Opportunities For Victims Research Articles

Cyberviolence Prevention & Response: New Considerations for Higher Education and Student Affairs

As our students participate in their digital lives, opportunities for victimization like harassment, cyberbullying and stalking plague our students at higher rates than they even realize. This conceptual article aims to explore the landscape of cyberviolence on-campus and offer two frameworks for higher education policymakers, administrators, and practitioners to begin utilizing now to support the prevention and response to cyberviolence on-campus.

Mengupayakan Keadilan Bagi Korban Kekerasan Seksual Melalui Aktivisme Tagar: Kesempatan dan Kerentanan di Indonesia

Digital technology brings new opportunities to accessing justice for women and marginalized groups after being excluded from conventional-masculine technology for decades. In the internet era, the use of social media has become very massive and intensive, therefore feminist activism in this digital space is unavoidable. Hashtag activism has become popular since the #MeToo movement and such an opportunity to seek justice for victims and survivors through voicing and documenting their voices. The use of hashtags (#) opens up opportunities for victims’ stories to be documented, connect with other stories, and go viral. In Indonesia, the use of hashtags in activism also occurs in more local contexts such as #KitaAgni, #SaveIbuNuril, #UIITidakAman, #KamiBersamaKorban, and #SahkanRUUPKS. Some hashtag activism has succeeded in initiating follow-up actions in the offline world, although not always viral stories get satisfactory case resolutions. This study uses a qualitative approach, and collecting the data through literature studies, especially on feminist theories ariund technology and digital such as; Science and Technology Studies (STS) feminism, cyberfeminism, technofeminism, and feminist digital activism. This paper finds that the digital space is a contested space where there are opportunities and vulnerabilities for victims, activists, and netizens to seek justice through hashtag activism.

Perils of conversation: #MeToo and opportunities for peacebuilding

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunities for future organizational and leadership research presented by positioning dialogue related to the #MeToo movement within a peacebuilding agenda. The #MeToo movement raised public consciousness about the pervasiveness of sexual assault and harassment in schools, workplaces and other institutions by an international social media campaign. However, subsequent discussions are often charged with hostility and outrage that result in divisiveness within workplaces and other settings that can further silence about these issues. The authors argue a community peacebuilding framework can create space to have difficult conversations to further the efforts of the #MeToo movement. Design/methodology/approach The authors will discuss the implications of a peacebuilding framework by the discussion of a case study in a rural setting to highlight the ways in which community conversations necessary to further the goals of the #MeToo movement. Findings A grassroots community peacebuilding framework can present opportunities for victims, offenders, family members and the community to voice expressions harms experienced and to enable processes of accountability. Promotion of a positive relational peace includes opportunities for education, skill development and conflict resolution that are healing and transformative for individuals and communities. Research limitations/implications The systemic social and cultural change required to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault must happen within face-to-face relationships within community dialogue. Practical implications The authors argue a critical relational peace lens offers an emancipatory framework that can initiate change from the bottom up to facilitate social healing and further the efforts of the #MeToo movement. Social implications Grassroots peacebuilding invites a relational peace established by dialogue within communities. This dialogue is often not easy but is recognized as essential to establishing trust, resolving conflict and fostering community integrity. Originality/value In this paper, the authors offer a community peacebuilding framework to provide skill development and a vision necessary to host difficult conversations to inform the next wave of the #MeToo movement.

Victim impact statements and sentencing

Legislation allowing for victim impact statements ('VIS') to be presented during sentencing hearings has been introduced into the criminal justice systems of most common law nations, notwithstanding many reservations from defence lawyers and civil libertarians. Despite such legislation being widespread throughout the common law world, the use of VIS remains controversial.The main purpose of this article is to utilise basic sentencing principles in order to critically analyse the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, VIS are relevant to an offender's sentence and thus should injuence sentencing decisions. It will be shown by the use of a hypothetical that there are a minority of circumstances where a VIS may appropriately be relevant to sentence. In such cases adequate procedural safeguards need to be instituted to ensure that offender's rights are not compromised. It will also be shown that despite the VIS being irrelevant to sentencing in the majority of cases, it is still justifiied to allow victims to submit a VIS in all cases as they serve an important therapeutic role for victims in that they provide an opportunity for victims to participate in the criminal justice system, thereby reducing their sense of powerlessness and enhancing their cooperation with the system. It will be acknowledged, however, that there are problems with allowing victims to submit VIS, knowing they should not be taken into account for sentencing purposes in the majority of cases. The article will suggest some solutions to these problems.The writer thus generally takes a supportive view of VIS, believing that the ability of victims to prepare and present VIS can enhance their satisfaction with the criminal justice system, while a careful examination of the limits that victim impact material should have on the court sentencing discretion will mean that they ought not impinge upon the civil liberties of offenders.

The Impact of Social Network Characteristics and Gender on Covert Bullying in Australian Students with Disability in the Middle Years

ABSTRACTAddressing bullying victimization of students with disability is a significant challenge for schools. While social support can protect against bullying victimization in the general population, its role in mediating the relationship between disability and bullying is under-researched. This paper examined covert bullying prevalence (encompassing relational, social and indirect aggression) and its relationship to social support (peer, family, and teacher) among a national sample of 4,753 Australian 8–14 year olds, 490 of whom self-identified as living with disability. Positive teacher and peer support predicted the reduced probability of bullying victimization among students overall, but low support levels among students with disability negated this effect. Interventions to address covert bullying of students with disability need to focus on whole-school approaches that reduce opportunities for victimization of students with disability.

The prevention of child trafficking crimes and its legal reform

The news about human trafficking especially children in Indonesia is increasing both domestically and across borders. The crime also includes in the form of labor smuggling, immigrant smuggling, slave trade, women and children. One of the most serious and very complex issues is the impact it has on and directly related to the child’s fate. In 2016, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection reported, there were 943 victims of human trafficking reported in 65 the media. Separately, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission officially identifies 307 child trafficking victims. It remains unclear whether these two processes lead to an investigation or provision of protection to victims. This research uses normative research method to find out the prevention of child trafficking crime and form of legal renewal about child trafficking. This study states that the prevention of child trafficking victims is by prevention, prosecution to traffickers, and protection measures against victims. In addition, there needs to be a renewal of criminal law which should also focus on the protection of victims of trafficking in persons so as to provide opportunities for victims to gain their rights.

Gendered Opportunity and School-Based Victimization

Opportunity theory suggests that adolescents’ risks for school-based theft and assault victimization are related to low self-control and school-based routine activities, such as playing sports, joining extracurricular clubs, and engaging in unsupervised activities. Peer research indicates that friends’ characteristics may also create opportunities for victimization. Additional research supports that gender moderates the effects that lifestyles and friends have on victimization. We integrate these lines of inquiry by exploring how gender moderates the relationship among low self-control, routine activities, friends’ characteristics, and school-based victimization using a sample of 10th-grade public school students who participated in the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Using structural equation models, our results suggest that friends’ characteristics tend to matter more for females across both types of victimization. Other gendered effects exist—indicating that the effects of certain friends’ characteristics vary by gender according to the extent to which they influence participation in school misconduct.

Massacres, Majorities and Money: Reparation after Sectarian Violence in India

AbstractThis article evaluates reparation by the state after four of the worst episodes of violence against religious minorities in independent India. Examining official records obtained through India’s law on the right to information, I analyze government aid to victims after identity-based massacres over a 20-year period. I argue that there is a well-established repertoire of assistive measures after sectarian violence but, despite the resources available within a politically stable state, aid for victims of mass violence in India is unimaginative and meagre. I argue further that the political opportunity structure for reparations is limited by the fact that sectarian mobilization is embedded within electoral politics in India. Just as sectarian politics led governments to tolerate mass violence, it constricts the checks and balances that might lead to adequate reparation after violence subsides. I then suggest that opportunities to negotiate better reparation for victims expand over time, and propose that a law on reparation would constrain state bias and strengthen opportunities for victims to demand the support that they need.

Into the archive: Vancouver’s Missing Women Commission of Inquiry

In response to public concern over the prolonged serial killings of Vancouver’s Missing Women, in 2010, British Columbia’s provincial government called a public inquiry into the police investigation of Robert William Pickton, the convicted murderer of six women from Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Intended in part as an opportunity for victims, families, and community members to contribute to a process of collective memory making and archivization, the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry ultimately reproduced dominant patterns of silence and exclusion. This article explores the particular mechanisms through which exclusions were enacted; their imbrication with the legal archive that underwrote the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and the process of archivization in which it was engaged; and the implications for future inquiries into systemic race and gender violence in Canada.

Healing through Action? The Political Mobilization of Victims of Al Qaeda-Inspired Violence in Spain and the United Kingdom

Spain and the United Kingdom have experienced similar types of political violence. Since the 1960s, both countries have suffered casualties as a result of long-standing ethno-nationalist conflicts as well as terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda–inspired groups. In spite of these similarities, the two countries display a striking variation in the attitudes to victims. In Spain, Associations of Victims of Terrorism have been highly visible and influential, whereas United Kingdom-based organizations have not captured the public's imagination and the attention of policymakers in the same way. Spanish associations of victims have been present in the public sphere and have routinely provided their opinions on counterterrorist policy and appropriate government legislation whereas this sort of political activity is difficult to trace in the United Kingdom. As a result of this puzzle, the article tries to answer the following question: Why are associations of victims of terrorism by Al Qaeda–inspired attacks more influential in Spain than in the United Kingdom? The article will argue that political and sociocultural variables account for the difference. More specifically, the article demonstrates that the experience of both ethno-nationalist and jihadist political violence has affected party systems and cultural frames differently, hence providing distinct sets of political opportunities for victims’ associations to carry out their lobbying strategies.

The experiences of homicide victims' families with the criminal justice system: an exploratory study.

Although the crime of homicide has received significant attention from scholars, little research exists that examines the impact of homicide on surviving family members. Because opportunities for victims and family members of victims to participate in the criminal justice system are increasing, it is important to understand the impact of these forms of participation on those who choose to participate. This study uses data from focus groups to examine the experiences of homicide survivors within the criminal justice system, including views about how system involvement and specific outcomes (i.e., sentencing) may help or hinder healing. Findings suggest that many families leave the criminal justice system feeling marginalized and revictimized. This study calls into question the current criminal justice system's ability to meet the needs of crime victim and their families.

The Offenders’ Perspective on Prevention

Law-abiding citizens are concerned with deterring and preventing crime. One strategy to accomplish this goal is to increase the costs and reduce the benefits that particular situations present to offenders. This form of crime control is known as situational crime prevention. Like law-abiding persons, offenders must concern themselves with being victimized. Differently, however, offenders must also worry about being detected and punished by formal agents. Thus, situational prevention from the offenders’ perspective is relatively complex, encompassing efforts to block not only opportunities for victimization but also for law enforcement. Building on the work of Clarke, the present study uses qualitative data from drug dealers to illustrate how and why offenders use situational strategies and techniques to evade their adversaries. The article concludes by discussing implications for future work.

The deliveries cannot stop: Ecological (dis) advantages and socio-spatial safety tactics against predatory crimes among Brazilian couriers

In this article we discuss the reactions and responses of Brazilian motorcycle couriers (motoboys) to the risk of predatory crimes. We show that they work two simultaneous and overlapping “shifts”: the first involves carrying out their professional responsibilities, and the second, reducing the opportunities for victimization presented by those responsibilities. We analyse the socio-spatial tactics they adopt with a view to optimising security. These involve restricting their interactions and negotiations with neighbours and customers, as well as with criminals to guarantee that the deliveries are made and also to manage the various risks associated with working in different ecological areas. We explore the effect of these tactics on their activities, on labour relations and on attitudes to their customers in the delivery business. It concludes that both negotiation types point towards a process of expanding interactions, creating alternative distribution networks and seeking methods of protection against risks that cannot be overcome simply by the couriers protecting themselves.

How is Justice Restored?

Restorative justice is an approach to crime and punishment that seeks to bypass the dynamics of the courtroom. It features the opportunity for victim and offender to construct a mutually agreed-upon means of reparation. Its proponents frequently invoke three ethical claims in defence of the practice: that punishment is not a necessary response to crime, that justice must be understood in a contextual rather than a foundational sense, and that the character of the offender can be amended through the restorative encounter. Each claim will be analysed and critiqued from perspectives drawn from traditional and contemporary Christian ethics.

The Conditioning Effects Of Neighborhood Ecology On Burglary Victimization

The systemic theory of social disorganization maintains that opportunities for victimization are conditioned by neighborhood social order. Systemic social control emanates from the strengths of a neighborhood’s private, public, and parochial social orders. Using neighborhood-level data from eight Chicago neighborhoods, this study tested a theoretically derived hypothesis that burglary victimization would vary across neighborhoods with different social orders. Neighborhoods were classified into three groups according to ecological measures of social orders and then analyzed for different levels of residential burglary risk. The results mainly supported the framework, although certain findings suggested some refinements to the model were in order. These and other implications are discussed.

Inmate Lifestyles and Opportunities for Victimization

Inmate-on-inmate crime poses a serious threat to the goals of institutional corrections. Research to date on inmate victimization suggests that demographic and background characteristics (such as age and the seriousness of the offense incarcerated for) are important predictors of victimization risk during incarceration. Yet, the relative importance of demographics versus institutional lifestyles for predicting inmate victimization has never been examined. This article presents the results of a study designed to test the applicability of lifestyle theory to an understanding of victimization in correctional institution domains. Results support lifestyle theory as a viable explanation of victimizations involving physical assaults by other inmates as well as those involving theft of personal properties. The implications of these results are discussed.

Uncertainty and the Choice of Policy Instruments A Note On Baumol and Oates Propositions

Baumol and Oates' propositions, the irrelevancy of benefit uncertainty and the importance of cost uncertainty on the choice between a tax and a system of marketable permits, are limited to a large-number case in which the opportunities for victims of pollution to participate in a permit market are non-existent. However, with the evolution of environmental groups and coalitions of victims in neighborhoods, the large-number case can easily transform into a small-number case. This paper shows that when the pollution standard, set at what appears to be optimal ex ante, is excessively lenient, the system of marketable permits offers such groups a flexibility to buy pollution permits in a competitive market and destroy them until the optimal solution is realized. In the reverse situation, however, Baumol and Oates propositions are unambiguously valid.