Spending the Golden Years Behind Bars: Predictors of Mental Health Issues Among Geriatric Prisoners

Mental illness in older inmates remains an underexplored topic of interest for prison research. The present study addresses gaps in extant literature, using a nationally representative sample of 1,907 male and female geriatric inmates in the United States (age range 50–84 years; M = 56) to analyze the association between mental health and predictors, such as gender, victimization, physical illnesses, and protective/ameliorative factors. The authors discuss their findings in relation to a theoretical framework that integrates the importation and deprivation models, as well as provide discourse on policy implications and future directions for research on older prison inmates.     

Continuity and Change in Adolescent Victimization: Examining the Effects of Stable and Dynamic Influences

After decades of treatment as a fairly distinct topic, recent research on victimization has begun to draw on theoretical approaches previously directed at understanding criminal behavior. The current study expands this research by studying victimization and its relationship to key developmental influences with data from 3,976 adolescents. We first detail the longitudinal process that underlies continuity and change in victimization and then consider the impact of time-stable and time-varying covariates that reflect mechanisms within those explanations. Findings suggest that time-varying markers of risky lifestyle and attachment affect victimization, but also that victimization affects risky behaviors and prosocial ties.     

School-Based Violent Victimization in Turkey: An Examination of the Cross-National Generality of Lifestyle-Routine Activities and Self-Control Theories

ABSTRACT

The authors examined victimization among Turkish school students as a function of individual lifestyles and routine activities, perceived school guardianship/control, and low self-control. In doing so, they aimed to provide a much-needed explanatory test of school victimization in Turkey while also offering an important test of the cross-cultural generalizability of self-control and opportunity-based theories of victimization. Logistic regression models of violent victimization were estimated using a subsample of over 900 Turkish school students. Regression coefficients were estimated for 20 datasets generated through a multivariate sequential imputation technique, with results then pooled. Lifestyle measures associated with school-based victimization included in-school delinquency, delinquent self-cutting, gang membership, and number of gang friends. Perceived school guardianship/control was also related to victimization, as was low self-control. The authors found little evidence that the effects of low self-control were mediated or moderated by lifestyle characteristics or perceived school security. Findings suggest that the propositions of lifestyle-routine activities and self-control theories regarding victimization risk can largely be generalized to Turkish high school students. Findings imply that school-based victimization prevention in Turkey should target individual-level criminogenic traits and lifestyles as well as risky environmental school characteristics.     

Explaining Bullying Victimization: Assessing the Generality of the Low Self-Control/Risky Lifestyle Model

ABSTRACT

The integrated low self-control/risky lifestyle theoretical framework has proven useful for explaining various types of victimization. Bullying victimization (i.e., verbal, social, or physical attacks), however, may not fit this explanation very well if youths who are bullied do not have to engage in risky behaviors to be singled out by their peers, but could instead be targeted for other reasons (e.g., physical vulnerabilities). In this context, the current paper examines the generality of the low self-control/risky lifestyle model by assessing whether it can effectively explain which youngsters are more likely to be bullied. Using a sample of 1,901 middle school students, the results indicate that, although low self-control significantly predicts whether youths will engage in risky lifestyles (e.g., displaying aggressive attitudes, committing delinquent acts, using illicit substances), participating in such behaviors does not elevate the likelihood of bullying victimization. Instead, the authors’ findings reveal that low self-control directly influences victimization. Further, physical vulnerability is significantly related to being bullied. These findings suggest that the low self-control/risky lifestyle model needs to be revised to accommodate potential age-graded consequences of self-control, and that physical limitations—not “traditional” risky lifestyles—are persistent sources of bullying victimization that should be further evaluated.     

Prior Bullying,Delinquency, and Victimization as Predictors of Teen Dating Violence in High School Students: Evidence of Moderation by Sex

Bullying, delinquency, and teen dating violence (TDV) victimization have been found to correlate with and potentially predict TDV perpetration. It has also been noted that boys and girls differ in their levels of TDV involvement, both as victims and perpetrators. The authors tested whether sex moderates the predictive effects of bullying perpetration, delinquency, and TDV victimization on TDV perpetration in 1,716 high school students (812 boys, 904 girls) from the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence. Because sex was found to moderate the bullying perpetration?TDV perpetration and delinquency?TDV perpetration associations, male and female data were analyzed separately. TDV victimization predicted TDV perpetration in boys and delinquency predicted TDV perpetration in girls. Results varied moderately as a function of TDV subtype (relational, verbal, threatening, physical, and sexual). It would appear that TDV perpetration varies as a function of both sex and TDV subtype. Efforts to control, reduce, and eliminate TDV perpetration in boys may be most effective when they address prior TDV victimization and depression, whereas efforts to control and eliminate TDV perpetration in girls may be maximally effective when they target prior bullying perpetration and delinquency.     

Cognitive biases in the peer review of bullet and cartridge case comparison casework: A field study

ObjectiveForensic judgments and their peer review are often the result of human assessment and are thus subjective and prone to bias. This study examined whether bias affects forensic peer review.HypothesesWe hypothesized that the probability of disagreement between two forensic examiners about the proposed conclusion would be higher with “blind” peer review (reviewer saw only the first examiner’s comparison photos) than with “non-blind” peer review (reviewer also saw the first examiner’s interpretation and proposed conclusion). We also hypothesized that examiners with a higher perceived professional status would have a larger effect on the reported conclusion than examiners with a lower status.MethodWe acquired data during a non-blind and a blind peer review procedure in a naturalistic, covert study with eight examiners (3–26 years of experience). We acquired 97 conclusions of bullet and cartridge case comparisons in the blind and 471 in the non-blind peer review procedure.ResultsThe odds of disagreement between examiners about the evidential strength of a comparison were approximately five times larger (95%-CI [3.06, 8.50]) in the blind than in the non-blind procedure, with disagreement about 42.3% and 12.5% of the proposed conclusions, respectively. Also, the odds that their proposed conclusion was reported as the final conclusion were approximately 2.5 higher for the higher-status examiners than for lower-status examiners.ConclusionsOur results support both the hypothesis that bias occurs during non-blind forensic peer review and the hypothesis that higher-status examiners determine the outcome of a discussion more than lower-status examiners. We conclude that blind peer review may reduce the probability of bias and that status effects have an impact on the peer reviewing process.     

Peer Victimization and Social Anxiety in Adolescents: Prospective and Reciprocal Relationships

This study used a 2-month prospective research design to examine the bi-directional interplay between peer victimization and social anxiety among adolescents. Participants included 228 adolescents (58% female) in grades 10–12. Three types of peer victimization were examined: overt (physical aggression or verbal threats), relational (malicious manipulation of a relationship, such as by friendship withdrawal), and reputational (damaging another’s peer relationships, such as through rumor spreading). Adolescents’ self-reported feelings of social anxiety and peer victimization experiences were assessed at two time points, in November and January of the same school year. Peer victimization was strongly related to adolescents’ social anxiety, and relational victimization explained additional unique variance. Moreover, peer victimization was both a predictor and consequence of social anxiety over time, with the most robust results found for relational victimization. Limited support was obtained for gender as a moderating variable. Findings highlight the deleterious effects of peer victimization, especially relational victimization, and suggest avenues for future research and clinical intervention for adolescents experiencing such victimization.

Provider Perspectives on Sex Trafficking: Victim Pathways,Service Needs, & Blurred Boundaries

This study examines service providers’ perspectives on survivors of trafficking using a purposeful sample of professionals specializing in intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and child maltreatment. Entry points into trafficking included recruitment by Romeo pimps, survival sex, kidnapping, and deceptive offers of employment. Service needs of survivors were described as more extreme and enduring than those of other types of victims served, with particular needs in long-term housing, health and mental health, substance use treatment, legal aid, and employment assistance. An overarching issue involved survivors’ dual identities as both victims and offenders, including self-identification and understanding/treatment by human service providers and law enforcement officers.     

What’s Sex (Composition) Got to Do with It? The Importance of Sex Composition of Gangs for Female and Male Members’ Offending and Victimization

Sex composition of groups has been theorized in organizational sociology and found in prior work to structure female and male members’ behaviors and experiences. Peer group and gang literature similarly finds that the sex gap in offending varies across groups of differing sex ratios. Drawing on this and other research linking gang membership, offending, and victimization, we examine whether sex composition of gangs is linked to sex differences in offending in this sample, further assess whether sex composition similarly structures females’ and males’ victimization experiences, and if so, why. Self-report data from gang members in a multi-site, longitudinal study of 3,820 youths are employed. Results support previous findings about variations in member delinquency by both sex and sex composition of the gang and also indicate parallel variations in members’ victimization. These results are further considered within the context of facilitating effects such as gender dynamics, gang characteristics, and normative orientation.     

Feminist Routine Activity Theory and Sexual Assault Victimization: Estimating Risk by Perpetrator Tactic Among Sorority Women

The present study investigated sexual assault risk among sorority women enrolled at a Northwestern university. Bivariate comparisons were made between 282 women and demonstrated significant risk for unwanted sex facilitated by verbal coercion, as well as completed rape as a result of threats or force for sorority women compared with nonaffiliates. The subsample of 89 sorority women was then assessed to examine risk factors for sexual assault victimization. Separate multivariate binary logistic regression models were estimated for verbal coercion resulting in unwanted sex, intoxicated sexual assault, and completed rape as a result of threats or force. Results revealed that number of lifetime consensual sex partners was positively and significantly correlated with all three forms of sexual victimization, as was more frequent attendance at weekly coed Greek-sponsored events among sorority women. In addition, sorority women with friends who peer-pressured them to have sex with fraternity men faced increased odds of intoxicated sexual assault compared with counterparts. Implications for prevention and future research are discussed.