The Relationship Between Courtship Violence and Sexual Aggression in College Students

The relationship between physical and sexual aggression in college students was explored in the current study. Participants were 245 males and 411 females recruited from a 2-year or 4-year college. The vast majority were white. All of them responded to a measure of physical aggression (The Conflict Tactics Scale; Straus, 1979) and sexual aggression (the Sexual Experiences Survey; Koss et al., 1987). A subset of participants also responded to a questionnaire assessing Signs to Look for in a Battering Personality (Ryan, 1995). Results showed a significant association between physical and sexual aggression in men and women. In addition, the combination of physical and sexual aggression produced nonsignificantly higher levels of aggression than when they occurred alone. Discriminant analyses showed verbal abuse and threats predicted both physical and sexual aggression in men and women; however, gender differences emerged on other characteristics. Finally, effect size analyses showed larger effect sizes for sexual than for physical aggression on many of the Signs to Look for in a Battering Personality.     

Belief in a Just World,Causal Attributions,and Adjustment to Sexual Violence

What influence do the personal belief in a just world (i.e., the perception that one usually gets what one deserves) and different kinds of causal attributions have on adjustment to sexual violence? Using a sample of N = 62 victims of sexual aggression (mean age = 21.7) it was shown that respondents were better able to adjust to their experience of sexual violence the higher their personal belief in a just world. Moreover, the more respondents attributed their victimization to situational circumstances (external attributions) and the less they attributed their victimization to their character and personality (characterological self-attributions), the less they felt distressed by past victimization. The degree to which participants attributed their victimization to their own concrete behavior (behavioral self-attribution) was not related to their adjustment. Further analyses showed that the influence of the personal belief in a just world was mediated by the three attribution styles. Additionally, the adaptiveness of external attributions was moderated by participants’ just world belief.     

Child sexual abuse and pornography: Is there a relationship?

Sexual abuse is now a major form of child maltreatment; however, the causes of such exploitation are obscure. A review of official reports and other research indicate that the circumstances surrounding sexual abuse are inadequately specified to allow specific causal interpretations. The role of pornography in contributing to such abuse is explored by reviewing laboratory studies and the circumstances of child sexual abuse. An assessment of the research literature suggests that pornography is a minor and indirect influence on child sexual maltreatment.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence among Women in Methadone Treatment: A Direct or Mediated Relationship?

Women in substance use treatment report rates of childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence that far exceed those reported by women in the general population. Previous research with nonrandom samples of women in substance use treatment suggests that there is a statistically significant relationship between childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence; however, little is known about the mechanisms of risk between these two public health concerns among this population of women. To address this gap in knowledge and to inform intervention strategies, this study examined direct and mediated relationships between childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence risk among a random sample of 416 women in methadone treatment. In addition to high rates of childhood sexual abuse (57.9%), intimate partner violence (lifetime prevalence, 89.7%; 6-month prevalence, 78.4%), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, 28.6%), and global psychological distress (19.5%), findings suggest that the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence is mediated by mental health problems and that women experiencing PTSD or global psychological distress are 2.7 and 2.4 times more likely to experience intimate partner violence than women without such experiences, respectively. Although not a mediator in this relationship, financial independence reduced women's risk of partner violence by two-thirds. The paper includes discussion of social learning and stress and coping theories to explicate the findings and to inform intervention strategies. This study is based, in part, on the first author's dissertation. A previous version of this paper was presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference held in January 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The following grants provided funding for this study: R01DA11027 and 3T32MH014623-22S1.     

Social Context and Violence Exposure as Predictors of Internalizing Symptoms in Mothers and Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Family and social environment may play a part in children’s post-violence adjustment. The goal of this paper is to examine which factors are related to internalizing symptoms in mothers and their children exposed to intimate partner violence. Participants were 208 mothers exposed to domestic violence. Mothers responded using the Conflict Tactics Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and other standardized scales. They also reported on their children’s internalizing symptoms using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). For the whole group, children’s CBCL scores were related to higher maternal depression and lower maternal self-esteem. Factors determining internalizing in children varied based upon the child’s race. This study illustrates the importance of factors, such as maternal depression, maternal self-esteem, violence exposure, and social support, in determining whether a child exposed to domestic violence develops internalizing symptoms, and that ecological factors may have different effects on children based on race.     

Processes of Criminalization in Domestic and International Law: Considering Sexual Violence

This article explores some conceptual issues regarding criminalization at the domestic and international levels. It attempts to explain what it means to say that a particular kind of conduct has been criminalized, and considers how the processes of criminalization differ in domestic and international law. In unpacking these issues, the article takes the examples of rape and sex trafficking in domestic and international legal systems, explores whether these offenses are criminalized more broadly in international criminal law as compared to domestic criminal law, and briefly outlines possible explanations for this disparity.     

Context Matters: Violence Against Women and Reporting to Police in Rural, Suburban and Urban Areas

Despite plentiful efforts to identify perpetrator, victim, and incident characteristics correlated with reporting violence against women to police, few studies have addressed the contexts that shape such reporting. Even fewer have examined variations in these contexts across geographic areas. Drawing upon National Crime Victimization Survey data from 1992 through 2009, this paper uses conjunctive analysis of case configurations to identify and investigate the dominant situational contexts of reporting of violence against women to police across rural, suburban, and urban areas. Our findings show that context matters and the importance of incident, perpetrator, and victim characteristics vary across geographic areas.     

Progress, Challenges and Suggestions on Legislative Efforts of Combating Sexual Violence against Children in the Mainland China

This article provides a brief overview of Chinese legislative progresses in combating child sexual abuse. It also examines flaws of the current legislation based on findings in legal practice and by comparing to UN conventions. While picking up the flaws, the article also gives recommendations for future reform.     

Beliefs on Sexual Violence in the Context of System Justification Theory: The Role of Hostile Sexism and Beliefs in Biological Origins of Gender Differences

Social Justice Research - Estimates suggest that around 20% of women may have experienced rape. Various misconceptions about rape (i.e., rape myths) are closely related to victim blaming. In our...     

Gender Based Violence: Correlates of Physical and Sexual Wife Abuse in Kenya

This study explored factors associated with physical and sexual wife abuse on a sample of 4,876 married women aged 15–49 years in the 2003 Kenya Demographic Health Survey. Results indicate that 40% of married women reported at least one type of violence; 36% were physical and 13% were sexual. Multivariate analysis showed that living in poorer households, being Christian, being in a polygamous marriage, having a husband who drinks alcohol, and being in sales, agricultural, or unskilled jobs significantly increased the wife’s risk of physical and sexual abuse. Wife’s education had significant effect on both physical and sexual abuse, but the relationships were not linear. Wife’s age and number of children were significantly associated only with physical abuse; husband’s education had a marginal but significant effect only on sexual abuse. Research implications are discussed.     

Is there a place for economics in criminology and criminal justice?

It is argued that the study of economics is appropriate for, and would make a significant contribution to, criminal justice degree programs by enriching the understanding and augmenting the technical expertise of students who undertake that study. Economics is based on a very different philosophy of human behavior. From the economist's philosophy has evolved a theory of human behavior which is, to a striking extent, complementary to that of traditional criminology in its choice of endogenous and exogenous variables, and in its assumptions concerning the nature and structure of the relations linking the former to the latter. Methodologically, economics is distinguished from traditional criminology by its greater stress on formal, logical deduction. The discipline also offers, through econometrics, a powerful instrument for empirically estimating and testing theoretical prepositions. A survey of recent criminological research that uses the economist's paradigm is provided.     

Academia Meets Community Agency: How to Foster Positive Collaboration in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Work

Collaborative and supportive partnerships among academicians and community agency members represent one method of working successfully toward ending violence against women. Members of academia and service agencies are uniquely poised to collaborate with one another to foster both domestic violence and sexual assault research agendas as well as direct service to survivors. This paper provides suggestions and methods of how to create positive, collaborative relationships between academicians and service providers in the field of domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA). Specifically, we will discuss the reasons for collaboration, useful steps in developing a partnership, issues of trust and time investment, research methods, and giving back.     

Violence against Women in Scandinavia: a Description and Evaluation of two new Laws Aiming to Protect Women

Violence against women by a present or former male partner has over the last decade been given a higher priority in the political discussion in all of the Scandinavian countries. Increasingly, violence in intimate relationships is viewed as a public rather than a private matter in these countries. With this change in attitudes and levels of political interest, higher expectations are placed on official authorities, including the criminal justice system, to deal actively with this social problem. In all of the Scandinavian countries it may, for example, be decided by a prosecutor that a woman should be protected from a man by issuing a restraining order. Moreover, a new offence called ‘gross violation of a woman's integrity’ was introduced into the Swedish penal code in 1998. With this offence, less serious but repeated violent acts committed by a man against a present or former female partner are to be judged as one serious offence. The stipulated sanction for this offence is imprisonment between 6 months and 6 years. The purpose of this article is to evaluate how the police, the prosecutors and the courts deal with this new offence. The article also present results from an evaluation of restraining orders in Sweden.     

Boundaries of Legitimacy: Sex, Violence, Citizenship, and Community in a Local Sexual Economy

Studies of prostitution have overlooked the role of law in constituting the identities and sexual practices of women in the sex trade and defining the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate violence in the sexual economy. Drawing on field work with sex trade participants in a northwestern United States city, this paper explores how the cultural logic of modern liberal law shapes women's identities and interpretations of their actions. In positioning women in the sex trade as "sexual outlaws" to be managed and subjected to the full scope of legal authority, the law simultaneously limits women's citizenship and withdraws its protection. Moreover, in restricting women's ca-pacity to invoke fundamental legal rights, the law effectively sanctions "private" or extralegal forms of discipline and creates a space for violence. Given the paradoxical position these women hold as sexual outlaws on the one hand and frequent victims of physical and sexual assault on the other, I explore how they negotiate consent and resist violence.