Victim to offender: A review

It has been suggested that victimization during childhood may be a primary factor in the adoption of offending behaviour during adolescence. Why is it, therefore, that the majority of child abuse victims do not become delinquent? Although empirical and theoretical evidence abounds in the victim to offender literature, the pathways responsible for vulnerability towards and protection against criminal activity have so far been unidentified. The significance of detecting these influencing factors is apparent, specifically in relation to termination of the cycle either before or after it has begun.     

Child versus peer/adult offenders: A critical review of the juvenile sex offender literature

Sexual offenses are serious crimes and it is believed that adolescents perpetrate 20% of all sexual assaults and 50% of all child sexual abuse (Barbaree & Marshall, 2006). To better understand the etiology of juvenile sexual offending, researchers have explored differences between those who offend children versus those who offend peers/adults. This paper critically reviewed 21 studies that compared juvenile sex offenders who abused children with those who abused peers/adults on a variety of variables including victim, offense, and offender characteristics; psychosocial variables; and predictors and rates of recidivism. Strengths and weaknesses of these studies as well as future directions for the literature are discussed. Common methodological limitations of victim-age based comparisons of juvenile sex offenders included inconsistent definitions, low-powered studies, lack of standardized measures, and recidivism data based solely on conviction rates. Overall, many inconsistent findings limit our ability to give overarching conclusions; however, the research does suggests that not only is it important to examine child and peer/adult offenders, but mixed offenders (i.e., offender with both child and peer victims) as a distinct group need to be included in comparisons as well.     

A longitudinal examination of sex offender recidivism prior to and following the implementation of SORN

The goals of the present study were to examine the recidivism rates of two matched samples of sexual offenders, those released prior to and after sex offender registration and notification (SORN) in New Jersey. The pre-SORN group (1990-1994) included 247 offenders, while the post-SORN group (1996-2000) included 248 offenders. The longitudinal analysis demonstrated that for sex offenders released from prison both prior to and after implementation of SORN, there are clearly two distinguishable groups of sex offenders in relation to patterns of recidivism. More than three-quarters of sex offenders were identified as at low risk of recidivism, with low rates of repeat criminal offenses. By contrast, the high-risk group of offenders was not only more likely to commit future criminal offenses, including sex offenses, but they were also more likely to commit significantly more offenses and to do so fairly quickly following release. Analyses also include an examination of the influence of demographics, substance abuse and mental health issues, treatment history, sex offense incident characteristics, and criminal history on recidivism. Finally, SORN status was not a significant predictor of sex or general recidivism. The study limitations and policy implications are discussed.     

Female-Perpetrated Homicide in South Korea: A Homicide Typology

Using cluster analysis, the current study examined the extent to which distinct types of homicides are present using national data of female-perpetrated homicides in South Korea. The cluster analysis showed that the taxonomic structure of this sample is best reflected by five subordinate clusters: Cluster 1: Non-traditional intimate partner homicide; Cluster 2: Family homicide; Cluster 3: Traditional intimate partner homicide; Cluster 4: Premeditated homicide by unmarried women; and Cluster 5: Nonpremeditated homicide by unmarried women. The subsequent analysis revealed that each subtype of homicide has unique situational characteristics. The implications for the prevention strategies and future studies are discussed.     

Rational-Emotive Education: A review of the literature

This article will assess the current status of Rational-Emotive Education. Attention is given to the concepts of Rational-Emotive Education, as well as specific teaching strategies. Also explored are studies attempting to assess the efficacy of using Rational-Emotive Education in the classroom. It is concluded that more scientific and comparative studies are needed in this area.Dr. Daniel N. Watter is an assistant professor of Health Science at William Paterson College in Wayne, New Jersey. In addition, he is a sex and marital therapist in private practice.     

Employee absenteeism: A review of the literature

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on employee absenteeism as a form of withdrawal behavior apart from turnover. Studies examining the psychometric properties of absence measures are reviewed, along with the relationship between absenteeism and personal, attitudinal, and organizational variables. Studies exploring the relationship between absenteeism and turnover are examined according to the unit of analysis studied in the research. Programmatic efforts to reduce employee absenteeism are also reviewed. Throughout the paper emphasis is placed on the indices used by investigators to measure absenteeism, and the problems that have arisen in the literature through the use of multiple indicators of absenteeism. The review concludes with suggestions for research that are of both theoretical and practical concern.     

Employee self-esteem: A review of the literature

Theories and empirical findings about self-esteem derived from the work role and its activities are reviewed. First, self-esteem is defined and problems inherent in its measurement are discussed. Theoretical perspectives relating self-esteem to the work role and activities are then outlined. Problems of a methodological nature, common to most of the evidence, are highlighted prior to reviewing the intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics which influence self-esteem. The evidence pertaining to the moderating effects of chronic global self-esteem on such relationships is incorporated. The attitudinal and behavioral correlates of high employee self-esteem are then presented, followed by the influence of chronic self-esteem level on occupational choice. Suggestions are made for future research in line with the methodological and conceptual problems encountered.     

Beyond sexual recidivism: A review of the sexual criminal career parameters of adult sex offenders

The current study claims that measures of sexual recidivism provide a distorted view of the criminal activity of adult sex offenders. To address this important limitation, the criminal career perspective is presented and key concepts are defined and described. The study also provides an up-to-date review of the scientific literature on various criminal career parameters of the sexual criminal activity of adult sex offenders. Hence, current empirical knowledge on the prevalence, age of onset, frequency, continuity, versatility, and desistance from sex offending is presented. The findings highlight the complexities of the sexual criminal career of adult sex offenders, and most importantly, its dynamic aspect, both of which are not captured by traditional measures of sexual recidivism. The review also underscores the importance of recognizing that sexual offending develops according to a series of stages, that, if not recognized, may lead to the underestimation of risk for some and over-estimation of risk for others. The review provides a framework to stimulate new areas of research as well as policy-development that is not limited to the identification of the “high-risk” convicted sex offenders.     

Homicide Followed by Suicide: A Comparison with Homicide and Suicide

Homicide‐suicides are a rare yet very serious form of lethal violence which mainly occurs in partnerships and families. The extent to which homicide‐suicide can be understood as being primarily a homicide or a suicide event, or rather a category of its own is examined. In total, 103 homicide‐suicides were compared to 3,203 homicides and 17,751 suicides. These are all events that took place in the Netherlands in the period 1992 to 2006. Logistic regression analyses show that homicide‐suicides significantly differ from both homicides and suicides with regard to sociodemographic and event characteristics. The findings suggest that homicide‐suicide might be considered as a distinct phenomenon from both homicide and suicide.     

Bereavement following suicide: A review of the literature

This article summarizes findings from studies concerned with the impact of a suicidal death upon surviving relatives. The limitations of currently available data are discussed, and the need for further research is emphasized. The research for this article was instigated by, and supported by, a grant from Cruse, the National Organisation for the Widowed and their Children. The author is a member of this organization’s Research Sub-Committee. I am indebted to Dr. Dora Black and Dr. Colin Murray Parkes for allowing me access to their collections of papers on bereavement and for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Sensorimotor synchronization: A review of the tapping literature

Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), the rhythmic coordination of perception and action, occurs in many contexts, but most conspicuously in music performance and dance. In the laboratory, it is most often studied in the form of finger tapping to a sequence of auditory stimuli. This review summarizes theories and empirical findings obtained with the tapping task. Its eight sections deal with the role of intention, rate limits, the negative mean asynchrony, variability, models of error correction, perturbation studies, neural correlates of SMS, and SMS in musical contexts. The central theoretical issue is considered to be how best to characterize the perceptual information and the internal processes that enable people to achieve and maintain SMS. Recent research suggests that SMS is controlled jointly by two error correction processes (phase correction and period correction) that differ in their degrees of cognitive control and may be associated with different brain circuits. They exemplify the general distinction between subconscious mechanisms of action regulation and conscious processes involved in perceptual judgment and action planning.     

Greeting skills: A systematic review of the literature

Individuals with disabilities often demonstrate difficulty in social communication skills such as greetings. Studies have shown that deficits in greetings may negatively affect social interactions and vocational opportunities. Therefore, previous research has evaluated a variety of teaching procedures to increase greetings for individuals with disabilities with varying efficacy. This review of the literature provides an overview of studies to date in which greetings were taught to individuals with intellectual disabilities. A variety of teaching procedures were identified, and implications of those procedures are discussed. Results suggest that multiple teaching procedures may be effective; however, component analyses, further replication, and modified generalization procedures are necessary. Implications for future researchers include identifying a technological definition of greetings and evaluating effective teaching procedures and generalization strategies. Implications for practitioners include teaching one greeting type at a time, limiting the number of social skills taught simultaneously, identification of effective teaching procedures and generalization considerations.     

Suicide: A decade review of the sociological literature

Major works on suicide are reviewed and classified into four analytic categories according to their theoretical emphasis: cultural, economic, modernization, and social integration perspectives. The research under these paradigms is assessed in terms of four themes. First, attention is drawn to research evidence that questions traditional theories. An example is Durkheim's position on social class and suicide. Second, the review notes several new theories including Phillips’ imitation thesis and the author's own model of migration's effects on suicide. Third, the paper observes and reviews explanations of new trends in suicide rates such as the rapid increase in youth suicide and the decline in suicide among the elderly. Finally, the review calls attention to explanations of suicide, such as that linking suicide to low marital solidarity, that have withstood the test of the more rigorous empirical testing of recent times.     

Substance abuse and violence: A review of the literature

Most alcohol and drug use occurs among persons who are not violent. However, alcohol and, to a lesser extent, illicit drugs are present in both offenders and victims in many violent events. The links between psychoactive substances and violence involve broad social and economic forces, the settings in which people obtain and consume the substance, and the biological processes that underlie all human behavior. In the case of alcohol, evidence from laboratory and empirical studies support the possibility of a causal role in violent behavior. Similarly, the psychopharmacodynamics of stimulants, such as amphetamines and cocaine, also suggest that these substances could play a contributing role in violent behavior. On the other hand, most real-world studies indicate that this relationship is exceedingly complex and moderated by a host of factors in the individual and the environment. In addition to psychopharmacological effects, substance use may lead to violence through social processes such as drug distribution systems (systemic violence) and violence used to obtain drugs or money for drugs (economic compulsive violence).     

Video game violence: A review of the empirical literature

The popularity of video games, especially violent video games, has reached phenomenal proportions. The theoretical line of reasoning that hypothesizes a causal relationship between violent video-game play and aggression draws on the very large literature on media violence effects. Additionally, there are theoretical reasons to believe that video game effects should be stronger than movie or television violence effects. This paper outlines what is known about the relationship between violent video-game playing and aggression. The available literature on virtual reality effects on aggression is discussed as well. The preponderance of the evidence from the existing literature suggests that exposure to video-game violence increases aggressive behavior and other aggression-related phenomena. However, the paucity of empirical data, coupled with a variety of methodological problems and inconsistencies in these data, clearly demonstrate the need for additional research.     

Reducing psychopathic violence: A review of the treatment literature

Psychopathy reflects a pathological form of personality that predisposes individuals to risk for perpetration of chronic and severe violence across their lifespan. The violence attributable to psychopathic persons constitutes a substantial portion of the societal burden to the public health and criminal justice systems and thus necessitates significant attention by prevention experts. However, there is a relatively nascent literature that has examined psychopathic persons' response to treatment, especially considering violence as an outcome. Nevertheless, there have been repeated averments about the amenability (or lack thereof) of psychopathy to treatment. In the present paper, we attempt to provide a comprehensive review of studies assessing the relation of psychopathy to violence outcomes following intervention. Our review of studies suggests there is reason to suspect that specific and tailored interventions which take into consideration psychopathic persons' unique patterns of behavioral conditioning and predispositions may have the potential to reduce violence. However, equally important, certain interventions may potentially exacerbate these persons' violent behavior. The nature of the outcomes is likely highly dependent on the specific components of the intervention itself. We conclude that future research should increase methodological rigor by striving to include treatment control groups and increasing the transparency of the implemented interventions.