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Objectives: The burgeoning field of individual level crime location choice research has required increasingly large datasets to model complex relationships between the attributes of potential crime locations and offenders’ choices. This study tests methods of sampling aiming to overcome computational challenges involved in the use of such large datasets. Methods: Using police data on 38,120 residential and non-residential burglary, commercial and personal robbery and extra-familial sex offense locations and the offenders’ pre-offense activity locations (e.g., home, family members’ homes and prior crime locations), and in the context of the conditional logit formulation of the discrete spatial choice model, we tested a novel method for importance sampling of alternatives. The method over-samples potential crime locations near to offenders’ activity locations that are more likely to be chosen for crime. We compared variants of this method with simple random sampling. Results: Importance sampling produced results more consistent with those produced without sampling compared with simple random sampling, and provided considerable computational savings. There were strong relationships between the locations of offenders’ prior criminal and non-criminal activities and their crime locations. Conclusions: Importance sampling from alternatives is a relatively simple and effective method that enables future studies to use larger datasets (e.g., with more variables, wider study areas, or more granular spatial or spatio-temporal units) to yield greater insights into crime location choice. By examining non-residential burglary and sexual offenses, in New Zealand, the substantive results represent a novel contribution to the growing literature on offenders’ spatial decision making.

Survivors Healing from Abuse: Recovery through Exposure (SHARE) is a brief, exposure-based group treatment for incarcerated female survivors of sexual violence. Preliminary evaluations of SHARE showed declines in depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms from pre- to posttreatment. However, prior investigations have not included a longitudinal follow-up period and thus knowledge of whether therapeutic benefits persist following the termination of the group is lacking. Here, we examined data from 57 incarcerated women who completed SHARE and provided follow-up data while still incarcerated (M = 95 days posttreatment). Results from a one-way repeated-measures ANOVA showed significant reductions in PTSD and depression symptoms from pre- to posttreatment (large effect sizes), with symptoms further reduced during the follow-up period. In addition, McNemar tests showed a significant reduction in the proportion of participants at or above the clinical cut-off for probable PTSD and depression from pre- to posttreatment as well as from posttreatment to the follow-up assessment. Together, results suggest that the therapeutic benefits of SHARE persist after treatment is completed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol-involved sexual assault remains a pervasive problem, with extensive individual- and societal-level costs. Emotion regulation (ER), the process through which an individual modulates emotional states, remains an understudied predictor of sexual assault perpetration, with past research focusing on general ER tendencies (e.g., trait ER) as predictors of sexual assault perpetration. This study sought to examine the associations between state ER on sexual assault perpetration in the context of state anger and acute alcohol intoxication. METHOD: Single, male social drinkers aged 21–30 with a history of sexual risk-taking (N = 92) participated in an alcohol administration paradigm and were randomly assigned to an alcohol condition [sober control vs. intoxicated (BrAC = .10%)]. Intoxicated and sober participants completed a sexual assault analogue that assessed state anger, state ER, and sexual assault perpetration intentions against a hypothetical female partner. RESULTS: Path analysis demonstrated interactive effects of state ER and state anger on sexual assault perpetration intentions. Relative to men with low and moderate levels of anger, state ER was associated with lower intentions to perpetrate sexual assault for men with high levels of anger. Alcohol intoxication did not directly predict state ER, state anger, or sexual assault perpetration intentions. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that state ER may be protective against sexual assault perpetration for men who experience anger in response to a partner’s expression of non-consent. Because replication is necessary, the results carry tentative implications for state ER as an intervention target for sexual assault prevention programming.

Sexual assault is associated with increased psychological distress. It is possible that military sexual assault (MSA) is associated with heightened psychological distress compared to adult sexual assault that occurs pre- or postmilitary service due to the nature of the military setting. Veterans and service members (N = 3,114; 19.6% women) who participated in the Post-Deployment Mental Health Study completed self-report measures of sexual assault history, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), symptoms of depression, hazardous alcohol use, drug use, and suicidal ideation. Women who reported a history of MSA endorsed higher levels of all types of psychological distress than women who did not experience adult sexual assault. Women who reported a history of MSA also endorsed higher levels of PTSD and depression symptoms than women who experienced pre- or postmilitary adult sexual assault. Men who reported a history of adult sexual assault, regardless of setting, reported higher levels of PTSD and depression symptoms than individuals who did not experience adult sexual assault. MSA was associated with higher psychological distress than pre- or postmilitary adult sexual assault among women. Among men, distress associated with MSA was comparable to sexual assault outside the military. Women may face unique challenges when they experience sexual assault in the military, and men may face additional stigma (compared to women) when they experience sexual assault, regardless of setting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Women veterans experience disproportionately high rates of military sexual trauma (MST). Nonetheless, many MST survivors delay or forgo health care, particularly within Veterans Health Administration (VHA) settings. Institutional betrayal (IB) has been posited as a potential explanation for this. Objective The current study examined if IB was associated with women veterans' willingness to seek VHA and non-VHA mental health and medical care, prior use of VHA care, past year use of VHA care, and use of VHA and non-VHA MST-related care. Method Participants were 242 women veterans who screened positive for MST and completed self-report measures of IB and willingness to seek VHA and non-VHA mental health and medical care. Use of VHA care was assessed through VA Corporate Data Warehouse data. Results IB was associated with lower willingness to use VHA medical care and higher willingness to use non-VHA mental health care. Although IB was not significantly associated with prior use of VHA care, participants who reported more IB were more likely to have used VHA care in the past year and to have used both VHA and non-VHA MST-related care. Conclusion These findings illuminate the relationship between the institutional response to MST with women's help-seeking willingness and use. Addressing IB may be important for increasing women MST survivors' willingness to use VHA medical care. Additionally, as IB was associated with greater willingness to use non-VHA mental health care, non-VHA institutions and providers should be prepared to serve women veterans who have experienced MST-related IB. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose This paper aims to review the clinical approach adopted in prison-based therapeutic communities (TCs) for working with residents who have committed sexual offences. It reviews recent research and practice developments and explores the implications for TCs. Design/methodology/approach This paper describes a “think tank” review process which explores and reviews practice. This paper discusses the current approach adopted by TCs when working with those who have sexually offended and explores changes in clinical approach which could be considered in the light of current developments. Findings This paper explores the implications for TCs of the recent research and wider practice developments in interventions for those who have sexually offended. Practical implications This paper presents clinical options for working with those who deny their offence and undertaking victim empathy and offence disclosure work. It makes recommendations regarding staff training and support. It also discusses the strengths of the TC approach and how these can be built upon. Social implications This paper makes recommendations concerning how practice could be improved which promotes safety and public protection and enhances resident well-being. Originality/value There has been no recent review of TC clinical practice for working with those who have sexually offended.

Previous studies of the geographical and temporal features of serial sex offenses are limited by small samples and/or geographical areas, and are dated. We address a significant gap in the literature by investigating the temporal and geographical proximity of the crimes of 402 serial stranger sex offenders in the UK. Periods of incarceration were extracted from calculations of temporal proximity giving a more accurate picture of series duration and time elapsed between offenses from the same series. A notable minority of serial stranger sex offenders commit their offenses within very close geographic proximity and the same was found for temporal proximity. There were also occurrences of series spanning large distances and many years. The implications of these findings for the use of geography and time in the behavioral linking of crimes, and what they mean for policy decisions regarding financial investment in law enforcement technology, are discussed.

Many countries are in the process of replacing outdated sex offense regulations with laws that accurately correspond to late modern ideas about gender equality, sexual self-determination, and consensual sex. One example is Sweden, where a law that defines rape based on a criterion of nonvoluntary participation entered into force in 2018. This article analyzes the representation of rape in the new law and legal discourse in Sweden, and shows that rape is represented as a matter of choice and communication in sexual situations. Further, the new rape law is coupled to an emerging problem within such disparate spheres as public health, social media campaigns, sexual education, and gender studies; namely, the problem of sexual communication and gray zones in sexual encounters. To understand this new representation of rape, further exploration is suggested both into the effects of sexual violence being framed as a matter of individual choice, consent, and communication in late modernity and into the role of criminal law in the era of thin normativity. The article concludes that the new rape law sends a clear message about what sex should be—namely, something voluntary—but does not accurately describe the crime and the conduct that deserves criminal censure.

The prevalence of online child pornography is a major societal issue. The criminal justice system has struggled with assessing the risk of individuals involved in online sexual offenses against children, especially when it involves the possession of child pornography. Research suggests there are different categories of offenders involved in this type of behavior (e.g., Online Child Pornography Offenders, Dual Offenders, Contact Offenders), with each category having different motivations, contributing factors, and levels of risk to re-offend or escalate their criminal behavior to more serious offenses (i.e., collecting pictures to contact offending). Determining the risk that individuals involved in online sexual offenses against children pose to re-offend or escalate their criminal behavior has been problematic. Traditional sexual offender risk measures have lower predictive validity when dealing with online child pornography offenders. This article discusses the need for a formalized hybrid risk assessment model that combines the current online sex offenses against children risk measures with digital forensics artifact analysis. The evidence derived from digital forensics artifact analysis can supplement the predictive risk factors obtained from these risk assessment tools, thus increasing the reliability and validity of the risk assessment.

From media attention to legislative actions, individuals convicted of sex offenses are often perceived as dangerous and a threat to society. Previous research, however, has demonstrated that perceived dangerousness is gender-specific, often minimizing culpability for women convicted of sex offenses. Consequently, previous research on sentencing outcomes of these individuals have largely been male-only samples, leaving a gap in the literature as it pertains to females convicted of sex offenses. The current study sought to fill this gap by examining the impact that those convicted, victims, and offense characteristics had on sentencing outcomes for women convicted of sex offenses. We analyzed a sample of 262 females convicted of a sex offense in a Southern state. The results demonstrated that official case characteristics, along with victim characteristics, play an influential role in the judicial decision to impose an incarceration sentence.

Many forensic assessment measures are developed and validated under research conditions but applied in the field, where professionals or paraprofessionals have varied training, unknown fidelity to administration procedures, and contextual pressures related to their institutions or legal system. Yet few studies examine the generalizability of psychometric properties of these scales as actually applied in field settings. This study examined 4,433 individuals assessed by probation officers on the Static-99R or STABLE-2007 sexual recidivism risk scales in British Columbia, Canada. Sexual, violent, and any recidivism were examined. Static-99R and STABLE-2007 had moderate accuracy in discriminating recidivists from non-recidivists, and both scales added incrementally in predicting all three outcomes (with Static-99R demonstrating higher accuracy). Organizing the items into constructs, sexual criminality, general criminality, and youthful stranger aggression incrementally predicted all three outcomes. For violent and any recidivism, the incremental effect of sexual criminality was in the negative direction (i.e., high sexual criminality was associated with relatively lower rates of violent and any recidivism). Calibration analyses indicated that recidivism rates were lower than what would be predicted by the norms for the scales. The current study also presented a meta-analysis of 15 field validity studies of Static-99R and 4 field validity studies of STABLE-2007. Results of the current study and meta-analysis support the field application of Static-99R and STABLE-2007, while emphasizing the importance of training and proper implementation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Men’s sexual violence against women is pervasive and is commonly committed against young women by intimate partners. Limited research has examined occurrence rates of intimate partner sexual violence among university students separated by various tactics and sexual acts. Using surveys with convenience samples of 142 Canadian university women and 441 Canadian university men, we examined women’s self-reported intimate partner sexual violence victimization and men’s self-reported perpetration rates in their most recent heterosexual intimate relationship in the past year. We examined a detailed breakdown across different tactics (i.e., verbal coercion, intoxication, and threats of harm/physical force) and sexual acts (i.e., nonpenetrative sexual contact; oral, vaginal, and anal penetration). Thirty-three percent of women reported at least one victimization experience, and 16% of men reported at least one perpetration experience. The most common tactic reported was verbal coercion for both women’s victimization and men’s perpetration, and the most common sexual act reported was vaginal penetration for women’s victimization and oral sex for men’s perpetration. We also examined contextual features and perceptions of the effects of perpetrators’ most memorable incidents. These most memorable incidents often occurred either in their own or their partner’s home and involved alcohol consumption. Most men reported no significant effects of their sexual violence on their relationships and sometimes normalized their behavior. We briefly discuss the implications of our results for future research and interventions.

This paper describes the post-incarceration reintegration experiences of military veterans convicted of sex offenses and identify potential interventions to ease reintegration for this population. Participants were a convenience sample of 14 veterans who were on sex offender (SO) registries and 21 community stakeholders involved in supporting persons during re-entry. Subjects were identified purposively and through snowball sampling, in Massachusetts. We employed semi-structured qualitative interviews of participants, followed by analysis including process mapping to identify barrier and facilitation points. We used both a grounded thematic approach and a priori codes, guided by the Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations. We found re-entry barriers include older age, stigma, lack of social support, inadequate information about sexual offense levels, limited housing options and access to mental health treatment to reduce sexual impulses, and re-entry information tailored to SOs. Re-entry facilitators include access to SO treatment, knowledge about services, self-efficacy, ability to self-advocate, and social support. Interventions to aid successful re-entry include pre-release counseling and classes tailored to SO needs, re-entry planning including housing resources, sexual deviance treatment, and referral to legal counseling to assist with altering assigned SO level. Specific needs and resources unique to veterans should be integrated into reentry plans. Convicted SOs often lack information and assistance to prepare for life after release, putting them at increased risk of homelessness, emotional difficulties, and financial hardship. Failure to recognize the unique needs of this population, and to leverage resources, creates a public health risk as it increases the likelihood that SOs will recidivate. Veterans who are SOs have unique resources available to them through the Veterans Administration such as SO treatment and peer-support specialists. Nevertheless there are additional steps that could be beneficial, such as timely provision of information, creating more opportunities for treatment, and providing more housing options.

Given the number of veterans who have experienced military sexual trauma (MST) and the impact of these experiences on veteran health, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) providers frequently communicate with patients about these experiences, either as part of the VHA's universal MST screening program or more comprehensive clinical care. The purpose of this study was to understand veterans' perceptions of communication related to MST disclosures with VHA providers. We conducted qualitative interviews, including a numeric rating question, with 55 veterans whose medical records indicated recent MST-related interactions with VHA providers. The sample included men and women, with and without histories of MST. We analyzed interview transcripts using matrices and identified themes related to satisfaction with communication. Veterans from all groups reported generally high satisfaction with MST-related communication, although men, as a group, reported a much larger range of satisfaction ratings than women. Key provider-related indicators of satisfaction included providers' communication mechanics and nonspecific patient-centered skills and characteristics. One patient-related indicator of lower satisfaction-inherent discomfort discussing MST experiences-was particularly represented among men with MST histories. These data from veteran patients will be reassuring to providers whose concerns about patient reactions to these conversations may inhibit them from raising this important issue. Understanding variables that promote patient satisfaction with MST disclosure communication is critical for promoting sensitive patient-provider interactions about MST. This ultimately can have important downstream effects on veteran health, allowing veterans to forge satisfying relationships with providers and ultimately facilitate recovery from traumatic experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Introduction Despite a global focus on intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been little exploration into how the pandemic and its associated restrictions have impacted sexual assault survivors and their ability to access specialized care and resources. The purpose of this research brief is to use longitudinal data to compare the number of medical forensic examinations done seasonally prepandemic and during the COVID-19 pandemic shelter-in-place order. Methods This analysis uses retrospective data on medical forensic examinations from January 2010 through November 2020 from one large academic Midwestern hospital. Results Results show that monthly medical forensic examinations have increased over time, from a mean of 4.5 cases per month (range: 1-9) in 2010 to a mean of 9 cases per month (range: 7-11) in 2019. In April 2020, when COVID-19-related shutdowns were at their first peak, cases dropped to a historic low of 0 examinations (the lowest number of cases in the past 10 years). Conclusions The data show an initial drop in the number of survivors seeking postassault care after the COVID shutdown;however, cases rebounded through the second full month of shutdown orders. Programs that provide medical forensic examinations need to be prepared for subsequent waves of survivors, who may be COVID-19 positive. We must be better prepared for many of the adverse consequences impacting individuals around the country related to COVID-19 responses. © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

OBJECTIVE: High rates of alcohol-related sexual assault among young adults represent a significant public health problem. Bystander intervention programs are a promising strategy to reduce sexual assault incidence. However, little is known about how bystander intoxication may modify bystander intervention effectiveness. We examined the role of bystander intoxication and intoxication levels of the hypothetical victim and perpetrator on outcomes associated with Latané and Darley’s (1970) steps of bystander intervention, which include noticing a situation, assessment of risk and need for intervention, taking personal responsibility for intervening, and selecting an intervention. METHOD: In a field setting, participants were recruited from a downtown area surrounded by several drinking establishments. After providing informed consent, 327 participants (45% women) ages 21 – 29 years listened to one of four sexual assault vignettes (varied by victim and perpetrator intoxication), responded to questionnaires assessing outcomes related to steps of bystander intervention, and completed a field breathalyzer test to measure intoxication level. RESULTS: We found that increased participant intoxication was related to decreased accuracy of situation recall and assessment of risk and need for intervention, but not ratings of personal responsibility to intervene, chosen intervention strategy, or confidence to intervene. CONCLUSIONS: Intoxication could influence how a bystander interprets a hypothetical nonconsensual sexual interaction at the level of accurate situation recall and risk assessment. If the early steps of information processing are impaired by intoxication, later steps of intervention enactment may not occur successfully. Bystander intervention programming may consider incorporating training to overcome the impairing effects of intoxication for identifying harmful situations and choosing to intervene.

A contentious criminal justice policy issue in recent times has been community management policies for individuals convicted of sexual offenses. This systematic review attained professionals’ views, areas of concern, and recommendations for community management policies. It went beyond the extant literature by exploring perceptions of heterogenous professional groups involved in the criminal justice system. Of the 25 studies, 12 were quantitative, nine qualitative, and four mixed methods, and included custodial and community correctional officers, probation officers, psychologists, police officers, prosecutors, lawmakers, and academics. Overall, professionals mostly supported the policies, but had less support for public registries and community notification. Four key issues associated with the policies were apparent: problems with actuarial risk assessment tools, difficulties accessing information with partner agencies, limited resources, and lack of education among the public. Within this, four recommendations were identified. These findings offer a valuable resource for researchers, along with government and policy professionals tasked with overseeing community management policies.