Violence risk assessment in persons with mental illness

Mental health clinicians are often asked to determine an individual's risk of future violence. Dangerous assessments are required in a wide variety of situations that include involuntary commitments, emergency psychiatric evaluations, seclusion and restraint release decisions, inpatient care discharges, probation/parole decisions, death penalty evaluations, domestic violence interventions, fitness for duty evaluations, and after a threat is made. This article provides an overview regarding the assessment of dangerousness in both adults and juveniles and a summary of recent research regarding the relationship of mental illness to violence.     

The Politicization of Migrants: Further Evidence that Politicized Collective Identity is a Dual Identity

The article examines the role of collective identification processes in the politicization of Russian migrants in Germany. Building on the assumption that politicized collective identity (PCI) is a dual identity, the authors predicted and found that dual identification as both Russian and German was positively related to politicization among members of the Russian minority in Germany. This relationship held up even when the influences of several sociodemographic variables, past political activity, and other forms of collective identification were statistically controlled. In addition, perceived maltreatment of Russian migrants in Germany moderated the relationship between dual identification and politicization in keeping with the theoretical assumption that the development of PCI presupposes high awareness of shared grievances. Finally, dual identification was unrelated to acceptance of political violence, but positively related to self‐restriction to peaceful political means. The constructive role of politicization driven by dual identification in social integration is discussed.     

Arrest and intimate partner violence: Toward a more complete application of deterrence theory

Two decades of research have failed to produce consistent and compelling results that arrest deters intimate partner violence. This tradition of research is reviewed, concluding that little can be learned about the deterrent efficacy of arrest (or other sanctions) for this type of violence until a more complete framework of deterrence theory is specified to guide further research. The framework should delineate mediating influences besides deterrence, linking arrest to the prevention, reduction, or cessation of intimate partner violence, and factors that moderate those influences. Such factors bear on the differential sensitivity to sanctions on the part of actual or potential perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Recommendations for future research are offered, including suggestions for data needed to draw defensible causal inferences about these mediating and moderating influences.     

The pleasure is momentary…the expense damnable?: The influence of pornography on rape and sexual assault

The effects of pornography, whether violent or non-violent, on sexual aggression have been debated for decades. The current review examines evidence about the influence of pornography on sexual aggression in correlational and experimental studies and in real world violent crime data. Evidence for a causal relationship between exposure to pornography and sexual aggression is slim and may, at certain times, have been exaggerated by politicians, pressure groups and some social scientists. Some of the debate has focused on violent pornography, but evidence of any negative effects is inconsistent, and violent pornography is comparatively rare in the real world. Victimization rates for rape in the United States demonstrate an inverse relationship between pornography consumption and rape rates. Data from other nations have suggested similar relationships. Although these data cannot be used to determine that pornography has a cathartic effect on rape behavior, combined with the weak evidence in support of negative causal hypotheses from the scientific literature, it is concluded that it is time to discard the hypothesis that pornography contributes to increased sexual assault behavior.     

Links between parental psychological violence, other family disturbances, and children's adjustment

In a sample of 143 parent-child dyads from two-parent and separated families, this investigation documented the links between parental psychological violence and separation or divorce, severity of parental conflict, triangulation of the child in this conflict, and polarized parent-child alliances. The unique and combined contributions of all these variables to children's behavior problems were also assessed. Participants were parents, mostly mothers, and their 10-12-year-old child. They were recruited through schools, community organizations, and newspapers. Questionnaires were administered at home. Findings suggest that separated families undergo more relational disturbances than two-parent families (more severe conflicts, more triangulation, stronger parent-child alliances), but the amount of parental psychological violence was similar in both groups. Psychological violence was associated with the severity of parental conflict, especially in two-parent families. Triangulation of the child in parental conflict was another correlate of psychological violence. Once all variables were controlled for, psychological violence remained the only significant correlate of children's externalized behavior problems. These findings raise the importance of preventing psychological violence toward children, especially in families plagued with severe parental conflicts.     

Violence Exposure and Psychopathology in Urban Youth: The Mediating Role of Posttraumatic Stress

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of violence exposure sequelae is essential to providing effective treatments for traumatized youth. This longitudinal study examined the mediating role of posttraumatic stress in the relationship between violence exposure and psychopathology, and compared the mediated models by gender. Urban adolescents (n=1,358) were surveyed using the Social and Health Assessment. The proposed relationships were examined using Structural Equation Modeling. Posttraumatic stress fully mediated the relationships between victimization and depression and anxiety in girls, and partially so in boys. In addition, posttraumatic stress partially mediated the relationships between violence exposure and commission of violence in boys. Current findings support the longitudinal effects of violence exposure on adolescent mental health. Posttraumatic stress represents a unique mechanism for the development of psychopathology in girls and is also related to negative outcomes in boys. These findings have direct implications for prevention and rehabilitation efforts among violence exposed youth.