True Victims Research Articles

“Family Trouble”: The 1975 Killing of Denise Hawkins and the Legacy of Deadly Force in the Rochester, NY Police Department

This paper examines the lineages of police violence, family trauma, and police reform through a case study of the Rochester police killing of Denise Hawkins in 1975. Michael Leach, a 22-year-old, white police officer, responded to a “family trouble” call involving a domestic dispute between Hawkins and her husband. When the 18-year-old, 100-pound Black woman emerged from the apartment, she held a kitchen knife. Within five seconds, Leach had shot and killed her, later claiming she endangered his life. Though Hawkins’ name is included in lists of Black women killed by police, little is known about her life and legacy. Using newspapers, police records, and oral history, we examine activists’ attempts to scale the call for justice for Denise Hawkins to the national level, the police department’s defense of Leach as the true victim in the incident, and the city leaders’ compromised efforts to establish a civilian oversight of police. Within the context of Rochester’s robust history of resistance to police violence, we argue that the reform efforts of the late 1970s ultimately failed to redress the police use of deadly force. Furthermore, when Michael Leach killed again in 2012—this time shooting his own son, whom he mistook for an intruder—his defense attorney successfully depicted Leach as the sympathetic figure. In shifting the focus to Denise Hawkins, this work contributes to the Black feminist call to memorialize Black women killed by police and suggests that the policies that protect the officers who use deadly force cause widespread, intergenerational harm to officers and their victims.

МІЖНАРОДНЕ СПІВРОБІТНИЦТВО У СФЕРІ КУЛЬТУРИ В УМОВАХ РОСІЙСЬКО-УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ВІЙНИ: КУЛЬТУРОЛОГІЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article analyzes the experience of international cooperation in the field of culture during the Russian-Ukrainian war. Significant achievements in international cooperation by the means of culture resulted in the institutionalization of cultural diplomacy as a tool of the cultural policy of "soft power". Cultural diplomacy includes the exchange of ideas, information, and cultural goods between peoples in order to foster mutual understanding. Thanks to the United24 platform and the Ukrainian Institute, large-scale projects have been implemented last year. These projects aimed at helping victims of war, their rehabilitation, rebuilding cultural infrastructure, Ukraine's involvement in weighty cultural events and processes, and the presentation of Ukrainian culture to the world. Informational, volunteer, rehabilitation, sanctions, diplomatic activities in the field of culture in wartime conditions proved that cultural diplomacy is an effective tool of cultural, humanitarian and security policies. Realization of the main goal of Ukrainian cultural diplomacy – the expansion of Ukraine's recognition abroad is impossible without awareness of the value basis of Ukrainian culture and the belonging of the Ukrainian people to a broad cultural and political context. The issue of the cultural identity of Ukrainians is connected with the colonial past of Ukraine, the aggressive expansion of Russia. The revaluation of the cultural role of Russia gained urgent relevance against the background of the war and, on the one hand, led to the practices of "the cancel culture". This practice is important to ensure that there are no attempts to apparently balance the victims of Ukrainians and Russians in the war, the anonymity of the true victims and the lack of fair retribution for criminals, the silencing of the truth, and war fatigue. On the other hand, such processes aggravated the issue of various "others", who will be able to unite on the basis of a common contemporary Ukrainian culture after the war. Therefore, in order to clarify the specifics of cultural identity, a number of cultural problems arise that require a theoretical solution (the nature of cultural identity, the constitution of cultural subjectivity in the conditions of imperialism and post-colonialism, cultural prejudices, national imagination, "the cancel culture", revaluation of the cultural role of Ukraine). Cultural studies of these issues will strengthen the discussions around the issues of a better political order and the formation of post-colonial cultural policy in Ukraine.

“The Blood of Innocent Children”: Race, Respectability, and “True” Victimhood in the 1985 MOVE Police Bombing

In 1985, Philadelphia police responded to a stand-off with Afrocentric environmental group MOVE* by dropping a firebomb on their home, killing eleven MOVE members, five of them children. Highly critical of the bombing, the media and the Investigative Commission grieved for the “true victims,” the children who perished alongside adults whose radicalism seemingly made them unworthy of grief. Yet the focus on the children functioned to deflect larger ethical questions—chiefly, if there were no children present, should the state be permitted to bomb its own citizens? Such questions about race, policing, racialized understandings of innocence, and the meaning of childhood, continue to resonate today.

True victims: men’s privilege, class, and violence against women in Making a Murderer and The Jinx

ABSTRACT Portrayals of accused men in the true crime television (TV) documentary series Making a Murderer (2015) and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015) mark a key historical moment for voiceless female murder victims. We mark this moment by considering how class politics plays out for Steven Avery and Robert Durst when it is part of the relative storytelling privilege they enjoy. Our study emphasises this privilege as an acute form of entitlement that is assured for men across the intersections of class, gender, and whiteness. To do this, we see Avery and Durst portrayed as underdogs in the American criminal justice system and observe their worlds-apart socioeconomic status coalescing with gendered justice. Our argument extends existing scholarship on the series, and true crime TV about men’s violence against women, by insisting that screen and social agency for accused men is a particular privilege afforded by mediated culture. Its creation of men as symbolic victims risks excusing violence against women by focusing on perpetrating men’s troubled lives as explanations for their crimes.

Wakefield's Offspring

Wakefield's Offspring

Are We Even On the Same Side?: Pitfalls to Allyship

In pursuing societal change, members of dominant groups are often called to act as allies to disadvantaged groups. Four talks highlight how and why such alliances are often fraught: prejudices leak from the allies’ words, groups differ in perceived harm, and coalition members’ motives are questioned. The first talk shows that Black Americans infer the underlying prejudices of Whites who declare themselves to be nonprejudiced and egalitarian, and that their interpersonal evaluations and behavioral trust are shaped by Whites’ underlying prejudice. The next talk examines a tendency of conservatives to see men as the true victims of the #MeToo movement, thereby inhibiting allyship. The third talk discusses how White coalition members (relative to racial minorities) may be perceived to have ulterior motives for allyship in interracial political coalitions, which influences observers' intentions to join such coalitions. The last talk investigates how organizational actors understand their own allyship efforts and how this affects the development of employee allyship programs in organizations. These talks highlight the complexity of cultivating and signaling allyship, noting potential pitfalls. It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it: Black Americans’ perceptions of White egalitarianism Presenter: Michael Rosenblum; NYU Stern School of Business Backlash against the #MeToo movement: Conservative Men as Failed Allies Presenter: Jaclyn Lisnek; U. of Virginia Perceptions of White Allies’ (Ulterior) Motives in Racially Diverse Political Coalitions Presenter: Michelle Lee; New York U. To Be an Ally or Not to Be? A Qualitative Exploration of Allyship Development at Work Presenter: Olivia Foster-Gimbel; New York U.

“Society Wants to See a True Victim”: Police Interpretations of Victims of Sexual Violence

Despite attempts to rectify the injustices experienced by victims of sexual violence within the criminal justice system, unfounded rates for sexual violence remain high and many victims continue to feel disempowered and voiceless. In this context, police officers wrestle with how to support victims, while protecting those who may be falsely accused and grappling with deeply imbedded cultural beliefs about who constitutes a “true” victim. In the current article, we draw on interviews with officers working in Internet Child Exploitation, sex crimes, and child abuse units across 10 Canadian police service organizations to understand how police interpret and respond to child, youth, and adult victims of sex crimes. We unpack the range of interpretations of victims, explore if and how interpretations of victims translate into police perceptions of their interactions with victims, and their interpretations of the possible outcomes that can be offered in the investigation. We highlight the difficulties officers encounter as they strive to balance their occupational role with victims’ needs. We argue that police interpretations of sexual violence and sexual violence victims are shaped by the officer’s adherence to or rejection of understandings of the “ideal victim”.

Protection of Witch-Hunting: A Tale of Modern Age

‘Witchcraft’ is considered as a negative social practice and is labeled as ‘black magic’ in today’s world. In some form or the other, the practice of witchcraft has been a prominent socio-religious phenomenon in almost all existent communities of the globe. Faith in its actuality and presence has been unmoved in societies and religions across the world. It is validated by evidence from the Old Testament, New Testament, Protestant culture, Babylonian societies, Hebrew bible, Jewish culture, Islam, Hinduism, and almost all the documented indigenous communities of the globe. Probing geographically, witchcraft is almost omnipresent as evidently marked by documentations, paintings, and other testimonies emanating from African, American, European, Middle East, South Asian, and Island Nations. This article initiates by explaining the concept of the practice of witchcraft by delving deep into the philosophy of the progression of mankind with an aim to portray the answers to the questions including “what is witchcraft and why one gets involved in such practices?” Further, it examines the terminology i.e. ‘witchcraft; and identifies the true victims who are considered as ‘witches’ and are subject to various forms of tortures and abuses which is termed as ‘witch-hunting’. Thereafter, it states and examines the nature of legal protection afforded in the country India at large and the state of Odisha in particular and provides an independent and neutral conclusion of the assessment.

Performing Heteronormativity: The Discourse of the College Hook up Culture and Sexuality

This paper focuses on the college hook up culture and slut discourse. I analyze the documentary feature ‘‘Spitting Game: The College Hook Up Culture’’ that present a provocative sense of the hook up culture. Drawing from the narratives of students presented in the documentary, I argue that the college hook up culture is bounded with heteronormativity, where participants of the culture are performing gender positions available to them. I claim that the culture privileges masculinity and necessitates heteronormal performances in order for students to participate. Often ignored by the discourse of campus crime, I argue that women are true victims and they take up sexual performances only with great diffıculty as articulated with slut discourse.

White Guys on Campus: Racism, White Immunity, and the Myth of "Post-Racial" Higher Education Nolan L. Cabrera

Reviewed by: White Guys on Campus: Racism, White Immunity, and the Myth of "Post-Racial" Higher Education Nolan L. Cabrera Terah J. Stewart White Guys on Campus: Racism, White Immunity, and the Myth of "Post-Racial" Higher Education Nolan L. Cabrera New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2019, 200 pages, $29.95 (softcover) Nolan Cabrera's central goals with the book are (a) to explore White supremacy and White immunity in higher education and (b) to explore how the views and attitudes of White male undergraduate students "lead to the marginalization of Students of Color on college campuses and what can be done to transform this social structure/practice" (p. 16). Cabrera conducted interviews with 29 White men students between 2007 and 2008 at Southwestern University (a public R1 in the Southwest US, population of 40,000) and Western University (a selective R1 on the US West Coast with a population of 40,000). What sets Cabrera's book apart from recent texts about race/racism and higher education (Arday & Mirza, 2018; Park, 2018; Picca & Feagin, 2007) is that he specifically ties the study of Whiteness to higher education, which has been lacking in higher education literature (Cabrera, Franklin, & Watson, 2016). Cabrera names this deficiency in the research as a problem early on in his text by stating that without it we focus on an "effect with no cause" (p. 3), in other words we cannot understand marginalization if no one is doing the marginalizing (Cabrera et al., 2016). Also, Cabrera deliberately examines the convergence of Whiteness and men; that is to say, Cabrera explores the conundrum of White men who normally did not hold a marginalized identity yet believed themselves to be the true victims of contemporary racism. Another distinction of Cabrera's book is that he repeatedly reminds the reader that his work should not be interpreted as centering/ recentering Whiteness in the discourse about power, race, and racism, but rather this book is really about how attitudes and opinions of White men lead to marginalization of Students of Color on campus; or as Cabrera articulates, his book is "intended to be an analysis of Whiteness at the service of [emphasis added] Students of Color" (p. 16). White Guys on Campus is composed of eight chapters that outline major themes/ findings from Cabrera's research project. In chapter 1, he offers that the absence of White racial analysis renders the racial justice discourse incomplete. Further, he introduces terminology that informs the rest of the book. For example, Cabrera offers White immunity as an alternative/addition that gives nuance to the more widely used White privilege. White immunity, Cabrera argues, is the more accurate term because White privilege "implies an elevation of White people when in fact it is more about the decreased life chances of People of Color" (p. 13), and how White people are inoculated from virtually all types of racial discrimination. In chapter 2 the narratives offer familiar deflections and derailments to meaningful racial conversation and dialogue; however, Cabrera provides insightful analysis and weaves together connections across participant narratives to help illuminate the pathology of thought that renders racism as "not mattering" in contemporary times (in the participants' views). In chapter 3, participants suggest that if racism does exist, that White men are the true victims of it. The men feel unfairly treated as a result of political correctness and virtually any form of racial consciousness (including policies focused on equity/justice both on campus and nationally). Unironically, none of the participants pinpoint specific examples or instances that informed their perspectives, rather they indicated they just "feel" that way. In chapter 4 Cabrera examines the contradiction [End Page 131] around White men seeing racism as having no real impact on People of Color—and race consciousness as being racist towards Whites—while also opining that racially minoritized folks are overly sensitive and that racial jokes are harmless. In chapter 5, participants articulated their displeasures and (mis)perceptions about affirmative action: perceptions that were informed by deeply held sincere fictions (Feagin & O'Brien as cited in White Guys on Campus). Cabrera offers these views as the basis of the antiwhite racism paranoia that several participants conveyed during...

Observer perceptions of the justifiability of the actions of nations in conflict: The relative importance of conveying national vulnerability versus strength.

Because the underdog in a conflict typically gains the support of observers, nations will often adopt a narrative that persuades both their domestic following and international allies that they are the true victim in the conflict. Three survey studies were conducted to assess the perceptions of citizens of a third-party observer nation (Canada) in relation to two nations in conflict that differ in their historical persecution, namely the U.S. and Israel. Perceptions of the vulnerability of their safety and survival, and their strength to protect themselves against their opponents were hypothesized to mediate differences in the perceived justification for each nation’s conflict actions. Study 1 (N = 91) supported this mediational model, with the U.S. seen as less vulnerable and more powerful than Israel, and perceptions of vulnerability accounting for differences in the justifiability of their respective conflict actions. Study 2 (N = 315) further demonstrated a moderating effect of Canadians’ shared identity with the nations in conflict; only at lower levels of a shared identity was Israel perceived to be more vulnerable and the mediated relation with the perceived justifiability of its conflict actions retained. Study 3 was conducted 10 years later (2018), administering measures to an independent sample of Canadian participants (N = 300). Canadians were found to be significantly less likely to share a common identity with Americans than previously; once again, the mediating role of the perceived vulnerability of the nations in conflict and the justifiability of their actions was conditional on shared identification. The findings contribute to understanding influences on the credibility of victim claims by nations in conflict, as well as implications for how their actions are construed by citizens of a third-party observer nation.

Describing the ideal victim: A linguistic analysis of victim descriptions

In 1986, Nils Christie proposed that the ideal victim is worthy of sympathy because he or she possesses specific characteristics. Since that time, numerous social scientists have used his ideal victim construct to guide their research. However, few empirical studies have explored whether laypersons use the ideal victim construct to guide their thinking about victims. This study collected and analyzed victim descriptions to empirically explore how people conceptualize victims. Participants were asked to describe either legitimate or illegitimate victims. Then, linguistic analyses were conducted on these descriptions. Legitimate victim descriptions closely aligned with Christie’s ideal victim construct, focusing on concepts such as innocence, vulnerability, experiencing harm, and helplessness. Sympathy-laden language was used in legitimate victim descriptions. Illegitimate victims were described as individuals who failed to be true victims or as phonies. This study provides insight into how laypeople think about victims and provides data-driven support for the ideal victim construct.

Standing in the Way of Our Goals

Currently in Texas, standing options for third-party nonparents seeking to file suits affecting the parent-child relationship (“SAPCRs”) are extremely limited. And, even though the standing options are codified, the evidence necessary to meet the threshold elements may be drastically different depending on the case’s location. These third parties, who have previously exercised parental responsibilities, must make showings to the court that most divorced parents could not make; and this is just for a chance to bring a claim in court. While this seems unfair, and Texas should absolutely resolve the split among its appellate courts, there is one extremely important part that has yet to be mentioned: the child. Standing determinations do not involve a best interest of the child inquiry; this must be changed. This Comment uses a San Antonio Court of Appeals case to highlight both the Texas appellate-court split and the lack of a best interest of the child consideration. Using the case’s facts, this Comment breaks down the general third-party standing option by venue to show just how different the requirements are depending on where in Texas the party resides. In most cases, the outcome spotlights that the child is the true victim of these standing limitations. Professor James Dwyer explains that relationships have a far greater impact on children than on adults. Courts should consider this when determining the best interest of the child. More importantly, the best interest of the child should be a primary consideration, not one that is considered after the plaintiff establishes standing. Allowing a third-party parent to file suit is highly likely to serve the child’s best interest. Once judges apply the best-interest standard at the appropriate stage, judges should then look through the child’s lens for making recommendations on the child’s behalf. Too few judges have said too few words about the lack of the best interest of the child consideration when issuing standing determinations. But with our nation’s evolving familial structure, the time has come to reconsider how courts determine who may bring suits affecting children.

Promoting a More Inclusive Understanding of Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence

Sexual assault and relationship violence are global problems[1]. These issues tend to be depicted in the media in a specific way and according to a specific narrative: that victims are female and helpless while offenders are large and male. For instance, poster/print campaigns raising awareness of interpersonal violence tend to feature a small, pretty, white woman who is crouched in a corner. The offender is often depicted as a large shadow of a man or simply an imposing hand. Due to these depictions, some of the populations at high risk for interpersonal violence (IPV), such as LGBTQIA communities, are overlooked. With women, we have trouble imagining a true perpetrator of violence; with men, we have trouble seeing a true victim[2] – and we have no schema for people whose gender is not binary. Unfortunately, the LGBTQIA community is at equal or increased risk for sexual assault victimization[3], and we are seeing increased numbers of female perpetrators/male victims in heterosexual partnerships as well[4].

Detecting the True Nature of Allegations of Rape

A study was conducted to test whether it is possible to build a model to distinguish true and false allegations of rape based on the theory of fabricated rape. The theory is based on the principle that a false complainant of rape has not been raped and has to fabricate a story while the story of a true victim is based on recollections of the event. Consequently, false complainants will behave as liars do, construct their story based on their own sexual experiences and on mental representations, beliefs of how such a crime would happen (De Zutter et al. in Eur J Psychol Appl Leg Context. doi:10.1016/j.ejpal.2016.02.002, 2016). To test the theory and to build a model to discriminate between true and false allegations of rape, a police sample of true and false allegations was studied. A total of 129, 72 true and 57 false, allegations of rape fulfilled the stringent criteria of the current study, among others on ground truth. Fifty-four allegations of rape, 27 true and 27 false, were used to build a prediction model based on the theory of bounded rationality by Gigerenzer (2002). The remaining 75 cases, 45 true and 30 false, were blindly categorised as either true or false based on the model. The model was able to predict the true nature of the majority of allegations with an accuracy rate of 91 %. Thus, it seems possible to discriminate to a considerable extend between true and false allegations of rape.

New Options for State Indirect Purchaser Legislation: Protecting the Real Victims of Antitrust Violations

Illinois Brick held that only direct purchasers successfully can sue for damages under federal antitrust law. Since this left most true victims of antitrust violations without an effective remedy, most states enacted Illinois Brick Repealers (IBRs), to give indirect purchasers the right to sue for damages when firms violate analogous state laws.Although many benefits would arise if national legislation overturned Illinois Brick, to date every attempt to achieve a comprehensive federal solution has failed. Because this thirty year stalemate is almost certain to continue, this article instead focused on reform at the state level, where reform is much more achievable.This article presents a large number of IBR options that address the spectrum of a state's potential needs, together with commentary giving the major effects, advantages and disadvantages of each. As its Conclusion, this article suggests its own Model State Illinois Brick Repealer legislation.

South African Land Restitution, White Claimants and the Fateful Frontier of Former KwaNdebele

South African land restitution, through which the post-apartheid state compensates victims of racial land dispossession, has been intimately linked to former homelands: prototypical rural claims are those of communities that lost their rights in land when being forcibly relocated to reserves, and they now aspire to return to their former homes and lands from their despised ‘homelands’. However, white farmers, who were also dispossessed (although usually compensated) by the apartheid state in its endeavour to consolidate existing homelands, have lodged restitution claims as well. While the Land Claims Court has principally admitted such restitution claims and ruled upon the merits of individual cases, state bureaucrats, legal activists, and other members of the public have categorically questioned and challenged such claims to land rights by whites. Focusing on white land claimaints affected by the consolidation of former KwaNdebele, this article investigates the contested field of moral entitlements emerging from divergent discourses about the true victims and beneficiaries of apartheid. It pays particular attention to land claims pertaining to the western frontier of KwaNdebele – the wider Rust de Winter area, which used to be white farmland expropriated in the mid-1980s for consolidation (which never occurred) and currently vegetates as largely neglected no-man's-(state-)land under multiple land claims. Being the point of reference for state officials, former white farmers, Ndebele traditionalists, local residents, and other citizens and subjects, this homeland frontier is hence analysed as a fateful zone of contestation, in which the terms of a new South African moral community are negotiated.

Financially-Constrained Lawyers

Financial constraints reduce the lawyer's ability to file lawsuits and bring cases to trial. As a result, access to justice for true victims, bargaining impasse, and potential injurers' precaution might be affected. This paper studies civil litigation using a strategic model that allows for asymmetric information, financially-constrained lawyers, third-party lawyer lending, and a continuum of plaintiff's types. We provide methodological contributions to the law and economics literature by generalizing seminal models of legal disputes (Katz, 1990; Bebchuk, 1988). We present formal analysis of the three mutually-exclusive perfect Bayesian equilibrium classes: Mixed-strategy, pure-strategy, and boundary equilibria. We identify necessary conditions for the existence of each class. In particular, the mixed-strategy class arises in a state of the world characterized by lawyers facing strong financial constraints or defendants facing a high threat of frivolous lawsuits. Across equilibrium classes, accidents do occur and bargaining impasse is observed. Access to justice is denied to some true victims under the mixed-strategy and boundary equilibria. We then extend our tractable model to study the social welfare effects of policies aimed at relaxing lawyers' financial constraints. We establish sufficient conditions for a welfare-reducing effect: When the positive impact on access to justice is weak and the potential injurers are overdeterred, these policies are welfare reducing.

Timisoara 1989: Dead People, Revolution and Murderers

The deficient manner in which the international press recounted the Revolution of Timişoara in December 1989 established a depreciative framework of reference, particularly in the context of a lack of investigations, some of which would have been necessary. The negative perception was also fuelled by the amount of emotional comments made by various influential public figures. The official Romanian press did not make any reference to the number of victims and even minimized the extent of destructions in the city. This served a manipulative purpose, so that news of the insurgence would not get out. Foreign journalists could not enter Romania earlier than December 22, at approximately 1 p.m., when the borders were reopened. Until then, they relied on the bits of information that they got hold of from unreliable sources, such as Romanian, or, particularly, foreign citizens, who were able to leave Romania, or on scarce information provided by telephone and on communications between some states’ diplomatic staffs and their ministries. The process of launching and spreading rumours was also impressive, and after two days and two nights of waiting in border crossing points, the journalists who arrived in Timişoara and in other cities believed that the previously gained equivocal information was being confirmed. This allowed the emergence of the enormous confusion between the horrific dead in the Paupers Cemetery and the true victims of the Revolution.

The Great Strike of 1917 in Victoria: Looking Fore and Aft, and from Below

The strike of 1917 in Melbourne had its origins in the industrial changes that took place in the city in the first two decades of the twentieth century, and the industrial tensions of the decade before the war were exacerbated by the circumstances of war. Unemployment, seasonal and general, made men vulnerable to moral blackmail to enlist, true victims of 'economic conscription.' And the fact that industrial confrontation persisted into 1919-20 shows that the causes of industrial unrest were deeper and more lasting than war-induced inflation and the consequent erosion of living standards. Historians do less than justice to the workers involved in 1917 if we do not look fore and aft, before 1917 to the conditions that were building class-consciousness among manual workers, and afterwards to the disputes and strikes that followed in 1918-20.