Violent Outbursts Research Articles

Commemorating the Events of May 4, 1970 at Kent State University, USA: An Analysis of the Reconciliation Process

On May 4, 1970, American history saw a violent outburst between the US government and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators. On this day, protesters who were unarmed and gathered on the Kent State University campus were opened fire upon by Ohio State National Guardsmen. Four students were dead and nine injured in the span of thirteen seconds. Emotions swept across the USA following the shootings. Discussions concerning the shootings' purpose, significance, and memory are still ongoing. Many memorials have been built in the decades after the May 4th shootings as a way to remember the atrocity. This study aims to provide an overview of the May 4th events at Kent State University and the memorializing process that has occurred on campus. This study describes and analyzes some of the commemorations such as the candlelight walk and vigil, memorials, and their function in the transitioning process. The main discussion of this article revolves around the effectiveness of the assistance given to the victims in their healing journey, the adequacy of the support, and the exploration of other options. Additionally, it explores alternative strategies for healing. Finally, this article offers the establishment of a historical truth commission for promoting the healing process.

Surveillance of Health Care-Associated Violence Using Natural Language Processing.

Patient and family violent outbursts toward staff, caregivers, or through self-harm, have increased during the ongoing behavioral health crisis. These health care-associated violence (HAV) episodes are likely under-reported. We sought to assess the feasibility of using nursing notes to identify under-reported HAV episodes. We extracted nursing notes across inpatient units at 2 hospitals for 2019: a pediatric tertiary care center and a community-based hospital. We used a workflow for narrative data processing using a natural language processing (NLP) assisted manual review process performed by domain experts (a nurse and a physician). We trained the NLP models on the tertiary care center data and validated it on the community hospital data. Finally, we applied these surveillance methods to real-time data for 2022 to assess reporting completeness of new cases. We used 70 981 notes from the tertiary care center for model building and internal validation and 19 332 notes from the community hospital for external validation. The final community hospital model sensitivity was 96.8% (95% CI 90.6% to 100%) and a specificity of 47.1% (39.6% to 54.6%) compared with manual review. We identified 31 HAV episodes in July to December 2022, of which 26 were reportable in accordance with the hospital internal criteria. Only 7 of 26 cases were reported by employees using the self-reporting system, all of which were identified by our surveillance process. NLP-assisted review is a feasible method for surveillance of under-reported HAV episodes, with implementation and usability that can be achieved even at a low information technology-resourced hospital setting.

How Intimate Partner Violence Is Influenced by Social Identity Among Sexual Minority Men.

Purpose: Sexual minority men (SMM) experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at disproportionately high rates. The objective of this article was to identify the experiences of SMM and health care providers on how social identity impacts IPV. Methods: SMM participants (N = 23) were recruited from online community settings and a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and others (LGBTQ+) organization in Los Angeles; providers (N = 10) were recruited from LGBTQ+ organizations. Semistructured interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. An applied thematic analysis approach was implemented to create memos, inductively generate a codebook, apply codes to the transcripts, and identify key themes in data. Results: Three main themes were identified. The first theme was weaponizing social identity to control a partner, which had three subthemes: (1) immigration status, race/ethnicity, and skin color, (2) threatening to "out" the partner's sexual orientation, and (3) abusing power inequity. Men who perpetrated IPV often used minority identities or undisclosed sexuality to leverage power over their partner. The second theme was use of IPV to establish masculinity, by exerting power over the more "feminine" partner. The third theme was internalized homophobia as a root cause of IPV, which details how internalized homophobia was often expressed in violent outbursts toward partners. Conclusion: These findings highlight how IPV among SMM can be influenced by social and sexual identity. Future research must consider socially constructed power structures and the multiple identities of SMM when developing interventions to address IPV in this population.

War Trauma in Second Generation: Suffering of Zaid from The Good Muslim

This study investigates the long-lasting effects of war trauma over multiple generations, focusing on the analysis of Tahmima Anam’s novel The Good Muslim. The narrative centres around the suffering experienced by Sohail, a Bangladeshi revolutionary combatant dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, guilt, and religious extremism in the aftermath of the 1971 conflict. Additionally, it explores the unintended consequences of his little son Zaid, who becomes a victim of the second generation without his knowledge.
 The paper examines the transformation of Sohail from a carefree young person to a disturbed individual who strongly adheres to fundamentalist Islam. This highlights the profound psychological scars caused by the brutalities experienced during the conflict—his adherence to rigorous religious practices and emotional detachment from family showcase hallmark PTSD symptoms. Nevertheless, Sohail’s trauma has profound repercussions for Zaid, a six-year-old who is deprived of parental affection and normal childhood freedoms due to his father’s rigid rules. Zaid experiences social isolation and receives cruel treatment in a religious school, leading to episodes of violent outbursts, a tendency to steal, and repetitive recitations that indicate a possible anxiety problem.
 Through the lens of psychoanalytic theory on childhood trauma, the paper argues that Zaid represents the ‘silent victims’ of war - a second generation forced to inherit the suffering borne of their parents’ anguish. This comprehensive depiction highlights the broader event and serves as a sombre reminder of the human toll of violence. Achieving reconciliation requires addressing invisible wounds that perpetuate across generations.

Coping Strategies and Help-Seeking Behaviors among Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Study of Spouses of Men with Heavy Drinking in India

Background. Despite the high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in India (33%), there are persistently low rates of disclosure and help-seeking amongst survivors. The aim of this study was to explore both coping strategies employed by survivors and the perceived barriers and facilitators to seeking support from informal and formal resource networks. Methods. We conducted semistructured, in-depth qualitative interviews with thirty-five women survivors of IPV in Goa, India, in secure, private locations, utilizing flipcharts and vignettes to elicit deeper insights into efficacies of support resources. The data were transcribed, translated, and analyzed utilizing qualitative content analysis. Results. The most common coping mechanisms cited by survivors involved passive resistance, such as self-distraction, keeping quiet during violent outbursts, and leaving the home temporarily. Generally, survivors sought support from informal support networks (the natal family, in-laws, neighbors/community members, and close friends) before approaching formal support structures (medical/legal professionals, professors, police, and nongovernment organizations). In fact, informal structures were often facilitators of formal help-seeking. Survivors sought help at various stages of their marital relationship. Primary deterrents to help-seeking included the normalization of IPV by survivors and providers alike, resulting in the stigmatization of disclosing experiences of IPV and ostracism of survivors and close relatives; another barrier was a general lack of awareness of existing support resources. Conclusion. Our findings reveal that there are numerous barriers to help-seeking and shortcomings of support resources. Survivors’ evaluations of support resources reveal that robust, community-level, and meso-level structural changes are required to promote help-seeking behaviors, including the destigmatization of IPV amongst providers and broader society and raising awareness of available support resources.

An exploratory study of prison-based violence from the contemporary prisoner perspective

PurposeUnderstanding and preventing prison-based violence remains a challenge for both prison professionals and academic researchers. Alongside the rising tide of prison violence, the contemporary researcher views prison violence as a social problem and something that needs to be understood from an ecological viewpoint before violence prevention strategies can be implemented. The purpose of this study was to present an exploratory investigation into the causes of violence within a Category B UK prison, its impact and the factors that contribute to violence prevention.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an ethnographic, qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six prisoners to gather their individual perspectives on prison violence. Interview transcripts were analysed by the researcher using grounded theory analysis.FindingsResults revealed that participants perceived debt as a catalyst for violence and associated a sense of “loss” with emotional violent outbursts. Furthermore, participants placed responsibility on other prisoners and staff to facilitate violence prevention outcomes by making positive changes (prisoners) and being honest, and moral within the workplace (staff). Emphasis was placed on cultural maintenance factors that appeared to promote, reinforce and maintain a violent cultural environment.Practical implicationsIncluding the prisoner voice in prison violence research is fundamental to understanding the complexity of the problem. Understanding the cultural environment within which violence occurs strengthens the ecological perspective. Violence prevention strategies identified in this research requires change from prisoners, staff and ultimately the wider prison system if it is to succeed in preventing violence.Originality/valueResults are discussed considering their implications for future policy and practice in the context of violence prevention.

Trust as Key to Health Sector Reforms

Globally, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has sparked unexpected and violent outbursts against doctors, nurses, and other health personnel. In the Indian context, studies on violence against doctors and other medical staff largely focus on supply-demand imbalances in health care, overcrowding, drug shortages, negligence of critical care patients, lack of diagnostic and other essential devices (e.g., X-ray and ultrasound equipment and oxygen cylinders), deaths of patients, and bribery and corruption (collusion between doctors and pharmaceutical companies). While these factors explain such violence against medical personnel partly, we argue that it is largely rooted in a lack of trust in doctors and hospitals, which eroded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze the covariates of trust in public and private health-care providers based on an all-India panel survey and delineate policies to rebuild trust, especially in public health care.

Counselling athletes with poor anger-based aggression and violence management skills

This article is aimed at alerting sport psychologists to the problem of poor management of anger-based aggression and violence in some team contact sports athletes. It uses an infamous violent incident from the 2014 rugby league Super League Grand Final as a way into a discussion about anger-based aggression and violence. Details of the violent incident are described and the possible reasons why it occurred are examined, followed by a discussion of cognitive interventions sport psychologists could use to assist athletes whose individual and team performance is negatively affected by similar anger-based violent outbursts against opponents.

The Impact of Workload, Management Factors, and Job Insecurity on Employee Well-Being: A Review of Recent Research

This article addresses the complex issue of workplace stress, a major concern for employers and employees alike. The article identifies the various factors contributing to workplace stress, including heavy workloads, inadequate support from management, job insecurity, and the detrimental effects they can have on an employee's physical and mental well-being. Additionally, the article explores the potential behavioural changes that may occur due to workplace stress, such as poor job performance, violent outbursts, and increased hospitalisation. These findings are based on a thorough review of recent research articles, offering valuable insights into the multifaceted nature of workplace stress and its consequences.

Collisional evolution of dust and water ice in protoplanetary discs during and after an accretion outburst

ABSTRACTMost protoplanetary discs are thought to undergo violent and frequent accretion outbursts, during which the accretion rate and central luminosity are elevated for several decades. This temporarily increases the disc temperature, leading to the sublimation of ice species as snowlines move outwards. In this paper, we investigate how an FUor-type accretion outburst alters the growth and appearance of dust aggregates at different locations in protoplanetary discs. We develop a model based on the Monte Carlo approach to simulate locally the coagulation and fragmentation of icy dust particles and investigate different designs for their structure and response to sublimation. Our main finding is that the evolution of dust grains located between the quiescent and outburst water snowlines is driven by significant changes in composition and porosity. The time required for the dust population to recover from the outburst and return to a coagulation/fragmentation equilibrium depends on the complex interplay of coagulation physics and outburst properties, and can take up to 4500 yr at 5 au. Pebble-sized particles, the building blocks of planetesimals, are either deprecated in water ice or completely destroyed, respectively, resulting in drier planetesimals or halting their formation altogether. When accretion outbursts are frequent events, the dust can be far from collisional equilibrium for a significant fraction of time, offering opportunities to track past outbursts in discs at millimetre wavelengths. Our results highlight the importance of including accretion outbursts in models of dust coagulation and planet formation.

Mental Health literacy: Perspectives from Northern Kenya Turkana adolescents

IntroductionMental illness accounts for high levels of morbidity, mortality, and poor quality of life among young people. Globally, 1 in 7 youth between 10-19 years are mentally ill making up 13% of the global burden of disease; depression, anxiety, conduct disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder lead here. Unaddressed mental illness progresses into adulthood disrupting victims’ lives. In Kenya, school going adolescent mental illness is manifested in violent outbursts such as arson attacks, intimate partner violence and riots in school. Not much is documented of non-school going adolescents and children in Kenya even while it is estimated that they number about 1.8 million. To seek help for mental illness, one has to recognize and understand it causes.ObjectivesAn ethnographic study exploring rural based Kenyan adolescents’ conceptualizations, causes and management options for Depression, Schizophrenia and anxiety among the rural Turkana community of Northern Kenya.MethodsAn ethnographic study exploring rural based Kenyan adolescents’ conceptualizations, causes and management options for Depression, Schizophrenia and anxiety among the rural Turkana community of Northern Kenya. We conducted Focus Group Discussions with 32 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 divided into four groups; school going girls and non-school going girls and a similar two groups for boys. We first read out scenarios in which the main character exhibited symptoms of one of the three mental health conditions and analyzed the data thematically.Results32 participants described the health conditions without referring to the local names we had collected earlier; Depression (Akiyalolong) Schizophrenia (waarit/ Ngikerep) Anxiety (Ngatameta naaronok). Participants conceived the three conditions as resulting from extreme sadness attending loss, traumatic event, curses and rarely as mental illness. They assigned curses, guilt, hunger pangs, evil spells as causes and believed friends and age-mates, parents, teachers, the local chief among other options could help and rarely medical intervention.ConclusionsInterventions to improve the adolescent’s knowledge of mental illness is needed so they can seek help for themselves and possibly help others.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

‘The Sane Voice in an Insane Situation’ the Perspective of Arab Social Workers Regarding the Palestinian–Israeli Conflict

Abstract Israel’s Arabs are citizens, but they are an ethnic minority and a national minority (Palestinians) in a Jewish-majority state. The decades-long Palestinian–Israeli conflict has erupted in recent years in violent outbursts between Arab and Jewish citizens. April–May 2021 saw severe violence against individuals and businesses on both sides and damage to holy sites. In this context, a qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted amongst 15 Arab social workers in Israel (mean age 45, mean experience twenty years), to examine their perspective regarding the Palestinian–Israeli conflict, particularly the April–May civil dispute. The findings revealed that the social workers wanted to be involved as leaders. The findings also revealed the bind in which they find themselves, caught between local government and the committee that represents the country’s Arab citizens, between the demands of the community and the demands of the employer and between their personal values and their professional values. The study makes a theoretical contribution by addressing the need to create a safe space in the workplace so that social workers can discuss the conflict and its ramifications for them. The study may also contribute to the training of social workers and providing a safe space for another narrative.

Making a Radical Misogynist

The algorithms and the interactions facilitated by online platforms have been used by radical groups to recruit vulnerable individuals to their cause. This has resulted in the sharp growth of violent events and deteriorating online discourse. The Manosphere, a collection of radical anti-feminist communities, is one such group that has attracted attention due to its rapid growth and increasingly violent real-world outbursts. In this paper, we examine the social engagements between Reddit users who have participated in feminist discourse and the Manosphere communities on Reddit to understand the process of development of traits associated with the adoption of extremist ideologies. By using existing research on the psychology of radicalization we track how specific types of social engagement with the Manosphere influence the development of traits associated with radicalization. Our findings show that: (1) participation, even by the simple act of joining the Manosphere, has a significant influence on the language and outlook traits of a user, (2) Manosphere elites are extremely effective propagators of radical traits and cause their increase even outside the Manosphere, and (3) community perception can heavily influence a user's behavior. Finally, we examine how our findings can help draft community and platform moderation policies to help mitigate the problem of online radicalization.

X-Ray and GeV-γ-Ray Emission Property of TeV Compact Symmetric Object PKS 1413+135 and Implication for Episodic Jet Activity

PKS 1413+135, a compact symmetric object (CSO) with a two-sided parsec-scale structure in its miniature radio morphology, is spatially associated with 4FGL J1416.1+1320 and recently detected with MAGIC telescopes. We comprehensively analyze its X-ray and gigaelectronvolt γ-ray observation data to reveal its high-energy radiation physics. It is found that the source is in a low-flux stage before MJD 58500 and experiences violent outbursts after MJD 58500 in the gigaelectronvolt band. The flux at 10 GeV varies by ∼3 orders of magnitude, and the gigaelectronvolt-flux variation is accompanied by clear spectral variation, which is characterized as a soft log-parabola spectrum in the low-flux state and a hard power-law spectrum in the bright flares. The amplitude of the variability of X-rays is lower than that of γ-rays, and no correlation of variability between γ-rays and X-rays is observed. Fitting the broadband spectral energy distribution during a gigaelectronvolt outburst with a multi-zone leptonic model, we show that the gigaelectronvolt γ-rays are attributed to the external Compton process while the X-rays are a hybrid of several components. The predicted teraelectronvolt γ-ray flux during the gigaelectronvolt outburst is consistent with the detection of MAGIC telescopes. These results, together with its CSO radio morphology, imply that PKS 1413+135 has episodic nuclear jet activities. The weak γ-ray emission before MJD 58500 may be from its sub-parsec-/parsec-scale jet component powered by previous activities, and the violent outbursts with short timescale variability after MJD 58500 could be attributed to the recently restarted jet activity.

Seafloor characterisation of the offshore sector around Scoglio d’Affrica islet (Tuscan Archipelago, northern Tyrrhenian sea)

ABSTRACT We present a very high-resolution bathy-morphological map of the offshore sector around the Scoglio d’Affrica islet (northern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). The study area covers a sector of 45 km2, between 3 and 85 m depth. Its central part, i.e. the apex of the Ridge, is characterised by a flat or gently sloping seafloor, where three mud volcanoes, and 250 pockmarks are recognised. Differently, the western and eastern Ridge flanks are steeper and characterised by 60 quasi-rectilinear escarpments and small ridges, more than 20 morphological highs, and elongated channels occasionally floored by bedforms. The seafloor shallower than 40 m is covered by Posidonia oceanica, forming compact and continuous or fragmented meadows intermingled with sandy patches. The main map represents the bathy-morphological setting of the area, which is largely affected by fluid seepage, providing insights for habitat mapping and preliminary marine geohazard assessment due to the violent gas outburst from mud volcanoes.

The 1782 Taiwan Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Feud: A Case Study on Qing Dynasty Communal Violence

With the aid of Chinese primary sources and supplementary secondary sources, this essay seeks to analyze the 1782 Taiwan “subethnic feud” between the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou communities of Zhanghua County, which began with a personal dispute but soon escalated into a lethal rural conflict. The term “subethnic feud (分类械斗),” widely referring to early modern conflicts between different Chinese communities, emphasizes the dominant role of local identity conflicts. However, I argue that such outbursts of violence were complicated phenomena. Instead of the maturation of supposed “ethnic rivalries,” the escalation of the conflict from a personal dispute to a full-scale “rural war” is more likely the joint consequence of three contributing factors: the strong patterns of Taiwanese social organization along subethnic lines, mercenary and thug activities, and the inactivity of the local government.

Altering Time, Altering States: Contemplative Geopolitics in the South Asian Anglophone Novel

A high orientalist text, but one that influences many postcolonial writers, Jorge Luis Borges’s story “The Garden of Forking Paths” imagines a Chinese garden-text that tracks all courses of actual and possible events, making all timelines, both real and virtual, seem equally present and deeply connected. Versions of this enhanced, multi-dimensional temporal awareness appear in the work of several Asian and Asian diaspora writers as they grapple with cataclysmic historical moments, from WWII to contemporary violent outbursts, and consider counter-narratives, ways events might have been otherwise. Using Haruki Murakami’s fiction as a departure point for examining South Asian diaspora fiction writers Michael Ondaatje, Amitav Ghosh, and Karan Mahajan, this paper explores factors that enable the presentation of enhanced time consciousness as linked to a mindfulness practice or that conversely predispose such apprehensions of deep temporal connectivity to become fleeting epiphanies, ones often tragically tied to global politics and globalizing technologies.

Formation of Mountain Ranges: Described By Whole-Earth Decompression Dynamics

Earth’s mountain ranges, characterized by folding and unique among Terrestrial planets, are inexplicable in plate tectonics, but are consequences of Earth’s initial formation as a Jupiter-like gas giant, as described by Whole-Earth Decompression Dynamics. The violent T-Tauri outbursts from thermonuclear ignition of the sun stripped away the primordial gases and ices leaving behind a cold, compressed rocky Earth, entirely covered by continental crust without ocean basins, but containing within it two powerful energy sources, the stored energy of protoplanetary compression and a nuclear fission georeactor. Over time heat added by nuclear fission and radioactive decay energy replaced the lost heat of protoplanetary compression making possible Earth’s decompression. As Earth decompresses two surface phenomena must necessarily occur: (1) more surface area is produced by the formation of and in-filling of decompression cracks, and (2) continental surface areas adjust to new surface curvature primarily by the surface buckling, breaking and falling over (thereby forming mountain ranges characterized by folding) and secondarily by tension tears at continental edges (thereby forming fjords and submarine canyons). The present continental surface area plus continental shelves provides a “first guess” estimate of the juvenile crustal surface area, but it is an underestimate due to not considering the surface area that had buckled, broken and fallen over to form mountains. Preliminary calculations provide relative estimates of the “excess” surface area during whole-Earth decompression that would form mountains. Currently, there is a dearth of reliable data on the ages of fold-mountain formation and on the amount of surface matter they contain, as well as on the initial time of decompression crack formation, especially those cracks that ultimately became ocean basins. The absence of fold-mountains on other Terrestrial planets may be understood as a consequence of their not having been compressed by massive shells of protoplanetary gases and ices.

Assemblages of Pandemic Populism

Throughout the pandemic, we have witnessed the channelling of affective intensities into demonstrations, sieges, and violent outbursts underpinned by far right-wing populism, including the siege of Capitol Hill, counter-BLM protests and so-called “anti-hygienic protests” against lockdowns and public health measures. These outbursts, as sensational manifestations of the more general turn to populism, attest to the urgency of understanding the structures of feelings underlying populist logic and the affective tactics used to spread them. The intensification of these affects by the pandemic and consequent lockdowns requires urgent attention as the associated socio-economic crisis and moral-panic are contributing to far-right populist resentments, the long-term effects of which remain to be seen. I look here how digital media contributes to what has been termed “pandemic populism” in an assemblage consisting of right-wing populist logic, digital and particularly social media, the COVID19 virus and associated public health measures. Far-right populist media and activists have taken advantage of the confusion around public health measures during the pandemic to blur boundaries between fact and fiction to fit the effects of the pandemic into their own narratives. Accordingly, I include in my analysis consideration of hyper-partisan media and the power of conspiracy theories, mis- and dis-information and how these forms of mediation engage populations in ways that challenge rational models of communication. I adopt a version of affect theory developed by Lisa Blackman in conjunction with Rebecca Coleman’s concept of (infra)structures of feeling to make sense of the affective dimensions underpinning right-wing populism, which exert pressure on and mediate actions and experiences and which have been exacerbated by the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A persistent ultraviolet outflow from an accreting neutron star binary transient.

All disc-accreting astrophysical objects produce powerful disc winds. In compact binaries containing neutron stars or black holes, accretion often takes place during violent outbursts. The main disc wind signatures during these eruptions are blue-shifted X-ray absorption lines, which are preferentially seen in disc-dominated 'soft states'1,2. By contrast, optical wind-formed lines have recently been detected in 'hard states', when a hot corona dominates the luminosity3. The relationship between these signatures is unknown, and no erupting system has as yet revealed wind-formed lines between the X-ray and optical bands, despite the many strong resonance transitions in this ultraviolet (UV) region4. Here we report that the transient neutron star binary Swift J1858.6-0814 exhibits wind-formed, blue-shifted absorption linesassociated with C IV, N Vand He IIin time-resolved UV spectroscopy during a luminous hard state, which we interpret as a warm, moderately ionized outflow component in this state. Simultaneously observed optical lines also display transient blue-shifted absorption. Decomposing the UV data into constant and variable components, the blue-shifted absorption is associated with the former. This implies that the outflow is not associated with the luminous flares in the data. The joint presence of UV and optical wind features reveals a multi-phase and/or spatially stratified evaporative outflow from the outer disc5. This type of persistent mass loss across all accretion states has been predicted by radiation-hydrodynamic simulations6 and helps to explain the shorter-than-expected duration of outbursts7.