History Of Interpersonal Violence Research Articles

Verenperijät. Väkivalta ja yhteisön murros itäisessä Suomessa 1500-1600-.luvulla by Matti Matikainen (review)

io6 SEER, 82, I, 2004 translations are smooth and colloquial, though specialists may take issue with some liberties that seem to have been taken with what is, admittedly, linguistically a very problematic body of material. Given the diversity and complexity of these documents, some may regret that Fudge has chosen to organize and link materials together in an essentially chronological framework, rather than group them in a thematic manner. What emerges is a kind of documentary narrative. Individuals who come to the Hussite period with little background, therefore, will develop a good picture of developments in these two decades. It may be more difficult for them to grasp the themes and interrelationships reflected by these materials. This consideration, however, should not obscure the considerable accomplishment of this book. It will be used by all who are interested in the issues of war, peace, religious and social reform and who do not command the linguistic tools necessary to study these in the context of fifteenth-century Bohemia. Department ofHistory PAUL WX. KNOLL Universityof Southern California Matikainen, Matti. Verenperiyat. Vdkivalta ja yhteisdnmurrositdisessaSuomessa i5oo-i6oo-.luvulla. Bibliotheca Historica, 78. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki, 2002. 229 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. English language summary. Index. Price unknown. MATIKAINEN has written a substantialpiece of scholarly research, with full academic apparatus,thatwillbe of interestto late-medievaland earlymodern historians of crime and mentalities. It is focused on crimes of violence, and representsa contributionto thehistoriographicaldebates,launchedin Finland in such worksas P. Renvall, Suomalainen Isoo-luvun ihminen oikeuskatsomustensa valossa (Turku, 1949), and H. Ylikangas, Valtajavdkivalta keski ja uuden ajan taitteen Suomessa (Juva, I988) on the historyof interpersonalviolence in Finnish society, of how it seems to decline quantitatively during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and established new norms, whereby disputes and crimesareresolvedin the Courtsby litigationand the stateassertsa monopoly on the use of violence, instead of the exercise of privateviolence between the perpetrators and the families of the victims. This is naturally a multidisciplinary study, related to the work of scholars like Elias Norbert, R. Muchembled and MaryDouglas. In the earlystagesof Finnishsociety, the basisforthe treatmentof crimesof violence was the blood feud. The familyor kinof the victim had an obligation, unless he formallyreleased them on his death bed, known as 'inheritanceof the blood', a moral duty to seek satisfaction from the aggressor. But in the course of the middle ages, and influencedby the spreadof Christianity,a code of conduct had emerged whereby the aggrieved kin accepted compensation from the perpetratorin the form of money and goods and this was publicly registered in the popular district Court. Over time an agreed tariff of compensation became established.This studycovers a selection of parishesin easternFinland,fromeasternHame, Savo, FinnishKareliaand theconquered REVIEWS I07 province of Kakisalmi, ceded by Russia at the peace of Stolbova in I6 i 7. This introduced a complication in that many of the inhabitants there were of the Orthodox faith, quite distinct from the Lutheran Finns and had their own traditions. Matikainen's book is dedicated to illustrating changes in mentalities or attitudes to violent crime at all levels of society in this period. It was emphatically not confined to the lower orders, mainly peasants practising beat-burn agriculture, but included clergymen, the military, noblemen and public officials. All members of society shared a well established reputation for quarrelling violently in public and private places, usually under the influence of alcohol, and eventually assaulting each other, most often with the paukko, the lethal knife which all adults seemed to carry, but also with axes, sickles or anything else that came to hand. Apart from soldiers, firearms were rather inifrequently involved. This violence was nearly all spontaneous, cases of premeditated assault are recorded but were infrequent. It is unfortunate that the valuable contributions which Matikainen makes to the study of this subject will remain closed to those without the command of Finnish and Swedish. His aim has been to illustrate the mentalities behind the violence, and shifts in attitude over time, from the relatively abundant Court records of the day, in which the actual words of the participants, and the circumstances of the incidents are described. The core of the collection consists of records of I38 cases of homicide, where the 'recovery of...

Beaten down: a history of interpersonal violence in the West

Acknowledgments Introduction A White Fist on Their Noses: Colonization and Violence To Take Your Own Part: Violence among the Settlers I Was Not There to Fight: The Decline and Persistence of Violence in the Late Nineteenth Century Plucky Women and Crazed Indians: Representing Violence and Marginality in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver To Do Just as He Pleased: Violence in the 1920s Big as God Almighty and Undemanding as Dew: Violence and People of African and Japanese Descent Epilogue: Discovering Violence Abbreviations Notes Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sources Index

Reviews of Books:Beaten down: A History of Interpersonal Violence in the West David Peterson Del Mar

Reviews of Books:Beaten down: A History of Interpersonal Violence in the West David Peterson Del Mar

Prevalence and psychological sequelae of self-reported childhood physical and sexual abuse in a general population sample of men and women

Objective: This study examined the prevalence and psychological sequelae of childhood sexual and physical abuse in adults from the general population. Method: A national sampling service generated a geographically stratified, random sample of 1,442 subjects from the United States. Subjects were mailed a questionnaire that included the Traumatic Events Survey (TES) [Traumatic Events Survey, Unpublished Psychological Test, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles] and the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) [Trauma Symptom Inventory Professional Manual, Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, FL]. Of all potential subjects, 935 (64.8%) returned substantially completed surveys. Results: Sixty-six men and 152 women (14.2% and 32.3%, respectively) reported childhood experiences that satisfied criteria for sexual abuse, and 103 males and 92 females (22.2% and 19.5%, respectively) met criteria for physical abuse. Twenty-one percent of subjects with one type of abuse also had experienced the other type, and both types were associated with subsequent adult victimization. After controlling for demographics, adult history of interpersonal violence, and other child abuse, childhood sexual abuse was associated with all 10 scales of the TSI, and physical abuse was related to all TSI scales except those tapping sexual issues. Sexual abuse predicted more symptom variance than did physical abuse or adult interpersonal victimization. Various aspects of both physical and sexual abuse experiences were predictive of TSI scores. Abuser sex, however, both alone and in interaction with victim sex, was not associated with additional TSI symptomatology. Conclusions: Childhood sexual and physical abuse is relatively common in the general population, and is associated with a wide variety of psychological symptoms. These relationships remain even after controlling for relevant background variables.

The role of placental pathology in the evaluation of interpersonal violence: a case of abdominal gunshot wound in a 27-week gravid uterus.

We present a 17-year-old G1P0 Asian American woman with a previously undiagnosed pregnancy who sustained an intra-abdominal gunshot wound at 27 weeks' gestation. Within 2 hours of the traumatic event, the victim was taken emergently to the operating room for exploratory laparotomy. Findings included a gravid uterus with two entrance wounds and two small exit wounds with active bleeding from the right broad ligament. The fetus was bradycardic but viable, having suffered a gunshot wound to the left shoulder. Evaluation of the placenta revealed no sequelae from the acute event. Unexpectedly, two older, green, 7.0 cm retromembranous hematomas were present, both ringed by hemosiderin-laden macrophages. These hemorrhages clearly preceded the acute event. Although these findings seemed suspicious for a history of prior abuse or trauma, corroborative clinical data were unavailable at the time of initial placental evaluation. However, days later, the victim admitted to a history of interpersonal violence, with previous abuse from her boyfriend, a fatal victim of the same attack. The old retroplacental hemorrhages proved to be the only physical documentation of her previous abuse.

The Potential Sex Murderer

Abstract Despite the many problems inherent in predicting violent behavior, risk assessment remains an important and necessary component of clinical forensic practice. The majority of research on violence prediction has focused on the mentally ill or sexual offender with a history of aggressive or threatening behavior. Risk assessment with the potential sex murderer is more complex since there is often no overt psychosis, an absence of threats, and in many cases there may even be an absence of any history of interpersonal violence. This paper reviews ten ominous signs frequently found in the backgrounds of individuals who have committed a sexual homicide. These signs, especially when seen in combination, should serve as red flags for a potential offender. While absolutely correct prediction is not possible, some type of prognostic statement can and should be offered to mental health professionals, the Court, law enforcement, governmental agencies, and others who are involved with such potentially dangerou...

Prevalence, characteristics, and long-term sequelae of natural disaster exposure in the general population.

A sample of 935 participants from the general population completed a mail-out questionnaire containing the Trauma Symptom Inventory (J. Briere, 1995) and the Traumatic Events Survey (D. M. Elliott, 1992). The lifetime self-reported prevalence of natural disasters in this sample was 22%. Although time from the last disaster to involvement in the study was an average of 13 years, previous disaster was associated with significantly higher scores on 6 of 10 symptom scales. Disaster characteristics (especially the presence of physical injury, fear of death, and property loss) were better predictors of symptomatology than was disaster type. Disaster exposure continued to predict symptomatology after controlling for interpersonal violence history, although interpersonal violence accounted for more overall symptom variance.

Childhood trauma as a correlate of lifetime opiate use in psychiatric patients

Associations have been reported between childhood sexual and/or physical abuse and adult substance abuse in general. This study investigated the relationship between childhood abuse and opiate use in particular among 763 consecutively admitted psychiatric inpatients. Patients were interviewed about demographic information, alcohol and drug use, and history of interpersonal violence. Opiate users were 2.7 times more likely to have a history of childhood sexual and/or physical abuse than nonopiate users, after controlling for diagnostic and sociodemographic variables. Opiate use was higher among those reporting physical abuse alone (24.1%) or both physical and sexual abuse (27%) than among those reporting sexual abuse alone (8.8%). Implications of these findings are discussed.

Restraining Orders: A Frequent Marker of Adverse Maternal Health

Women with histories of interpersonal violence are poorly identified because of barriers in self-disclosure. This study identified differences on maternal health and child behavior between women who report filing a restraining order (RO) and those who do not among a nonreferred sample of women living in high-crime neighborhoods. During a maternal interview mothers were asked whether they ever filed a RO, the victim/defendant relationship, the number of times, and the year of the filing. Four types of violence were coded independently based on maternal narratives: verbal harassment, verbal threats or intimidation, physical assault, and destruction of property. We controlled for differences between RO and non-RO groups regarding demographic background, partner characteristics, other types of maternal past victimization, and use of alcohol and illicit drugs. Outcomes for mothers include partner aggression (Conflict Tactics Scale-R), perception of health and bodily pain (SF-36 Health Survey), distress symptoms (SCL90-R), posttraumatic stress (PTS)-related symptoms, and partial posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis (modified Diagnostic Interview Schedule PTSD-Module). Outcomes for the child include partner aggression (Conflict Tactic Scale-R), behavior problems (CBC 2-3 or Child Behavior Checklist), and PTS-related symptoms (PTS-related symptom checklist). One hundred sixty patients between 3.0 to 6.1 years who resided within five residential ZIP codes with a high rate of local crime in the City of Boston were drawn from a pediatric care clinic practice. Patients were participants of a larger study about the impact of community violence on mother-child relations. Sixty-four (40%) of 160 mothers reported a history of filing a RO against a current boyfriend or husband (39%), ex-boyfriend or husband (44%), someone known (8%), or other (9%), with a mean of 3.9 years (standard deviation = 3.5 years) since RO filing. After controlling for covariates of marital status, immigrant status, public assistance, and lifetime sexual victimization, we found a significant multivariate analysis of covariance group effect on maternal outcomes. Analysis of covariance analyses indicated that mothers in the RO group experienced higher current partner verbal aggression and physical violence to mother, poorer health, and higher PTS-related symptoms, compared with mothers in the non-RO group. More mothers in the RO group met partial lifetime PTSD diagnosis. Unadjusted for maternal covariates, the multivariate analysis of variance analyses on child outcomes (partner aggression to child, behavior problems, and PTS-related symptoms) indicated a nonsignificant group effect. Among dyads residing in high-risk crime areas, the incidence of RO histories is substantive considering this was a nonshelter, nonreferred sample. The inquiry about the history of a RO may provide a new and efficient marker to quality of current partner relationship, maternal health, and maternal stress-related symptomatology.