Perceptions Of Perpetrators Research Articles

Perception of perpetrators’ acknowledgement of victimhood increases rather than decreases support for reconciliation with another victim group

ABSTRACT Centuries of colonial oppression in the collective memory of native Indonesians perpetuated their perception as victims of historical injustice, and left behind violent intergroup conflicts. We investigated how perceived acknowledgement of victimhood by perpetrators and another victim group would predict support for reconciliation with Chinese Indonesians through acknowledgement of ingroup wrongdoing and reduced prejudice. We conducted an online survey among native Indonesians (N = 333) and identified an indirect relationship between perceived acknowledgement of victimhood by Dutch colonizers and support for reconciliation with Chinese Indonesians via the mediating effect of prejudice. However, contrary to expectations, participants with higher levels of perceived acknowledgement of victimhood by perpetrators were more likely to show prejudice, which in turn predicted lower support for reconciliation. Acknowledgement of ingroup wrongdoing was not a statistically significant mediator. This study suggests that, in some cases, acknowledgement of victimhood by the perpetrator group may be primarily taken as a confirmation of victimhood rather than a direct path towards a more peaceful co-existence with other groups.

“We’re going to tie you to the chair”: the perception of perpetrators and the risk of violence in old age

This article analyses the experiences and perceptions of a sample of people over 60 about the most frequent type of violence in old age, the risk factors, the offenders and the reactions to abuse. A mixed study was carried out with the sequential application of 677 questionnaires and 45 interviews. The results show that older people are mainly victims of psychological abuse and financial exploitation; the type of abuse varies according to the type of aggressor; and that machismo, ageism, mental health problems, addictive behaviours and social isolation are risk factors for violence. Health and justice professionals are perceived as those to whom victims should turn and confide.

Making the invisible, visible: older lesbian, gay and bisexual victim-survivors’ “lived experiences” of domestic abuse

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the use of coproduction to create a film “Do You See Me?”, to amplify the voices of a “hard to reach” group: older lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) victim-survivors of domestic abuse (DA).Design/methodology/approachQualitative methods were used as part of the co-production, which included two practitioner focus groups and 14 narrative interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning persons or the community (LGBTQ+) victim-survivors.FindingsDespite differences in gender, sexualities, roles and “lived experiences” across stakeholders, there was a shared aim to ensure victim-survivors had a sense of ownership in this endeavour. Consequently, a positive reciprocity existed that helped to foster effective communication, allow for capacity building and subsequent knowledge exchange. The collaboration produced a nuanced meta-narrative making visible the “lived experiences” of LGB victim-survivors’ perceptions of perpetrator behaviours.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original in two ways, firstly, providing insights into the “lived experiences” of an invisible group; older LGBTQ+ victim-survivors, and secondly, in involving them in the co-production of a film. The paper aims to reveal how interdependencies that developed between stakeholders helped to disrupt understandings, develop new ways of knowing and build levels of trust. Group interactions helped to dismantle hierarchies, so those with experiential knowledge: the survivors, had greater control throughout the research process. The paper is significant in providing a critical reflection on the ethical, methodological and resource challenges involved in co-production. It also makes recommendations for researchers and funders about the value of using co-production as a method to engage with hard-to-reach groups.

Exploring Whether the order of revealing the good or bad information will affect the perception of perpetrators? A Mini Review of The Halo Effect

Through the understanding of the halo effect, this experiment aims at college students, and then the content of the experiment is whether students' cognitive attitudes towards some criminals will be affected by the sequence of exposure to other high-quality qualities of criminals. This experiment uses the experimental method of controlling variables to test students' attitudes towards criminals through two self-written cases, so as to reduce the influence of students' existing cognition of real cases. The overall experiment will be divided into two groups of experimenters, and the final conclusion is that the order of revealing good or bad information does affect the participants' sympathy for perpetrators, and the exposure of good information is positively related to sympathy for the perpetrator, and vice versa.

‘Why did he do it? Because he’s a Fucking Bloke’: Victim Insights into the Perpetration of Street Harassment

Abstract Despite the pervasive nature of street harassment, there is currently little research exploring who perpetrates street harassment and why. Drawing on interviews with Australians who have experienced street harassment, we examine their insights into perpetration. Participants identified individual-level, social/cultural, structural and contextual factors that facilitate street harassment. While existing theoretical explanations of gendered violence help to account for the perpetration of street harassment, these were not sufficient in accounting for participants’ experiences. Participants often drew on gendered, aged, classed and racial stereotypes in their perceptions of perpetrators. We argue that a nuanced understanding of power that accounts for multiple, intersecting forms of marginalisation is needed to understand who perpetrates, as well as who is perceived to perpetrate street harassment.

Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender (DARVO): What Is the Influence on Perceived Perpetrator and Victim Credibility?

ABSTRACT Perpetrators of interpersonal violence sometimes use denial, engage in personal attacks on victim credibility, and assume a victimized role (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender; DARVO) to deflect blame. Two new experimental vignette studies were conducted to investigate DARVO. Experiment 1 (316 university students) aimed to assess the effects of a perpetrator’s use of DARVO on perceptions of perpetrator and victim credibility, responsibility, and abusiveness. Participants who were exposed to DARVO perceived the victim to be less believable, more responsible for the violence, and more abusive; DARVO also led participants to judge the perpetrator as less abusive and less responsible. Experiment 2 (360 university students) examined whether learning about DARVO could mitigate its effects on individuals’ perceptions of perpetrators and victims. Results from Experiment 2 indicate that DARVO-educated participants perceived the victim as less abusive and more believable, and rated the perpetrator as less believable. These experiments show DARVO effectively reinforces the distrust of victims’ narratives, but education can reduce some of its power. We suggest that more research and education about this perpetrator tactic is needed to combat its anti-victim effects.

Minimization of Male Suffering: Social Perception of Victims and Perpetrators of Opposite-Sex Sexual Coercion

Studies show equal impact of sexual harassment (SH) on men and women, whereas lay perceptions are that women suffer more. We identify the phenomenon of minimization of male suffering (MMS), which occurs when people assume that SH has less effect on men’s well-being and which results in the perpetrators of SH on men being evaluated less harshly. To verify whether these effects occur, we conducted two studies in which we presented stories describing acts of sexual coercion (SC, study 1) and SC or financial coercion (FC, study 2) and measured the perceived suffering of victims and the perception of the perpetrators. Both studies showed that female victims were perceived to suffer more from SC and FC and that perpetrators of both acts on women were evaluated more negatively. The results support our hypothesis that the suffering of male victims is minimized as they are perceived to suffer less than women.

Blame attribution in sexual victimization

The current study explored how victims and third-parties attribute blame and perpetrator motivation for actual sexual victimization experiences. Although we do not assert that victims are responsible for perpetrators’ behavior, we found that some victims do not allocate all blame to their perpetrator. We sought to examine how victims and third-parties allocate blame in instances of actual completed and attempted sexual victimization and how they perceived perpetrator motivations. Victims of completed rape (n=49) and attempted sexual assault (n=91), and third-parties who knew a victim of sexual assault (n=152) allocated blame across multiple targets: perpetrator, self/victim, friends, family, and the situation. Participants also described their perceptions of perpetrator’s motivation for the sexual assault. Victims tended to assign more blame to themselves than third-parties assigned to victims. Furthermore, victims perceived perpetrators as being more sexually-motivated than third-parties did, who viewed perpetrators as more power-motivated. Results suggest that perceptions of rape and sexual assault significantly differ between victims and third-party individuals who have never directly experienced such a trauma.

The influence of perpetrator and victim intoxication on perceivers' ratings of a sexual perpetrator's own awareness of wrongdoing for his sexually aggressive behaviour

Rape-perception studies have examined the influence of alcohol intoxication on perpetrator blame attributions: However, no studies have examined how intoxication affects perceptions of a sexual perpetrator's awareness of the wrongfulness of his behaviour despite its relevance to the conceptualisation of responsibility and blame. This experiment investigated the impact of perpetrator and victim intoxication on perceptions of a perpetrator's own awareness of wrongdoing for acquaintance rape. Undergraduate students (N = 314) read one of four rape scenarios in which intoxication was manipulated and rated the perpetrator's awareness of the consequences and wrongfulness of his sexual aggression. Findings supported the hypothesis that participants would assign less awareness of wrongdoing to an intoxicated, compared to sober, perpetrator. Further, males ascribed more awareness of wrongdoing to the perpetrator of an intoxicated, compared to sober, victim. Findings indicate that intoxicated sexual perpetrators are seen as not fully aware of the nature and consequences of their crime.

Employee Perceptions of Perpetrators and Acts of Workplace Violence in Colleges and Universities

Workplace violence has captured the attention of both the popular press and the scholarly literature, leading to a greater awareness of its existence in society. One area that has been overlooked by the research is how employees perceive various types of workplace violence acts, as well as different types of perpetrators. This study examined employee perceptions of a variety of workplace violence acts and different perpetrators at a large, public university in the midwestern United States. The results indicate that employees perceive various types of workplace violence acts and different perpetrators in a variety of ways. Based on these findings, recommendations on how to improve awareness are suggested.

Bystanders' Perceptions of Perpetrators and Victims of Hate Crime

This study used the person perception vignette method to examine whether people perceive hate crime victims as more culpable than non-hate crime victims. In a between-participants design, participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette depicting a nonhate crime or a comparable hate crime motivated by the perpetrator's hatred for either the victim's race, sexual orientation, or religion. Results showed that participants assigned more blame to the victim in the non-hate crime condition compared to the victims in each of the three hate crime conditions. In addition, they perceived the perpetrators as more guilty in each of the three hate crime conditions compared to the non-hate crime condition. In addition, people with prejudiced attitudes perceived both hate crime and non-hate crime victims as more culpable and both hate crime and non-hate crime perpetrators as less culpable than did unprejudiced people.

The Perception of Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Impact of Gender and Attractiveness

This experimental study used an ambiguous sexualharassment scenario, and manipulated gender and level ofphysical attractiveness within a perpetrator/victimdyad. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of sexual harassment of maleand female students as well as perceptions ofperpetrator and victim character traits. Twohundred-ninety six male and 295 female undergraduate andgraduate students at a large urban university were askedto read the scenario and describe behavior and charactertraits for perpetrator and victim using a seven-pointsemantic differential scale. Eighty-four percent (n = 495) of the sample were White, 5.3% (n =31) were African American, 5.9% (n = 39) were ofHispanic origin, and 4.7% (n = 28) marked other forrace/ethnicity. Results indicate that female studentsperceived the scenario as more sexually harassing thanmale students. However, both men and women judged femaleperpetrators less harshly than male perpetrators. Bothmen and women were influenced by perpetrator attractiveness: they perceived an attractiveopposite gender perpetrator as less harassing than asame gender attractive perpetrator.

Effects of just world beliefs on perceptions of crime perpetrators and victims

Our purpose was to examine the effects of Just World Scale (JWS) scores on perceptions of perpetrators and victims of a crime. Subjects were 52 college student inmates of a maximum security prison and 106 sociology students at a public 4-year college. Subjects completed the JWS and read a description of a robbery which varied the blameworthiness of the victim and the justness of the perpetrator's sentence. They answered 11 questions concerning perceptions of the victim, perpetrator, sentence, etc. A Group × Victim blame × Sentence justness × JWS score MANOVA showed no main effects or interactions due to group differences between inmate students and other students. High JWS subjects, compared to low, generally showed less sympathy with the perpetrator but more sympathy with the victim. The latter finding is somewhat inconsistent with previous literature.