Personal Experiences Of Violence Research Articles

Associations between neighborhood stress and maternal sex steroid hormones in pregnancy

BackgroundNeighborhood stressors (e.g., crime and deprivation) have been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth and low birth weight. A potential mechanism is disruption of maternal endocrine pathways. While stress hormones (e.g., cortisol) have received much attention, other relevant hormones, including sex steroids, have been overlooked.MethodsPregnant women in the Understanding Pregnancy Signals and Infant Development (UPSIDE) study contributed biospecimens, questionnaires, and medical record data (n = 262). In each trimester, maternal serum total testosterone [TT], estrone, estradiol, and estriol were measured using LC/MS-MS and serum free testosterone was measured by equilibrium dialysis. In the third trimester, participants reported on neighborhood stress over the last year through the validated City Stress Inventory. We examined two subscales: 11-item neighborhood disorder (e.g., vacant buildings, crime) and 7-item exposure to violence (personal experiences of violence). Composite scores were calculated and examined categorically (quartile (Q) for neighborhood disorder and any/none for exposure to violence). We fitted linear mixed models examining associations between neighborhood stressors and sex steroid hormones across pregnancy as well as trimester-specific linear regression models, all adjusting for confounders. Secondarily, we stratified by fetal sex. Results are presented as percentage change (∆%) and 95% confidence interval (CI) in hormones.ResultsMost participants (73%) reported one or more exposures to neighborhood disorder; 22% reported any exposure to violence. In adjusted models, neighborhood disorder was associated with higher TT across pregnancy (Q2: %∆= 37.3, 95%CI: 13.2, 66.5; Q3: %∆= 22.2, 95%CI: 1.2, 47.5; and Q4: %∆= 25.7, 95%CI: 1.6, 55.3), with the strongest associations observed in the third trimester (Q2: %∆= 38.0, 95%CI: 10.6, 72.1; Q3: %∆= 29.2, 95%CI: 4.4, 59.9; and Q4: %∆=33.4, 95%CI: 4.9, 69.6). In stratified models, neighborhood disorder was associated with higher TT among women carrying male fetuses (%∆ range: 48.2–84.8). Exposure to violence was not associated with any hormones.ConclusionNeighborhood disorder is associated with higher maternal testosterone levels, which may have implications for maternal and child health. Additional research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which neighborhood stress impacts endocrine physiology.

Bullying and Cyberbullying Victimization and Associated Factors among Adolescents in Six European Countries

Bullying and cyberbullying victimization are significant factors that threaten adolescent development and mental health. Our study aimed to analyze how socioeconomic characteristics and personal experiences of violence are associated with adolescents’ experiences of bullying and cyberbullying victimization. The study participants were 1146 students, 698 females and 448 males, aged between 13 and 16 years old, from secondary schools in Spain, Italy, Romania, Portugal, Poland and the UK. Data was collected through an online questionnaire. Prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated using Poisson regression with robust variance. In total, 37.2% of girls and 35.0% of boys reported being victims of bullying and or cyberbullying. The likelihood of bullying and or cyberbullying victimization was higher when adolescents had experienced physical and or sexual abuse before the age of 15, had witnessed domestic violence against their mother or had been victims of intimate partner violence. Perceived social support from teachers and classmates and higher self-esteem were associated with a lower likelihood of becoming a victim of bullying and or cyberbullying, but an association between experience of any other form of violence and the greater possibility of becoming a victim of bullying and or cyberbullying persisted even when self-esteem and social support were included in the model. Protecting adolescents from bullying and or cyberbullying means preventing all exposure to violent experiences in childhood and adolescence. Not having such experiences seems to be the most relevant protective factor.

“You just went out and talked to them.” An Interview with Maurice Hayes (1927-2017) on the Work of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Commission (1969-1975)

This article reflects on the practice of reusing past interviews in order to improve our knowledge of historical events. It focuses on the period of the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and draws on Martin J. McCleery’s recent work on internment (2015) to stress the importance of personal testimonies in reassessing the historical impact of micro-events and / or local events on people’s lives. By revisiting an interview with Maurice Hayes conducted in 2004, the author investigates how the interviewee gives meaning to his personal experience of violence by using the scientific framework provided by specialists in oral history. The interview also serves to uncover some aspects of the ground-breaking work that had been implemented by the Northern Ireland Community Relations Commission (1969-1975).

Victimhood dissociation and conflict resolution: evidence from the Colombian peace plebiscite

How does violence shape citizens’ preferences for conflict termination? The existing literature has argued that violence either begets sympathy for more violence or drives support for making peace. Focusing on the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement, this article finds that victimhood dissociation strongly shapes these preferences. With victimhood dissociation, a discrepancy exists between objective and subjective victimization, and the effect of violence on peace attitudes depends on citizens’ subjective interpretations of their personal experiences of violence. Citizens who do not experience violence often see themselves as victims of the conflict and vice versa. Victimhood dissociation is linked to cultural stereotypes of victimhood as portrayed in elite narratives concerning the conflict. In Colombia, political leaders framed victimhood around rurality, business entrepreneurship, kidnapping, extortion, and disappearance. In 2016, this widespread narrative was instrumental for politicians opposing the peace agreement. Citizens who disassociated their personal experiences of violence from their self-understanding as victims were instrumental to the failure of the peace plebiscite.

A History of Violence

The material presented here in the form of excerpts was taken from the book “A History of Violence” by Kai Ziegner. It represents the artefact of a PhD in artistic research that is soon to be finished at Linz University of Art and Design (UfG) and Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). The main focus of my PhD thesis lays on the artistic examination of my own personal experience of violence. Being born and raised in GDR I wanted to investigate the effects of the political turnaround in my home country more profoundly. I have therefore chosen the time frame from 1986 to 2016 and 21 specific events that are related to different acts of violence as the subject matter of my work. The research methodology that I have developed is hybrid – it encompasses archival research, documentary and conceptual photography and experimental writing. Central topics of my research work are guilt, pointless violence, misleading role patterns, dysfunctional father-son relationship, placelessness, disorientation and various entanglements into historic and contemporary Nazism. I travelled to all 21 places to photograph each site on color and b/w medium format film. Later I reviewed these photographs and started to write about it in different textual forms (i.e. short stories, fictive dialogues, apercus, metareflexive journal). Eventually I transformed all the material into one experimental book. I consider it to be a means of communication and labour, that enables deeper understanding of severe social change. It is a polyvocal composition intended to be used as study material in teaching or as a template for further artistic processing (e.g. screenplay, playbook, piece of music, dance piece etc.). I have shown excerpts from the book at different international events mostly in the form of performative lectures and/or close readings, in which I actively involve the audience.

Children drawing violence: To what extent does it reflect actual experience

Violence against children is a prevalent worldwide phenomenon. Based on evidence that drawings may reveal unconscious conflicts and difficulties, the current study examined violence as reflected in children's drawings and narratives. Specifically, the study attempted to determine the extent to which the drawings and narratives express the child's personal experience of violence. A convenient sample consisted of 83 children (age range 8–12) drawn from community centers located in low-income communities. Participants were asked to draw what violence is for them then provide a narrative. Following the drawing, a self-report anonymous questionnaire consisted of three measures, demographics, traumatic events (6 events), and the Medical Somatic Dissociation Questionnaire (MSDQ), was administered. The drawings and the narratives were analyzed according to a phenomenological method. Latent class analysis (LCA) to identify the number of homogenous subgroups according to pictorial features within the overall sample yielded two clusters. Comparison between the clusters indicated that: Drawings of cluster 2 revealed more direct violence including the interaction between the perpetrator and victim and a specific form of violence, whereas drawings of cluster 1 revealed emotional symbols. No demographical, nor MSDQ differences were found between the clusters. Higher-level MSDQ scores were found in participants who reported physical abuse and hospitalization experiences and drew schematic figures. The drawings and narratives were not akin with one another.

Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice by Hilary Earl

Reviewed by: Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice by Hilary Earl Hilary Earl Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice. By Mary Fulbrook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 660. Cloth $34.95. ISBN 978-0190681241. World War II was arguably the deadliest war in modern history: not only did millions of soldiers lose their lives, but civilians also died in record numbers, including [End Page 426] millions of European Jews who were victims of a deliberate policy of European-wide mass murder. No one knows with any certainty how many individuals participated in the state-sponsored violence of the Nazi regime; but, given the nature of the pan-European project that included a vast network of slave labor, concentration, and death camps, the number of direct and indirect perpetrators must have been at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not more. How many of these individual perpetrators were held to account after the war? Very few, and Mary Fulbrook, in her latest and largest tome Reckonings, is angry about that injustice and the toll it has taken on survivors and their families (355–356). Close to 700 pages long, Reckonings is an ambitious attempt to expose the myth of Vergangenheitsbewältigung. By bringing together three distinct yet related issues (the crimes of the German state, the punishment of the perpetrators, and the aftermath of conflict), each of which, Fulbrook readily admits, has a well-established literature, she hopes to illustrate that the past has not been fully reconciled, but rather continues to haunt not just those who lived through it, but also their family and friends, and the German people as well. The book is divided into three parts, each exploring one of these issues. Part 1, "Chasms: Patterns of Persecution," offers the reader a glimpse into the many crimes committed against German and Polish civilians before and during the war. It also weaves in personal experiences of violence and juxtaposes the stories of victims caught in the web of Nazi racial policy with the narratives of those who carried it out, thereby attempting to integrate the history of the victim and perpetrator experience. Part 2, "Confrontations: Landscapes of the Law," is a survey of varied judicial "reckonings" of Nazi crime by Allied, European, and West and East German courts from the years immediately following the war until the present day. Again, Fulbrook tries to bring together the voices of victims and perpetrators in the courtroom. She concludes part 2 by lamenting the passage of time and the failure of formal justice adequately to hold the guilty to account. As she notes, by the time John Demjanjuk and Oskar Gröning were tried, it was too late "for any serious legal reckonings with Nazi perpetrators" (337). Part 3, "Connections: Memories and Explorations," is a survey of various personal efforts—what Fulbrook calls "private reckonings"—to "wrestle with the past" outside the courtroom and addresses the lasting impact of violence not only on the victim-survivors and their families but also on the families of perpetrators, who largely went unpunished (338). Writing an "integrated history of the Holocaust," (12) as Fulbrook sets out to do, is admittedly difficult. She is most successful, however, when employing the methods of microhistory, cleverly weaving the history of Mielec, a tiny Jewish industrial hamlet in southeastern Poland, and the surrounding community of Dębica, where SS guards were trained, throughout the first two parts of the book. In part 1 she describes the destruction and reconfiguration of the Jewish community of Mielec following the German invasion and occupation of Poland. Few Jews survived the March 1942 [End Page 427] deportations to the newly opened Bełżec and Sobibor death camps; those who did were exploited as slave labor at the nearby Heinkel Mielec works making aircraft for the Reich. Fulbrook weaves in the story of industrialist Ernst Heinkel who, as it turns out, was well connected to some high-ranking Nazis and who was one of the first German industrialists to exploit the labor of concentration camp inmates. The story of Mielec and Deçbica is continued in part 2, where trials of two perpetrators...

Sufferings in silence: Violence against female workers in the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh: A qualitative exploration.

Introduction:Despite the improved safety of the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh since 2013, other workplace health and safety issues in the ready-made garment industry continue, especially violence towards female workers. This article examines this violence as well as the social norms and attitudes of key stakeholders underpinning it.Methods:Data were collected in four ready-made garment factories in Bangladesh through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions with female workers and key-informant interviews with different stakeholders, along with factory observations.Results:Findings were analysed thematically. Female workers described personal experience of violence in the workplace: physical and verbal abuse, constant pressure, other personal restrictions and withholding of pay. They did not make complaints for fear of losing their jobs. Supervisors characterized the women as ‘disobedient,’ ‘uncooperative’ and ‘unwilling’ to work and viewed their behaviour as acceptable. Other stakeholders ignored these problems.Conclusion:Finally, this study suggests how the findings encourage action to prevent violence in the workplace in order to address the emerging occupational health problems in Bangladesh.

The associations between interpersonal violence and psychological distress among rural and urban young women in South Africa

BackgroundApproximately 25% of the world's population consists of young people. The experience of violence peaks during adolescence and the early adult years. A link between personal experience of violence and mental health among young people has been demonstrated but rural-urban differences in these associations are less well known in low to middle income countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between interpersonal violence and psychological distress among rural and urban young women. MethodsData on experiences of violence and psychological distress were collected from a total of 926 non-pregnant young women aged between 18 and 22 years of age in rural and urban sites in South Africa. The General Health Questionnaire-28 was used to assess psychological distress as an indicator of mental health. Generalised structural equation models were employed to assess potential pathways of association between interpersonal violence and psychological distress. ResultsThirty-four percent of the urban young women (n = 161) reported psychological distress compared to 18% of rural young women (n = 81). In unadjusted analysis, exposure to interpersonal violence doubled the odds of psychological distress in the urban adolescents and increased the odds 1.6 times in the rural adolescents. In adjusted models, the relationship remained significant in the urban area only (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.13–3.00). Rural residence seemed protective against psychological distress (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.24–0.69). Structural equation modelling did not reveal any direct association between exposure to interpersonal violence and psychological distress among rural young women. Stressful household events were indirectly associated with psychological distress, mediated by violence among young women in the urban area. ConclusionThe relationship between violence and psychological distress differs between urban and rural-residing young women in South Africa, and is influenced by individual, household and community (contextual) factors.

The Horror Plays of the English Restoration

Anne Hermanson. The Horror Plays of the English Restoration. Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. 186 pp. $109.95 USD, £60 (hardback). ISBN 9781472415523.In order to explain the emergence of the genre of horror tragedy on the English stage during the 1670s, Anne Hermanson analyzes the cultural climate of social dislocation during this period. Hermanson begins by asking why these plays were written at this particular time, and why did they enthrall audiences during the period from 1670 to 1680, only to die away? In this timetable Hermanson is perhaps a little too selective; Thomas Porters The Villain was first performed in 1662 and was drawing audiences, due to Samuel Sandfords lurid performances, well into the eighteenth century, while a play such as Mrs. Pix's Ibrahim of 1696, a product of the 1690s horror revival, is astonishingly violent. However, undoubtedly the majority of plays in which villainy and gruesome violence are on display were written in the 1670s and early 1680s. For Hermanson, the reason for this is rooted in the traumatized collective psyche of the English people following the death of their king, Charles I, and the subsequent civil war. The turmoil, unrest, and instability of the period informed its drama, and many playwrights were writing from their own personal experience of violence and the ideological conflicts of the time. In this book, Hermanson successfully weaves together the influences of politics on the plays, but also (and often in surprising ways) the influences of theatre history, sociology, psychology, gender, religious ideology, philosophy, and scientific discovery.The methodology that Hermanson employs is built upon the foundation of seminal studies such as Derek Hughes' English Drama 1660-1700 and Susan Owen's Restoration Theatre and Crisis, which examine the complex interaction between drama and sociopolitical strife. Like Hughes and Owen, Hermanson grounds her textual interpretations of the dramas within a meticulous analysis of Restoration political history; however, her work does not attempt a comprehensive study of the major and minor plays of the period, rather, it discusses representative and selective plays. In all, the author paints a vivid, imaginative picture of Restoration culture that offers the first comprehensive study of macabre and gruesome dramas, and their appeal to authors and audiences alike.The opening chapter, "Horror and Spectacle," begins with a brief over- view of the political history of England leading up to the civil war, continuing through the Interregnum, the Restoration of the king, the Popish Plot, and the Exclusion Crisis. Hermanson contextualizes the horror tragedies of the 1670s by comparing and contrasting them in a broad, sweeping manner to heroic drama, court masques, and Roman and Jacobean drama, providing examples from the Roman tragedies written by Seneca, as well as the Restoration dramas of Nathanial Lee, Aphra Behn, Thomas Shadwell, John Dryden, and Elkanah Settle, among others. At the start of her examination, she follows R.D. Hume in locating the evolution of spectacle within the context of rivalries between the King's Company and the Duke's Company. The audience's desire for spectacularly elaborate, violent portrayals progressively increased throughout the 1670s, placing the dramas alongside the public obsession with public execution during the period of the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis. Interestingly, however, Hermanson argues that the function of violence in the horror plays of the period was not to teach or instruct the audience. They are not, she claims, "morality plays," and at the end of the performances,there is little if any moral closure or edification... [the villains] die without remorse. The playwrights give a voice-often in the form of a "dying speech"-to those who are least likely to merit it; and the legacy of their words outlasts them... [they] regularly chose to amplify the voices of the guilty and silence the voices of the innocent. …

Violence Against Persons with Disabilities in Bidar District, India

Violence and sexual violence against persons with disabilities at community level are serious issues. Though CBR programmes and DPOs are expected to prevent violence and offer support to the victims, there is very little information about their role in this regard. Purpose: This research aimed to assess the level of violence and sexual violence experienced by DPO members, and the role played by CBR programmes in preventing it. Method: The study involved a non-random consecutive sample of 146 persons with disabilities from 3 sub-districts of Bidar district in Karnataka, India. Using a structured questionnaire, interviews were conducted by a group of trained DPO members and CBR workers, many of whom had personal experience of violence. The data was entered using Epi-Info and then converted into spreadsheet tables for analysis. Results: 58% of the sample reported having experienced violence and 14% reported experiences of sexual violence during the previous 12 months. Girls and women reported higher levels of violence at different age groups. Male children and young adults reported having experienced more violence, including sexual violence, than older men. The research did not provide conclusive evidence that participation in the CBR and DPO activities played a protective role. Conclusions: Violence and sexual violence against persons with disabilities are serious problems. More research on the subject, in terms of roles of CBR programmes and DPOs, is needed.

Gang-related Violence in South African Schools

This paper reports on a primarily qualitative study which also employed some quantitative research methods in collecting data in six provinces in South Africa. In order to get at the lived reality of gang-related violence in schools, qualitative research was used and to get an overall picture of gang-related violence in South African schools, quantitative research was also used. Data was collected from a range of members of the school governing bodies namely learners, parents, teachers and non-teaching staff. The results confirm the enormity of gang-related violence in schools. Findings showed that the fear of gang-related violence at school can be as harmful as primary victimisation and personal experiences of violence, causing learners to drop out or avoid school, or to lose concentration in the classroom and in learners developing healthy pro-social relationships as actual victimisation. It was also found gang violence is a destructive phenomenon and has a negative effect on the delivery of quality of education. The study is concluded with recommendations extracted from relevant literature as well as comments expressed by the participants of this study. Through collective ownership, responsibility and self-reliance, communities can succeed in reducing the incidence and prevalence of violence within their community. A standardised code of conduct and school safety policy are vital tools in the prevention and management of school-based violence, but should be adjusted to meet the school’s specific needs regarding violence and discipline. Schools should have access to effective psychological support to counter the effects of violence and to foster and reinforce effective coping strategies. Whilst this study intends to improve our understanding of school-related violence and fill some of the gaps identified by previous studies, it is clear that further research is needed.

Traumatic States: Gendered Violence, Suffering, and Care in Chile by Nia Parson (review)

Reviewed by: Traumatic States: Gendered Violence, Suffering, and Care in Chile by Nia Parson Barbara Sutton (bio) Nia Parson, Traumatic States: Gendered Violence, Suffering, and Care in Chile (Vanderbilt University Press 2013), ISBN 978-0-8265-1895-8, 204 pages. In Traumatic States, Nia Parson offers an insightful and ethnographically rich exploration of the experiences of women who have suffered gender-based violence in Chile. More pointedly, the book illuminates in detail the different paths to care, healing, and recovery enabled or [End Page 496] blocked by shifting institutional and state approaches to violence against women. The book relates women’s individual biographies to broad social and political processes—from a military dictatorship that ruled Chile for nearly two decades since 1973, to the country’s transition to democracy beginning in 1990, to political and economic developments in the new millennium. The study situates women’s personal experiences of violence and care-seeking in relation to the state, neoliberalism, and feminism. From a human rights perspective, the book squarely locates violence against women, including domestic violence, in the realm of human rights violations. Drawing on the theoretical and political contributions of feminist scholars and activists, the notion that “women’s rights are human rights” and that violence against women violates such rights is illustrated in the book. Parson analyzes the role of the state as discursively and practically enabling violence against women, showing how individual perpetrators’ power is bolstered through state-sponsored ideologies, dysfunctional bureaucracies, and governmental unwillingness to prioritize women’s needs and aspirations. Traumatic States examines how the interaction between individual and institutional layers of power results in women’s preventable suffering, ill health, and stunted potentialities. At the same time, one of the book’s strengths is its emphasis on women’s agency—individual and collective—while still not losing sight of the contextual factors that constrain choice and action. Traumatic States is based on research that combines life histories of women who experienced gender-based violence, ethnographic observations of two organizations assisting such women (Safe Space and Family Care), group interviews with women who looked for support in one of these agencies, as well as conversations and interviews with other relevant social actors such as staff members of the organizations. Parson also pays attention to changes in legislation, institutional responses in the juridical and medical fields, and campaigns to raise awareness of and prevent violence against women. While the study is focused on Chile, Parson notes important connections to broader contexts, including how traveling global feminist discourses on violence against women are translated, adapted, and circulated at the local level through the work of key social players (e.g. policy makers, state officials, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), women survivors, and activists). While Parson gathers life histories from eighteen women, for the purpose of this book, she analyzes in depth the narratives and experiences of three individuals: Luz, Marisol, and Josefina. She examines these women’s subjective, affective experiences as they interact in dialogic relationship over time with the novel state structures—juridical, medical, nongovermental, and discursive—recently built up around domestic violence; and with women’s rights organizations and feminist frameworks. Their intimate narratives tell more than the stories of their individual lives. They show how these women’s health, their overall well-being, is affected by various forms of violence that constitute, sustain, and perpetuate what we call domestic violence. And through this analysis it becomes clear that their health is at stake.1 Even though the interviews and ethnographic fieldwork took place during the [End Page 497] first decade of the twenty-first century, the book situates the study participants’ stories in a longer historical framework, and in doing so, it illuminates the connections between state-perpetrated human rights abuses and gendered forms of interpersonal violence. Indeed, one contribution that specifically relates to the history of Chile, but that resonates with other Latin American experiences, is the examination of “private” violence in light of the legacies of state atrocities, such as torture, disappearance, and extrajudicial executions committed during the military regime led by General Augusto Pinochet. Traumatic States delves into how the norms promoted by the dictatorship, which asserted the unity of the (heteronormative) family...

Notes Toward an Aesthetics of Violence

Author’s Preface. In trying to think about violence, aesthetics and the relation between the two, I found that I had to start over from the beginning. I had to allow my own preconceptions about violence and aesthetics – borrowed from any of a number of places, respectable (like Freud, Elias and Huizinga) and unrespectable (like my personal experiences of violence, and of Hollywood movies) – to be put into brackets, stored away for use at some other time. I had to submit my thinking to a kind of violence. And as for “aesthetics,” since I was sure that I was interested, precisely, in the subjective quality of experiencing violence in an artistic or ritualistic form, I had to put aside presumptions of a thesis, a vision of what violence was objectively, or a knowledge of what the artwork was in its objective, material condition. Hence these “notes,” where Freud, Elias, Huizinga, my personal experience and Hollywood movies all return, but in the condition of hypotheses and observations, from which, someday in the future, I might compose a real “aesthetics of violence.”

P3.412 Personal Experience of Violence as Potential Risk Factor of HIV/STI Among FSWs in Ukraine

BackgroundIn Ukraine where the main road of HIV transmission in Ukraine is sexual, female sex workers are considered to have increased risk of HIV and STI infections. Moreover, FSWs suffer...

Does social workers’ personal experience with violence in the family relate to their professional responses, and how?

The study examines if and how social workers’ personal experience with violence in the family relates to their professional responses to children's exposure to domestic violence and physical abuse. Four case vignettes depicting situations of physical child abuse and of children witnessing abuse of their mothers were responded to by 106 Slovene social workers. Their ratings of perceived risk to the child, responsibility for endangerment of the child and support for a range of interventions were correlated with their self-reported frequencies of receiving corporal punishment, witnessing father's violence against mother and experiencing violence from a husband/intimate partner in their private lives. While corporal punishment in social workers’ childhoodswas linked to favouring children's protection, social workers’ histories of intimate partner violence were associated with perceiving lower risks to children exposed to domestic violence and physical child abuse. Social workers who had personally experienced violence from their parents and intimate partners were most reluctant to suggest shelter for battered women and children, parent counselling, or notification to the police. The results highlight the importance of addressing the influence of personal experiences of violence on professional judgements, through supervision and other programmes supporting quality in social work with children exposed to violence in their families.

Occupational violence in general practice: a whole-of-practice problem. Results of a cross-sectional study

To examine the experiences of occupational violence in general practitioner (GP) and non-GP staff. Further objectives were to compare prevalence of violence in GP and non-GP staff and to examine levels of apprehension and perceptions of control over violence. Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. A network of research general practices, New South Wales, Australia. GPs and non-GP staff--receptionist, practice-management, nursing and allied health staff. Experience of occupational violence during the previous 12 months. Other outcomes examined were workplace apprehension regarding violence, perception of occupational violence as a problem in general practice, and perception of control over violence in the workplace. A total of 125 questionnaire replies were received (response rate 55%), 59.3% of GPs and 74.6% of non-GPs had experienced work-related violence during the previous 12 months. The difference was not significant (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.20-2.06). Subjects in rural practices were more likely than those in urban practices to have experienced violence (OR 3.79, 95% CI 1.15-12.5). Personal experience of violence (OR 35.9, 95% CI 6.24-207) and a perception that violence is increasing (OR 8.33, 95% CI 1.89-36.6) were associated with apprehension regarding violence at work.

Reconciliation in Conflict-Affected Societies: Multilevel Modeling of Individual and Contextual Factors in the North Caucasus of Russia

Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in reconciliation in societies emerging from conflict. The North Caucasus region of Russia has experienced multiple and diverse conflicts since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and violence continues, although at a lower level than a decade ago. We examine willingness to forgive members of other ethnic groups for violence that they have perpetuated as an indicator of the potential for reconciliation in the region. Using data from a large representative survey conducted in five ethnic republics of the North Caucasus in December 2005, we analyze responses to the forgiveness question in relation to social–psychological models of reconciliation, and we add a key geographic measure, distance to violent events, to the usual theories. Using the survey data (N = 2,000) and aggregate data for the eighty-two sampling points, we use a multilevel modeling approach to separate out the effects of individual and contextual factors. We find little support for the social identity theory expectations as ethnic hostility is not an important factor, except for in the case of the Ossetians, a mostly Orthodox minority disproportionately affected by multiple conflicts and the Beslan school killings. Instead, personal experiences of violence and terrorism, the impacts of military actions against communities, differences in general trust of others, and the extent to which the respondent's life has been changed by violence negatively influence the willingness to forgive. Conversely, respondents in ethnic Russian communities and those relatively close to violence are more willing to engage in postconflict reconciliation.

Prevalence of Experiences of Partner Violence Among Female Health Staff: Relevance to Awareness and Action When Meeting Abused Women Patients

As violence against women is a prevalent phenomenon, it is quite likely that health workers have experienced such violence. Prevalence among female health staff of emotional, physical and sexual abuse inflicted by a current or previous male partner as well as awareness of violence within the family of origin or among acquaintances were studied. Whether such experiences were associated with practice and knowledge concerning care of abused women was also examinated. Questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected female health care workers at a Swedish hospital. Response rate was 68% (588 participating). Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Emotional, physical and sexual abuse by a current or previous male partner was reported by 23.5%; abuse within family or among acquaintances by 22.1%. Associations between personal experience of violence and aspects of practice and knowledge in bivariate comparisons did not remain significant in binary logistic regression analyses, with one exception. Those with awareness of violence within the family or among acquaintances met abused women more frequently. Training was positively associated with all aspects of care and knowledge. The prevalence rate of intimate partner violence (23.5%) among female health staff was high and not unlike that of the Swedish female population in general. Training is of greater importance than personal experience of violence in the context of practice and knowledge when meeting abused women as patients. Hence, men's violence against women should be included in professional education and in in-service training.

Client Initiated Violence Directed Toward Staff: An Exploratory Comparison Between a Rural & an Urban Mental Health Social Service Agency

This is an exploratory comparative study investigating differences in the incidence of workplace client initiated violence between an urban and similar rural mental health service agency. The urban centre is located within 20 minutes of the centre of a metropolitan area whose population exceeds three million. The rural centre is on the outskirts of the largest city (population near 45,000) in a rural county. Findings point to significant differences between rural and urban mental health practice environments where rural practitioners report significantly higher than expected levels of knowledge of other professionals working in threatening conditions, of others who have experienced violence, and of others who have required medical attention for injuries resulting from violence directed toward them by clients. Data points to high rural and urban practitioner levels of experience of threats to themselves and other professionals, experience of risky working conditions, personal experience of violence, and concern about violence. On all variables, with the exception of threatening personal working conditions, rural practitioners report higher percentages of knowledge of, experience with, and concern about client initiated violence than their urban counterparts. Some possible explanations for the findings are put forward to encourage further research.