Child victims: Searching for opportunities to break the cycle of violence

In 1986 I began research to address the relationship between early child abuse and neglect and later deliquent and violent criminal behavior using a prospective cohort design. The relationship is not inevitable, suggesting an opportunity for long-range violence prevention through appropriate early intervention. Here, I briefly describe how childhood victimization and violent criminal behavior are related and illustrate a number of promising strategies and opportunities to intervene. Finally, I offer five principles to guide interventions: (1) the earlier the intervention, the better; (2) don't neglect neglected children; (3) one size does not fit all; (4) surveillance—a double-edged sword; and (5) accessibility to resources. Rather than focusing on responses to child abuse or neglect in court proceedings that “treat” offenders, primary prevention efforts should target childhood victims to reduce their risk of becoming offenders in the future.     

中小学生欺负/受欺负的普遍性与基本特点

利用修订的Olweus欺负问卷对 92 0 5名城乡儿童进行了测查 ,考察初中和小学阶段儿童欺负 /受欺负问题的普遍性及基本特点。结果发现 :中小学生中存在着较严重的欺负问题 ,近 1/ 5被调查的儿童卷入欺负 /受欺负问题 ;总体上小学和初中阶段学生欺负 /受欺负问题的发生率随年级的升高而下降 ,但欺负他人在初中阶段具有稳定性 ;直接言语欺负是最为普遍的欺负方式 ;在欺负 /受欺负的比率、对待欺负态度和欺负类型上均存在性别差异。     

Partner violence against heterosexual and gay men: Prevalence and correlates

Female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been the focus of a substantial amount of research. However, the subject of male victims of IPV remains a controversial topic, and one which has been comparatively neglected within the literature, despite some findings suggesting that men are victimized by intimate partners at an equivalent, or even higher rate than women. This paper reviews the literature on male victims of IPV, both within opposite and same-gender relationships, focusing on the prevalence and correlates of IPV, as well as exploring the relationship between IPV and ethnicity. According to the literature reviewed, the prevalence of female perpetrated IPV against heterosexual male victims ranges from 0.2% to 93%, homosexual male victimization ranges between 1.8% and 93.7%, and heterosexual female victimization ranges between 1.3% and 86% depending on the type of IPV included, whether the reference period includes the past 12 months, or lifetime experience, and the method used to assess IPV. These data indicate that victimization is as much an issue for men as it is for women. In addition, it appears that men of certain ethnicities may be more at risk than others. Finally, the empirical literature which examines the correlates of male victimization indicates that male victims in heterosexual and gay relationships share many correlates. Unfortunately however, methodological weaknesses in the available literature and a lack of research in some areas restrict the extent to which conclusions can be drawn, and findings generalized. Recommendations for future research are made.     

Les vicissitudes du préjudice d’agrément

The fate of the loss of amenity has always been related to the right of recourse of the third-party payers against the person in charge of the damage. The loss of amenity has been recognized by Law of the 27 December 1973. It was at that time that it was excluded from the recourse of the third-party payers. It was not the case of the physiological injuries which had always been submitted to the recourse of the third-party payers. At first, these injuries had included the disorders in the conditions of existence. But in 2005, the Dintilhac nomenclature adopted a restrictive conception of the loss of amenity. This damage is now defined as the impossibility to practice regularly a specific activity of sport or leisure. In addition, the Law of 21 December 2006 imposed on third-party payers to exercise their action only on pecuniary damage. The physiological injuries were therefore excluded from this action. The strict definition of loss of amenity is both adopted in Civil Law and Social law. But in these two areas, the analysis of the judicial practice reveals that it is undermined the right for the full repair of the victims under their loss of amenity. Accordingly, the question of the opportunity to widen once more the definition of the loss of amenity arises today.     

不确定感管理模型视角下的死亡凸显效应:争论与整合

死亡凸显效应(mortality salience effect)是恐惧管理理论(terror management theory,TMT)中一个最重要的假设,它认为与死亡有关的想法会加强个体的世界观防御。不确定感管理模型(uncertainty management model)对死亡凸显效应做出了新的解释,指出以往的研究忽视了个体的不确定感对防御行为的影响。将这种理论和TMT进行了整合与探讨,可以认为死亡凸显对个体具有双重影响,个体在思考自己的死亡后会启动双重防御体系。未来的研究,应该关注各种防御方式互相影响的关系等。     

Death Goes to the Polls: A Meta‐Analysis of Mortality Salience Effects on Political Attitudes

Terror management theory posits that people are motivated to affirm cultural meaning systems, including political ideologies, to avoid the awareness of mortality. Accordingly, studies show that increasing mortality salience (MS) intensifies people's attitudes toward political issues and figures. However, whereas in some studies MS increases affirmation of preexisting political ideologies, be they liberal or conservative (supporting a “worldview‐defense hypothesis”), in other studies MS elicits a general shift toward conservatism, regardless of preexisting ideology (supporting a “conservative‐shift hypothesis”). The current study used meta‐analysis to assess the overall magnitude of MS effects on explicitly political attitudes and to clarify the nature of these effects by comparing effect sizes for these competing hypotheses. The overall effect of MS on political attitudes was large (r = .50). The effects of MS‐induced worldview defense (r = .35) and conservative shifting (r = .22) were significant and statistically equivalent. We discuss the conditions (e.g., contextual salience of political values) under which conservative shifting or worldview defense occurs.     

Making Sense of Life: The Existential Self Trying to Deal with Personal Uncertainty

This article is about how people make sense of life and focuses on one core threat that may play a pivotal role in people's lives as existential meaning makers: personal uncertainty. Personal uncertainty is defined as the aversive feeling that you experience when you feel uncertain about yourself. Drawing on an uncertainty management perspective, it is hypothesized that cultural worldviews may provide a means to cope with personal uncertainty and that this may explain why under conditions of personal uncertainty people may respond especially positively to events that bolster their cultural norms and values and particularly negatively to persons and events that violate these norms and values. Findings are reviewed that support the uncertainty management model's predictions. Furthermore, the uncertainty management model may explain why terror management theory is not always about terror, but (at least partly) about personal uncertainty. Finally, conceptual implications, conflicting findings, and loose ends are noted, and testable hypotheses are formulated, which may further insight into the psychological processes pertaining to sense-making, worldview defense, and self-regulation.     

A Danish Model for Treating Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault: The Multidisciplinary Public Approach

High prevalence and long-lasting implications of human-inflicted trauma call for effective treatment approaches reaching clients in need of trauma-specific treatment. Numerous approaches exist, but often with limited empirical support. There is also a tendency toward segregating treatment approaches depending on type of exposure history and presenting symptoms. This might exclude clients in need of trauma-specific treatment; therefore, treatment approaches that can reach more heterogeneous groups of clients are needed. In this article, a group-based treatment approach adjusted to include clients with a wide range of trauma-related problems and traumatic experiences will be presented. A brief outline of the approach is presented, together with the theoretical and empirical background, to facilitate implementation by practitioners and empirical testing.