Adult attachment as a risk factor for intimate partner violence: the "mispairing" of partners' attachment styles

This study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence and adult attachment in a sample of 70 couples. The attachment style of each partner and the interaction of the partners' attachment styles were examined as predictors of intimate partner violence. Additional analyses were conducted to examine violence reciprocity and to explore differences in the relationship between attachment and violence using continuous and dichotomous violence measures. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated the "mispairing" of an avoidant male partner with an anxious female partner was associated with both male and female violence. When controlling for partner violence, the relationship between attachment and violence was significant for males only. In addition, analyses using a dichotomized violence variable produced different results from analyses using a continuous violence measure. Clinical implications include focusing on the discrepancy between partners' needs for intimacy and distance within the couple as a strategy for treating intimate partner violence.     

Testing telephone and web surveys for studying men's sexual assault perpetration behaviors

Three pilot studies were conducted to obtain information about sexual assault perpetration from adult men in the United States. Each used the same random digit-dial sampling and recruitment strategy. One pilot was administered by telephone and two via the Web. Response rates in all pilots were low. Although results cannot be generalized beyond the sample, of the 97 men who completed the surveys, approximately 40% in each pilot reported some sexual assault behavior, broadly defined. Contrary to expectations, telephone respondents reported a wider range of sexual assault behaviors. Suggestions for improving response rates include offering a choice of participation methods.     

Restoring Choice: The Relationship Between Offense Seriousness,Intervening Time,and Victims’ Responses to the Offer of Restorative Interventions

This study investigates victims’ responses to the offer of involvement in a restorative intervention. It tests the hypotheses that victims’ choices are related to the seriousness of the offense (H1), and that this relationship is moderated by how long after the offense the restorative intervention is offered (H2). A cross-sectional, between-subjects design was used, drawing on data from 256 offenses collected for operational purposes by a restorative justice service. Victims of medium-seriousness offenses were most likely to choose indirect and direct reparation. Intervening time moderated the relationship between seriousness and victim choice: victims of low-seriousness offenses became more likely to choose community reparation with time, victims of medium-seriousness offenses became less likely to choose direct or indirect reparation, and there was no change with time for victims of the most serious offenses. These results suggest nonlinear relationships between seriousness, intervening time, and victim choice. Although more complex and in different directions than anticipated, they lend some support to both hypotheses. The study highlights qualitative differences between types of restorative interventions, points to a significant disparity between victims’ choices and processes the literature suggests are of most benefit, and raises questions regarding when and how restorative interventions should be offered.     

Using equations from power indices to analyze figure skating teams

Power indices were originally developed to measure voting power. However, Saari and Sieberg (Games Econ Behav 36:241–263, 2001) and Saari (Chaotic elections, American Mathematical Society, Providence, 2001a) have suggested that the equations from power indices could potentially be used in some sports contexts as a way of evaluating athletes. This article explores this idea in the context of figure skating. The International Skating Union developed team events in figure skating for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia and for other major competitions. In this article, we show how the Shapley–Shubik and Banzhaf indices can be used to analyze contributions of athletes to their countries’ teams in figure skating team events. We illustrate this approach by analyzing the results from the 2014 Winter Olympic Games figure skating team event. We also discuss some ways in which the numbers assigned by the equations from power indices can be used in the figure skating context.     

The Developmental Unfolding of Sibling Influences on Alcohol Use over Time

Research has long demonstrated that siblings are similar in their alcohol use, however much of this work relies on cross-sectional samples or samples of adolescents alone and/or exclusive focus on older siblings’ impact on younger siblings. Using a three time-point design from early adolescence to early adulthood (M ages?=?14.9, 18.3, and 22.4 years, respectively; 55% female; 54% European ancestry, 38% Asian ancestry), we evaluated the prospective older and younger sibling influences on alcohol use across time (N?=?613 sibling pairs; 35% sisters, 26% brothers, 39% mixed-gender; average age difference?=?2.34 years; 34% full-biological siblings, 46% genetically-unrelated adopted siblings, 20% pairs where one child was the biological offspring of parents and the other was adopted). The results from both the traditional and random-intercept cross-lagged panel analyses showed that older siblings’ alcohol use predicted younger siblings’ alcohol use across each developmental transition and across a variety of sibling contexts (e.g., gender composition, age difference, genetic relatedness). On the other hand, younger siblings’ alcohol use only predicted older siblings’ alcohol use when siblings were close in age (1.5 years or less) and under conditions of high sibling companionship. These results add to a body of literature illustrating how both older and younger siblings are important socializing agents of adolescent and early adult alcohol use. Assessing or co-treating siblings for alcohol problems may be an important add-on to existing adolescent and early adult alcohol prevention and intervention programs.     

The Use and Abuse of Postcolonial Discourses in Post-independent Kazakhstan

The article explores the concept of political postcolonialism and how political groups appropriate and contest this discourse. Elites and contesting political groups utilise postcolonial rhetoric to legitimate their political goals by projecting that their country, in this case Kazakhstan, was colonised by the Tsarist Russia and then by the Soviet Union. For President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev’s nationalising regime the status of Kazakhstan as a colony represented a vital item in post-1991 nation-building projects. Political opposition and Kazakh national-patriots contested this official discourse, blaming the regime for scarce efforts towards ‘full decolonisation’. The absence of major intellectual discussion allowed these elites and political players to reappropriate these discourses in the political rather than critical intellectual domain.     

Medicinal Marijuana,Inc.: A Critique on the Market-led Legalization of Cannabis and the Criminalization of Rural Livelihoods in Colombia

Critical Criminology - In Colombia, Law 1787 of 2016 legalized marijuana for medicinal and scientific purposes. The law promotes social inclusion in two ways: (1) establishing mechanisms to...