study uses a qualitative approach to collect data from parents and guardians through in‐depth interviews. The study revealed that, generally, traditional rather than legal sanctions are adopted in handling CSA cases. This paper thus interrogates the consequences of the obvious contraventions of the law as traditional interventions are resorted to. We posit that CSA can be minimised only when child protection laws are enforced by the police and victims are reoriented to appreciate the benefits of seeking legal redress. Key Practitioner Messages: Conscious efforts must be made to destigmatise child sexual abuse.Sensitisation programmes should be organised periodically by stakeholders to educate community members on child sexual abuse.The police in partnership with the media must also lead the campaign to educate the populace that choosing traditional options of redress and non‐disclosure of incestuous acts against children is a clear violation of the law and the rights of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To comprehensively grasp, predict, and address the complexity of white collar crime, robust measurement tools are imperative. The burgeoning interdisciplinary interest in this domain has spurred the development of diverse assessment tools aimed at capturing offending behavior and its proxies. In the present paper, we provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of several commonly employed measures, including official statistics, victimization surveys, self‐report surveys, and (quasi)experimental measures. Drawing insights from this review, we then introduce a novel behavioral measure: the donation method. Although the task was originally designed to examine behaviors of interest to behavioral economists, we carefully outline strategies to refine and implement the donation method to assess white collar crime, addressing challenges such as task suitability and controlling for respondent behavior. Additionally, we provide a sample task to illustrate how such a tool could be used within this field. We conclude by underlining the appeal of adopting innovative measurement tools like the donation method to advance our collective understanding of white collar crime. By advocating for its widespread adoption and providing guidance for its use, we endeavor to catalyze progress in the field, facilitating unique insights and, potentially, more efficacious strategies for confronting and surmounting the methodological obstacles inherent in studying this elusive form of criminal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research demonstrates that relationships are key when working to support young people affected by sexual violence. Within these relationships, young people show a preference for non‐judgemental, flexible, consistent and informal support. Peer support – defined here as support provided by those with similar experiences – is however an uncharted area for assisting young people affected by sexual violence. This paper draws on interviews with 25 respondents with knowledge and experience of setting up, supervising and/or participating in peer support initiatives for young people impacted by different forms of sexual violence in Europe and North America. The article highlights how one form of peer support, peer or 'survivor' mentoring, can provide emotional and social support; create space for 'normality'; and give choices to young people. It outlines three unique dimensions to the support provided by peers more generally: relatability, credibility and translatability. The discussion reflects on what this might mean for traditional support provided by professionals. It also draws attention to the significance of recognising both the variety of experience and identity of young survivors of sexual trauma and the impact this may have on promoting relatability within relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with significant psychiatric and medical morbidity and carry unique challenges for treatment providers. An ED can become powerful to the point that it controls every aspect of the individual, and these patterns of control can be seen as similar to interactions observed within an intimate partner violence (IPV) relationship. This paper examines the literature on EDs and IPV and attempts to answer two research questions: (1) Does the ED–narrative self relationship share similarities to the victim–perpetrator relationship in IPV relationships? (2) Do individuals living with an ED report themes related to IPV in their discussion of the recovery process? Utilising a phenomenological analysis, online data from individuals living with an ED are analysed. The researchers find three themes and 10 subthemes that reveal similarities between EDs and the narrative self and the perpetrator and victim in IPV relationships. Clinical implications and future research recommendations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, policymakers and news reports warned that restrictions on individual mobility and commercial activity could lead to a surge in domestic violence (DV). Some initial studies found evidence of greater DV incidence during the pandemic, but findings were inconsistent across locations and DV measures. This paper focuses on a single major city, Los Angeles (LA), to study the impact of the initial pandemic shutdown. We use three DV measures from police data (911 calls, crime incidents and arrests) as well as two measures from non‐police administrative sources (the county DV hotline and hospital records). We find an increase in DV calls to the police and calls to the hotline. However, we find that DV crimes recorded by police and hospital visits by female assault (and DV) victims decreased significantly, suggesting that the increase in calls came from higher reporting rates. The decrease in DV crimes is not attributable to reductions in policing intensity, as the arrest rate for DV crimes was higher during the shutdown. We conclude that the initial LA shutdown increased the rates at which people contacted authorities about DV, but decreased the overall incidence of physical DV crimes in the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only limited attention has been drawn to children's narrative practice of negotiating cultural ideas about who they are and what they can do. This paper focuses on children living in families where adults have psychosocial problems and analyses how they negotiate different family‐related and/or societal master narratives about their identity and agency. Twenty‐two children, 6–17 years old, have been interviewed about themselves and their lives. The findings suggest three master narratives as central in children's telling: the story of the child as problem bearer, the story of the child as inheritor of psychosocial problems and the story of the child as an unknowledgeable object. The analysis shows that children negotiate these master narratives by positioning and repositioning themselves and others in, and through, their telling. The core contribution of the study is the notion that children's problem descriptions contain important information about both material and discursive aspects of the problematic situation. Through listening to children's stories, social work practitioners and researchers can deepen their understanding of how the individual child relates to, and negotiates, wider cultural ideas about identity and agency. This knowledge is relevant in the pursuit of matching support with the child's needs and perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do citizens punish elected politicians for corruption carried out by unelected bureaucrats? Most studies of corruption punishment focus on accusations against politicians. We argue that the direct, and therefore undeniable, experience of corruption at the hands of street‐level bureaucrats will lead citizens to punish national incumbents. We explore whether this punishment of corruption is mitigated in circumstances where voters believe that politicians have less control over bureaucrats. We combine cross‐national survey data on corruption victimization and political behavior in a sample of 60 countries from Africa and Latin America. We find a robust, negative effect of personal corruption victimization on vote intention. Surprisingly, we do not identify any significant country‐level predictors of the strength of this relationship, nor do we find evidence of systematic differences in how copartisans respond to bureaucratic corruption relative to noncopartisans. Our paper contributes to the growing literature on how interaction with street‐level bureaucrats drives political behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out an emerging discourse on defining and repairing the generational spiritual consequences of racism, victimization, marginalization, and isolation experienced by women of African descent, identified in this paper as "soul trauma." Drawing on the work of W.E.B. Dubois, Joy DeGruy, Iva Carruthers, and others, it establishes the deep and deadly effect of internalized white supremacy and cultural hegemony on the identity and socialization of Black women, an effect that requires substantial work and repair beyond what established human service delivery practices can provide to the essential core of one's being, the soul. This article posits the concept and practice of Sankofa as a form of holistic medicine in the repair of Black souls, specific to the use of Kindezi, a Kikongo education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper makes use of the developmental model of movement between mental positions that was formulated by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, aimed at understanding the dialogue that takes place between the media and social workers in the field of child welfare, centring around incidents of murder within the family. The basic concept in the paper is that when working with children who are victims of abuse and with their parents, and when reporting on them as well, the feeling of personal control is severely undermined, being associated with the loss of the hallowed social value known as ‘unconditional love of a parent for his child’. The paper illustrates these theoretical ideas by describing two cases that took place in Israel and recommendations are made regarding ways of promoting the dialogue between the professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contests what has remained a core assumption in social psychological and general understandings of the Milgram experiments. Analysing the learner/victim's rhetoric in experimental sessions across five conditions (N = 170), it demonstrates that what participants were exposed to was not the black-and-white scenario of being pushed towards continuation by the experimental authority and pulled towards discontinuation by the learner/victim. Instead, the traditionally posited explicit collision of 'forces' or 'identities' was at all points of the experiments undermined by an implicit collusion between them: rendering the learner/victim a divided and contradictory subject, and the experimental process a constantly shifting and paradoxical experiential-moral field. As a result, the paper concludes that evaluating the participants' conduct requires an understanding of the experiments where morality and non-destructive agency were not simple givens to be applied to a transparent case, but had to be re-created anew - in the face not just of their explicit denial by the experimenter but also of their implicit denial by the victim., (© 2020 The British Psychological Society.)

Violent ideations are increasingly recognized as an important psychological predictor for aggressive and violent behavior. However, little is known about the processes that contribute to violent ideations. This paper examines the extent to which polyvictimization triggers violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood, while also adjusting for dispositional and situational factors as well as prior violent ideations. Data came from three waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso; n = 1465). Full-information maximum likelihood Tobit models were fitted to regress violent ideations experienced at ages 17 and 20 on multiple victimization experiences in the preceding 12 months while controlling for antecedent developmental risk factors and prior violent ideations. The results showed that violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood are influenced by violent thoughts, aggressive behavior, violent media consumption, moral neutralization of violence, and internalizing symptoms measured 2 years earlier. Experiences of polyvictimization significantly contributed to an increase in violent ideations both during late adolescence and in early adulthood. The exposure-response relationship between victimization and violent ideations did not significantly differ by sex. The findings are consistent with the notion that violent ideations are triggered by a retaliation-linked psychological mechanism that entails playing out other directed imaginary aggressive scenarios specifically in response to experiencing intentional harm-doing by others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent times, sibling bullying has emerged of interest to researchers concerned with the emotional and behavioural implications for victimization regardless of type and setting., Aims: This research attempts to extend current knowledge on both peer and sibling bullying and to determine the effects of poly-setting victimization. This paper is concerned with the following objectives: (1) determining the current rate of bullying and victimization among siblings and peers in a large sample of adolescents; (2) investigating the relationship between sibling and peer bullying and depression and behaviour; (3) highlighting the carry-over effects of bullying from one setting to another; and (4) determining the overall association of poly-setting victimization with depression and behaviour., Sample and Methods: Over 2,000 adolescents aged between 12 and 15 years participated in an online survey., Results: Results found lower rates of sibling bullying compared to international studies. Sibling victims of bullying were at increased risk of becoming peer victims. Poor friendship quality, disliking school, along with peer and sibling bullying involvement predicted scores in the clinical range for outcome measures of internalizing and externalizing problem., Conclusions: The current study has clinical and educational implications for working with all important stakeholders (i.e., schools, parents, siblings) to reduce bullying and improve mental health., (© 2019 The British Psychological Society.)

The article introduces a series of papers about the experiences of children in public care. There are a number of adverse experiences that lead children to enter public care, such as physical, sexual and severe emotional abuse, neglect and abandonment, alcohol and drug problems of parents, family disorganisation and loss of control, poverty and deprivation, self harm, juvenile delinquency and criminal behaviour. Nina Biehal and Jim Wade in the first paper of this issue, describe a study of over 200 young people going missing from residential and foster care and the risk they face. The risk children face from other children while in residential care is described in the next paper by Elaine Falmer and Sue Pollock. In the next paper by Christine Barter, the difficulties and problems of investigating allegations concerning institutional abuse are described. The last paper firmly identifies the sexual abuse of children in residential care as a neglected priority. In reaching this conclusion, Meg Lindsay provides a survey of Scotland's residential care services.

This article introduces the featured papers about criminal victimization published in the March 1, 1984 issue of the "Journal of Social Issues." That crime is a problem of national importance has been amply documented. According to recent criminal victimization surveys there are over 40 million such incidents annually, costing victims approximately 9 billion dollars. And the impact of crime is felt well beyond the immediate victim. Secondary victims include members of the victim's family, friends, and neighbors-as well as the public at large. Besides the monetary cost to the victim and the public, there is the more insidious cost of fear. Surveys have shown that a sizable number of people fear criminal victimization, an enormous toll on the quality of life. In order to reduce the risk of becoming crime victims, many citizens take precautions, such as avoiding certain places or simply staying home. When going out in the evening, many drive rather than walk, go out only when accompanied, or carry a weapon or whistle. This fear of criminal victimization extends to the home as well as the streets. To protect themselves against intrusion, citizens purchase expensive alarm systems, dogs, weapons, or even hire private guards.

Over the past two decades, research emerging from the sub-discipline of 'geographies of disability' has highlighted the significant socio-spatial barriers that shape disabled people's everyday lives. Disabled people's battles to obtain equitable access through the justice system when they are victims of crime is one such arena in which these barriers become readily apparent, and yet to date, geographers' engagement with the spaces of the criminal justice system has been noticeably absent. This paper seeks to redress this lacuna by discussing the findings of qualitative research undertaken in Ireland on disabled people's experiences of the criminal justice system as victims of crime. It highlights not just how the justice system presents practical barriers to disabled people such as inaccessible courthouses or Garda stations, but also the fundamental ways in which legislation constitutes certain groups of disabled people as vulnerable or incapable, and therefore 'out-of-place' in the justice system. The paper makes a case for building disciplinary connections between geographies of disability, geographies of crime and 'critical legal geographies' in rendering these barriers visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent survey literature shows an increasing interest in survey designs that adapt data collection to characteristics of the survey target population. Given a specified quality objective function, the designs attempt to find an optimal balance between quality and costs. Finding the optimal balance may not be straightforward as corresponding optimisation problems are often highly non-linear and non-convex. In this paper, we discuss how to choose strata in such designs and how to allocate these strata in a sequential design with two phases. We use partial R-indicators to build profiles of the data units where more or less attention is required in the data collection. In allocating cases, we look at two extremes: surveys that are run only once, or infrequent, and surveys that are run continuously. We demonstrate the impact of the sample size in a simulation study and provide an application to a real survey, the Dutch Crime Victimisation Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a retrospective analysis of children's file data as a research method of gathering information on children's experiences of informal disclosure of child sexual abuse. This study extracted data from files where children were seen for a child sexual abuse evaluation in Ireland and the children were deemed to have given a credible account of abuse by the professionals concerned. A content analysis was conducted using themes identified in previously published research, based on direct interviews with children about their experiences of informal disclosure. The paper discusses the relative merits and limitations of this method, through reporting on the findings of the file analysis and comparing these findings with findings obtained from a smaller sub-sample of this sample of children, who were interviewed about their experiences of disclosure. It is suggested that this method is worth exploring with a larger sample size which would enable statistical analysis and thus explore the predictive factors influencing early informal disclosure. Frontline services can contribute to the knowledge base on what helps children tell through service-based research that uses data already collected from evaluation interviews with children, thus eliminating the need to interview children for research purposes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Frontline professionals gather useful data on a daily basis on informal disclosures of child sexual abuse., Practitioners can contribute to the knowledge base on informal disclosure by systematically gathering information from service users., We need more information on what helps children tell. We therefore need to explore innovative methods of gathering such information directly from children in ways that do not rely on interviewing children repeatedly yet include the child's voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on bra damage, specifically damage observed in hook and eye fasteners that are generally located at the backstraps of bras. We describe bra design including the method by which hook and eye fasteners are generally constructed. We assess bra damage in two situations where the damage observed was unexpected given the case scenarios. These were: (i) the complainant of an alleged rape attributed damage to her bra hooks to force during a struggle and (ii) the complainant had earlier manipulated her bra hooks in an incident not related to her complaint. Steriomicroscopy and reconstruction experimentation were necessarily used to assess the bra damage. A systematic approach to damage analysis was employed by the forensic practitioners to correctly identify damage as being a result of mechanical manipulation and therefore as falsified. This paper suggests that more examples of falsified damage should be documented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Mass violence refers to victimization, resulting in multiple deaths and/or injuries. Thus, the measurement of mass violence cannot rest on a single definition or dataset. The purpose of this paper is to decompose mass violence into its various sub‐types, discuss measurement issues related to the sub‐types, evaluate potential datasets for future studies, and offer practical policy implications. Policy Implication: Imposing a standard definition for mass violence at this time would be counterproductive and may stifle research and associated policy implications. We recommend developing an enhanced dataset on mass violence based on the National Incident‐Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The advantages of NIBRS include its linkages of fatalities and injuries from the same incident, no limitation on the number killed or wounded, and more information than alternative data sources, maintenance of the current crime data flow from local communities through the state and to the FBI for compilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the victimization policy in Italian history through a multifaceted investigation of Italian toponymy: statistics, history, and communication. The investigation shows that the attitudes of victimhood and chauvinism in the public discourse concerning the Italian past became not only socially prevalent but also part of the official rhetoric of the Republic. These narratives resulted in moral shifts concerning the national past, and the foibe (mass killings in Northeast Italy at the end of World War II) became the most representative and celebrated event, as testified by the co‐occurrence of the concept of "martyrdom" with the foibe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are individuals willing to intervene in public violence? Half a century of research on the "bystander effect" suggests that the more bystanders present at an emergency, the less likely each of them is to provide help. However, recent meta-analytical evidence questions whether this effect generalizes to violent emergencies. Besides the number of bystanders present, an alternative line of research suggests that pre-existing social relations between bystanders and conflict participants are important for explaining whether bystanders provide help. The current paper offers a rare comparison of both factors-social relations and the number of bystanders present-as predictors of bystander intervention in real-life violent emergencies. We systematically observed the behavior of 764 bystanders across 81 violent incidents recorded by surveillance cameras in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bystanders were sampled with a case-control design, their behavior was observed and coded, and the probability of intervention was estimated with multilevel regression analyses. The results confirm our predicted association between social relations and intervention. However, rather than the expected reversed bystander effect, we found a classical bystander effect, as bystanders were less likely to intervene with increasing bystander presence. The effect of social relations on intervention was larger in magnitude than the effect of the number of bystanders. We assess these findings in light of recent discussions about the influence of group size and social relations in human helping. Further, we discuss the utility of video data for the assessment of real-life bystander behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a new approach to the study of bystander intervention. Using insights derived from self-categorization theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), we explore the social category relations among those present in the context of physical violence. The paper describes two experiments that manipulate the social category relations between (a) bystander and fellow bystanders, and (b) bystander and victim. Analysis indicates that fellow bystanders are only influential when they are in-group rather than out-group members. Furthermore, bystanders are more likely to help victims who are described as in-group as opposed to out-group members. Overall, the findings suggest an important role for a self-categorization perspective in developing strategies to promote bystander intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses exact tests for evaluating whether a series of offences are randomly distributed across days of the week for small sample sizes. The context is if an analyst has identified a series of related events, can the analyst determine if those events are randomly distributed with respect to the day-of-week given only a few offences? This paper develops exact reference distributions because the number of potential permutations is small, and this research finds that the likelihood ratio G-test under realistic circumstances is quite powerful. Only three crimes need to occur on the same day of the week to reject the null. Several examples of using the test under realistic circumstances are illustrated; a series of thefts of catalytic converters where the exact dates are unknown, gang shootings, and arsons over a year. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing specifically upon nurses who commit serial murder within a hospital setting, this paper aims to establish insights into this particular subcategory of healthcare serial killer. In addition, the paper aims to test the usefulness of an existing checklist of behaviours among this group of serial murderers. Drawing upon existing lists of healthcare serial killers produced by other scholars as well as legal records and an online news archive, we identified and researched healthcare serial killer nurses, collating socio demographic and criminological data and applying the aforementioned checklist to each case. Our findings suggest that to date, the label 'healthcare serial killer' has been applied in too loose a manner, making the understanding of this phenomenon problematic. In further refining the definition and identifying the socio-demographic and criminological characteristics of the victims, perpetrators and crimes, we have developed more specific and therefore useful insights for practitioners and identified a potentially useful checklist which, with revisions, could contribute towards preventative strategies and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical examination of homicide circumstances as reported in supplementary homicide reports (SHR). Different types of homicides can be distinguished by the circumstance codes and victim/ offender relationship recorded on the SHR. Delineating murder by type invites analysis of this offense from a victimization perspective--homicides have much in common with nonlethal offenses. Different types of homicide present different policy problems to police. The paper also discusses various sources of error in SHR data, which must be recognized by researchers interested in theoretical or policy questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on interviews with a sub-sample of 13 women who had been both raped and had avoided being raped when attacked. Both acts had to occur when the woman was an adult, and at least one attack had to have taken place not more than two years prior to the interview. These women were part of a larger convenience sample of 94 women, 18 and over, who had either been raped or had avoided being raped when threatened within two years prior to the interview. The interviews examined both background and situational variables. Because for these 13 women the background factors, except for the prior assault, were held constant since each woman was her own control, it is possible to see the impact of situational variables on the outcome--rape or rape avoidance. Women were more likely to avoid rape under the following circumstances: 1) when they were attacked by strangers, 2) when they used multiple strategies, screamed and physically struggled, 3) when the assault took place outside, and 4) when their primary concern was with not being raped. Women were more likely to be raped under the following circumstances: 1) when they were attacked by men they knew, particularly if they had had a prior sexual relationship with them, 2) when the only strategy they used was talking or pleading, 3) when the assault took place in their homes, 4) when their primary concern was with not being killed or mutilated and 5) when there was a threat of force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While relatively few people are victims of criminal attack each year, many people fear personal crime and take safety precautions that limit their lives. This paper proposes a model of crime as an environmental stressor in order to explicate the links between the threat of criminal attack and people's attitudinal and behavioral reactions to that danger. Processes that affect both the assessment of the extent of danger and the choice of strategies to reduce that danger are examined. The paper concludes with a discussion of the social policy implications of an environmental stress model of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study of Vietnamese refugee students revealed that the majority had experienced multiple traumatic events and reported moderate to severe PTSD symptomatology. A stress intervention module (SIT), designed to treat rape victims, was introduced to determine its efficacy for the treatment of Vietnamese refugees with PTSD symptoms. Postintervention PTSD symptomatology was significantly reduced contrasted to virtually no change in symptomatology for the control subjects. Serious methodological concerns, e.g., selection bias, sample size, are highlighted in the paper. The current inquiry is essentially a pilot study. The paper is intended for heuristic value. Clinical literature is extant for culturally sensitive intervention approaches for this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma‐informed practices in the juvenile justice system are increasingly recognized as effective for promoting public safety through case management, rehabilitation, and treatment that is responsive to a traumatic event exposure and current trauma reactions. As court systems explore integration of trauma‐informed practices, tools for identifying best practices and strategically implementing trauma‐informed approaches are integral for judges and court administrators aiming to develop trauma‐informed courts. The current paper reviews the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's development of the Trauma‐Informed Juvenile Court Self‐Assessment (TI‐JCSA). Implications for self‐guided strategies to shift court practices and policies to align with trauma‐informed approaches will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the advent of new and increasingly accessible communication technologies undoubtedly provides new, positive, and effective ways for individuals to communicate and connect with their communities, it simultaneously provides additional means and forums for perpetrators to abuse and harass their victims. Furthermore, such technologies enable perpetrators of family violence to overcome geographical boundaries and continue their abuse post‐separation, particularly where there are children of the relationship. This paper reviews and classifies the existing literature on technology‐facilitated abuse, identifying predominant themes in relation to context and focus, as well as the gaps. New forms of criminality as well as new ways to perpetrate existing forms of criminality are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1995, Pennsylvania's Balanced and Restorative Justice Mission has been the driving force behind Pennsylvania's reform and system improvement efforts. Pennsylvania has made strong and steady progress towards advancing this statutory mission and the related operational goals through policy, practice and programmatic enhancements over these past 20+ plus years. Three key events spurred forth this advancement: the legislative passage of Act 33 in 1995 that statutorily established the goals of Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ), the Models for Change Juvenile Justice Reform Initiative–Additional Reform Momentum (2004) and the Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy–Evidence‐based Approach to the Reforms (2010).What follows is the story of how it all unfolded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of female sexualization on people's willingness to provide help in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV). We examined how sexualization may make women seem lacking moral patiency and moral virtue both of which may lead to a reduced willingness to help. In the first study, participants read a fictitious newspaper article describing an IPV incident. They were then presented with a picture of the ostensible victim depicting the woman with either a sexualized or non-sexualized appearance. Participants judged both the victim's moral patiency and morality, and then expressed their willingness to provide help to that victim. Although the sexualized victim was viewed as a lesser moral patient (Studies 1 and 2) and as less moral (Study 2), it was seeing the victim as unworthy of moral patiency rather than lacking moral virtue (immoral) that linked sexualization to reduced help. Controlling for participants' sexism and women's admission of infidelity, Study 2 replicated that sexualization reduced helping intentions through a lack of moral patiency. Practical implications are discussed., (© 2016 The British Psychological Society.)

The article presents the author's views on paper by Luck L, Jackson D., and Usker K. on individual acts of violence encountered by nurses in emergency department. The author argues that the paper's ethnographic approach on nurses' experience of being assaulted was valuable. It discusses the zero tolerance policy in Great Britain. It is inferred that the study provides insight on why some people are aggressive towards hospital staff.

Accessible summary When people report being sexually assaulted they can be examined by a specially trained doctor to see how the assault might have affected them. They may also ask for help from a counsellor or other specially trained support workers. These staff might belong to a sexual assault referral centre ( SARC)., This study reports findings from work that staff from St Mary's SARC in Manchester did so that they could improve the services they offer to people with learning disabilities who have been sexually assaulted., A staff survey showed that staff thought they might not always recognise if a person had learning disabilities or another learning difficulty like dyslexia. We wonder if knowing the difference is as important as knowing how to support people well. Looking at patient notes showed that patients with learning disabilities received less follow-up care than patients without learning disabilities., This study describes the first step that the SARC team took to improve their service. Improvements have been made based on these first findings, including some of those recommended by staff in their surveys. These will be reported in another paper to see if they have made a difference to people with learning disabilities., Abstract Background People with learning disabilities are more likely to experience sexual abuse and less likely to access support than the general population, this is due to a range of variables at the individual, societal and service-delivery level. This study presents a service evaluation of St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Manchester to explore its ability to provide meaningful support to people with learning disabilities and to identify ways to improve its responses. Materials and Methods The service evaluation had two components: (i) A staff survey to elicit self-perception of the knowledge and skills required to meaningfully support people with learning disabilities who attended the centre following an allegation of rape or sexual assault (ii) An audit of patient notes to compare service delivered to patients with a learning disability to those without. Results Forty-two members of staff (over 75% response rate) completed the survey which found a lack of differentiation between learning disabilities and other types of neurodiversity. The majority of responders reported having enough knowledge about learning disabilities to do their job and feeling confident in their abilities. Nonetheless, all the staff reported that they would like more learning disability training. An audit of the patients' notes found people with learning disabilities accessed fewer follow-up care services than people without learning disabilities. Conclusions The results identify areas for staff training to improve meaningful support for people with learning disabilities alongside a note of caution against a focus on labelling. By introducing more accessible support a diverse group of people can benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crime prevention literature finds extensive support for crime-specific approaches to organized interventions in crime problems. Yet within the communities and crime literature, little is known about the crime-specific (or generalized) way that individuals respond to different types of crime problems in their neighborhood. Using data from the Australian Community Capacity Study, this paper examines how individual characteristics, perceptions of agents of formal social control, and perceptions of informal community processes influence the decision a person makes to do something about different types of local crime problems. Results indicate that individual characteristics (prior police contact and previous victimization) and positive perceptions of informal community processes (frequency of neighboring) are positively associated with action; yet when people perceive agents of formal social control as effective, they are less likely to take informal crime control action. We conclude that the mechanisms that prompt community action are best understood from a crime-specific approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout popular media, there are stories about people being victimized because they are seen as different from the majority of people in society. Although there is a stigma aspect to these stories, the role that stigma plays in victimization is never truly examined. This paper uses an intersectional framework to discuss the role stigma plays in victimization. Through the discussion of male sexual assault victims, this paper sheds light on the varying construction of masculinity and how this meshes with the stigma process creating varying experiences for male victims. Issues associated with being a male victim of sexual assault are discussed, including a comparison with female victims and a discussion of how the construction of masculinity varies in different communities to illustrate how the experiences of male victims changes depending on their race, class, and sexuality. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of how a better understanding of male sexual assault victims could provide needed assistance for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent reforms internationally, significant criticism has been levelled at police departments regarding their service delivery to crime victims, and particularly for the disbelieving and insensitive attitudes officers may display towards women reporting rape and sexual assault. Police responses are frequently influenced by negative judgements regarding the victim’s dress, behaviour, and demeanour. These are flawed and ‘imperfect’ women – what right have they to expect ‘perfect’ treatment? This paper approaches this issue from the other end of the lens by considering the positive lessons to be learned from how ‘perfect victims’ were policed. The material presented is based on interviews conducted with 14 of the women attacked by the same serial rapist, supplemented by interviews with police investigators. The paper aims to identify what contributed most to victim satisfaction with police performance, and to present this as evidence of ‘best practice’ to inform future developments in adult sexual assault investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: ‘Stockholm syndrome’ is a term used to describe the positive bond some kidnap victims develop with their captor. High-profile cases are reported by the media although the diagnosis is not described in any international classification system. Here we review the evidence base on ‘Stockholm syndrome’. Method: Databases (PubMED, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL) were systematically searched. We compared features of cases widely reported in the English language media to identify common themes which may form a recognizable syndrome. Results: We identified 12 papers that met inclusion criteria. The existing literature consists mostly of case reports; furthermore there is ambiguity in the use of the term. No validated diagnostic criteria have been described. Four common features were found between the five cases studied. Conclusion: There is little published academic research on ‘Stockholm syndrome’ although study of media reports reveals similarities between well publicized cases. This may be due to reporting and publication bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the consequences for providers of working with survivors of traumatic events, particularly criminal victimization. The paper reviews the relevant research and treatment literature associated with secondary traumatic stress (STS) and related variables (burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and countertransference). The latter part of the paper identifies the most important mitigating factors in the development of STS. These include good training specific to trauma work, a personal history of trauma, and the interpersonal resources of the worker. Implications for treatment, prevention, and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]