General Violence Research Articles

What Motivates the Decision to Enrol, Engage In, and Complete the Inner Strength Program for Partner-Abusive Men and Women: A Synthesis of Qualitative Findings

The Inner Strength (IS) program (Graham-Kevan & Wilks-Riley, 2011) is a group-based, 26-session trauma-based therapeutic intervention, delivered in community settings or in prison, for people who have perpetrated partner abuse and often other forms of general violence. The intervention combines elements of dialectical behavioural therapy and mentalisation-based therapy with practical support and advocacy. This article synthesizes qualitative findings from the evaluation of the pilot version of IS in a highly deprived area of North East England. The intervention was delivered by a small team of social workers and police trained and supervised by an external clinician and coauthor of the intervention. As of June 2019, 34 individuals (31 men and 3 women) had completed the program in seven cohorts before the evaluation. Quantitative trends are reported in a separate article (redacted, forthcoming). The 34 names were randomized, and participants were contacted in order of randomization. Of the first 12 to be contacted, 10 agreed to take part in a face-to-face, semistructured interview. Next, participants’ motivation to enroll, engage in, and complete the intervention were explored. Eight of 10 interviewees were men whose primary motivation was their role as fathers and recognition of the need to change if they were to have access to and a relationship with their children. The primary motivation to engage in the intervention was a sense of trust in the practitioner developed in one-to-one sessions before the group intervention started, feeling accepted and safe within the group, acquiring skills in emotional regulation and mentalization, and the availability of practitioners after and between sessions. Participants who often felt shame in other settings experienced IS as a place of respite and valued a range of experiential learning techniques and the bonds formed with the group. Practitioners were available out of hours and postintervention to help participants apply new skills at times of crisis until the skills became habitual. These findings are congruent with two common factors across successful psychological treatment identified by Laska et al. (2014): the centrality of the therapeutic relationship and an intervention that matches the client’s needs.

Hospital employees’ perceived racism, ethnically offensive behavior, and patient violence

Abstract Background Hospitals are sensitive environments with complex interactions between employees and patients. Israeli society is ethnically diverse, and Israeli hospitals reflect this diversity and may create opportunities for rapprochement between different ethnic groups or might raise conflicts between them. In radical situations, such encounters might lead to violence. The phenomenon of physical or verbal violence towards caregivers and hospital employees exists. However, the uniqueness of this study is in examining whether the origin of the violence stems from racist reactions and how offensive behavior on an ethnic background could develop into actual violence. Methods Data were collected through an online close-ended survey among 370 hospital employees. 83% were Jewish, 68% were female, and 38 years old on average, with a mean hospital tenure of 6.5 years. The survey explored respondents’ perceived racism toward them, their exposure to offensive patient behavior based on ethnicity, and their exposure to general violence. Data were analyzed by SPSS 28. Results Preliminary results suggest positive correlations between study variables (r=.42-.52, p< .001). Regression analysis revealed that perceived racism contributed to general violence (β=.43, p< .001; R²=.19). Next, ethnic-based offensive behavior was added to the model (β=.36, p< .001). The analysis shows that general violence can be explained by these variables [F(2, 359)= 70.42, p< .001; R²=.28]. The R² of the general model increased significantly by 9.6%. The weight of perceived racism dropped yet is still significant (β=.24, p< .001). These results indicate that patients’ ethnic-based offensive behavior partially mediates the relationship between employees’ perceived racism and general violence. Conclusions The results suggest that employees who suffer from racism experience patients’ offensive behaviors based on ethnicity, which finally results in higher exposure to general violence in the workplace. Key messages • Understanding the phenomenon of violence in hospitals and examining the relationship between it and racism may amend policy and improve the quality of care and working conditions in the health sector. • The hospital environment involves diverse groups of society. Hence, the awareness of offensive behavior on an ethnic background is a condition to reduce racism and violence proactively.

Assessing risk of physical child abuse recidivism using the HCR-20V3

Physical child abuse has been associated with a myriad of harms, not limited to physical injury. Thus, it is vital that children are protected. Forensic psychologists who are required to assess future risk of physical abuse often use the Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20 Version 3 (HCR-20V3), a well-established tool for general violence. However, the validity of the HCR-20V3 amongst perpetrators of physical child abuse has not yet been established and, whilst there are likely to be similarities between the two groups, there may also be important differences. We explore the potential strengths and limitations of the HCR-20V3 when used with perpetrators of physical child abuse, with reference to the developing evidence base for this type of offence, including indications of unique risk factors that may merit additional attention.

The Angry Echo Chamber: A Study of Extremist and Emotional Language Changes in Incel Communities Over Time.

Involuntary celibates, or incels, are part of a growing online subculture. Incels are men who are unable to engage in a sexual relationship with a woman and who experience significant distress and anger as a result. In recent years, high-profile incidents of violence perpetrated by incels or those who share incel ideology have increased research attention. Incels communicate online and share several characteristics with other online extremist groups. While only a fraction of incels engage in such violence, a broader spectrum of violence should be considered, including online harassment or general violence against women. This study sought to examine how ongoing engagement on an online incel forum affects changes in incel comments in terms of expressed anger and sadness and use of incel violent extremist language. We collected comments made on an incel forum over a 3-month period. We then identified prolific users and included their comments in our analysis. To assess how their language changed, we used a text-processing program (LIWC: Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to assess the extent to which anger, sadness, and incel violent extremist language were expressed in the comments. Our findings indicated that incels express more anger in their comments than users on other platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. However, they did not express greater sadness. Further, we found that incels are already quite angry and sad when they join the forum, and they already use a fair amount of incel vocabulary. Initially, these aspects of their language increase, but they flatten over time. This pattern suggests that introduction to and embracing of incel ideology occurs elsewhere on the Internet, and prior to people joining an incel forum. Implications in terms of prevention of online radicalization and future directions are discussed.

Risk and Protective Factors of Juvenile Delinquency among Youth Exposed to Political Conflict: The Role of Social Resistance

AbstractPrevious studies have identified diverse risk and protective factors of youth involvement in delinquency. However, less is known about the causes of this phenomenon in the context of political conflict. Drawing from theoretical frameworks emphasizing the notion of social resistance, in the current study we examine the risk and protective factors of juvenile delinquency in the context of majority–minority political conflict. Applying multilevel analysis to survey data provided by a representative sample of 814 Arab youth from East Jerusalem, we find that, although this behaviour shares similar lines with juvenile delinquency in regular contexts, in the context of political conflict it bears a unique core of resistance to the social order. Specifically, we find that a strong predictor of juvenile delinquency is attitudes towards political violence, whereas, surprisingly, attitudes towards general violence do not have a significant effect. Our findings suggest that juvenile delinquency in the context of social conflict stems, at least partially, from a unique mechanism of resistance towards political order.

The value of HoNOS in assessing mental health symptom severity and social functioning in forensic outpatients

ABSTRACT The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) is used for routine outcome measurement in forensic outpatient mental health care. Until now, no research has been done on its psychometric properties and clinical value in this population. Statistical analyses on 3,951 forensic outpatients (general violence, domestic violence, property offense, and sexual offense) showed that at domain level internal consistency coefficients varied between .30 and .58. The item scores were heavily skewed with scores in the subclinical range. Non-parametric analyses revealed that, at item level, aggressive offenders scored significantly higher (but still subclinical) than other offender subgroups. Compared to general mental health samples, forensic outpatients scored significantly lower (mainly large effects) on the total rating. Based on these results, it is concluded that the HoNOS does not provide good psychometric properties nor clinical value for ROM purposes in forensic outpatients.

On the margins of suicide: everyday horizons, turning points and trajectories of protection in peripheral young women.

Suicidal behavior and non-suicidal self-harm in vulnerable groups and population minorities pose a challenge for suicidology, complicating the universality of suicide. The goal of this paper is to analyze the lives of young women from marginalized communities, considering their experiences with suicidality and their relational and violent horizons. Nine women who took part in the fifth wave of a cohort on mental health and violence (2005-2022) in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, were interviewed (2022) about the contexts that kept them from committing suicide despite significant emotional distress from childhood through youth. From theme-based content analysis, three categories stood out and may contribute to an intersectional, decolonial and socially relevant approach to preventing self-destructive behavior. In the first, views on self-inflicted violence, better explained by the cores concepts of "sin" and "illness" than by the general violence they experienced. In the second, indirect references to self-harm behavior, where it was recognized that the use of euphemisms reflects not only the taboo but also the silencing of and discrimination against minorities. In the third, layers of protection and turning points, where "spirituality", "occupation" and "motherhood" were interpreted as the main associations between factors of protection and resilience in the trajectories and daily lives of these young women. A closer look that acknowledges the humanity, rights and psychological distress of groups subjected to violence and discrimination not only enhances care and prevention of suicidal behavior but also deepens understanding of this human and universal phenomenon.

Women's narratives of experiences, drivers and consequences of mistreatment during maternity care in western Ethiopia.

The mistreatment of women during maternity care hinders quality care globally and deter women from seeking health services. To implement necessary actions, it is essential to explore instances of mistreatment, their factors and negative outcomes. This study explores the narratives of mistreatment experienced by women, its drivers, as well as the consequences of mistreatment. We conducted a descriptive qualitative study among women who had received maternity care at East Wollega Zone, Ethiopia. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with purposively selected participants in Afan Oromo, each lasting, on average, 30 to 60 minutes. Interviews were conducted within three months of childbirth and discontinued upon reaching data saturation at seventeen interviews. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, translated into English, coded using NVivo 12 and analysed through thematic and framework analysis. Three main themes were identified in this study: experiences, drivers, and consequences of mistreatment of women during maternity care. The narratives of mistreatment fell into two sub-themes: interpersonal abuse and mistreatment in the process of care. Women described experiencing physical and verbal abuse, stigma, and discrimination, as well as neglect and abandonment, violations of privacy and confidentiality, and health facility failures related to resource limitations. These forms of mistreatment were perceived to arise from a complex interaction of factors at an individual, interpersonal, and facility level, as well as broader health system and societal norms, such as gender inequality. The identified consequences of mistreatment included fear of future childbirth, negative perceptions towards health facilities and healthcare providers, switching to home birth, and psychological stress. This qualitative study presents women's first-hand experiences of mistreatment in health facilities, highlighting various forms stemming from interpersonal interactions and systemic deficiencies in care quality. These experiences lead to significant negative consequences and implications on service delivery. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the complex factors driving mistreatment, extending beyond individual healthcare providers' behaviours to macro-level health system issues and general violence against women in society. This emphasises the importance of applying a systems-thinking approach to address the abuse and suffering women experience during maternity care in health facilities.

Strategies, Symbols, and Subjectivities: The Continuities between War Rape and Lesbo-Phobic Rape

AbstractResearch into war rape has shown that rape is not incidental to the general violence of war but is instead an integral part of war strategies. Such research makes it clear that in the context of war, rape serves to injure women on an individual level, but has the more strategic effect of fracturing communal bonds. Similarly, the growing body of research investigating the reasons for, and consequences of, the rape of lesbian women, indicates that these rapes have far-reaching consequences for lesbian communities and serves to reinforce patriarchal heteronormativity. While there is much research around both war and lesbo-phobic rape, the aim of this paper is to bring this research together in order examine lesbo-phobic rape through the lens of war rape theory. This paper aims to show how both “forms” of rape appear to hinge on the meanings assigned to women during peacetime and how both lead to the destruction of individual victims and their communities, while bolstering the subjectivities of the perpetrators and increasing the bonds of those complicit in such violence. The use of the theoretical understandings of war rape thus enriches the understandings of lesbo-phobic rape and shows that there are many continuities between the two.

Pornography associated with youth violence

Abstract Background Violence is a very present situation in the various contexts of humanity, with Veracruz, Mexico being one of the most violent states in the country. There are studies that suggest that the consumption of pornography may be associated with an increased risk of violent behaviors due to physiological stimuli and legitimizing the behaviors observed in it. Objective: to determine the association between addiction to pornography and violence in young people from Veracruz, Mexico. Methods A cross-sectional, observational, prospective and analytical study was carried out between November and April 2023. Young people between the ages of 12 and 25, residents of Veracruz, Mexico were included; subjects with known psychiatric diagnoses were excluded. Data collection was carried out using Google Forms, applying the ‘Buss and Perry’ violence test (A.Cronbach 0.87) and the ‘EMAP’ pornography addiction test (A.Cronbach 0.95). SPSS v22 software was used for data analysis, X2 test with Odds Ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and MannWhitney U test. Results 1399 subjects were included, with an age of 19.3±2.8 years, 514 participants indicated consuming pornography (all digitally). Pornography addiction was identified in 495(35.3%) subjects and 399(28.5%) with moderate or higher violence. Addiction to pornography was shown to be a factor associated (OR/CI95%) with moderate or higher levels of physical (1.4/1.-1.7), verbal (1.3/1.0-1.6) or general (1.3/1.0-1.7) violence.), anger (1.3/1.0-1.7), hostility (1.4/1.1-1.8), as well as severe physical violence (1.3/1.0-1.7), in the same way that pornography consumption was associated with moderate or superior levels of physical and verbal violence, anger, hostility and violence in general (p < 0.05). Conclusions The use of pornography and addiction to it facilitate the presence of physical and verbal violence, anger, hostility and violence in general in moderate or greater intensity, as well as severe physical violence. Key messages • Access to pornography through digital media facilitates the presence of violent behavior in young people, so it is necessary to find ways to regulate access to pornography. • It is necessary to establish strategies to provide education to young people, in order to educate and help the interpretation that young people can give to this type of explicit material.

Eye tracking shows no substantive relationships between individual differences related to aggression and visual attention to unambiguously violent stimuli

Social-cognitive theories of aggression stipulate that aggressive people have an attentional bias for aggressive and ambiguously aggressive cues. This biased social information processing is thought to occur from very basic attentional processes (encoding) through to higher order interpretative processes (representation). The present research was a detailed investigation into the relationships between aggression-related personality dimensions in young adults and attention toward images depicting general violence, intimate partner violence, and non-violent images. Participants completed measures of trait aggression, intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization, alcohol use, psychopathy, empathy, and insecure adult attachment. In a dual-picture free-viewing eye tracker paradigm, participants viewed three trial types for 2000 ms: general violence versus neutral cues; intimate partner violence versus neutral cues; and intimate partner violence versus general violence. Experiment 1 (N = 127) showed a few of the predicted relationships between the traits and attention, but Experiment 2 (N = 127) failed to replicate these findings and there was no overlap in significant results between studies. These data provide very little support for attentional biases in a healthy population toward unambiguously violent stimuli as a function of aggression-related traits.

An Examination of Predictive Validity and Change in Risk Factors for Stalking over Time.

This study investigates the predictive validity of two risk instruments for stalking, the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management (SAM) and the Stalking Risk Profile (SRP), in a sample of 86 forensic psychiatric patients. We compare these tools against a well-validated violence risk assessment measure (Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20V3)) for violent and stalking-related outcomes. Dynamic (mutable) components of each tool were rated at three annual intervals and revealed significant change across time. The HCR-20V3, SAM, and SRP measures showed comparable ability to classify those who recidivated with further stalking from those who did not (area under the curves = .72-.73, P < 001). Time-varying scores from the dynamic subscales of the HCR-20V3 and SAM contributed significantly to the prediction of stalking, whereas nonstalking violence was primarily forecast by the static (Historical) scale of the HCR-20V3. This suggests comparable validity of general violence and stalking risk tools for assessing the risk of stalking in forensic patients. Stalking-specific risk factors on the SAM and SRP will likely be of added clinical value in terms of tailoring risk management and treatment plans. Findings also emphasize the importance of attending to changes in risk status over time and incorporating time-sensitive methodologies into predictive models.

Depresión en la población gestante peruana y sus factores asociados: análisis de la Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud Familiar 2018-2019

ObjectiveTo determine the factors associated with the presence of depressive symptoms in the Peruvian pregnant population using the Demographic and Family Health Survey ENDES 2018–2019. Material and methodsA secondary base analysis of the ENDES 2018 and 2019 was carried out. The PHQ-9 instrument was used to evaluate depressive symptoms. Standardized questions were used to measure the history of violence. In the multi-variable model, Poisson regression was used, the crude PR was calculated and adjusted with 95% CI, the variables entered the model according to statistical criteria. ResultsThe prevalence of depressive symptoms in pregnant women was 6.8%. There was 19.7% of pregnant women who expressed having had a history of general violence. An association was found with said antecedent (PRa 3.8, 95% CI=1.6; 8.8, p=0.002), the presence of some type of disability (PRa=9.4, 95% CI=1.8; 50.1, p=0.01) and the number of children (PRa=1.5, 95% CI=1.0; 2.2, p=0.03). Respondents who wanted to wait longer to get pregnant were 5.1 times the prevalence of depressive symptoms compared to those who wanted to get pregnant at that time (p<0.001). There was no significant association between the rest of the variables and the outcome. ConclusionThe present study showed that a history of general violence, the presence of some type of disability, the number of children and the waiting time to get pregnant are associated with depressive symptoms in pregnant women. More studies are required, especially of a longitudinal type.

The Risk, Need, and Responsivity Relevance of Working Alliance in a Sexual Offense Treatment Program: Its Intersection With Psychopathy, Diversity, and Treatment Change.

The current study examined the self-reported working alliance of men attending a high intensity sexual offense treatment program and its associations with psychopathy, sexual violence risk, treatment change, and recidivism, in a Canadian sample of 317 incarcerated men followed up an average of approximately 10 years post release. Working Alliance Inventory (WAI; Horvath & Greenberg, 1989) self-reported total, Task, Bond, and Goal scores were positively correlated with treatment related changes in risk, and inversely associated with Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991; Wang & Hare, 2003) scores. The Affective facet of the PCL-R, representing the callous-unemotional features of the syndrome, uniquely predicted lower Bond and Goal scores controlling for the other facets. Cox regression survival analyses demonstrated that sexual violence risk predicted increased sexual recidivism while change predicted decreased sexual recidivism controlling for PCL-R total score; however, WAI scores (particularly the Goal component) were also unexpectedly associated with increased sexual recidivism. For violent recidivism, psychopathy, risk, and change incremented the prediction of general violence, while the WAI was not significantly associated with this outcome. A set of parallel analyses, stratified by Indigenous ethnocultural heritage, demonstrated some continuity, but also potential areas of difference, in substantive findings. Risk, need, responsivity implications of the working alliance for the treatment of high psychopathy correctional clientele, and how this may intersect with Indigenous heritage, are discussed.

Cultural Distance and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Abstract This article examines the relationship between ethnic-based gender norms and conflict-related sexual violence. We generate a novel dyadic data set that contains information on the ethnic identity of all the actors involved in ethnic civil conflicts around the world between 1989 and 2019 and their use of sexual violence. We exploit ethnographic information to construct a new male dominance index at the ethnicity level that captures deep-rooted gender norms. First, we find that male-dominant armed actors are more likely to be perpetrators of sexual violence. Second, we consider the cultural distance in gender norms between the combatants and show that sexual violence is driven by a specific clash of conceptions on the appropriate role of men and women in society: sexual violence increases when the perpetrator is more male dominant than the victim. Additional analyses suggest that gender norms influence both the strategic use of sexual violence for military purposes and the expressive use of sexual violence for private motivations. These patterns are specific to sexual violence and do not explain general violence in a conflict. Differences in other cultural dimensions unrelated to gender are not associated with conflict-related sexual violence.

Combining environmental and socioeconomic data to understand determinants of conflicts in Colombia.

Conflicts cause immense human suffering, violate human rights, and affect people's stability. Colombia is affected for decades by a high level of armed conflicts and violence. The political and socio-economic situation, drug trafficking in the Colombian economy, and natural disasters events affect the country and foster general violence. In this work, we aim to evaluate the role of the socioeconomic, political, financial, and environmental determinants of conflicts in the Colombian context. To achieve these aims, we apply a spatial analysis to explore patterns and identify areas that suffer from high levels of conflict. We investigate the role of determinants and their relationship with conflicts through spatial regression models. In this study, we do not consider only the entire Colombian territory, but we extend the analysis to a restricted area (Norte de Santander department) to explore the phenomena locally. Our findings indicate a possible diffusion process of conflicts and the presence of spillover effects among regions by comparing the two most known spatial regression models. As regards possible key drivers of conflicts, our results show that surprisingly socioeconomic variables present very little relationship with conflicts, while natural disasters and cocaine areas show a relevant impact on them. Despite some variables seeming to be the more informative to explain the process globally, they highlight a strong relationship for only a few specific areas while considering a local analysis. This result proves the importance of moving to a local investigation to strengthen our understanding and bring out additional interesting information. Our work emphasizes how the identification of key drivers of violence is crucial to have evidence to inform subnational governments and to support the decision-making policies that could assess targeted policy options.

Rethinking violence against women from real to online teen violence

In our (iper)complex society, social relations have been transformed by the new technologies use. In fact, in the pandemic time caused by Covid-19 (especially in the severe moments), individuals had to interrupt their traditional live, included the social relations, and to carry online all the social interactions. The boundary between real and virtual has fallen. Consequently, it has now become a current habit to seek social relations in the virtual world. However, within this framework, these bonds have very often turned into experiences of general violence and especially violence against women. The aim of the article is to examine this social phenomenon in its multidimensionality, investigating it also through the ecosystem model, as well as reporting the most recent data in the international and national context, stressing the impact that social media, social networks and Internet communications have on violent and offensive behavior against women, especially younger women.

Violence in the Hill Country: The Texas Frontier in the Civil War Era by Nicholas Keefauver Roland

Reviewed by: Violence in the Hill Country: The Texas Frontier in the Civil War Era by Nicholas Keefauver Roland Christopher Menking (bio) Violence in the Hill Country: The Texas Frontier in the Civil War Era. By Nicholas Keefauver Roland. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021. Pp. 288. Cloth, $45.00.) For many Americans, Texans included, the Texas Hill Country remains a unique and little-known region. In Violence in the Hill Country, Nicholas Keefauver Roland delves into the violence that engulfed the Hill Country in the Civil War era and investigates possible causes for the spike in deaths during this period. His analysis covers the years roughly spanning 1850 to 1880 and addresses twelve Texas counties that experienced an increase in wartime violence. Roland argues that the uptick in violence during these years was a result of the struggle for power between Confederates and Unionists. He uses David Kilcullen’s model, originally created to explain urban insurgencies, to provide a theoretical framework in which to place the competing interests in the region. While the model provides a useful tool to help understand the increased violence, other factors beyond a high-level struggle for power came into play in a region like the Hill Country. Before the Civil War, the Hill Country existed on the western frontier of settled land in Texas. The prewar experience of limited governmental oversight and low taxation created among the settlers a unique mix of staunch independence and self-reliance in defending their homesteads from Native American raids. Their reaction to the Confederate government’s new imposition of taxes and draft of Hill Country residents may have contributed to the hostilities. The author weaves a detailed and well-researched narrative of the years before, during, and after the Civil War, providing the reader with a vivid image of Hill Country life during this time. The use of primary sources, including government records, memoirs, letters, and newspapers, provides a depth to the narrative. Roland, however, makes limited use of important secondary sources written over the past few decades that would have provided additional historical context. He does an excellent job of placing events within a larger historical narrative, one of the book’s primary historical contributions, but by neglecting some of these secondary sources, he misses important explorations of the timing of the violence. For example, works related to the Great Hanging at Gainesville, a mass killing of Unionists in North Texas, would have enriched Roland’s discussion of the loss of life in the Hill Country. Also, sources relating to the guerrilla and partisan violence in Missouri and Kentucky should have been included, particularly because Roland mentions these similar cases without accompanying citations. The author’s highly readable prose brings such events as the Nueces Massacre to life. The massacre is little known or discussed outside of the Hill Country, even in Texas. Roland’s book provides the first major effort to [End Page 571] place the massacre within the context of the larger historical narrative of the Civil War era, and also to offer an explanation as to why it, and general violence, gripped the region. This important contribution to the historiography begins to fill in a long-standing gap in Texas and Civil War history. Readers interested in the American Civil War, Texas history, or the Texas Hill Country will all benefit from this book. Roland makes a diligent effort to create a framework for using the Hill Country in the Civil War era as a template to analyze similar regions that experienced waves of violence and partisan warfare. The author discusses several factors that contributed to the rise in wartime violence: poverty, which resulted from a lack of marketable resources and a wartime drought; the withdrawal of the U.S. Army and the income it provided; geographic isolation; and cultural aspects, such as a sense of racial superiority, hypermasculinity, and a tradition of vigilantism. Considering that vigilantism, race-based lynching, and more conventional violent reprisals persisted into the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Roland’s narrative begins to offer origins for the violence that continued in the region. Overall, Roland has created a well-written work that greatly enhances the historiography related to...

Lessons from War Rape: How Can War Rape Help Understandings of Rape in South Africa?

Rape is often thought of as a crime that is incidental to the general violence of a nation. However, in order to understand the causes and consequences of rape more thoroughly, it is necessary to examine the ways in which rape is used systematically and strategically in the service of certain ideologies and national/group imperatives. It is also vital to comprehensively explore the collective or communal effects of rape. The extensive research into rape committed during times of war and/or conflict proves very valuable in developing understandings of the systematic and collective nature of rape. The aim of this article is, thus, to draw from the knowledge related to war rape to more thoroughly understand the ways in which rape in South Africa is carried out systematically and strategically in the service of developing a national identity and upholding heteropatriarchal ideologies, as well as to understand the communal effects of rape in this context. In so doing, the paper focuses on two main aspects of war rape and rape in South Africa, these being the socio-symbolic positioning of women as central to the efficacy of rape and rape as a form of social control. In addition, drawing on the correlations around war rape and rape in South Africa, the article argues that rape in South Africa could be classified and legislated as a crime against humanity, as is war rape.

Knife crime offender characteristics and interventions – A systematic review

Knives and sharp objects are tools used in a wide range of violent offences. However, knife offending may have different risk factors than general violence, thus requiring tailored interventions. This systematic review aims to synthesise evidence on the characteristics of knife offenders and interventions aimed at the reduction of knife crime. After screening 1352 titles and abstracts, 344 articles were fully considered of which 21 papers met the inclusion criteria and were quality assessed. These consisted of 15 offender characteristic studies and six intervention studies. Findings suggested that knife crime may be associated with illicit drug use, exposure to any violence as a witness, victim or perpetrator and mental health problems. Males were more at risk of engaging in knife crime in the community and females in domestic settings. Different risk factors were found between gang involved and non-involved knife offenders. Primary prevention strategies, such as stop and search, knife amnesties, media campaigns and curfews did not show a significant impact in reducing knife crime. By contrast, increasing offenders' access to tailored support regarding housing, education, and employment showed an impact in reducing weapon carrying. Further research is required in the area to support the reliability of outcomes. • Drug use, mental health issues and exposure to violence were risk factors for knife crime. • Males were more likely to carry out knife offences in the community. • Primary prevention strategies did not show a significant impact in reducing knife crime. • Providing tailored support to knife offenders significantly reduced weapon carrying. • Further research into knife offender characteristics and interventions is needed.