On Mimicry and the Psychology of the Belief in a Just World: Imitating the Behaviors of Others Reduces the Blaming of Innocent Victims

Innocent victims of crime are often blamed for what happened to them. In this article, we examine the hypothesis that victim blaming can be significantly reduced when people mimic the behavior of the victim or even a person unrelated to the crime. Participants watched a person on a video after which we assessed the extent of their spontaneous mimicry reactions (Study 1) or participants were instructed to mimic or not to mimic the movements of this person (Study 2). Then, they were informed about a rape and criminal assault and judged the degree to which they thought the victims were responsible for the crime. One of the crimes happened to the same person as the person they previously did or did not mimic. The other crime happened to a person unrelated to the mimicry situation. Results of both studies revealed that previously mimicking the victim or an unrelated person reduced the degree to which victims were being blamed.     

Justice in Our World and in that of Others: Belief in a Just World and Reactions to Victims

Framed by the Belief in a Just World theory (BJW; Lerner, M. J. (1980). Belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation), this article presents two studies that analyze people’s reactions to the suffering of victims belonging to an ingroup and an outgroup. In Study 1, participants viewed a videotaped film containing the victimization story. The victim was presented as a non-categorized, ingroup or outgroup (Gypsy) victim. Threat to BJW was measured using the modified Stroop task developed by Hafer (J Pers Soc Psychol 79:165–173, 2000). In the second study, a non-victimization story was introduced and a 2 (victim, non-victim) × 2 (ingroup, outgroup) between-subjects design was used. Both studies show that the ingroup victim is more threatening to the BJW than the outgroup victim. The expected secondary victimization of the ingroup victim was only obtained in the second study when a non-obtrusive derogation measure was used.

Unjust Enrichment and the Autonomy of Law: Private Law as Public Morality

Craig Rotherham reviews:
Hanoch Dagan, Unjust Enrichment: A Study of Private Law and Public Values     

Rape Victim Blaming as System Justification: The Role of Gender and Activation of Complementary Stereotypes

This research examined reactions towards female rape victims from a system justification perspective. Study 1 demonstrated that gender-related system justification motivation (Modern Sexism) predicted the propensity to blame a female rape victim among men, but not among women. Modern sexism predicted rape victim blaming among men even when statistically controlling for a general antipathy towards women, and the results were unaffected by social desirability concerns. Consistent with previous study on system justification theory, we demonstrated in Study 2 that system justification motivation can predict victim blaming also among women, provided that complementary stereotypes about women have been activated. By contrast, system justification motivation predicted men’s propensity to blame a rape victim irrespective of whether complementary stereotypes about women had been experimentally activated.     

Coping with an unjust fate: The case of structural unemployment

Becoming a victim of structural unemployment means suffering an unjust fate. The present research examines the cognitive reactions subjects use to protect their belief in a just world and the related effects on their actual well-being within a sample of unemployed blue-collar workers in East Germany (all female). Results showed that the belief in a just world was positively correlated with attributing one’s unemployment to one’s own behavior and negatively with asking “why me?”, but uncorrelated with subjects’ readiness to change into another profession in order to get employed. Just world belief and depression were negatively related for those who either avoided the “why me?” question or who found an answer to it; but just world belief and depression was positively related for those women ruminating about an unanswered “why me?”. Results are consistent with the idea that the belief in a just world plays a significant role in the unemployed person’s coping process.     

Literacy: A Process of Interpreting the World as a Text

Abstract

Literacy today means developing a technical skill on an electronic machine. (French 1990)     

Financial Compensation for Victims of Catastrophes: A Law and Economics Perspective

This article examines the various approaches legislators may use to compensate victims of catastrophes. Traditional law and economics of insurance literature, with respect to government relief and insurance solutions towards financial compensation, is used to analyze (highly diverging) approaches in Europe and the United States. First, the importance of liability (insurance) is discussed in cases where a liable injurer can be identified; second, the possibilities of first-party insurance are examined, whereby various regulatory solutions (particularly the French model of providing mandatory coverage for catastrophes) is critically discussed. The (first-party) insurance solution is compared with public intervention, and a distinction is made between ad hoc government relief on an ex-post basis and structural compensation funds. The solutions applied and discussed in many countries are critically analyzed for their ability to provide adequate compensation at low costs and their effects on incentives for prevention and for developing private (insurance) solutions.     

Domestic Violence Service Users: A Comparison of Older and Younger Women Victims

No one, young or old, is immune to interpersonal violence (IPV). Female victims come from a variety of circumstances and across all ages. However, much of the research and services have focused almost exclusively on younger women. This article compares women 65 and older to women under 65, who utilized domestic violence (DV) services in a mid-western state over a five-year period. Although there are many similarities in the findings, differences include that older victims were more likely to be White, report more emotional and less physical abuse, be referred to services by a legal source, have special needs or disabilities, and receive fewer services, less service hours and fewer contacts than younger victims utilizing DV services. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Revolving Roles in Drug-Related Crime: The Cost of Chronic Drug Users as Victims and Perpetrators

Numerous studies have established a strong connection between the use of illicit drugs and the commission of other illegal activities, including both predatory and property crimes. No study, however, has examined the cost of crimes associated with drug users both as victims and as perpetrators. In the present study, recent data were analyzed from a targeted sample of chronic drug users (CDUs) and a matched sample of non-drug users (NDUs) in Miami-Dade County, Florida, to estimate the incremental cost of crime associated with CDU. Two separate models were employed to estimate (1) the probability of being a victim or a perpetrator of crime and (2) the cost of crime for both situations. The cost measures were transformed to reduce the influence of extreme outliers, and a smearing technique was used to compare the cost of crime for CDUs relative to NDUs. The findings illustrate that criminal activity among CDUs is circular, extensive, and costly. Implications for law enforcement, criminal justice policy, and substance abuse treatment are discussed.     

Private Ordering,Self-Regulation and Futures Markets: A Comparative Study of Informal Social Control*

This paper describes an empirical study of futures market regulation in three jurisdictions: Chicago, Hong Kong, and Sydney. It focuses on private ordering and argues that informal mechanisms of social control have been crucial in maintaining market “order” and curbing trading abuses. Peer group pressure, fear of being ostracized, the leverage of large institutional clients, the transparency of certain market dealings and the opportunities this provides for “pay back” between “repeat players”, have been far more important in ordering behavior than the remote and often unenforced rules imposed either by government or the exchanges themselves. It is suggested that to understand “crime in the pits” we should focus on criminogenic structures which facilitate fraud through specific combinations of opportunity and risk. It is also structural factors which substantially account for the relative success or failure of private ordering in constraining trading abuses in different markets.     

Children as Victims and Witnesses of Domestic Homicide: Lessons Learned from Domestic Violence Death Review Committees

Domestic Violence Death Review Committees (DVDRCs) are interdisciplinary teams dedicated to examining domestic homicide and recommending how to prevent future tragedies by comprehensively examining individual cases. This article summarizes the findings of 15 DVDRCs concerning children as victims and witnesses. The findings reflect that an alarming number of children are victimized by domestic violence. Themes in the recommendations are grouped in relationship to: (1) training and policy development; (2) resource development; (3) coordination of services; (4) legislative reform; and (5) prevention programs. The recommendations are critical for criminal and civil courts as well as enhancing collaboration between the justice system and community partners in preventing domestic homicide.     

A Comparison of Civil and Criminal Orders of Protection as Remedies for Domestic Violence Victims in a Midwestern County

Past research has identified many potential advantages of civil protection orders as a means of addressing domestic violence without invoking an official response of the criminal justice system. Using data from a Midwestern county, this exploratory study provides a comparison of civil protection orders with orders of protection that are filed in conjunction with a criminal battering arrest. We examine the demographic characteristics of the respondents/defendants and petitioners/victims, the nature of the abuse leading up to the filing of the protection order, the reasons for filing, the terms of the order, location of the offense, and violations of orders. Our findings reveal many similarities between types of orders, in terms of order stipulations, past abuse histories of petitioners/victims, and respondents/defendants’ likelihood of reoffending. The findings also reveal an important difference in the petitioners’ and victims’ reasons for filing; whereas petitioners in civil cases were more likely to identify emotional abuse as the factor leading up to issuance of the order, victims in criminal cases were more likely to document physical abuse. We discuss these findings in the context of victim preference.     

A survival model with dependent competing events and right-hand censoring: Probation and parole as an illustration

Researchers are frequently interested in estimating the elapsed time until the occurrence of an event, such as an arrest following release from prison, dissolution of a marriage, and death following the onset of a disease. Estimation is often hindered by the occurrence of a competing event, which prevents the event of interest from being observed, and by limited follow-up periods. A parametric procedure developed in this paper is suitable for dealing with nonrepeatable competing events when the events are correlated and when independent righthand censoring also exists. Weak distributional assumptions are accommodated by using a Box-Cox transformation and by explicit modeling of heteroscedasticity. The procedure is applied to data pertaining to failure on probabation and parole.     

Neonaticide: A Comprehensive Review of Investigative and Pathologic Aspects of 55 Cases

Analysis of neonaticide cases from a law enforcement perspective is virtually non-existent in the research literature. Nonetheless, law enforcement and prosecutors face unique challenges when investigating and prosecuting neonaticide; and a specialized, informed approach is necessary. By highlighting the crime scene characteristics and autopsy findings of 55 neonaticide victims, the authors hope to assist the law enforcement and legal communities in their neonaticide investigations. Specifically, this article clarifies how neonaticide occurs by chronologically examining the pregnancy, the birth and death of the infant, the subsequent crime scene (or scenes) and the pathological findings. The article also highlights the potential challenges that may arise during investigation and prosecution of these cases in addition to providing the forensic community with recommended investigative techniques.     

世界文化遗产的保护与利用——以武夷山为例

我国是世界遗产大国,世界遗产数量众多,对世界文化遗产如何保护与利用,是我国在推进社会主义文化大发展大繁荣中必须高度关注的问题。本文以＂双世遗＂武夷山为样本,从武夷山世界文化遗产保护与利用的现状入手,分析了武夷山世界文化遗产保护与利用过程中存在的主要问题,在此基础上提出要树立科学理念、推动多元参与、强化法律约束、加大资金投入力度、注重人才培养等相关对策,以期加强对武夷山世界文化遗产的保护与利用。     

‘May Piece Be with You’: A Typological Examination of the Fear and Victimization Hypothesis of Adolescent Weapon Carrying

The causes and correlates of adolescent weapon carrying have received considerable scholarly attention. One common explanation of adolescent weapon carrying, the “fear and victimization hypothesis,” identifies the fear of victimization as a motivating force behind this behavior. Empirical studies of this explanation, however, have produced mixed results. One potential source of this ambiguity is the myriad data and measurement issues that have arisen in prior studies of the topic. The current study addresses many of these limitations through the use of panel data from over 1,100 youth across the United States. Through a typological approach, results support a multiple pathways framework for explaining adolescent weapon carrying, as the perceived risk of victimization is positively associated with weapon carrying for those youth who report both victimization and offending experiences. For those youth who are “pure offenders,” fear of victimization is inversely related to weapon carrying, while the perceived risk of victimization is unrelated to carrying weapons. Consistent with prior literature, results indicate that gang members report a disproportionately high level of weapon carrying.