Online sexual harassment in adolescence is associated with depressive symptoms. There is, however, a dearth of research investigating variability of symptom profiles in this population in relation to ...offender gender and age.
To identify the proportion of adolescents reporting online harassment by different types of offenders and compare their levels of depression.
Participants were 18,872 Chilean students aged 12 to 17 years (3.063 of them online sexually harassed).
The study involved a secondary analysis of self-report data on online sexual harassment, poly-victimization, and depression collected as part of the National Poly-victimization Survey.
In 37.6% of the cases the offender was male under 18, in 22.4% an adult male, in 14.5% a female under 18, and in 2.9% an adult female. In 22.5% of cases the offender could not be identified. An ANCOVA demonstrated levels of poly-victimization across the lifespan and frequency of online sexual harassment in the last year to predict depressive symptomatology. In females, higher levels of depressive symptoms were observed among those sexually harassed by either a female under 18, an offender whose age and gender the victim could not identify, or an adult male. In males, higher levels of depression were observed among those harassed by either an adult male, an offender whose age and gender the victim could not identify, or a male under 18.
The current study highlights the importance of offender's age and gender in predicting depression levels in adolescent victims of online sexual harassment.
Political leaders tend to apologize for wrongdoings. This study focuses on a disaster that occurred on July 2018 in east Attica, Greece, where wildfires destroyed houses and left dozens of people ...dead. Two pilot studies and one main study were conducted testing perceptions of apology as sincere, perceived trust, positive emotional climate and participants’ support towards the governmental policies. Participants (N = 180 for the two pilot studies, N = 222 for the main study) were recruited from the disaster zone of east Attica. The focus is on two key forms of political apology, a self or offender-focused apology and a self-other or victim-focused apology. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the conditions equivalent to each of the two forms of apology, that is either in a victim-focused apology condition or an offender-focused apology, or a control condition, where a neutral image was shown to participants. Results showed a positive association between victim-focused apology, compared to offender-focused apology, and political support towards the government via increased perceived sincerity, trust and positive emotional climate. Political and psychological implications related to different forms of public apologies are discussed.
Background
Acts of apology has a particular meaning only in interplay with the affected victims, serving their moral and psychological needs, acknowledging their suffering and reassuring them of a safer future. Research to date neglects the role of immediate interaction with victims in perceptions and evaluations of apologies, especially in the aftermath of dramatic transgressions.
Why was this study done?
The research was conducted to fill the gap regarding evidence of victim-focused apologies, compared to offender-focused apologies, following traumatic real-life events.
What did the researchers do and find?
Apology form was firstly manipulated. Participants were split into three groups; a victim-focused or self-other focused apology and an offender-focused or self-focused apology. A control condition was also included with no apology form available to participants to evaluate. Apology form was the predictor variable. Perceived sincerity, trust and positive emotional climate were treated as mediators and political support towards the government was the outcome variable. A positive association was found between victim-focused apology, compared to offender-focused apology, and political support towards the government via increased perceived sincerity, trust and positive emotional climate.
What do these findings mean?
These findings have impact from a theoretical and methodological perspective adding robust experimental evidence to the literature based on a real-life traumatic event. Furthermore, from a policy-making perspective, findings may recommend good practices of trust and damage restoration in the aftermath of severe disasters.
We examine the effects of the gender of the victim and offender and their relationship to each other on whether sexual and physical assaults are reported to the police. We also examine the reasons ...victims give for not reporting assaults and whether reporting patterns have changed over time. The analyses are based on a sample of 6,291 physical assaults and 1,787 sexual assaults from the National Violence Against Women Survey. The results suggest that victims are just as likely to report domestic assaults as they are to report assaults by other people they know. Male victims are particularly reluctant to report assaults by their intimate partners, whereas third parties are particularly unlikely to report assaults by partners of either gender. Sexual assaults, particularly those that involve acquaintances, are less likely to be reported. These patterns have not changed since the 1960s.
This study examines how sexual assault criminal legal proceedings and victim advocacy services for survivors have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We interviewed 12 victim advocates at a ...sexual assault service organization in a large Midwestern city that was particularly impacted by the pandemic. Results indicate that there have been major disruptions to sexual assault case timelines and communication with victims. Victim advocacy for survivors has also been affected, especially the provision of court advocacy and accompaniment. We discuss implications of these findings for sexual assault survivors, service providers, and future emergency preparedness planning for the criminal legal system.
Background
While there is growing international evidence pointing to the increased risks of crime perpetration and victimisation for some people with an intellectual disability, the overlap between ...offending and victimisation (the victim‐offender overlap) remains unclear.
Method
This study utilised a data linkage methodology of 2600 people with an intellectual disability, exploring their contacts with public mental health services and the police in Victoria, Australia.
Results
Victim‐offenders accounted for a small proportion of the sample (n = 148, 5.7%). The victim‐offender overlap was evident for both violent and nonviolent nonsexual crimes, particularly for theft, burglary, and threat‐related crimes. Key differences were also noted between males and females.
Conclusions
People with an intellectual disability who are both victim and offenders comprise a small but particularly complex justice‐involved population. Future research should explore the victim offender overlap for males and females separately, as well as any additional risks and vulnerabilities associated with specific mental health diagnoses.
Sexual harassment has received recent attention related to the #MeToo Movement. Due to public focus on perceptions of accusers and accused, we explored predictors of derogation of both. Participants ...(
n
= 146) completed measures of moral values, empathy, derogation, sociosexuality, political ideology, belief in a just world, religiosity, sex guilt and responded to an open-ended question about the #MeToo Movement. Multiple regression indicated that the best predictor of derogating either the accuser or accused is lower empathy toward that person and greater empathy toward the other. Qualitative analysis suggested that those with less empathy toward the accused were more likely to discuss victim empowerment. Our findings suggest that interventions focused on increasing empathy could be an avenue to decrease victim derogation.
As intimate partner violence (IPV) often remains unknown to police, bystanders can play a crucial role in prevention and further escalation of IPV. However, little is known about what brings them ...into action by reporting incidents of IPV to authorities. As such, we use statements of bystanders who filed reports about IPV incidents to an official domestic violence agency in the Netherlands (N = 78), to investigate the reasoning and motivations for reporting their suspicions. Results show that the reasons for bystanders to report IPV differ depending on the relational dynamics between partners. In situations perceived as intimate terrorism, involving a hierarchical abusive relationship between a man offender and a woman victim, bystanders primarily reported when previous helping initiatives proved inefficient, and they did so to prevent further harm, often particularly in relation to the woman victim. In situations perceived as situational couple violence, involving a symmetrical abusive relationship, bystanders primarily reported when escalation appeared, and they did so to prevent further harm to involved children. We conclude that bystanders report IPV incidents when the need for help is clear, and their motivation for acting concerns the well-being of victims. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence about real-life bystander intervention in emergencies and highlight the need for understanding intervention as context-specific in order to design effective intervention initiatives.
Secondary traumatic stress (STS) is a pattern of psychological symptoms that approximates the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and occurs in professionals who are exposed to ...individuals who have experienced trauma. While victim advocates are frontline health professionals who are trained to support victims of crime and interpersonal violence and are at risk for developing STS, they have been largely neglected in the extant literature on STS. The STS Scale (STSS) is a 17-item self-report questionnaire utilized to assess frequency of symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, and arousal, specifically related to providing services to victims of trauma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the STSS with a sample of victim advocates (N = 135) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results indicated that both a single-factor model and three-factor model were equivalent. This study represents a first attempt to validate a measure of STS among victim advocates, a unique and understudied population who are at risk for developing STS given their work with individuals who have experienced interpersonal violence. Establishing effective, easy to administer, and efficient measures of STS is important given that this population encounters secondary trauma on a regular basis in the context of their job. While additional theoretical work regarding the construct of STS is needed, the STSS did demonstrate high reliability with this population and thus can be used as part of the assessment of STS among victim advocates.
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