DOES VIOLENCE INVOLVING WOMEN AND INTIMATE PARTNERS HAVE A SPECIAL ETIOLOGY?*

We used data from a survey of inmates who have committed homicide or assault to examine whether men and women who have killed or assaulted their intimate partners are different from other violent offenders. A “gender perspective” implies that intimate partner violence and violence between the sexes have different etiologies than other types of violence, whereas a “violence perspective” implies that they have similar etiologies. Our evidence supports a violence perspective. In general, offenders who attack their partners are similar to other offenders in terms of their prior records, alcohol and drug use, and experiences of abuse. We observed some differences between men who attack women (including their female partners) and other male offenders, but the differences were opposite those predicted by a gender perspective. For example, men who attacked their partners were particularly likely to have been abused by their partners. In addition, men who attacked women were particularly likely to have experienced sexual abuse during childhood and to have been intoxicated at the time of the incident. These results suggest that some well-known predictors of violence are particularly strong predictors of male violence against women and female partners.     

Notions of formal equality before the law: The experience of street prostitutes and their customers

With the enactment of the “communicating law” in 1985 the Canadian legislature for the first time made clear its intention to criminalize the activities of customers as well as prostitutes in its attempt to deal with the nuisances attributed to the street prostitution trade. This paper examines: a) the extent to which police in several jurisdictions across Canada (and particularly in Vancouver) have enforced the communicating law against customers as compared to prostitutes; b) differentials in the sentencing of prostitutes and customers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver; and c) the social class characteristics of Vancouver men charged with communicating in a public place for the purpose of purchasing the sexual services of a prostitute.     

The Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale: preliminary report on its development and use

The Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale (ATPS) assesses the beliefs of men who purchase sex from prostitutes. Items for the ATPS were administered to a U.S. multisite sample of 1,001 men who had been arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer and subsequently referred to a psychoeducational program. Principal axis factor analysis was conducted, and it yielded three valid factors: Social/Legal Support of Prostitution, Beliefs About Prostitutes, and Family Values Related to Prostitution. Scale-item reliability was assessed with Cronbach's alpha on a second independent sample of 74 men, which offered data to support ATPS internal consistency and reliability. Based on these results, scale scores were standardized for practical use in research and clinical applications, and interpretation norms were established for a population of men who buy sex. A brief case example illustrates the practical use of the ATPS for assessment and intervention planning for customers of sex workers.     

Part II: Sex differences in persons found not guilty by reason of insanity: analysis of data from the Connecticut NGRI Registry

Thirty-one female insanity acquittess from Connecticut were matched to a group of 31 male NGRIs. The samples were compared with regard to demographic, criminal, and clinical characteristics. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine predictors of criminal recidivism for the sample. Results indicated that women NGRIs were older, more likely to be married, less likely to be substance abusers, had less extensive criminal records, and were released from hospitals sooner than the men. A significant racial difference was noted: white women had less extensive criminal records and were hospitalized for shorter periods than minority women. Results of the logistic regression analyses showed that the strongest independent predictors of criminal recidivism were race and having a diagnosis other than psychosis (schizophrenia, affective or organic disorders). Findings support recent APA policy guidelines on the insanity defense.     

Violent Acts and Injurious Consequences: An Examination of Competing Hypotheses About Intimate Partner Violence Using Agency-Based Data

The current study proposed and tested a series of competing hypotheses about intimate partner violence in the 2006 National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), a dataset of criminal incidents known to the police. Three research questions were presented concerning gender differences in victim identity, victim-offender relationships, and victim injury with hypotheses derived from the feminist, family violence, and general violence perspectives. Victim-based analyses were consistent primarily with expectations of the feminist perspective, although aspects of the general violence perspective were supported as well: Women were more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate; they were more likely to experience violence from an intimate partner than from any other perpetrator; and when victimized by an intimate, women were usually more likely to be injured. These results highlight the uniqueness of violence between intimates relative to other types of violence.     

BIG PEOPLE HIT LITTLE PEOPLE: SEX DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL POWER AND INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE*

The role of physical size and strength in sex differences in violence is examined using a sample of ex-offenders, ex-mental patients, and the general population. In incidents not involving weapons, males are more likely than females to engage in attacks and injure their adversaries, and females are more likely to be attacked and injured, primarily because of differences in physical power. In incidents involving weapons, the greater power of males is partially neutralized, and females are more likely than males to injure their adversary. The results show that physical differences between men and women are an important factor in explaining sex differences in violence.     

Diagnostic profiles of civilly committed sexual offenders in Illinois and other reporting jurisdictions: what we know so far

The records of 377 men civilly committed under Illinois' Sexually Violent Persons Act were compared with similar published samples from seven other states. Civilly committed sexual offenders in Illinois were more likely to be diagnosed with any personality disorder and more likely to exceed the cutoff score for psychopathy than similar offenders in other states. The authors then present a national composite of demographic, victim, and diagnostic information on men referred or pursued for civil commitment in eight states to better understand how these individuals differ from sex offender populations in correctional settings. Results suggest that there may be less victim specificity in sexually violent person (SVP) populations, as although nearly 50% of SVPs are diagnosed with pedophilia, 80% had committed at least one sexual offense against a child or adolescent victim. Across all samples, 72.7% of SVPs were diagnosed with a personality disorder, with antisocial personality disorder the most prevalent.     

Gender Differences in Strain,Negative Emotions,and Coping Behaviors: A General Strain Theory Approach

This paper empirically evaluates Broidy and Agnew’s propositions, in which they apply general strain theory to explain gender differences in crime and deviance, by analyzing data from a national survey of adult African Americans. First, African American women were more likely to report strains related to physical health, interpersonal relations, gender roles in the family, and less likely to mention work‐related, racial as well as job strain than African American men. Second, African American women were less likely than African American men to turn to deviant coping strategies when they experienced strain partly because their strains were more likely to generate self‐directed emotions, such as depression and anxiety, which in turn were less likely to lead to deviant coping behaviors than other‐directed, angry emotion. Finally, it was found that the self‐directed emotions were more likely to result in nondeviant, legitimate coping behaviors than other‐directed emotion, anger.     

Spousal violence among Anglos,Blacks, and Mexican Americans: The role of demographic variables,psychosocial predictors,and alcohol consumption

Racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence and correlates of self-reported spousal violence in a community sample of Anglo, Black, and Mexican American adults are examined. Females, the formerly married, and Black females in particular (up to 60% of formerly married) were most likely to report both being beaten by and beating a spouse. Multivariate analyses controlling for demographic variables, financial stress, social desirability, sex role traditionalism and drinking quantity (and spouse's drinking among the currently married) did not eliminate the greater likelihood of reports of both beating and being beaten among married Black females. There was little consistent evidence to suggest greater violence propensity among Mexican American than Anglo respondents. The findings raise questions about simplistic socioeconomic status or financial stress explanations of observed racial/ethnic differences in spousal violence. Further, curvilinear effects of alcohol quantity and spouse drinking upon reported violence question simple disinhibition arguments and suggest the need for data regarding couple dynamics.     

The problem of single parent/child paternity analysis--practical results involving 336 children and 348 unrelated men

In a certain amount of paternity investigations, only DNA from child and alleged father is analyzed, thus increasing the possibility of false paternity inclusions. The aim of this study was to determine how many wrong paternity inclusions could be detected in a rather small geographical area comparing empirical results from 336 children and 348 men (13-15 STRs were investigated per person). This comparison between each child and all unrelated men (i.e. all putative fathers from the other cases) with an especially designed computer program resulted in 116,004 man/child pairs. Less than three excluding STRs were found in 1666 child/unrelated man pairs (1.44% of the comparisons). At least one unrelated man with only two or less STR mismatches could be determined for 322 children (95.8% of all investigated children). In 26 comparisons no STR mismatches between a child and an unrelated man were detected, thus at least one and up to three "second father(s)" under 350 men could be found for 23 children, if the mother is excluded. Paternity probabilities between 95.475% and 99.996% were calculated. Our results underline the difficulties in motherless paternity cases using only STR analysis and advise great precaution in assigning verbal predicates such as "paternity proven" in those investigations.     

Sex offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of humanity,dominance, and displaying an understanding of cognitive distortions in police interviews: A vignette study

Abstract

Forty-three convicted sex offenders read each of four different offence vignettes that involved a man forcing a female victim into sex and the offender's subsequent police interview. The experimental manipulation involved giving participants each of four different scenarios concerning how the police interviewed the offender. These were interviews characterized by humanity, dominance, displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions, or a neutral, control interview. Participants were required to rate the interviews on a variety of dimensions, such as the offender's likelihood of confessing, and the fairness of the interview. Where participants were told the man had been interviewed with humanity and compassion, they rated the offender as more likely to confess and rated the interview as fairer than the other conditions. In contrast, participants rated the offender interviewed with a dominant approach as less likely to confess, and for this procedure to be less fair than the other conditions. Displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions appeared to have had no influence on perceived likelihood of confessions but was perceived to make the crime appear less serious.     

已婚者变性权问题初探

我国法律目前并没有禁止已婚者变性的规定。按照"法无禁止即许可"原则,只要其符合医学上有关变性的公认条件,就应当确认和保护他们的变性权。同时,已婚者实施变性手术不应以离婚为前提条件。我们应当加快立法步伐,从法律上赋予其变性权利,并将变性作为夫妻感情确已破裂的法定理由。     

Demographic and offence characteristics: a comparison of sex offenders convicted of possessing indecent images of children,committing contact sex offences or both offences

This paper reports the findings of a study evaluating demographic and offence characteristics of 230 offenders who had been convicted either of possessing indecent images (Internet offenders n?=?74) or committing actual direct abuse of children (contact offenders n?=?118) or committing both offences (Internet-contact offenders n?=?38). All data were collected in the Greater London Offender Management Service. The group of Internet-contact offenders exhibited more diverse characteristics than the Internet and contact sex offenders and they were more likely to have been accused of a prior contact offence without being charged. The majority of the Internet offenders were white male, younger than the contact child sex offenders, more likely to be single and to have never been married, were better educated and more likely to have stable employment. They were also less likely to have had previous convictions. Contact offenders were more likely to report childhood difficulties including sexual abuse; there were no group differences in mental health contact or history of substance abuse. Future research should take into account the heterogeneity of Internet sex offenders to enable the development and delivery of appropriate services for this group so that preventative and therapeutic approaches can be developed.     

Differential enforcement across police jurisdictions and client demand in paid sex markets

Police officers on the ground, as well as their senior officers, generally accept the view that arresting prostitutes and their clients is simply not as important as arresting many other types of ‘offenders’. Police officer preferences and priorities will differ such that the discretion applied to the enforcement of paid sex market related offences varies across locations. Motivated by increasing policymaker interest in considering demand-side policies, a simple model is developed to help analyse how clients will be likely to respond to enforcement level differences across jurisdictions. A range of policy implications that arise are also identified and discussed.     

Examining the displacement practices of johns with on-line data

Situational crime prevention has proven successful in reducing crime rates, though critics argue these programs simply displace criminality into different venues. Research exploring the phenomenon of displacement found offenders change their behavior in response to law enforcement intervention, particularly in research on prostitution. Most research on displacement in the sex trade, however, focuses on the sex worker rather than their clients. This limits the amount of knowledge concerning the dynamics of prostitution, and the illegal sex trade as a whole. This study addressed this gap by examining the displacement practices of the customers of prostitutes, also called johns. Using a sample of posts from Web forums for johns in ten U.S. cities, this qualitative analysis found that johns engage in multiple forms of displacement in the real world. In addition, the Internet appears to act as a resource to identify sex workers, thereby enabling tactical displacement. Implications for law enforcement and situational crime prevention theory are also discussed.     

Intimate Partner Violence Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics Among Couples in the United States

This paper describes the characteristics (sociodemographic, drinking and selected psychological attributes) of victims, perpetrators and those who engage in mutual intimate partner violence (IPV) among couples in the U.S. Subjects constitute a multistage area probability sample representative of married and cohabiting couples from the 48 contiguous United States. Results indicate that age is the only variable that appears to have a consistent effect for men and women and across violence-related statuses: Older individuals are less likely to be victims, perpetrators and less likely to be involved in mutually violent relationships. Other variables such as ethnicity, marital status, drinking, impulsivity, depression and powerlessness are either gender or status-specific in their ability to predict victimization, perpetration or victimization/perpetration. Overall, those involved in violent relationships do not appear to be very different from those not involved in violent relationships. The most likely reason for lack of this difference is the nature of IPV in general population samples, which is in most cases moderate. Work on this paper was supported by a grant (R37-AA10908) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to the University of Texas School of Public Health.     

Observed Initiation and Reciprocity of Physical Aggression in Young,At-Risk Couples

The present study examined sex differences in initiation of physical aggression as observed during discussion tasks and in the likelihood of a similar response from the partner. In addition, patterns for men and women in the prevalence of aggression initiation and partner reciprocation across 4 time points spanning approximately 9 years from late adolescence through the mid-20s are examined, as well as overall associations with reported aggression and injuries. Findings indicated that the young women were more likely than the men to initiate physical aggression at late adolescence. However, by the mid-20s in early adulthood there were no significant sex differences in initiation rates. The average rates of reciprocation across the 4 time points appeared to be similar for men and women. Women and men appeared more likely to report injuries if the couples observed involved mutual physical aggression in their interactions.     

When men fight with women (versus other men): Limited offending during disputes

What transpires in a dispute, even a violent dispute, is affected by the tendency for adversaries to engage in “limited offending.” We focus on one restraint: the tendency of men to limit their aggression in their disputes with women. Analyses are based on an incident-level survey about interpersonal disputes administered to 503 men who are incarcerated and 220 men who had never been incarcerated. Using multinomial and logistic regression models, we examined the extent to which an adversary's gender predicted dispute-related behaviors. The evidence suggests that the chivalry norm has pervasive effects on the behavior of men during their disputes with women. Men are more likely to engage in remedial actions (e.g., apologies) when their adversary is a woman, as opposed to another man. In addition, men are less likely to make violent threats and engage in physical attacks when their adversary is a woman, even after they have themselves been physically attacked. When men are violent, they are less likely to injure a woman than a man. However, the chivalry norm does not inhibit verbal aggression in these disputes: men are just as likely to engage in verbal attacks and nonviolent threats when the adversary is a woman.