Coercive Strategies Research Articles

Rape Myths, Rape Scripts, and Common Rape Experiences of College Women: Differences in Perceptions of Women Who Have Been Raped.

Rape is prevalent at colleges. Although research suggests commonalities across many college women's rape experiences (e.g., perpetrators using multiple coercive strategies), vignettes used to assess rape perceptions often reflect false beliefs. Two studies varying a perpetrator's coercive tactics examine rape perceptions using vignettes reflecting rape myths, rape scripts, or many college women's common rape experiences. Participants perceive a woman who was raped more positively in vignettes reflecting common rape experiences versus those reflecting rape myths or scripts. Theoretical, educational, and research implications are discussed.

Download or stream? Steal or buy? Developing a typology of today's music consumer

AbstractThis paper explores the impact that recent transformations in digital music technology (e.g. the increasing popularity of legal streaming platforms) have had on the consumer experience. Following 35 in‐depth qualitative interviews, we have identified four key segments of contemporary music consumers (steadfast pirates, ex‐downloaders, mixed tapes and the old schoolers [the disengaged]) based on a continuum of their preference for illegal music piracy. Examining key themes (e.g. morality, format, value and identity investment) to distinguish each segment, we contribute to a fragmented music piracy literature in particular through the identification of the “ex‐downloaders” and “mixed tape” segments. Previous literature has tended to frame music piracy in very simplistic terms, failing to acknowledge a large number of consumers who are conflicted about their actions and rationalise their piracy in complicated and inconsistent ways related to the broader industry and their own sense of identity as a music consumer. Additionally, the discussion of the ex‐downloader segment provides significant evidence that for a large number of consumers, a policy of participation, in the shape of providing superior alternatives for legal digital music consumption, can be much more beneficial in tackling the problem of piracy than previous strategies of policing and coercion. Managerial and future research implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mapping an agenda for the study of youth sexual aggression in Europe: assessment, principles of good practice, and the multilevel analysis of risk factors

ABSTRACTSexual aggression is a serious threat to young people's sexual health in Europe, but establishing the exact scale of the problem has been hampered by a variety of conceptual and methodological problems. This article presents a framework for studying youth sexual aggression that addresses both prevalence and risk factors of victimisation and perpetration. It proposes a research tool to comprehensively assess the perpetration of, and victimisation by, sexual aggression that captures different coercive strategies, sexual acts, victim–perpetrator relations, and gender constellations. The instrument is rooted in a clear conceptual definition of sexual aggression and was pilot-tested in 10 countries of the European Union (EU). Furthermore, a list of good practice criteria is proposed to promote the quality and comparability of research on youth sexual aggression in Europe. A multilevel approach combining individual-level and country-level predictors of sexual aggression is outlined and illustrated with data from the pilot study in 10 countries.

It’s Domestic Politics, Stupid! EU Democracy Promotion Strategies Meet African Dominant Party Regimes

Summary Dominant party systems trigger controversy about how the EU should engage with them. The examples of Ethiopia and Rwanda show that the willingness of authoritarian governments to engage with the EU on democratic reforms varies widely. The paper argues that the type of challenge to regime survival that authoritarian governments face affects both their coercive strategies and their openness to engaging with the EU, giving the EU different entry points to support reforms. Yet, due to EU domestic factors and difficulties with ‘reading’ authoritarian regimes’ logic of political survival, the EU has problems making use of this dynamic.

Positive affect as coercive strategy: conditionality, activation and the role of psychology in UK government workfare programmes

Eligibility for social security benefits in many advanced economies is dependent on unemployed and underemployed people carrying out an expanding range of job search, training and work preparation activities, as...

Exploring Dissuasion as a (Geo)Political Instrument in Irregular Migration Control at the Southern Spanish Maritime Border

This article analyses the evolution and implementation of Spanish policy to control irregular immigration via maritime routes over the past two decades. Starting from the premise that this policy was based on a comprehensive strategy of dissuasion to prevent, contain and hinder the arrival and settlement of irregular immigrants, for analytical purposes the article introduces the concepts of preventive dissuasion, coercive dissuasion and repressive dissuasion to describe actions of diverse categories, hierarchy and scope that sequentially and simultaneously shape and structure the logic behind dissuasion used in different “territorial settings”. Spain has deployed a great deal of this policy – mainly preventive and coercive dissuasion strategies – through bilateral agreements and formal practices with African countries. This article is based on fieldwork carried out between 2008 and 2012 in different Spanish border areas, including interviews with different actors and visits to border posts and surveillance installations.

Trading or coercion? Variation in male mating strategies between two communities of East African chimpanzees.

Across taxa, males employ a variety of mating strategies, including sexual coercion and the provision, or trading, of resources. Biological market theory (BMT) predicts that trading of commodities for mating opportunities should exist only when males cannot monopolize access to females and/or obtain mating by force, in situations where power differentials between males are low; both coercion and trading have been reported for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Here, we investigate whether the choice of strategy depends on the variation in male power differentials, using data from two wild communities of East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): the structurally despotic Sonso community (Budongo, Uganda) and the structurally egalitarian M-group (Mahale, Tanzania). We found evidence of sexual coercion by male Sonso chimpanzees, and of trading-of grooming for mating-by M-group males; females traded sex for neither meat nor protection from male aggression. Our results suggest that the despotism-egalitarian axis influences strategy choice: male chimpanzees appear to pursue sexual coercion when power differentials are large and trading when power differentials are small and coercion consequently ineffective. Our findings demonstrate that trading and coercive strategies are not restricted to particular chimpanzee subspecies; instead, their occurrence is consistent with BMT predictions. Our study raises interesting, and as yet unanswered, questions regarding female chimpanzees' willingness to trade sex for grooming, if doing so represents a compromise to their fundamentally promiscuous mating strategy. It highlights the importance of within-species cross-group comparisons and the need for further study of the relationship between mating strategy and dominance steepness.

Effects of Rock and Water: an intervention to prevent sexual aggression

Sexual aggression among adolescents is a common problem which is related to lack of aggression regulation, positive or permissive attitudes towards sexual coercion, group pressure and inadequate communicative skills. Rock and Water is a psycho-physical intervention which addresses these issues. We conducted a quasi-experimental trial of Rock and Water in the Netherlands. In total, 521 boys aged 14–17 from nine pre-vocational education schools were included. The primary outcome variable was sexual aggression. Secondary outcomes were sexual interaction competence, self-regulation, attitudes towards dating violence, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Data were collected prior to the intervention, immediately after the intervention and five months after termination of the intervention. Boys reported a significant reduction in coercive strategies and particularly verbal manipulation (OR = .48). At follow-up, the boys reported a significant improvement in self-regulation and general self-efficacy (β = −.11, p < .05 and β = 1.02, p <.05, respectively). Rock and Water was effective in decreasing verbal manipulation and improving self-regulation and general self-efficacy.

Through the Mud or in the Boardroom: Activist Types and Their Coercive Strategies in Targeting Firms for Social Change

We examine the variety of activist groups and their tactics in demanding firms’ social change. While extant work does not usually distinguish among activist types or their variety of tactics, we show that different activists (e.g., social movement organizations versus religious groups and activist investors) rely on dissimilar tactics (e.g., boycotts and protests versus lawsuits and proxy votes). Further, we show how protests and boycotts drag companies “through the mud” with media attention, whereas lawsuits and proxy votes receive relatively little media attention yet may foster investor risk perceptions. This research presents a multifaceted view of activists and their tactics and suggests that this approach in examining activists and their tactics can extend what we know about how and why firms are targeted.Managerial summary: The purpose of this study was to examine how different types of activist groups behave differently when targeting firms for social change. We find that traditional activist groups rely on boycotts and protests, whereas religious groups and activist investors rely more on lawsuits and proxy votes. Additionally, we find that protests and boycotts are associated with greater media attention, whereas lawsuits and proxy votes are associated with investor perceptions of risk.

Drug Control in Afghanistan: Culture, Politics, and Power during the 1958 Prohibition of Opium in Badakhshan

This article explores the process leading to the Afghan government's decision to implement a prohibition and eradication of opium in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. It explores why Daud chose Badakhshan, the impact of the opium ban on the people of Badakhshan and the future of opium production and trade, as well as the evolution of drug control in Afghanistan under the Musahiban dynasty. Ultimately, the ban was launched because it allowed Daud to garner international praise and financial support, while enforcing eradication in an area inhabited by ethnic minorities ensured that the Afghan government's coercive strategy would not generate resistance from rural Pashtun tribes historically opposed to these types of state intervention.

The Governance of Friendship. Law and Gender in the Decameron by Michael Sherberg (review)

Reviewed by: The Governance of Friendship. Law and Gender in the Decameron by Michael Sherberg Francesco Ciabattoni Michael Sherberg. The Governance of Friendship. Law and Gender in the Decameron. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2011. 250 pages. The Governance of Friendship investigates the relationship between friendship and governance in Boccaccio’s masterpiece against the backdrop of political and religious theories of friendship. These include Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aquinas’ Summa theologiae, Cicero’s De inventione as well as Hans Kelsen’s Introduction to the Problems of Legal Theory and Richard Posner’s Law and Literature. Sherberg’s thorough research testifies to the rising critical interest in the theme of friendship in medieval Italian writers, adding to such publications by Anna Fontes-Baratto, Emilio Pasquini, Franco Masciandaro, and others. Sherberg begins by contrasting Boccaccio’s reference to the friend whose ministrations saved his life (“li piacevoli ragionamenti d’alcuno amico e le sue laudevoli consolazioni” Proem, 4) with Aristotle’s three types of friendship: utilitarian, pleasurable and virtuous, which, according to the Greek Philosopher, inform all human relationships. Sherberg then analyzes the dynamics of political governance in the brigata against the backdrop of the Aristotelian constitutions of monarchy, aristocracy and timocracy, whose perversions (oligarchy, democracy and tyranny) are always lurking behind bad leadership. Sherberg also extends his analysis to sensibly selected tales to show how law and legal theories regulating human relationships bind together the various narrative layers of the Decameron. Chapter One, “The Order of Outsiders,” reveals the rhetorical strategy at play among the women of the brigata: exclusion of male rule and revenge on men for having been marginalized in the textual space. Such instances occur particularly in the Proem, the Introductions to Days One and Four and tales 4.1, 4.5, 5.8 and 7.8. Chapter Two, “Lessons in Legal Theory,” demonstrates how Boccaccio questions the validity of the link between divine law and natural law by questioning the connection between things that are unseen and things that are empirically perceivable. Focusing on 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 6.7, 6.9 and 6.10, this section also shows how the world of the frame narrative is entirely free from teleological concerns, which shifts the balance in favor of natural rather than divine law. Thus the return of the repressed male hierarchy hinges on the autonomy of a natural law that provides men with “the rhetorical props to rationalize violence—real and metaphorical—that they perpetrate against women” (106) and so leaves women to navigate the fine line between rhetoric and coercion. [End Page 145] This narrow space is explored in Chapter Three, “Strategies of Coercion: Filostrato,” in which Sherberg shows how Pampinea challenges Filostrato by telling the tale of Frate Alberto (4.2), which flouts and parodies the king’s theme of tragic loves. Filostrato attempts to impose a narrative world in which women must obey men because the latter are “physically stronger and as such may coerce obedience” (115), but his attempt fails because female storytellers create a free literary space for themselves and their fictional characters in which women rhetorically subvert male dominance. Chapter Four, “Dioneo and the Politics of Marriage,” draws on Albert R. Ascoli in analyzing the apparent contradiction in electing a king who has joined the brigata only to be an outlaw. From outsider to insider, Dioneo proposes for Day Seven the theme of wives’ beffe upon their husbands, thus allowing for the creation of a narrative space in which the violence of authority is counterbalanced by fiction. Elissa and Pampinea leading the women to the valle delle donne is a fitting example of this sexual and political subversion, though, Sherberg affirms, the valle is a place not of unbridled, but of disciplined pleasure, since male members of the brigata will penetrate and survey that space. Chapter Five, “The Rule of Panfilo: Fables of Reconciliation,” explores the role of women in a world ruled by male bonds of friendship. In the author’s words, this day represents “the triumph of the homosocial” in marginalizing female agency. Courtesy and giving are the centerpieces of this day that embodies Aristotle’s noblest type of friendship, that based on goodness. Such...

Calvinism, Reform and the Absolutist State in Elizabethan Ireland by Mark A. Hutchinson (review)

Reviewed by: Calvinism, Reform and the Absolutist State in Elizabethan Ireland by Mark A. Hutchinson Samantha Watson Hutchinson, Mark A., Calvinism, Reform and the Absolutist State in Elizabethan Ireland (Religious Cultures in the Early Modern World, 20), London, Pickering & Chatto, 2015; hardback; pp. 240; R.R.P. £60.00, US$99.00; ISBN 9781848935488. The failure of the Reformation in Ireland cemented the supremacy of the Protestant ruling elite, who rejected conciliatory policies in favour of coercive strategies to enforce law and order. Mark Hutchinson finds that the Reformation also provided the catalyst for new ways of thinking about political relationships. Making use of the vast Irish State Paper collections, alongside published works, Hutchinson presents compelling evidence that the Irish experience enabled the English to articulate an absolutist state theory for the first time. Taking Patrick Collinson’s ‘monarchical republic’ as a starting point, Hutchinson explores the reasons why the monarchical republic failed to take hold in Ireland and defines the ideological conditions that led to the triumph of absolutism. Emerging ideologies were governed by the interplay between theology and political theory as the English abandoned the reformist government of the earlier Tudors in favour of a more coercive and punitive regime. The Protestant concept of grace is central to this book. God’s word operated through grace to reform a person’s conscience. Only then would they know God and pursue a Godly life. Grace-based friendship implied internal bonds of unity as the godly community worked together in the common interest. For this reason, liberty and the right to political participation depended upon the presence of grace. Protestant observers in Ireland linked rebellion and disunity to a lack of preaching and, by extension, an absence of grace. Civil society was infeasible while the population lacked legitimate spiritual guidance. Reformers struggled to pass the necessary religious legislation and the Old English (descended from medieval settlers) and Gaelic Irish refused to be drawn into the Godly community. As the English lamented the failure of reform policy in Ireland, they borrowed from English and continental theory to construct an external model for obedience: the state. This state concept was an altered version of Jean Bodin’s indivisible sovereignty. In Ireland, authority could not rest with the Queen, who was absent, or with the polity, which was thought to be corrupt. The solution was to invest absolute authority in the institutions of government. In what Hutchinson purports to be the first open claim to absolutism in Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney argued that he could collect levies from the Pale community as such policy was his prerogative as lord deputy. The lord deputy’s insistence on prerogative in matters of policy denoted a shift in thinking about the nature of imperium in Ireland. The idea of absolute sovereign [End Page 310] authority detached from the queen and polity and invested in the lord deputy and his council credibly points to a nascent absolutism. Why did Protestant reformers in Ireland reject the monarchical republic? Hutchinson claims that the answer lies in the religious dimensions of such a concept. As the Old English pressed for a monarchical republic, their Protestant counterparts denied the existence of an Irish mixed polity. Considerations of grace and corrupted conscience led the English to reject Irish claims to liberty. Instead they proposed a statist solution that would constrain Catholic access to government. As Catholics were excluded from political life via legal and extra-legal means, the English formalised political relationships through the apparatus of the state. Feudal language of lordly fidelity was replaced by the authority of state institutions as embodied in the person of the lord deputy. The atomisation of Irish society occurred as tax was regularised and land was converted into freehold, thus defining the relationship between the individual and the state. Finally, Hutchinson revisits some well-known texts relating to Ireland and considers their contributions to statist thought. Amid the proliferation of Edmund Spenser scholarship, Hutchinson’s reading of A View of the Present State of Ireland offers a new interpretation. He considers the View to be a potentially important piece of early statist theory as its author gave voice to familiar concerns about corrupted Irish consciences...

Reducing the use of seclusion in a secure service for women

AbstractReducing the use of seclusion to deal with challenging behaviour is a priority in secure services for women. This study describes the concurrent introduction of a series of initiatives based on recovery principles and the full involvement of patients in their risk management plans.Following change implementation, the first 19 patients who had completed one year of treatment were matched with 19 patients who had completed their first year of treatment before change.A significant decline in both the number of seclusions and risk behaviour post-change was complemented by improved staff ratings of institutional behaviour, increased treatment engagement and a reduction in time spent in medium security. Staff and patients differed in terms of their ratings of the most effective strategies introduced. Patients favoured the Relational Security item of increased individual engagement and timetabled Behaviour Chain Analysis sessions. Staff viewed on ward training and use of de-escalation techniques as most effective.Findings confirm results from mixed gender forensic mental health samples that seclusion can be successfully reduced without an increase in patient violence or alternative coercive strategies. Limitations of the study are discussed along with the need for future evaluations to address issues of fidelity and utilise vigorously designed case studies.

Interviewing High Value Detainees: Securing Cooperation and Disclosures

SummaryFour types of coercive and noncoercive interview strategies (legalistic, physical, cognitive and social) used to facilitate disclosure by high value detainees were examined in an international sample of practitioners and detainees (N = 64). Predictive analyses confirmed that the accusatorial approach was positively correlated with physically coercive strategies (rs = .58) and negatively with forms of social persuasion (rs = −.31). In response to social strategies, detainees were more likely to disclose meaningful information [odds ratio (OR) = 4.2] and earlier in the interview when rapport‐building techniques were used (OR = 14.17). They were less likely to cooperate when confronted with evidence (OR = 4.8). Disclosures were more complete in response to noncoercive strategies, especially rapport‐building and procedural fairness elements of respect and voice. These findings augmented past theory on interactional processes and the evidence‐base of international best practices in suspect interviews. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Modernisation, authoritarianism, and the environment: the politics of China’s South–North Water Transfer Project

China presents a paradox for scholars of environmental politics. Environmental politics and policymaking in China now includes elements critical to environmental protection in the West, including non-governmental participation and stringent environmental legislation. Yet the country’s authoritarian system constrains popular participation, and environmental outcomes are generally poor. China’s South–North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) embodies this puzzle: despite the pluralisation and development of environmental politics and policymaking, the SNWTP is a technocratic mega-project that imposes high social, economic, and environmental costs. What explains this puzzle, and what are the implications for understanding environmental politics in other authoritarian developing countries? I evaluate two current theories – Ecological Modernisation and Authoritarian Environmentalism – against the SNWTP case, and argue that it illustrates the ability of governments to co-opt environmental politics to pursue other strategic objectives, in turn necessitating greater attention to the mix of persuasive and coercive strategies in environmental politics.

Correction: Corrigendum: Evolutionary instability of zero-determinant strategies demonstrates that winning is not everything

Nature Communications 4: Article number: 2193 (2013); Published: 1 August 2013; Updated: 16 June 2014. It has been drawn to our attention that the instability found here for zero determinant (ZD) strategies only applies to the set of coercive strategies we considered, which is a subset of all possible ZD strategies.

Development and preliminary validation of The Multidimensional Sexual Coercion Questionnaire (MSCQ)

The goal of this study is to present the development and validation of a sexual coercion assessment instrument for college students, the Multidimensional Sexual Coercion Questionnaire (MSCQ). An exploratory factor analysis for ordinal Likert data, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis in 762 college students, revealed seven factors. These pertained to commonly noted tactics such as pressure to have sex, exploitation, relational manipulation as well as less commonly measured tactics of humiliation and two clusters of tactics pertaining to forced compliance based on past coercion. Although several other measures exist, this measure was designed specifically for college students and therefore includes a wider array of tactics than generally considered. The measure also makes an attempt to include more nuanced and difficult-to-measure coercion strategies. The MSCQ is likely to be of interest to researchers and clinicians who wish to consider a more nuanced analysis of sexual coercion dynamics among college student, young adult and general populations.

Conflict in Supplier–Retailer Relationships in the Brewery Industry in Cameroon

The authors develop a theoretical framework to explain conflict in supplier–retailer relationships. In addition to traditional influence strategy variables, the framework links conflict to retailer dependence and supplier formalization. The framework is empirically tested in the Cameroonian brewery industry. The findings support the view that channel conflict is inversely related to retailer dependence and supplier formalization. Contrary to expectations, the use of noncoercive influence strategies (information exchange and recommendations) has no significant effect on conflict, while, as expected, the use of coercive influence strategies (threats and promises) increases conflict.

Preschool Power Play: Resource Control Strategies Associated with Health

Background. This exploratory study uses a multimethod approach to examine the relationship between social strategy usage and overall health in preschool children. Methods. Children's temperament, social strategies, and health assessments were obtained via reported behavior from parents and teachers. In addition, children's use of prosocial and coercive strategies was observed and recorded via one-way windows in the preschool facility. Results. Results revealed that the temperament characteristic of effortful control was related to the observed use of coercive strategies and that coercive strategies were not observed by teachers, who viewed these children as primarily prosocial. The reported use of both coercive and prosocial strategies was also related to decrease in illness. Conclusion. These findings in relation to previous work suggest that using both prosocial and coercive strategies can elevate status as well as maintain health even in young children.

The Relationship Between Heteronormative Beliefs and Verbal Sexual Coercion in College Students

Heteronormative standards for sex and romance situate men and women in a hierarchical relationship that characterizes masculinity as active and persistent and femininity as passive and responsive to male sexuality. Individuals who endorse heteronormative beliefs, such as the belief that men should dominate women sexually or that men are always ready for sex, may therefore be more approving of and experienced with behaviors that involve one partner exerting sexual pressure on the other. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the endorsement of heteronormative beliefs and men's and women's approval of and experience with verbal sexual coercion (both as a perpetrator and as a victim). We first established a gender-neutral higher-order construct representing heteronormative beliefs consisting of multiple measures of gender norms for sexuality and relationships in a sample of 555 heterosexual college students (292 women, 263 men) primarily of Hispanic origin. We next found that endorsement of heteronormative beliefs was positively correlated with personal acceptance of verbal sexual coercion strategies and personal experience as the victim and perpetrator of verbal sexual coercion for both men and women. While men reported more overall support for heteronormative beliefs and more experience as a victim and perpetrator of verbal sexual coercion, there were minimal gender differences in how heteronormative beliefs related to verbal sexual coercion variables. The positive association found between heteronormative beliefs and sexual coercion in young men's and women's relationships represents an important step towards better understanding the antecedents and consequences of intimate partner violence.