Violence In Use Research Articles

Analysing child-to-parent violence in Chilean adolescents: Prevalence and reasons

Child-to-parent violence is a serious social problem that has prompted numerous studies in various countries in the last decade. However, in some countries, such as Chile, there is a lack of research in this field. The objective of the present study was to adapt a specific instrument for assessing child-to-parent violence for use with Chilean adolescents and analyse its psychometric properties, as well as the prevalence of and reasons for such aggressions. A sample of 905 Chilean adolescents (M age = 15.05; SD = 1.48) were assessed using the version for adolescents of the Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire (CPV-Q). The results obtained support the four-factor structure of the original version (psychological violence, physical violence, financial violence, and control/domain violence), yielding adequate psychometric properties. High prevalence rates were observed, although no differences were found between boys and girls in terms of type of child-to-parent violence. While physical violence was directed to a greater extent against the father, control/domain violence was directed to a greater extent against the mother. Instrumental-type reasons were more frequent than reactive-type reasons. Statistically significant differences were observed with respect to the gender of the aggressor, with reactive-type reasons being more frequent among girls than among boys. It may be concluded that this instrument is valid for the assessment of child-to-parent violence in Chile and that the high prevalence rates of this phenomenon justify the need to continue studying this type of violence in greater depth.

The Use of Violence in Indonesian Police Investigation

The tricky part of the investigation process in Indonesian Criminal Justice System is to balance the requirement to successfully uncover cases reported by the public while at the same time avoiding a violation of Human Rights at all cost. To do their duty, the police as investigators are given the authority to take measures such as arrest, detention, search, seizure and examination of letters. In implementing these forceful measures, the tendency of abuse to occur is highly likely, including but not limited on the use of violence to intimidate, evidence engineering, false arrests, maladministration, and other forms of human rights violation. Some of the stages within the investigation process that often use violence as a means to an end are during arresting, interrogating, investigating, and giving detention to suspects. The form of violence in use includes physical and psychological ones, with one of the most extreme examples involving the use of automatic weapon to inflict pain.This study is a result of an empirical research into the use of violence in Indonesian police investigation. We use primary and secondary data sources, including laws, literature, and doctrine, before analyzing the data qualitatively. This research is expected to contribute in further strengthening the principle of Due Process of Law in the implementation of the police investigation process. Even though the principle of Due Process of Law is well known in the Law on Criminal Proceedings of Indonesia, its application is still considered as weak. It is the contention of this paper that the principle of Due Process of Law should be included in the Police Chief Regulation and the regulations within the Code of Police.

Validation of alternate light sources for detection of bruises in non-embalmed and embalmed cadavers.

Bruising is frequently documented in cases of violence for use as forensic evidence. However, bruises can be overlooked if they are not visible to the naked eye. Alternate light sources such as ultraviolet, narrow band, and infrared have been used in an attempt to reveal the presence of bruising that is not otherwise apparent. However, there is a significant gap in knowledge surrounding this technique as it has not been validated against histology to confirm that bruising is genuinely being enhanced. A recent study evaluated the ability of alternate light sources to enhance visibility of bruises using a pigskin model. However, histological confirmation of bruising in humans using these light sources has not yet been performed. In this study, embalmed and non-embalmed human cadavers were used. Bodies were surveyed with alternate light sources, and enhanced regions that were unapparent under white light were photographed with the alternate light sources and sampled for histological assessment. Immunohistochemical staining for the red blood cell surface protein glycophorin was used determine if the enhanced area was a bruise (defined by the presence of extravasated erythrocytes). Photographs of areas confirmed to be bruises were analyzed using the program Fiji to measure enhancement, which was defined as an increase in the measured transverse diameter. In the non-embalmed and the embalmed cadavers violet alternate light produced the greatest enhancement of histologically confirmed bruises, followed by blue (both p<0.0001). Regions that were not confirmed as bruises also enhanced, indicating that light sources may not be specific. This suggests that the use of light sources to enhance the visibility of bruising should be undertaken with caution and further studies are required.

Working towards a definition for workplace violence actions in the health sector

Unlike the patient safety research network, no consensus document exists that outlines definitions and concepts that pertain to the workplace violence research environment in the health sector. There are no agreed definitions internationally for terms such as vertical and horizontal violence. This results in a challenging research environment where parallels and commonality are somewhat ambiguous. The objective of this study was to define six central actions of workplace violence for use in health sector research. This was a two-part study design, Part 1 was a literature search of medical related electronic databases from their beginning until the end of June 2014. Articles of any study type were included if their main purpose was to define the actions of workplace violence. Part 2 was a group discussion held during a workshop at an international conference to discuss and compile definitions for specific workplace violence acts. Part 1, a total of 91,681 articles were identified with 82 articles meeting the inclusion criteria with 50 articles excluded as they did not report on definitions relating to workplace violence. After discussion and debate the outcome of Part 2 concluded in a consensus where six definitions were proposed; Bullying, Verbal Abuse, Threat, Physical Abuse, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Abuse. This study presents a set of definitions that serves as a starting point for defining workplace violence actions and as a foundation for future refinement and possible additions as the workplace and the way people work evolves over time in the health sector.

What drugs do hypertension patients take in clinical practice? Structure of antihypertensive drugs in a large siberian region

Objective. To assess the frequency of prescribing of different groups of antihypertensive drugs (AHD) in the treatment of patients with arterial hypertension (AH) among patients of the Krasnoyarsk territory according to the Russian epidemiological studies ESSE-RF. Materials and methods. 1,603 persons aged 25–64 years, selected through systematic stratified multistage randomization among the population attached to the four outpatient clinics of Krasnoyarsk and Berezovsky district hospital were studied. All included subjects were subjected to a detailed survey of office blood pressure measurements. Results. The proportion of those on monotherapy was 53.4%. The most commonly accepted AHD, including in the combination therapy, were angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) – in 51% of cases, beta-blockers – 28.9 percent, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBS) – 25,2%, diuretics – 23,2%, calcium channel blockers (CCB) – 11.9%, central action drugs – 2.0% and alpha-blockers – 0.4 percent. Beta-blockers often were taken by those of younger age – 38.1 per cent, mainly men aged 25–34 years (50.0 per cent). Among the combinations of AHD the most frequently encountered combination was ACEI + diuretic (6,8%), followed by rthe frequency of prescription by ARBS + diuretic, beta-blocker + diuretics, ARBS + CCB, ACE-I + CCB. Conclusion. The frequent prescription of ACE inhibitors and insignificant use of central action is noted. The high level of violence of use of AHD monotherapy in patients with hypertension (53,4%) is alarming, which may be one of the reason for the relatively low efficiency of antihypertensive therapy (31.6 percent). Beta-blockers were indicated unreasonably often for young men with hypertension aged 25–34 years.

All-Wales Licensed Premises Intervention (AWLPI): a randomised controlled trial of an intervention to reduce alcohol-related violence

BackgroundViolence in and around premises licensed for the on-site sale and consumption of alcohol continues to burden the NHS with assault-related injuries.Trial designA randomised controlled trial with licensed premises as the unit of allocation, with additional process and cost-effectiveness evaluations.MethodsPremises were eligible (n = 837) if they were licensed for on-site sale and consumption of alcohol, were within 1 of the 22 local authorities (LAs) in Wales and had previously experienced violence. Data were analysed using Andersen–Gill recurrent event models in an intention-to-treat analysis. An embedded process evaluation examined intervention implementation, reach, fidelity, dose and receipt. An economic evaluation compared costs of the intervention with benefits.InterventionPremises were randomised to receive a violence-reduction intervention, Safety Management in Licensed Environments (SMILE), which was delivered by an environmental health practitioner (EHP; the agent). SMILE consisted of an initial risk audit to identify known risks of violence, a follow-up audit scheduled to enforce change for premises in which serious risks had been identified, structured advice from EHPs on how risks could be addressed in premises and online materials that provided educational videos and related material.ObjectiveTo develop intervention materials that are acceptable and consistent with EHPs’ statutory remit; to determine the effectiveness of the SMILE intervention in reducing violence; to determine reach, fidelity, dose and receipt of the intervention; and to consider intervention cost-effectiveness.OutcomeDifference in police-recorded violence between intervention and control premises over a 455-day follow-up period.RandomisationA minimum sample size of 274 licensed premises per arm was required, rounded up to 300 and randomly selected from the eligible population. Licensed premises were randomly assigned by computer to intervention and control arms in a 1 : 1 ratio. Optimal allocation was used, stratified by LA. Premises opening hours, volume of previous violence and LA EHP capacity were used to balance the randomisation. Premises were dropped from the study if they were closed at the time of audit.ResultsSMILE was delivered with high levels of reach and fidelity but similar levels of dose to all premises, regardless of risk level. Intervention premises (n = 208) showed an increase in police-recorded violence compared with control premises (n = 245), although results are underpowered. An initial risk audit was less effective than normal practice (hazard ratio = 1.34, 95% confidence interval 1.20 to 1.51) and not cost-effective. Almost all eligible intervention premises (98.6%) received the initial risk audit; nearly 40% of intervention practices should have received follow-up visits but fewer than 10% received one. The intervention was acceptable to EHPs and to some premises staff, but less so for smaller independent premises.ConclusionsSMILE was associated with an increase in police-recorded violence in intervention premises, compared with control premises. A lack of follow-up enforcement visits suggests implementation failure for what was seen as a key mechanism of action. There are also concerns as to the robustness of police data for targeting and assessing outcome effectiveness, while intervention premises may have received greater attention from statutory agencies and, therefore, the identification of more violence than control premises. Although SMILE had high reach and was feasible and acceptable to EHPs, it was found to be ineffective and associated with increased levels of violence, compared with normal practice and it requires additional work to promote the implementation of follow-up enforcement visits. Future work will aim to better understand the role of intervention dose on outcomes and seek more objective measures of violence for use in similar trials.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN78924818.FundingThis project was funded by the NIHR Public Health Research programme and will be published in full inPublic Health Research; Vol. 3, No. 10. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

An Examination of Measures Related to Children’s Exposure to Violence for Use by Both Practitioners and Researchers

Millions of children each year are exposed to violence in their homes, schools, and communities as both witnesses and victims. As a result, evidence-based programs for children and adolescents who have been exposed to traumatic events (CEV-EBPs) have been widely disseminated but rarely evaluated in their real-world applications. One crucial aspect of conducting such evaluations is finding appropriate measures that can be of use both to the practitioner and to the researcher. This review aims to provide guidance to the field by first identifying any gaps in the availability of psychometrically tested measures for certain outcome domains and age ranges and then recommending the measures that are most appropriate for use by both researchers and practitioners. Interviews with content experts in the measurement of trauma symptoms and parent–child relationships were conducted to identify the key outcome domains for measurement that are critical to the evaluation of CEV-EBPs and the criteria for dual-use measures, defined as measures that are useful to both researchers and practitioners. A database of 46 relevant measures was created by compiling measures from existing repositories and conducting a focused literature review. Our review of these measures found that existing repositories had few measures of depression, a major gap that should be addressed. Further, there were few measures for young children ages 0–3 years (n = 15) and only a handful of measures (n = 9) had both a child and parent version of the measure. Overall, although the different repositories that currently exist are helpful, researchers and practitioners would benefit from having a single reputable source (e.g., a centralized repository or item bank) to access when searching for measures to use in evaluating CEV-EBPs. Such a tool would hold promising to narrow the current gap between research and practice in the field of children’s exposure to violence.

Cultural conflict and the impact on non-adults at Puruchuco-Huaquerones in Peru: The case for refinement of the methods used to analyze violence against children in the archeological record

The cemetery of Puruchuco-Huaquerones in Lima, Peru, has yielded human remains dating from the Late Horizon until after Spanish conquest (circa AD 1470–1540). The analysis of 242 non-adult skeletons has documented trauma, including both common childhood injuries and injuries suggestive of the violent consequences of Spanish conquest. Additionally, an increase in perimortem trauma in the Early Post-Contact Period has been documented (Gaither and Murphy, 2012). Previous research, however, does not adequately address the question of physical child abuse, and whether or not that played a role in the changes seen after the arrival of the Spanish. This paper will address the controversial question of physical child abuse and propose new categories of violence for use in analyzing non-adults in the archeological record; categories that will hopefully give researchers more flexibility in analyzing non-adults remains. It will then test the hypothesis of what role, if any, what is referred to in this paper as ‘Likely Caregiver-Induced Violence’ played in the Late Horizon and Early Post-Contact Period populations at Puruchcuo-Huaqerones. Finally, this paper discusses the theoretical models that address cultural changes seen in populations under stress that result in an increase and change in the nature of the violence perpetrated against non-adults.

The aesthetics of invective: reflections on the use of verbal violence in the Suns of Independence of Ahmadou Kourouma

In recent times, one major threat to peace and sustainable democratic governance in Ghana is the upsurge of the use of invective language in public discourse. Ahmadou Kourouma's novel, The suns of independence, which can be classified as a socio-political satire, provides a textual data for a critical analysis of this phenomenon in its aesthetic form. Considering literary products (poetry, drama and prose) as clear manifestations of social discourse, that is communication, this study seeks to examine the use and aesthetic significance of verbal violence in this novel initially published in French as Les soleils des independances in 1968. In its quest, the study, in the first place, identifies and analyses three forms of invectives considered as verbal violence in use in the novel. In the second place, it examines the causes of their use and their aesthetic or stylistic significance to socio-political discourse in the text, leading to the formulation of critical reflections on the phenomenon as a potential source of socio-political conflict and social disintegration. The study also points out how the intransigent use of vituperation resulting from egocentric pursuits eventually leads to self destruction. In this regard, The suns of independence provides both historical and contemporary textual material for reflections on the realities of the use of invectives and its aesthetic significance in socio-political discourse in fiction. Combining a range of theoretical frameworks in stylistics and pragmatics in the study of discourse, this paper examines both the methods of textual composition and the strategies of interpretation for invectives in the novel. The significance of this study is found in the general contemporary quest for the use of sanitized language in the Ghanaian socio-political discourse for sustainable democratic development and social cohesion.

Qualität der Befunddokumentation und weiterführenden Betreuung von Gewaltopfern am Beispiel einer unfallchirurgischen Notaufnahme einer Großstadt

People who have become victims of violence have manifold problems. Besides medical diagnostics and therapy, it is necessary to recognise the situation in which these patients have become such victims, to document the consequences of this violence for use in court and to offer further assistance. Victims of violence often contact primarily a trauma ambulance. The optimisation of the medical treatment of the victims is a relevant traumatological topic, which so far has received only very scant attention. Therefore the aim of this study was to evaluate the necessity for an interdisciplinary combination of treatments for the targeted treatment of these victims. Using a standardised data card a retrospective data analysis of all out-patients and all in-patients of a trauma centre with regard to the existence of a violent context was carried out for the year 2004. All such cases were included and the data were evaluated descriptively according to age, gender, information about the act of violence, consequences thereof, type and scope of the diagnostic findings, as well as inducements for further measures. In this context we differentiated between "domestic violence" and "public violence". The data of 7132 patients were evaluated. Altogether 347 victims of violence were identified (among them 109 victims of "public violence", 59 victims of domestic violence, and 179 cases that could not be allocated clearly). This results in a quota of 4.9% of all patients treated. The average age of the victims was 30.6 years. It was striking that in many cases the anamnesis and documentation were rather fragmentary. A very high percentage of victims of violence could be found among the patients needing traumatological treatment. With regard to the fragmentary care there is an enormous need for medical training and interdisciplinary treatment of victims of violence.

How can we trace the origin of speech?

The cemetery of Puruchuco-Huaquerones in Lima, Peru, has yielded human remains dating from the Late Horizon until after Spanish conquest (circa AD 1470–1540). The analysis of 242 non-adult skeletons has documented trauma, including both common childhood injuries and injuries suggestive of the violent consequences of Spanish conquest. Additionally, an increase in perimortem trauma in the Early Post-Contact Period has been documented (Gaither and Murphy, 2012). Previous research, however, does not adequately address the question of physical child abuse, and whether or not that played a role in the changes seen after the arrival of the Spanish. This paper will address the controversial question of physical child abuse and propose new categories of violence for use in analyzing non-adults in the archeological record; categories that will hopefully give researchers more flexibility in analyzing non-adults remains. It will then test the hypothesis of what role, if any, what is referred to in this paper as ‘Likely Caregiver-Induced Violence’ played in the Late Horizon and Early Post-Contact Period populations at Puruchcuo-Huaqerones. Finally, this paper discusses the theoretical models that address cultural changes seen in populations under stress that result in an increase and change in the nature of the violence perpetrated against non-adults.