Psychology of Violence最新文献

Objective: Data on sexual violence perpetration among adolescents has not been widely available in South Africa. This paper characterizes sexual violence perpetration and identifies factors associated with perpetration.

Method: Data were derived from a secondary analysis of N=879, 14-16 year old adolescents with elevated risk for depression, and recruited via house-to-house community sampling for participation in a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a behavioral intervention for prevention of HIV, STIs, and depression. Data were collected from 2018-2023 in South Africa.

Results: Nearly half of participants (45.8%) attempted and/or completed one or more acts of sexual violence perpetration. The most common act of completed perpetration was coerced touching (30.5%), followed by oral sex (18.2%), vaginal sex (12.1%), and anal sex (11.9%). The most common act of attempted perpetration was oral sex (15.5%) followed by vaginal sex (11.2%) and anal sex (10.6%). Boys engaged in more violent perpetration than girls. Regression analysis adjusted for age and gender showed that having more sexual partners (p<0.001), drug use (p<0.001), and less parental monitoring (p=0.057) remained independent risk factors.

Conclusions: Public health intervention is urgently needed to address sexual violence perpetration among adolescents. Future interventions should be timed for early adolescence, and should develop adolescents' understanding of rape, assault, and gaining sexual consent for a range of sexual touching, not just penetrative sex. Interventions to address violence should concurrently address sexual and reproductive health risk behaviors as well as substance use.

Objective –: Past research found depression, substance use, and intimate partner violence (IPV) to be prevalent among sexual minority men (SMM) and noted on their synergistic relationship, based on the syndemic framework. In exploration of potential mechanisms, we examined depression as a predictor of future IPV experiences, with substance use as a mediator.

Method –: We used three timepoints of longitudinal data (baseline, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up) of 500 SMM from the US. Directionality between IPV experiences and depressive symptoms was assessed using cross-lagged panel modeling across three timepoints. Then we used linear and generalized structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the associations between depressive symptoms from baseline to 6-month follow-up and IPV experiences at 12-month follow-up with mediation via substance use at 6-month follow-up. For generalized SEM models, depressive symptoms were categorized as no symptoms, intermittent, and chronic. All SEM models adjusted for corresponding baseline IPV experiences and sociodemographic characteristics.

Results –: Prevalence of any experiences of IPV at 12-month was 25.5% for victimization and 17.9% for perpetration. Chronic depressive symptoms were directly associated with any experiences of both IPV victimization and perpetration, with no evidence of mediation through substance use. Conversely, substance use fully mediated the association between intermittent depressive symptoms and IPV victimization.

Conclusion –: These findings suggest that IPV prevention programs for SMM should incorporate strategies to address mental health and its coping mechanisms, including substance use. There is a need for greater investment towards raising awareness and development of syndemic-focused interventions to address multiple, co-occurring health challenges among SMM.

Objective: Higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been documented among veterans, compared to those who are currently serving. However, no known studies have examined associations between IPV and transition-related stressors among couples who have recently separated from military service. This study aimed to address this gap by examining associations between military status, transition-related stressors, and IPV.

Method: Using survey data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, we examined associations between U.S. service members' military status (currently serving: n = 1,581; veteran: n = 1,731), IPV, and transition-related stressors (financial strain, social support, housing instability, and employment status). Transition-related stressors were then tested as potential mediators in the relationship between military status and IPV.

Results: Veteran status was associated with a 71% increase in the odds of IPV; veteran couples had greater financial strain and were more likely to work part-time or not be employed relative to their currently serving counterparts, and veterans had lower levels of perceived social support. Couples' financial strain and perceived social support partially mediated associations between military status and IPV.

Conclusions: These results suggest that primary targets for IPV prevention include strengthening couples' financial well-being and bolstering perceived social support among currently serving military personnel and veterans.

Public significance statement: Veteran couples had higher rates of intimate partner violence compared with couples who are currently serving in the military. Stressors associated with separation from military service-financial strain, social support, and underemployment-were associated with, and partially accounted for, elevated intimate partner violence among veterans.

Objective: This brief report examines associations of age, sexual identity, prior sexual victimization, hazardous drinking behavior, and male sexual partners with the odds of prospective sexual assault among sexual minority women.

Method: This study utilized data from 467 sexual minority women enrolled in Waves 3 (2010-2012) and 4 (2016-2017) of the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women survey. We conducted logistic regression analyses to identify factors associated with the risk of sexual assault over time.

Results: Logistic regression analyses showed that younger age (18-30), prior victimization, hazardous drinking, bisexual sexual identity, and number of male partners in the previous 5 years at Wave 3 were prospectively associated with sexual assault at Wave 4.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that younger age, prior sexual victimization, hazardous drinking, and male sexual partnerships increase the subsequent odds of sexual assault among sexual minority women. The findings suggest opportunities for targeted interventions to prevent sexual violence in high-risk groups, as well as areas for future research.

Objective: Among women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV), to document the prevalence of explicit and implicit firearm threat across the life course, determine if threat type differentiates women on various characteristics and IPV experiences, elucidate firearm threat incident characteristics, and describe women's perceptions of their partners' willingness to use a firearm against them.

Method: Women (N = 258, M _age = 40.1 years, 43.8% Black) who reported experiencing physical or psychological IPV were recruited from the community, mainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrospective data on firearm threats were collected during individual interviews.

Results: Of participants, 35% reported experiencing firearm threats by an intimate partner during their lifetime. Participants experienced 9.1 (SD = 24.3) instances of firearm threat, on average. Participants who experienced implicit firearm threat only were not significantly different from those who experienced explicit threat on various characteristics and IPV experiences. Most incidents took place in private locations when no one else was around. Partners were described as "angry/irrational/extremely upset" during 68.7% of incidents, "calm" during 38.6% of incidents, and separately, were reported to be under the influence of alcohol/drugs in 49.4% of incidents. One-fourth of participants believed their partner would be willing to use a gun against them.

Conclusions: Findings underscore the need for stronger attention to implicit firearm threat in practice and policy. Clinically, there is a need to advance training of providers to raise awareness of explicit and implicit firearm threats and recognize the heterogeneity of incident characteristics as it has implications for survivor-centered practices.

Objective: Rough sex is increasingly common among younger cohorts. Preliminary evidence suggests that engagement in rough sex is not always consensual, and it may be associated with a history of sexual victimization. This study sought to examine that relationship in a large U.S. national sample.

Method: Participants (weighted N = 4,546) were recruited to complete an online survey in which they were asked about their experiences enacting a variety of rough sex behaviors on a partner and their experiences having these behaviors enacted on them by a partner-both consensually and nonconsensually. They were also asked about experiences of sexual coercion (sexual acts through verbal pressure) and sexual assault (nonconsensual sexual acts). A single item assessing nonconsensual rough sex was pilot tested.

Results: Individuals with a history of sexual victimization (either sexual coercion or sexual assault) were significantly more likely to report enacting rough sex and experiencing both consensual and nonconsensual rough sex. The single item assessing nonconsensual rough sex showed utility (i.e., captured sexual victims that were missed by traditional sexual victimization items) and validity (i.e., was correlated with traditional sexual victimization items and with a multi-item measure of nonconsensual rough sex).

Conclusions: Engagement in rough sex is associated with sexual victimization history, pointing to the potential for vulnerability and exploitation within rough sex. Additionally, these results speak to the need to assess for experiences of nonconsensual rough sex, and they provide some preliminary evidence for the validity of a single item that could be added to existing victimization measures.

Objective: Firearms are the most common method of adolescent intimate partner homicide, but little research has examined nonfatal firearm behaviors among adolescent dating partners. The purpose of this study was to investigate patterns of teen dating violence (TDV) including nonfatal firearm-related behaviors and to examine the demographic characteristics and mental health difficulties associated with subgroup membership in a community sample of adolescents.

Methods: Participants were 722 adolescents (M _age =16.1, SD=1.1; 53.9% female; 48.2% Black) with a dating history attending four high schools across two districts in a single county in the Southeastern U.S.

Results: Over 15% of participants reported experiencing and 8.6% reported perpetrating firearm-related TDV. The latent class analysis identified four TDV subgroups: firearm-related TDV, non-firearm TDV, psychological TDV only, and uninvolved. Male adolescents, adolescents who identified as a sexual or gender minority, and adolescents attending a high-poverty school were at a higher odds of being in the firearm-related TDV subgroup. Adolescents in the firearm-related TDV subgroup reported greater substance use and suicidal ideation compared to all other subgroups.

Conclusion: Firearm-related TDV was alarmingly high in our community sample of adolescents and was associated with poor mental health difficulties. In addition, adolescents attending a high-poverty school were more likely to report firearm-related TDV involvement. These findings underscore the need to identify community-level factors that contribute to disparities in nonfatal firearm-related TDV. They also highlight an urgent need for national attention and resources to reduce firearm-related TDV and prevent premature morbidity and mortality among youth from marginalized groups.

Objective: This study examined daily level changes in sexual assault incidence over the course of the pandemic, and whether such changes could be contextualized by pandemic-related changes in socializing and substance use.

Method: In a longitudinal study that encompassed pre-pandemic (February 2019 - March 2020) and pandemic periods (July 2020 - October 2021), young adult women (N=181; 22 - 25 years, M = 23.6) completed eight bursts of daily reports, each consisting of three weekend days (Friday - Sunday), three times a year (27 reports annually). Each day, women reported on their socializing, substance use, and unwanted sexual experiences.

Results: Pandemic sexual assault incidence was about half that of the pre-pandemic period. Women reported fewer socializing occasions, less frequent alcohol use, and were more likely to socialize with a partner at someone's home during the pandemic, rather than with friends at a party or bar, compared with the pre-pandemic period. However, on days when women used alcohol and socialized, they were about 3 times more likely to experience sexual assault. Perpetrators of sexual assaults reported during the pandemic were more likely to be previous rather than new sexual partners, compared with pre-pandemic sexual assaults.

Conclusions: The contexts of sexual assaults experienced by women during the pandemic differed qualitatively from those reported prior to the pandemic. Changes in the social context were related to reduced risk for sexual assault; however, as one type of risk receded (assault emerging from social settings), another (assault by a partner, at home) became more prominent.

Objective: With COVID-19 came a range of public health measures that impacted people's routine activities. According to routine activity theory, these could affect the rate and nature of crime. This has largely been examined with volume crime (e.g., burglary, robbery) or crimes committed in the home. Stranger sex offenses greatly vary in nature and occur in a range of settings; therefore, these offenses present a novel opportunity to investigate different routine activity theory-based hypotheses. Method: The National Crime Agency routinely collects detailed information about all stranger sex offenses reported to the police in the United Kingdom. With these standardized data (N = 6,422), we studied the relationship between COVID-19 public health measures and the rate and characteristics of stranger sex offending across the entire first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting this with data from the same period pre-COVID-19. Results: Our findings accord with classic criminological theory whereby the incidence and characteristics of U.K. stranger sex offenses reported to police covaried with the population's patterns of mobility and national lockdowns during the first year of COVID-19. This impact on routine activities also manifested in differences in perpetrator and victim behavior and characteristics. Conclusions: Our study supports the applicability of routine activity theory to sex offending and brings new insights regarding the situational prevention of sex offending during major events such as a pandemic. It is also relevant to the urgent need to educate prosecutors who are now making decisions about sex offenses perpetrated during the early years of this pandemic.