Not domestic violence or cultural tradition: is honour-based violence distinct from domestic violence?

This paper addresses an important conceptual question surrounding the categorisation of honour-based violence (hereafter ‘HBV’) – Is HBV a subspecies of domestic violence (hereafter ‘DV’)? According to academic commentators such as Reddy, Aujla and Gill, HBV falls within the broad spectrum of DV. Utilising data extracted from interviews conducted with 30 key agents, this paper will seek to provide incontrovertible evidence that HBV is different to DV because the characteristics it presents offer some differences. Furthermore, the overall strategies used to investigate HBV by UK law enforcement agencies differ to that of DV. Being this specific about HBV does not necessarily mean that one succumbs to cultural-essentialist assumptions about the prevalence of such violence in particular communities either. Rather, an understanding that HBV can be different will help identify the serious dangers it presents and the strategies needed to support victims.     

When is violence planned?

We examine what types of violent offenses tend to be planned using self-report data from a nationally representative sample of state and federal inmates. We find mixed support for the idea that predatory offenses are more likely to be planned than dispute-related offenses. As expected, robbery offenders are much more likely to report that they planned their crime ahead of time than homicide and physical assault offenders. However, sexual assault offenders are no more likely to report planning than homicide offenders. We also find mixed support for the idea that domestic violence-the supposed crime of passion-is less likely to be planned than violent offenses involving strangers. Finally, we find substantial demographic variation depending on type of crime. Robberies involving offenders of lower socioeconomic status and homicides and assaults involving African American offenders and victims are less likely to involve planning.     

Revictimizing the victims? Interviewing women about interpersonal violence

Research on women's experiences of interpersonal violence has grown dramatically and, as a result, the ethical issues surrounding this research are a concern. Although regulatory procedures ensure that research participants are protected from undue risk, little is known about the impact of victimization research on participants. In this study, the authors examine the differences in the abilities of a "vulnerable" population (142 incarcerated women) to complete interviews about the extent and nature of their violent experiences. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis, the authors assess whether the prevalence and incidence of women's victimization experiences, other stressful life events, and personal backgrounds are related to response rates to specific questions and completion rates. The authors find that the cumulative effect of violence over the life course has a significant relationship to women's disclosure of sensitive issues and that providing multiple avenues for disclosure of prior victimization is critical for facilitating a positive outcome for research participants.     

Is animal cruelty a "red flag" for family violence? Investigating co-occurring violence toward children, partners, and pets

Cross-reporting legislation, which permits child and animal welfare investigators to refer families with substantiated child maltreatment or animal cruelty for investigation by parallel agencies, has recently been adopted in several U.S. jurisdictions. The current study sheds light on the underlying assumption of these policies-that animal cruelty and family violence commonly co-occur. Exposure to family violence and animal cruelty is retrospectively assessed using a sample of 860 college students. Results suggest that animal abuse may be a red flag indicative of family violence in the home. Specifically, about 60% of participants who have witnessed or perpetrated animal cruelty as a child also report experiences with child maltreatment or domestic violence. Differential patterns of association were revealed between childhood victimization experiences and the type of animal cruelty exposure reported. This study extends current knowledge of the links between animal- and human-directed violence and provides initial support for the premise of cross-reporting legislation.     

Is it unethical to offer predictions of future violence?

An examination of the nature, foundation, and consequences of predictive testimony about future violence does not support the assertion, sometimes heard, that such testimony is necessarily unethical. Certain types of predictive testimony about future violence may have adequate scientific support. Moreover, society does not require certainty about future violence in order to restrict various liberties. Proper performance of an evaluation related to certain types of predictive testimony can provide an adequate foundation for the testimony. Finally, a consideration of the consequences of legal proceedings that restrict liberty does not support the conclusion that predictive testimony is necessarily ethically improper merely because it uses probabilities that create the potential for a significant number of false-positive legal decisions. Therefore, we would not advise psychology, psychiatry, or the courts to conclude that predictions of dangerousness as a class are unethical.This paper was supported in part by funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mental Health and the Law. The authors wish to thank Alexander Greer, John Monahan, Stephen Morse, and Ed Mulvey for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.     

Hurtful cyber-teasing and violence: who's laughing out loud?

The current study sought to specifically examine the affect of teasing by way of technology (cyber-teasing) and the importance of the redressive component of a tease. A triangulated approach was used here to gain better insight into the concept of "hurtful" cyber-teasing between romantic partners. A pretheoretical model was developed highlighting the possible associations between teasing via technology and relational outcomes. Findings provide researchers with the prevalence of hurtful cyber-teasing and the associated personal and relational outcomes. In addition, the relationship between hurtful cyber-teasing and the reasons why certain messages escalated into face-to-face verbal aggression and physical violence were also revealed. These results are discussed in light of the inability of technology to fully transmit the redressive nonverbal component of a cyber-tease.     

The clash of rights： Sexual violence and ethnic prejudices

The global spread of the recent financial crisis reveals the crisis of the social model at the base of Western societies. This can be seen from the increased social inequality and poverty, linked to increasing rates of unemployment levels within the so-called advanced capitalistic society. These societies, particularly the European ones, are interested at the same time in the migration and acquire the status of multicultural society. The mixture of the two phenomena, the economic and social crisis on the one hand, the increasing of migration flows on the other, led to deep divisions in that societies, whose consequences are felt by the most vulnerable groups： migrants and women. The associations complain of the increased exploitation of migrant labour, which creates resentment in the population, the unions complain the most violent fallout of the crisis of the labour market on women than men. In the Italian context occur that the two forms of discrimination have been dramatically intertwined： the public was captured by a sequence of shocking rapes of women by neo-communitarian citizens. The panic induced by the media has prevented a proper reflection on what was happening, crediting a model of criminalization of foreigners and increasing perception of insecurity in women. The scenario problematic from a legal standpoint, to which this article addresses, is a dangerous polarization between the protection of freedom of women and the respect for the social dignity of migrants. In relation to this scenario highly critical, in which is erroneously included women as a minority in conflict with another minority-migrants, the article aims to identify in a comparative way the best tools to prevent the ethnicization of gender violence.     

Does illegality breed violence? Drug trafficking and state-sponsored protection rackets

Illegality does not necessarily breed violence. The relationship between illicit markets and violence depends on institutions of protection. When state-sponsored protection rackets form, illicit markets can be peaceful. Conversely, the breakdown of state-sponsored protection rackets, which may result from well-meaning policy reforms intended to improve law enforcement, can lead to violence. The cases of drug trafficking in contemporary Mexico and Burma show how a focus on the emergence and breakdown of state-sponsored protection rackets helps explain variation in levels of violence both within and across illicit markets.

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Urban adolescent mothers exposed to community, family, and partner violence: is cumulative violence exposure a barrier to school performance and participation?

Using a risk and resilience perspective, the authors assessed urban adolescent mothers' exposure to community, family, and partner violence and analyzed the relationships between cumulative violence exposure and multiple school outcomes, within the context of welfare reforms. Positive attitude toward school and social support were examined as moderators of violence exposure on school outcomes. The authors pilot tested the questionnaire with 10 participants, then surveyed 120 adolescent mothers regarding their violence exposure, school performance and participation, positive attitude toward school, and social support. Results indicate very high rates of lifetime exposure to violence; intercorrelations and regression analyses indicate that as violence exposure increases, school outcomes tend to worsen, with positive attitude toward school found to be a significant moderator of the effects of exposure to community violence on behavior problems in school. Implications for researchers, practitioners, school policies and programs, and welfare policies and programs conclude the article.     

Domestic violence in Torun region,Poland — 1995, 1996

The following report concerns research conducted by this author in early January 1997 in the District Court (Sad Rejonowy) in the city of Torun in Poland. The purpose of the research was to investigate the scope and nature of the phenomenon known in Western countries as “domestic violence.” The legal provision concerning that crime is contained in Article 184 of the Polish Penal Code of 1969. The provision was placed in Chapter XXV of the Code entitled “Crimes Against Family, Custody, and the Youth” which also contains the following crimes: bigamy, continuous leading of a minor to drunkenness, evasion of alimony obligations, abandonment of a person who is dependent on others, and abduction.     

What would they do? Latino church leaders and domestic violence

Understanding what Latino church leaders believe about domestic violence, and what they do when they confront it, is a key step in developing programs to help them engage in domestic violence prevention and intervention activities in their congregations. This article presents the findings from an exploratory study of 28 Latino church leaders. The study surveyed respondents' beliefs about domestic violence and asked for their reactions to three domestic violence vignettes they might encounter. We found that study participants were willing to respond to cases of domestic violence in what we would define as constructive ways. However, some responses suggested potentially unsafe and ill-advised reactions to the vignettes. We discuss our study's implications for practice and suggest future directions for additional research.     

Leave or stay? Battered women's decision after intimate partner violence

Battered women's reasons for staying with or leaving their male partners are varied and complex. Using data from the Domestic Violence Experience in Omaha, Nebraska, a discrete-time hazard model was employed to examine a woman's decision based on four factors: financial independence, witness of parental violence, psychological factors, and the police response to the domestic violence call. Findings regarding the first three factors are consistent with previous findings. However, a negative police response did not deter a woman from leaving, which is a different finding from previous studies.     

Is low self-control associated with violence among youths in Turkey?

Self-control theory is tested in relation to violence on a sample of university students in Turkey. The primary findings indicate support for the theory net of the impacts of strain, deterrence, differential association, social bonding, and routine activity theories: The greater the low self-control, the greater the violence. No subdimensions of self-control have consistent significant impacts on violence. Most high-opportunity measures have positive impacts on violence. Interaction effects occur only among subdimensions of self-control and opportunity variables. Social class and age are significant even when low self-control measures were controlled.     

Domestic violence and panic attacks – common neural mechanisms?

Purpose. This paper combines material from domestic violence, animal aggression and neuropsychology research to construct a model to account for some domestic violence offending. The basic hypothesis is that some incidents of domestic violence can be understood in terms of the operation of primitive defence mechanisms, which are also implicated in panic attack. Perceptions of threat from an intimate partner could potentially trigger these same neuronal circuits thus releasing violent and emotionally charged responses at the spouse. Arguments . The hypothesis is based on:

• (a) the marked anatomical/physiological overlap of the neural substrates underlying defensive aggression and those implicated in panic attack,
• (b) reports of panic attack‐like symptoms experienced by perpetrators during domestic violence assaults,
• (b) experimental evidence that demonstrates that standard physiological challenges can elicit panic/anger attacks in some domestic violence offenders ( George et al., 2000 ).

Conclusions . Panic/anger attack represents inappropriate activation of affective defensive responses due to inappropriate control of critical midbrain sites by the amygdala and/or prefrontal cortex. Panic attacks could be potentially suppressed by increasing the capacity of the prefrontal cortex to inhibit the midbrain affective defence mechanisms. However, learnt associations between stimuli and panic responses are difficult to extinguish and panic responses typically show sensitization overtime. The same may be true of the behaviour of domestic violence offenders. There is a need to establish the typology of the subgroup of offenders who perpetrate panic attack related domestic violence.     

Enforcer, manager or leader? The judicial role in family violence courts

Judicial supervision of offenders is an important component of many family violence courts. Skepticism concerning the ability of offenders to reform and a desire to protect victims has led to some judges to use supervision as a form of deterrence. Supervision is also used to hold offenders accountable for following court orders. Some family violence courts apply processes used in drug courts, such as rewards and sanctions, to promote offender rehabilitation. This article suggests that while protection and support of victims should be the prime concern of family violence courts, a form of judging that engages offenders in the development and implementation of solutions for their problems and supports their implementation is more likely to promote their positive behavioral change than other approaches to judicial supervision. The approach to judging proposed in this article draws from therapeutic jurisprudence, feminist theory, transformational leadership and solution-focused brief therapy principles.     

Is tougher better? The impact of physical prison conditions on inmate violence

Physical conditions of prisons have been at the center of long-standing debates in correctional policy and research. Many argue prisons should be unpleasant to deter future offending and motivate prosocial change among inmates. Others believe harsh conditions inhibit effective treatment and, perhaps, make offenders worse. Little progress in these debates has emerged, primarily because few studies exist that have tested propositions coming from either camp. This study draws on survey data collected from a random sample of staff at each of the 114 federal prisons operating in 2007. Staff perceptions of noise, clutter, dilapidation, and privacy were combined to reflect physical conditions of each prison (aggregated to the prison level). Operational data measuring serious violence was used to create a count of serious assaults at each prison over the same time period referenced in the staff survey. Utilizing a Poisson framework, the data showed that poor physical conditions of prisons correspond to significantly higher rates of serious violence. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.     

Gender violence： A perception that the law discriminates in favor of women

Prior to the democratization of the South African society, human rights culture was at a lower ebb, both within the government and the society at large. The society was male dominated and the vulnerable members of society, ostensibly women and children, were not adequately protected against their male counterparts. The Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, brought with it a bill of rights which is justiciable and this led to the promulgation of various legislative measures, notably the Prevention of Family Violence Act, which was later replaced by the Domestic Violence Act, in terms whereof the state attempts to curb the scourge of gender and related violence.