Children living with violence within the family and its sequel: A meta-analysis from 1995–2006

Based on 37 articles published in international refereed journals between 1995 and 2006, this meta-analytical review attempted to study the sequel of children living with family violence. It specifically attempted to identify the overall effect size of family violence on children's adjustment outcomes. Moderators that exerted their effects on the relationship were also studied. The overall effect size generated from the 353 study-level effect sizes was rather small (Z_r = .201). Moderating analysis on study designs, sample sources, child developmental stages and gender did not show significant heterogeneity in effect sizes, while there was significant dispersion in effect sizes among different types of child adjustment outcomes. Results of this study are basically resonant with the meta-analyses of Kitzmann et al. [Kitzmann, K. M., Gaylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D., (2003). Child witnesses to domestic violence: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 339–352] and Wolfe et al. [Wolfe, D. A., Crooks, C. V., Lee, V., McIntyre-Smith, A., & Jaffe, P. G., (2003). The effects of children's exposure to domestic violence: A meta-analysis and critique. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6, 171–187], but add new information in that the report source of family violence was not a significant moderator, while that of child adjustment outcomes was.     

Desensitization to media violence over a short period of time

This study investigated the desensitization to violence over a short period of time. Participants watched nine violent movie scenes and nine comedy scenes, and reported whether they enjoyed the violent or comedy scenes and whether they felt sympathetic toward the victim of violence. Using latent growth modeling, analyses were carried out to investigate how participants responded to the different scenes across time. The findings of this study suggested that repeated exposure to media violence reduces the psychological impact of media violence in the short term, therefore desensitizing viewers to media violence. As a result, viewers tended to feel less sympathetic toward the victims of violence and actually enjoy more the violence portrayed in the media. Additionally, desensitization to media violence was better represented by a curvilinear pattern, whereas desensitization to comedy scenes was better represented by a linear pattern. Finally, trait aggression was not related to the pattern of change over time, although significant effects were found for initial reports of enjoyment and sympathy. Aggr. Behav. 35:179–187, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Area-Based Socioeconomic Characteristics of Industries at High Risk for Violence in the Workplace

This study examined socioeconomic factors associated with the presence of workplaces belonging to industries reported to be at high risk for worker homicide. The proportion of 2004 North Carolina workplaces in high-risk industries was computed following spatial linkage of individual workplaces to 2000 United States Census Block Groups (n = 3,925). Thirty census-derived socioeconomic variables (selected a priori as potentially predictive of violence) were summarized using exploratory factor analysis into poverty/deprivation, human/economic capital, and transience/instability. Multinomial logistic regression models indicate associations between higher proportion of workplaces belonging to high-risk industries and Block Groups with more poverty/deprivation or transience/instability and less human/economic capital. The relationship between human/economic capital and Block Groups proportion of high-risk industry workplaces was modified by levels of transience/instability. Community characteristics therefore contribute to the potential for workplace violence, and future research should continue to understand the relationship between social context and workplace violence risk.     

The Duluth model: A data-impervious paradigm and a failed strategy

Gondolf has criticized our review as being selective and suggests that the Duluth model is more promising than we had concluded. We note that his own outcome study showed a failure rate for a Duluth program of 40% – identical to the mean rate of the studies we reviewed. We see his critiques as representative of the very mindset we described in our original paper – that of the gender paradigm. We review some of the shortcomings of Gondolf's critique as representative of this mindset. Our conclusion about the failure of the Duluth program remains unchanged.     

Relations among personality scales of aggression,violence, and empathy: Validational evidence bearing on the risk of eruptive violence scale

This study was designed to explore relations of emotional empathy (two scales) with aggression and violence (three scales). An initial study investigated validity of one of the violence scales, the Risk of Eruptive Violence Scale (REV), by comparing individual REV scores with individual histories of criminal violence for a sample of incarcerated juveniles. Validity of the REV was supported by a very strong correlation of .71 between REV scores and the amount of criminal violence in this homogeneous sample. The second study yielded positive intercorrelations among measures of aggression and violence, positive intercorrelations among measures of emotional empathy, and negative correlations (ranging from –.22 to –.50, P < .05) of measures of aggression and violence with measures of emotional empathy. Analyses of the five scales in terms of the Pleasure-Arousability-Dominance (PAD) Temperament Model helped explain similarities of the emotional empathy scales with other individual difference measures of prosocial orientation (e.g., affiliation). PAD analyses also explained some paradoxical effects of experimental "empathy arousal" on aggression toward victims. Aggr. Behav. 23:433–445, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Violence in the community—a study of violence and aggression in homelessness and mental health day services

This study examined violence and aggression in five agencies providing day services in homelessness or mental health. Incident reporting was used to test the hypotheses that aggression is associated with alcohol problems, drug use, mental disorder, homelessness, history of violence, age and sex. Agency policies and patterns to aggressive incidents were explored. Three agencies provided a sufficient number of incidents for analysis (involving 30 ‘aggressors’). A history of violence was associated with aggression in all three agencies; alcohol problems, drug use and younger age were associated with aggression in at least one agency; no association was found for mental disorder, homelessness or sex. A degree of pattern to incidents could be discerned, with drink or drugs often involved, and exercises of authority or intervention in client altercations being particularly likely to precede aggression towards staff. A variety of incidents were reported, from verbal arguments to threats with a knife and serious physical assault. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Workplace violence and workplace aggression: Evidence on their relative frequency and potential causes

Recent news reports have focused attention on dramatic instances of workplace violence—extreme acts of aggression in work settings. It is suggested here that such actions, while both tragic and frightening, are only a small part of a much larger problem of workplace aggression—efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work or the organizations in which they are employed. The present study investigated two major hypotheses with respect to such aggression: 1) contrary to what media reports suggest, most aggression occurring in work settings is verbal, indirect, and passive rather than physical, direct, and active; 2) recent changes in many organizations (e.g., downsizing, increased workforce diversity) have generated conditions that may contribute to the occurrence of workplace aggression. A survey of 178 employed persons provided partial support for both predictions. Verbal and passive forms of aggression were rated as more frequent by participants than physical and active forms of aggression. In addition, the greater the extent to which several changes had occurred recently in participants' organizations, the greater the incidence of workplace aggression they reported. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Aggression in television programs in Finland

A detailed coding system was constructed to study the frequency and salience of aggression in TV programs broadcast on Finnish television. Salience of aggression was measured by the brutality index which consisted of ratings concerning the (1) program context, (2) seriousness, (3) justification, and (4) dramatization of aggressive acts. When compared to previous studies of TV-violence, the rate of aggression in Finnish TV was moderate with 3.5 aggressive acts per program hour. Only 14% of aggressive acts portrayed brutal aggression, which was mostly seen in fictional films and serials. A clear 9 pm watershed was not seen in Finland, since aggressive acts were distributed quite evenly during the TV time. Aggressiveness of a program was not related to its popularity among viewers. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc. ©1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Psychiatric nurses' experiences with inpatient aggression

Using a survey instrument, the experiences of psychiatric nurses with inpatient aggression were investigated in East London, U.K. On this “Perceptions of Prevalence Of Aggression Scale” (POPAS), annual experiences with 15 types of disruptive and aggressive behavior were rated anonymously. Staff members were also asked to disclose the number of days missed from work due to inpatient violence. On the basis of these POPAS forms, internal consistency of the instrument, mean reported aggression frequencies, and days missed from work due to violence were calculated. Internal consistency of the POPAS appeared to be reasonable. Verbal abuse and threats were experienced by most of the psychiatric nurses during a one‐year period (i.e., by about 80–90 percent of nurses). Sexual harassment or intimidation was also experienced relatively often on an annual basis (68 percent), particularly by female and young staff members. A minority of staff members (i.e., 16 percent) had experienced severe physical violence. Although not prevalent, this type of behavior was most strongly connected with reporting sick. In particular, staff members working with involuntarily admitted patients experienced much (severe) violence during their work. Although the validity of estimates of aggression prevalence with the POPAS instrument needs to be investigated further, such a survey may be helpful in gaining insight rather quickly into the level of day‐to‐day contact with aggressive behavior. Also, since information on verbal, physical, and sexual violence, and on days missed from work, can be provided anonymously, this rather delicate, but essential management information, may be accessed relatively easily with the POPAS. Aggr. Behav. 00:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The gender paradigm in domestic violence research and theory: Part 1—The conflict of theory and data

Feminist theory of intimate violence is critically reviewed in the light of data from numerous incidence studies reporting levels of violence by female perpetrators higher than those reported for males, particularly in younger age samples. A critical analysis of the methodology of these studies is made with particular reference to the Conflict Tactics Scale developed and utilised by Straus and his colleagues. Results show that the gender disparity in injuries from domestic violence is less than originally portrayed by feminist theory. Studies are also reviewed indicating high levels of unilateral intimate violence by females to both males and females. Males appear to report their own victimization less than females do and to not view female violence against them as a crime. Hence, they differentially under-report being victimized by partners on crime victim surveys. It is concluded that feminist theory is contradicted by these findings and that the call for “qualitative” studies by feminists is really a means of avoiding this conclusion. A case is made for a paradigm having developed amongst family violence activists and researchers that precludes the notion of female violence, trivializes injuries to males and maintains a monolithic view of a complex social problem.