Search

Although violence among youth remains an important, global issue, little research has been conducted regarding how young people themselves define violence and what practices in relation to violence that are evident in their everyday lives. Using an intersectional gender perspective, specifically exploring the intersection of gender, age, and class, this paper therefore aims to explore how young people define violence, as well as to explore what practices in relation to violence that are evident in young people's everyday lives. By using a photovoice methodology, 11 focus groups of young boys and girls (17–19 years old) living in two municipalities in northern Sweden were interviewed and asked to take photographs representing themes that were discussed. Overall, three main themes in the young peoples' stories were identified: Violence as ubiquitous, Easy prey and dangerous predators, and The way forward. The findings demonstrated that violence is pervasive, all-encompassing and normalized in young people's everyday lives, and that this violence is moderated by intersecting power orders of gender, age, and class. Any future theoretical frameworks or prevention strategies should therefore aim to include an intersectional perspective as well as including the voices of the youths themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although trends of violent crime have been examined for over a century, no previous study has examined the change of subtypes of violence over time. This study therefore aims to identify subtypes of violence in Scotland, where violence levels have decreased from one of the highest in Europe to one of the lowest, based on variables relating to the victim, offender, and incident, and to examine how these subtypes have changed over time. Four main types of violence were identified using multilevel latent class analysis on Scottish Crime and Justice Survey data: public no weapon, public weapon, work-related, and domestic. The findings show that although all types of violence have demonstrated an absolute decrease over time, Domestic and work-related violence have demonstrated relative increases over time. The findings are discussed in relation to the inequality of this decrease and propose guidelines for future prevention policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a number of previous studies have compared sexual homicides to nonlethal sexual offenses, there have been few studies comparing sexual and nonsexual homicides. This study examines whether sexual homicide offenders differ from nonsexual homicide offenders in Scotland regarding characteristics of the offender, the victim, and the homicide incident. Unlike previous studies, only homicides committed by males against females were examined. Data from a national police database were used to compare 89 male sexual homicide offenders who killed adult females with 306 male nonsexual homicide offenders who had also killed adult females using bivariate and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses. The findings revealed not only some similarities between the two groups, particularly regarding some victim variables, but also significant bivariate and multivariate differences. Sexual homicides appeared to be associated with indicators of instrumentality and sexual deviance. We conclude that sexual homicide offenders might be considered a distinct group of homicide offenders, more similar to sexual offenders than to other homicide offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although similar subtypes of sexual homicide have been described cross-nationally, no study has directly examined whether two samples from different jurisdictions are comparable. This study therefore aimed to examine whether any substantively meaningful subtypes of sexual homicide cases could be identified in each sample, and if so, whether these subtypes were similar across jurisdictions. Two samples of male sexual homicide offenders were compared: a Scottish sample (n = 89) and a Canadian sample (n = 150). Subtypes were identified in each sample using LCA, identifying a 3-class solution in each sample. Despite differences between samples on the bivariate level, two very similar subtypes (Controlled-Organized and Diverse) emerged in both samples. Despite differences at the bivariate level, the similarities at the multivariate level indicate similarities in underlying offence pathways which underpin heterogeneity in sexual homicide offenders. The similarities between the subtypes identified suggests potential universality of types of sexual homicides cross-nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual child homicides are rare, even among sexual homicides, and no previous study has compared sexual child homicide with nonsexual child homicides. To address this gap in research, this study aims to compare sexual child homicide offenders (n = 8) with two comparison groups: sexual adult homicide offenders (n = 89) and nonsexual child homicide offenders (n = 176) regarding victim, offender, and modus operandi factors. Using bivariate analysis, the results show that although sexual child homicide offenders appear more similar to other sexual homicide offenders than to homicide offenders, sexual offenders targeting children differ from both groups on certain variables. Sexual child homicide offenders more often used strangulation as a method of killing, had intoxicated victims, used multiple locations, and destroyed evidence after the murder. The study concludes that sexual homicide offenders targeting children should be considered distinct from other offenders and that the salient characteristics linked to sadism and instrumentality should be further examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on female sexual homicide has been very scarce. In Europe, it has rarely been examined, and in Scotland, it has never previously been studied. This exploratory study aims to examine the characteristics of sexual homicides involving female offenders between 1990 and 2015 in Scotland. Using data from the Scottish Homicide Database between 1990 and 2015, female sexual homicides (n = 7) were compared to nonsexual homicides committed by females (n = 106) and to sexual homicides committed by men (n = 89) using Fisher's exact tests. The findings show that although female sexual homicide offenders are similar to both female nonsexual homicide offenders and male sexual homicide offenders in certain aspects, there are important differences that distinguish sexual homicides involving female offenders from both groups. Female sexual homicide offenders can arguably be seen as a distinct group of offenders, with specific characteristics and specific needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]