Sexual victimization against transgender women in prison: Consent and coercion in context

In this article, we conjoin two long‐standing lines of inquiry in criminology—the study of prison life and the study of sexual assault—by using original qualitative and quantitative data from 315 transgender women incarcerated in 27 California men's prisons. In so doing, we advance an analysis of the factors and processes that shape their experience of sexual victimization in prison. The results of qualitative analysis of 198 reported incidents of sexual victimization exhibit a range of types of sexual victimization experienced by transgender women in prison and reveal the centrality of relationships to their experiences of victimization. Findings from logistic regression models buttress the qualitative results, highlighting a factor that consistently and powerfully indicates vulnerability to sexual victimization is involvement in consensual sexual relationships with male prisoners. Together, the data demonstrate the prominence of intimate partner violence in prison, complicate the distinction between consent and unwanted sexual experiences in the lives of transgender women in prisons for men, and shine a light on the workings of gender in a total institution that privileges heteronormativity at the expense of the safety of transgender women in prisons for men. We discuss the implications of our findings in light of timely policy concerns.     

Schools,Neighborhoods, and Adolescent Conflicts: A Situational Examination of Reciprocal Dynamics

Youths' exposure to school violence is ecologically patterned, occurring disproportionately in public schools located in urban disadvantaged communities. We know less, however, about how situational processes and environmental contexts shape school violence. In addition, limited research has examined the reciprocal nature of school and neighborhood conflicts. Here we draw from a qualitative study of violence in the lives of African American youths from a disadvantaged inner‐city community to examine young men's experiences with school‐based violence. Specifically, we investigate two questions: (1) how conflicts are shaped by the school setting, and (2) how and when such conflicts unfold and spill over between neighborhoods and schools. Our findings highlight the importance of examining the situational and ecological contexts of youth violence to further illuminate its causes and consequences.     

From the Inside Out: Efforts by Homeless Women to Disrupt Cycles of Crime and Violence

The premise that childhood victimization is a risk factor for crime and violence in adulthood finds general support, though few agree that there is a direct causal relationship. Mediating factors and intervening variables are often studied. Rarely investigated, however, are the complex and difficult dynamics experienced by those enmeshed in these “cycles of violence.” In this study we explore the struggles of homeless women to disrupt patterns of violence in their lives. Using in-depth qualitative interviews, we illustrate how these women learn and understand that they are caught up in cycles of crime and violence and, to varying degrees, have made active efforts to disrupt them. However, we find that they have very few tools or resources with which this could be accomplished, which ultimately thwarts potentially successful efforts for lasting change while foregrounding deficiencies in systemic support.     

Pathways to adult sexual revictimization: direct and indirect behavioral risk factors across the lifespan

The purpose of this study is to investigate direct and indirect social and behavioral risk factors for adult sexual revictimization. Participants include 147 adult, predominantly African American (88%) women, 59% of whom had a documented history of child sexual abuse. Participants are interviewed in adulthood about adolescent and adult sexual victimization as well as other background and lifestyle characteristics. Structural equation modeling indicates that the relationship between child and adolescent sexual victimization is indirect, mediated by adolescent risk-taking behavior. The relationship between adolescent and adult sexual victimization is also indirect, mediated by risky sexual behavior. The residual effects of early childhood family environment and childhood physical abuse also indirectly predict sexual revictimization. Results provide empirical support for the general supposition that the relationship between child and adult sexual victimization is complex and that many intermediary factors differentially affect risk for a heightened vulnerability to sexual revictimization.     

Gender Differences in the Nature of the Intimate Partner Violence and Effects of Perpetrator Arrest on Revictimization

The majority of research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has addressed male-to-female violence, although a small but growing body of literature has developed that explores males victimized by female partners. This study used data from the National Crime Victimization Survey from 1987 to 2003 to examine male victimization by comparing the nature of violence to female victimization and by exploring the effect of perpetrator arrest on preventing revictimization. The sample was comprised of 2,462 female and 298 male victims. Study variables included gender, arrest, revictimization, type of violence, injury, and use of a weapon. Results showed that men were victimized by IPV less frequently than women and received fewer injuries, although they were more likely to experience more severe violence. Police arrested female perpetrators, but generally only if injury was involved; however, arrest did not reduce male victims’ chance of revictimization.     

The social organization of masculine violence in nighttime leisure scenes

Recent scholarship on masculinity and crime suggests that men who have difficulty asserting their masculine status due to social marginalization (across age, class, and racial lines) have a higher likelihood of engaging in violent behavior to offset their lack of social power in other areas. While marginalization can abet the development of masculine violence, in this article I suggest more attention to the mitigating effects of structural changes and cultural contexts is necessary for a richer understanding of how masculine violence plays out. Drawing on multi-method ethnographic data from a case of one major US city with a thriving nighttime cultural economy, I aim to show how the structural characteristics of nighttime leisure scenes create situations for the enactment of particular forms of violence that reflect a number of subterranean convergences with the masculinization of the cultural economy.     

Risk of Revictimization of Intimate Partner Violence: The Role of Attachment, Anger and Violent Behavior of the Victim

Victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are known to be at high risk for revictimization. Yet, to date, the mechanisms explaining the link between victimization and revictimization of IPV have not been extensively studied. In the present prospective study involving 74 female help-seeking victims of IPV, we investigated victim-related psychological mechanisms that may underlie this link. With this study, we aim to contribute to the development of theory addressing these psychological mechanisms and their role in explaining risk for IPV revictimization. Hypotheses regarding possibly relevant psychological mechanisms were derived from two conflicting approaches to IPV: the gender perspective, and the mutual IPV perspective. Results lend further support to the mutual IPV perspective, since our final prediction model indicates that victim-perpetrated IPV is an important risk factor for physical and psychological IPV revictimization. An avoidant attachment style shows to be a strong predictor as well, in particular for victims with high and average anger levels. Findings provide clear indications for risk assessment and treatment of IPV victims, and moreover offer opportunities to empower these victims in order to prevent future violence.     

Young women and gang violence: Gender,street offending,and violent victimization in gangs

Drawing on multiple data sources in St. Louis, this article examines how gendered situational dynamics shape gang violence, including participation in violent offending and experiences of violent victimization. Combining an analysis of in-depth interviews with young women in St. Louis gangs with an examination of homicide reports from the same city, we find that young women, even regular offenders, highlight the significance of gender in shaping and limiting their involvement in serious violence. They use gender both to accomplish their criminal activities and to temper their involvement in gang crime. Consequently their risk for serious physical victimization in gangs is considerably less than young men's. St. Louis homicide data collaborate these qualitative findings. Not only are young women much less likely to be the victims of gang homicide, but the vast majority of female gang homicide victims were not the intended targets of the attack. In contrast, homicide reports suggest that the majority of male gang homicide victims were the intended targets. We suggest that gendered group processes and stratification within gangs are key factors explaining both violent offending and victimization risk in gangs.     

Factors Associated with Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victimization

This study explored factors associated with a lifetime history of domestic violence and sexual assault in a sample of welfare recipients in Illinois. Results indicate that childhood exposure to domestic violence is a risk factor for both sexual assault and domestic violence victimization, but that childhood physical abuse is only a risk factor for domestic violence. Increased education and employment skills and having more children were also risk factors for domestic violence victimization. Domestic violence was significantly associated with depression, while sexual assault was associated with low social support and a greater perceived need for mental health services. Frequent alcohol and drug use were not associated with either type of victimization. Research implications are discussed.     

Intimate partner violence victimization and household financial strain

Most scholars agree that low socio-economic status is associated with an elevated risk for violent victimization as well as offending. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that certain forms of violence—particularly intimate partner violence (IPV)—are more equally distributed in the population, not concentrating on the lower social strata as strongly as other forms of violence. In this paper, we examine the association between financial strain, measured on the household level, and two different types of victimization: IPV and violence committed by a person unknown to the victim. The analysis is based on the 2013 sweep of Finnish National Crime Victim Survey (n = 6,999), a nationally representative survey incorporating a mix of postal and web-based survey methodology. Multivariate analyses indicate that the risk for both kinds of victimization is highest among those who report financial difficulties. Moreover, the association between IPV and financial strain appears stronger when less serious violent incidences are excluded from the analysis.     

Partner Violence in Women's Prison: The Social Consequences of Girlfriend Fights

In this article, we use qualitative interviews with female inmates to examine how these women describe the consequences of girlfriend fights in prison. We find that they describe these fights as both social and pervasive. We also find that those who were counseled by staff members describe being empowered by the event. We argue that prison officials must use better methods of identifying and addressing partner violence in prison. We also recommend the use of widespread programs aimed at reducing partner violence.     

Re-Conceptualising the Policing of Hatred: Confessions and Worrying Dilemmas of a Consultant

Community Safety Units in the London Metropolitan Police handle over 9000 reported incidents of ‘hate’ crime each month. This paper explores the work of these Units through its conceptualisation of the notion of vulnerability. The workload of the CSUs includes domestic, racist and homophobic incidents. The victim/perpetrator relationship, it is assumed, provides special motivation for the offender's violence and requires police to consider special support for the victim. The paper begins with an exploration of how the MPS conceptualises ‘hate crime’. Its rationale for dedicated resources for the policing of particular forms of violence can be found, I suggest in the second part of the paper, in the way in which violence itself is conceptualised. I then offer a different term for thinking about hate crime – targeted violence. I go on to argue in depth how the(faulty) logic about violence obscures our ability to take people's ordinary experiences of intimidation, threat and bodily harm seriously in law and in society. The term ‘hate crime’, I conclude, in advertently reinforces this (faulty) logic. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

If Violence Is Domestic, Does It Really Count?

Estimates of the prevalence of marital violence have been found to vary dramatically from survey to survey. This paper addresses one potential explanation for this difference which involves the focus and format of different surveys. We examine the extent to which survey respondents are willing to report marital violence in a context which focuses on criminal behaviors as opposed to a family violence context. In a very basic way, this answers a question as to whether individuals are willing to define acts of marital violence as criminal. Methodologically, it is a measurement issue which seriously affects the ability to compare findings across samples. National Youth Survey data are used to compare rates of generalized spousal assault and victimization reported in a crime context with rates of marital assault and victimization reported in a family violence context. Results indicate that 40 to 83% of all marital assaults and victimizations reported in the marital violence section are not reported in a format which focuses on criminal assault and victimization.     

Reconceptualizing and operationalizing context in survey research on intimate partner violence

Survey research in the field of intimate partner violence is notably lacking in its attention to contextual factors. Early measures of intimate partner violence focused on simple counts of behaviors, yet attention to broader contextual factors remains limited. Contextual factors not only shape what behaviors are defined as intimate partner violence but also influence the ways women respond to victimization, the resources available to them, and the environments in which they cope with abuse. This article advances methods for reconceptualizing and operationalizing contextual factors salient to the measurement of intimate partner violence. The analytic focus of the discussion is on five dimensions of the social context: the situational context, the social construction of meaning by the survivor, cultural and historical contexts, and the context of systemic oppression. The authors consider how each dimension matters in the measurement of intimate partner violence and offer recommendations for systematically assessing these contextual factors in future research.     

A Hard-to- Escape Situation Informal Pacts,Kingpin Strategies,and Collective Violence in Mexico

Mexico has for an extended period been experiencing homicide rates above, or close to, epidemic levels. Instead of examining why formal institutional reform geared at strengthening democracy has not helped to foment peace and security, as most of the research on collective violence in Latin America and the Caribbean does, this paper focuses on the gap between formal and informal institutions, and continuities rather than points of rupture. I argue that in Mexico, there is a gap between formal institutions (which define how the country should be) and informal institutions (which constrain actual strategic choices). I apply a path-dependence approach to examine what factors have been reproducing collective violence over time, finding that the prevalence of protection rackets (operated by non-state actors at the subnational level) and the use of kingpin strategies (both by state and non-state actors) explain collective violence in the past but also in the present. In the past decades, informal pacts and kingpin strategies have changed in Mexico, but they have survived and adapted to the new formally democratic institutional setting. For the period 1989-2017, I identify three critical junctures that changed the rules of the game, four mechanisms of inertia, and two factors of lock-in that make it difficult to reduce collective violence.     

Explaining the race/ethnicity–violence relationship: Neighborhood context and social psychological processes

Blacks and Latinos have higher levels of offending than Whites for violent crimes. Researchers have examined a range of explanations that primarily focus on race and have only begun to consider how macro contexts influence individual levels of violence. This study contributes to this literature by including both race and ethnicity, and by examining the role of social psychological processes in mediating the impact of neighborhood contexts on violence. Using the Add Health data, I demonstrate the importance of the neighborhood context, socioeconomic status, and social psychological processes in explaining the relationship between race, ethnicity and violence. Having witnessed and been victimized by violence is by far the most important social psychological process in explaining this relationship.     

Relationship Religiosity,Adult Attachment Styles,and Courtship Violence Experienced by Females

This study assesses the association between adult attachment styles, religiosity, and courtship violence as experienced by females. The sample was composed of 299, 18 to 24-year-old females attending junior level Human Development and Family Studies courses at a midwestern state university. Statistical analyses evaluated interactional effects and mean-level differences for both victimization and perpetration of courtship violence. Additionally, structural equation models were generated. Results indicate significant relationships between adult attachment styles and religiosity on reports of victimization from intimate partners. In general, the results suggest that females with low religiosity and insecure attachment styles report experiencing more courtship violence than females reporting high religiosity and secure attachment styles. The analyses also provide support for a multidimensional conceptualization of religiosity. Indicators of `relationship' religiosity were more strongly linked to lower reports of courtship violence than personal and private relationship measures. The findings suggest that future studies evaluating the effects of religiosity on courtship violence should include measures of `relationship’ religiosity.     

Domestic violence: A national study of the nature, size and effects of domestic violence in the Netherlands

This article reports on a large-scale nation-wide study conducted by Intomart among 1,000 randomly selected Dutch adults (male and female) about their experiences with domestic violence. An important goal of the survey was to generate general information on domestic violence. It turns out that nearly half of the Dutch population (45%) has at one time been a victim of some form of non-incidental domestic violence. It was also demonstrated that both men and women become victims of domestic violence, and the high percentages of victimization during childhood are particularly striking. Furthermore, it turned out that domestic violence often involves a combination of physical, mental and sexual forms of violence.     

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND VIOLENCE: A SUB‐NATIONAL TEST OF INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY*

Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory is grounded in the assumption that relatively higher crime rates in the United States are due to (1) the overwhelming influence of economic motives and institutions in society, and (2) the subjugation of all other social institutions to cultural economic interests (e.g., the American Dream). Our analysis is designed to extend the limited body of empirical research on this theory in several ways. First, we seek to test the utility of institutional anomie theory for predicting crime rates across aggregate units within the United States (counties). Second, we draw out the theory's emphasis on instrumental crime and suggest that measures of noneconomic social, political, familial, religious, and educational institutions will be particularly relevant for explaining instrumental as opposed to expressive violence. Third, in contrast to prior research, we develop conceptual reasons to expect that these factors will primarily mediate (as opposed to moderate) the relationship between economically motivating pressures and instrumental violence. Our negative binomial regression analyses of data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports and various censuses indicate that the measures of noneconomic institutions perform well in explaining both instrumental and expressive homicides, but that these measures mediate the impact of economic pressures (as measured by the Gini coefficient of family income inequality) to commit instrumental violence most strongly. Further, we find only very limited support for the more popular moderation hypothesis.