Juvenile and Adult Offenders Arrested for Sexual Homicide: An Analysis of Victim–Offender Relationship and Weapon Used by Race*

Abstract: Limited information is available on racial offending patterns of sexual homicide offenders (SHOs). This study used a 30‐year U.S. Supplementary Homicide Reports sample of SHOs arrested in single‐victim situations (N = 3745). The analysis strength was used to determine whether the findings yielded meaningful patterns for offender profiling. Several important findings emerged for the juvenile offenders. Juvenile White SHOs were likely to target victims with whom they shared a mutual relationship. In contrast, Black juveniles were equally likely to murder strangers and those with whom they had prior and familial relationships. Notably, no juvenile Black SHOs were arrested for murdering intimate partners. Juvenile White SHOs were twice as likely to use edged weapons as their Black counterparts. Black juveniles, conversely, were more likely than White juveniles to use personal weapons. Beyond these findings, known victim–offender relationships and weapon used may not have significant utility for investigators in identifying the SHO race, even after controlling for offender age. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Perceptions and prevalence of stalking in a male sample

Abstract

Most research into stalking has focused on males as perpetrators and females as victims. The present study investigated firstly how males perceive the crime of stalking and secondly the prevalence of stalking and other intrusive activities in a male population. A sample of 210 British men was asked to indicate which of a continuum of 42 behaviours they believed to represent stalking. Clear subtypes of perceived stalking were identified, and these did not significantly differ from those produced by a female sample in earlier work (Sheridan, Davies and Boon, 2001). Thus, male and females hold similar views on which activities do and do not constitute ‘stalking’, Respondents were then asked to indicate whether they had personal experience of the same 42 behaviours and if they had, to provide free narrative on their ‘worst experience’. As expected, males reported substantially less experience of intrusive behaviour than females, and just 5.2% were judged to have suffered ‘stalking’. Whilst this figure is significantly below estimates made for females, it still indicates a notable risk for males and suggests that complaints of stalking made by males should be taken as seriously as those made by females.     

Policy-makers’ perceptions on their sex offender laws: the good,the bad,and the ugly

The views and attitudes that lawmakers have about sexual offenders and sexual victimization can be influential in criminal lawmaking. And given the popularity of sex offender laws, policy-makers are central players in how state justice systems respond to sex crimes. Therefore, state-level policy-makers from across the country, who sponsored and passed at least one sex offender law in their state, (n?=?61) were interviewed about sex offenders and sex crimes. Policy-makers believe sex offender laws are too broad. The laws extend to nonviolent offenses, low-risk offenders, and thus dilute the law enforcement potency of sex offender registries. Policy-makers view existing sex offender laws as necessary to enhance public safety and as proof that lawmakers are responding to the needs and concerns of the public. Sex offender laws were also discussed as a source of political capital; a way to help ensure reelection. The sexual victimization of children and the media’s coverage of sex crimes were instrumental in these state-level policy-makers’ decisions to sponsor sex offender laws. Policy and research recommendations are offered.     

Slaughtered innocents: child victims in political discourse during the Second Intifada and Gaza conflict

Throughout the course of the early years of the Second Intifada, discourses of innocent child victimhood were in frequent use in statements to the western media from both Israeli and Palestinian groups, and in American and British media commentary on the conflict. This discourse has had important political consequences within and beyond the region. This paper will explore the social and political context of these discourses and the diverse actors that mobilised them. It will also analyse their role in legitimating acts of state and non-state violence, including during the 2009 Gaza conflict.     

Characteristics of School Bullies and Victims as Perceived by Public School Professionals

Abstract

A large body of international research substantiates the concern with problems of peer-on-peer violence in schools and its common beginnings as taunting, harassment and other forms of bullying. One common difficulty in developing better ways of handling these problems is the professional literature's inconsistency in the identification of bully and victim characteristics. This study surveyed school professionals (teachers and counselors) who work with youth on a daily basis to see how closely their perceptions of victims and bullies matched the criteria commonly found in the literature. Participants rated 70 characteristics as to their importance in recognizing the potential for children to become bullies or victims. The results demonstrated strong agreement on five characteristics as being exclusively those of victims, 11 as exclusively those of bullies, and 15 as strongly associated with both victims and bullies. These characteristics and additional ones identified by an earlier study of international experts are offered to assist all those related to the school community in more effectively recognizing young people with the potential to develop into bullies or victims. Earlier and more accurate identification of such developing problems would increase the ability to create and implement prevention methods to improve safety and security for all youths.     

联动司法解决刑事被害方的涉诉信访

限于刑事法律和犯罪人的客观状况,刑事被害人的一系列权利尚不能够得到完全地保障和实现。陷入困境的刑事被害人往往易成为信访人,其信访的对象则是作出最终司法判决的人民法院。在信访的被害人已经不信任法院的情况下,仅通过法院并不能够解决被害人的信访问题。由此需要创新工作机制,联动司法。通过联动司法加强对刑事被害方的救助,加强对犯罪分子所判刑罚的说理,与检察机关一道解除被害方的疑惑,并适时引入第三方,对法院的审理程序进行调查,以尽可能地解决刑事被害人方的涉诉信访。     

Identification of Bullies and Victims

SUMMARY

Bullying studies frequently rely on student self-report to identify bullies and victims of bullying, but research in the broader field of peer aggression makes greater use of other informants, especially peers, to identify aggressors and victims. This study compared self, peer, and teacher identification of bullies and bully victims in a sample of 416 middle school students. Overall, there was poor correspondence between self-reports and reports made by peers or teachers, but consistently better agreement between peers and teachers, in identifying both bullies and victims of bullying. Peer and teacher identification of bullies were more consistently associated with subsequent school disciplinary infractions than were self-reports. These results raise concern about reliance on student self-reports of bullying and bully victimization.     

The power few: experimental criminology and the reduction of harm

The promise of experimental criminology is finding ways to reduce harm from crime and injustice. The problem of experimental criminology is that so few experiments produce evidence of big effects from the interventions they test. One solution to this problem may be concentrating scarce resources for experiments on the “power few:” the small percentage of places, victims, offenders, police officers or other units in any distribution of crime or injustice which produces the greatest amount of harm. By increasing the homogeneity and base rates of the samples enrolled in each experiment, the power few hypothesis predicts increased statistical power to detect program effects. With greater investment of resources, and possibly less variant responses to greater dosages of intervention—especially interventions of support, as distinct from punishment—we may also increase our chances of finding politically acceptable interventions that will work.

刑事被害人社会救助法律制度的完善

在我国现阶段，由于救助制度不健全，刑事案件被害人在遭受犯罪行为侵害后，其权益往往得不到及时有效的救助，进而带来一系列的社会问题，影响到和谐社会的构建。应尽快出台《刑事被害人社会救助条例》，建立完善的刑事被害人社会救助法律制度来对被害人进行及时的援救和帮助，使受犯罪破坏的社会秩序得到尽快的恢复。