Impulsivity,attribution and prison bullying: Bully-category and perpetrator–victim mutuality

The current study explores bullying behaviours among adult male prisoners, examining its relationship with aggression attribution and impulsivity. Employed are two separate methods of analysis to determine how this may influence results. Participants were 102 prisoners. All completed a revised version of the Direct and Indirect Prisoner behaviour Checklist (DIPC-R), the Barratt Impulsivity Scale: Version II (BIS-12) and the Expressive Aggression Scale (EXPAGG). Analysis included categorical analysis with prisoners placed into one of four groups (pure bully, pure victim, bully/victim and not-involved), and factorial analysis where perpetration and victimisation were assessed as continuous variables and evidence of interactions explored. It was predicted that perpetration would be associated with higher instrumental attributions and higher impulsivity than non-perpetration. It was predicted that a factorial analysis would demonstrate no interactions between perpetration and victimisation across aggression variables, questioning the utility of a distinct ‘bully–victim’ group. Bullies were found to have higher instrumental attribution scores than non-bullies, with no differences for expressive attribution. Victims were more impulsive than non-victims with evidence that perpetration moderated this relationship. A categorical analysis demonstrated that bully/victims were more impulsive, at least in relation to pure bullies. Results suggested that it was the combined effect of indirect and direct aggression which promoted differences between victims and bullies in relation to attribution and impulsivity. Results are discussed with reference to previous research concerning prison bullying, with directions for future research focused on exploration of perpetrator–victim mutuality using a range of variables and distinct methods of analysis.     

Gender difference or indifference? Detective decision making in sexual assault cases

Prior research examining sexual assault case decision making has failed to account for the demographic characteristics of the criminal justice practitioners charged with making case decisions. Inclusion of such information is important because it provides researchers with a greater understanding of how criminal justice practitioners' own gender, race, age, and past experiences affect their judgments. This study seeks to examine whether gender differences exist in detectives' arrest decisions in sexual assault cases. Victim, suspect, incident, and detective characteristics are collected from police case and investigatory files on 328 criminal sexual assault cases involving adult female victims reported to a large Midwestern police department in 2003. Logistic regression is used to determine whether detective gender predicted the odds of arrest after controlling for incident, victim, and suspect characteristics. It is hypothesized that cases involving female detectives would be more likely to result in arrest after controlling for other incident, victim, and suspect characteristics. However, contrary to expectations, female detectives are significantly less likely than male detectives to arrest suspects in sexual assault cases even after controlling for the influence of other factors shown to predict arrest. The findings support prior research that suggests female practitioners may not necessarily be more sensitive toward female victims despite previous assumptions that this would hold true. The findings suggest that efforts to hire female police officers for the purposes of dealing with female-related victimization may ultimately undermine efforts to improve victim experiences with the criminal justice system. They further suggest that both researchers and police administrators need to rethink the best ways to serve female victims beyond hiring mandates.     

Restorative justice and probation decisions – an analysis of intentional assault cases in China

The restorative justice model focuses on amending offender-victim relations. Compared to Western countries, China's criminal justice policy has relied on both formal and informal mechanisms in dealing with criminal offending. Recently a victim-offender reconciliation (VOR) program has been codified in China to provide incentives for offenders and victims to resolve their disputes through court-guided mediation sessions. Using restorative justice as an interpretive framework and drawing upon 1000 minor intentional assault cases, this study examines the impact of core VOR concepts on probation decisions. Our analysis suggests that offender compensation and attitude were significantly related to the likelihood of receiving probation, and the defense attorney played an unexpected yet impactful role in shaping judges’ probation decisions. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

‘Reasonable’ perceptions of stalking: the influence of conduct severity and the perpetrator–target relationship

Abstract

This study sought to examine the state of police interviews with children in Norway set against the various models that have been developed in the United Kingdom. UK models attempt to accord with psychological principles that lead to effective interviewing and so, if appropriately followed, should enhance the elicitation of accurate material. Set against these principles of best practice, an analysis of 11 police interviews indicated that a number of insppropriate and ineffective strategies appear to be used in police interviews in Norway. These included a preponderance of closed questions, a large number of instructions, paraphrasing and not giving the child enough time to talk. Results suggest that the Norwegian system needs to be made more aware of the psychological vulnerabilities that can lead to suggestibility in children.     

Framing and perceptions of stalking: the influence of conduct severity and the perpetrator–target relationship

Research has demonstrated that the way in which questions are presented (i.e. framed) has the capacity to influence responses to subsequent questions. In the context of stalking, perception research has often been framed in terms of whether or not particular behaviours constitute stalking. The current research investigates whether the framing of the opening question (question frame), conduct severity and the perpetrator–target relationship influence perceptions of stalking. Two studies employed experimental 3×3 independent factorial designs: one to examine question frame and conduct severity, the other to examine question frame and the perpetrator–target relationship. Participants in both studies (total N=449) were presented with vignettes and asked to answer six questions relating to the behaviour described. Question frame was found to impact on the classification of behaviour, with a greater proportion of participants indicating that the behaviour represented harassment or stalking rather than an illegal act. Consistent with previous research, conduct severity and the perpetrator–target relationship influenced perceptions of stalking. However, there was no evidence to suggest that the framing of the opening question influenced these perceptions. The implications of these findings for previous perception research are discussed.     

The problem of untested sexual assault kits: why are some kits never submitted to a crime laboratory?

Victims of sexual assault are often advised to seek postassault medical care to have a forensic exam, which includes evidence collection (termed a sexual assault kit [SAK]). After the exam, law enforcement personnel are supposed to submit the SAK to a crime laboratory for analysis. However, recent media reports suggest that in many communities throughout the United States, thousands of SAKs are left untested. Few studies have examined the rate at which law enforcement submits SAKs to crime labs or the factors that may predict them to do so. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study is twofold: (a) to examine the percentage of SAKs law enforcement submits to crime labs in cases in which a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) performed the exam with adult victims and (b) to explore whether assault and law enforcement characteristics predict whether SAKs are submitted to a crime lab. This study found that only 58.6% of the SAKs were submitted to the crime lab within a large Midwestern county. Using binary logistic regression, this study found that kits were significantly as likely to be submitted when there were documented physical (nonanogenital) injuries compared with kits that did not have documented physical injuries. In addition, kits that were handled by a law enforcement agency that had a high level of engagement with the SANE program were significantly as likely to be submitted as law enforcement agencies with a low or medium level of engagement. Kits were significantly less likely to be submitted when victims cleaned themselves after the sexual assault (e.g., bathing). No association was found between kit submission and the victim-offender relationship, suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault, anogenital injury, and when the victim consumed alcohol or drugs before the assault. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications for research and practice.     

How reliable are eyewitness memories? Effects of retention interval,violence of act,and gender stereotypes on observers' judgments of their own memory regarding witnessed act and perpetrator

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of (i) stimulus person's gender, (ii) type of act (neutral or violent), and (iii) retention interval (short or long) on observers' memory of a stimulus person. Participants were presented with one of two acts: neutral (walking around in a store) or violent (robbing a store). The retention interval was 10 minutes or one–three weeks. The dependent variables were questionnaire items concerning the participants' memory of (1) the stimulus person's appearance and (2) the event, and (3) rating scales where the participants were asked to evaluate the stimulus person's aggressiveness, insensitivity, and other personality traits as well as characteristics of the act. Results showed that when the act was violent, and a long retention interval was used, a female, but not a male, stimulus person was evaluated less harshly than with a short retention interval (enhancement of gender stereotype); a stimulus person was seen as behaving in a more masculine way when performing a violent rather than a neutral act; witnessing the violent act resulted in better self-rated memory of the stimulus person; and with increasing retention interval, the violent act was seen as less negative and the neutral act as more negative (regression toward the mean).