Workplace violence: Prevention, response, and recovery.

Describes a model of collaboration between business leaders and mental health clinicians in developing programs and strategies to prevent violence, handle acute crises, and cope with recovery and rebuilding in the aftermath of a workplace violence incident. Sections address the following: (1) demographics, costs, and risk factors and warning signs of workplace violence; (2) workplace violence prevention policies, including hiring, discipline, and termination practices; (3) responses to emergencies, such as potentially dangerous situations, violent episodes, and guns or weapons in the workplace; and (4) strategies for recovery following workplace violence that involve mental health and law enforcement mobilization, dealing with the media, assisting employees and families, legal issues, identification and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and follow-up procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Domestic violence

Phentolamine and propranolol (2 mg/kg i.p. of each) were administered to rats to be fed hard chow over a period of 80 min and to their fasting controls. The pharmacological elimination of the adrenoceptor mediated secretory drive on the parotid gland cells during feeding did not affect the gland content of the peptides substance P and vasoactive intestinal peptide localized to parasympathetic nerve fibres of the gland and thought to transmit secretory impulses. This is in contrast to the previously demonstrated effect of elimination of the parasympathetic acetylcholine-evoked secretion following administration of atropine, which resulted in reduced gland contents of these peptides.     

Domestic violence

The purpose of this study was to analyze the development in the incidence of violence against women committed by husband/spouse and violence against children committed by parents. This study is based on a prospective registration during a one year period (1993-94) of women and children who attended the casualty wards and/or the Department of Forensic Medicine because of exposure to violence. The results were compared with similar studies from 1981-82 and 1987-88. The incidence of domestic violence within the age group of 25-34 years (the major group) was in 1993-94 1.9 per 1000 per year, in 1981-82 1.7 and in 1987-88 2.9. Twelve percent of the women had been exposed to violence characterized as severe. Twenty (6.6%) women were registered more than once. Thirty-eight percent of Danish women and 25.8% of foreign women reported the incident to the police. The incidence of violence against children remained unchanged at 0.3 per 1000 per year during the three registration periods.     

Male victims of domestic violence and their history of perpetrating violence

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether male victims of domestic violence have similar rates of violence perpetration compared with men evaluated in the ED with other causes of injury. METHODS: Case-control retrospective ED record review with linkage to police department records. Cases were identified by ICD code N-code 995.81 (adult maltreatment syndrome) over a 4-year period (January 1, 1991, to December 31, 1994) at one urban trauma center. Medical records were reviewed to confirm that the assailant was an intimate female partner. Controls were identified by E-codes 880-888 (unintentional falls) and matched by age, race, and date of visit. All names were linked to police department record information regarding arrests for domestic violence perpetration, nonaggravated assaults, aggravated assaults, firearms violations, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). This information was reported without patient identifiers. Comparisons between cases and controls were made with chi2 analysis. RESULTS: Forty-five cases and 45 controls were identified. The cases were injured by unarmed fights, E960 (31%); cuttings, E966 (33%); blunt objects, E968.2 (31%); and bites, E968.8 (5%). Median age (interquartile range) for cases was 32 (25.75, 38.25) years and for controls was 31 (25, 36.5) years. Median follow-up (interquartile range) of police records after ED visit was 45 (37, 50) months for cases and 45 (36.75, 51) months for controls. Fifty-one percent of the cases had arrests for domestic violence perpetration vs 22.2% of the controls (p=0.009). Forty-four percent of the cases had been arrested for nonaggravated assaults vs 20.0% of the controls (p=0.024). There was no statistical difference between the cases and controls in arrests for aggravated assaults (13.3% vs 4.4%), firearm violations (22.2% vs 17.8%), or DUIs (35.6% vs 20%). CONCLUSION: Men who present to the ED with injuries inflicted by their female partners have a high rate of domestic violence perpetration. This information calls into question whether many male "victims" of domestic violence are injured in self-defense by the female "victim." Also, injury by a female partner may be a useful indicator to identify batterers, so they can be referred by appropriate resources.     

Cultural-societal roots of violence: The examples of genocidal violence and of contemporary youth violence in the United States.

Widespread violence in a society must have its origins in cultural characteristics, current societal conditions, or both. In this article, the cultural, societal, and psychological origins of two very different forms of violence are examined. A conception of the origins of genocide and mass killing is briefly presented, with the Holocaust and the violence in the former Yugoslavia as supporting evidence. Difficult life conditions give rise to scapegoating, destructive ideologies, and the evolution of increasing violence against a designated enemy. Cultural characteristics that make this process more or less probable are described. This is followed by a presentation of the socialization experiences of children that generate youth violence. To explain the increase in youth violence, the presence of difficult life conditions in the United States is noted (due primarily to substantial social change). The effects of difficult life conditions, cultural characteristics, and social conditions such as poverty and discrimination against minority groups on family life and parenting are described. Similarities and differences in the origins of the two forms of violence are examined.… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing community violence: the children''s report of exposure to violence

Optical imaging methods are being explored as a potential means of screening for breast cancer. Previous investigations of time-resolved imaging techniques have suggested that due to the lack of photons with sufficiently small pathlengths, the spatial resolution achievable through a human breast would be unlikely to be better than a centimeter. Experimental results presented here indicate, however, that higher resolution may be achieved by extrapolating the measured temporal distribution of transmitted photons. This is performed using a least-squares fit between data and an analytic model of photon transport. The spatial resolution of a time-resolved imaging system was evaluated by measuring the edge response produced by an opaque mask embedded in the center of a 51-mm-thick, very highly scattering medium. The limiting spatial resolution was improved from about 13 mm to about 5 mm.     

Intergenerational transmission of violence, self-control, and conjugal violence: a comparative analysis of physical violence and psychological aggression

This paper is a sequel to Avakame (1998), a study which sought to determine whether (a) violence in families of origin affects males' psychological aggression toward wives, and (b) whether the intergenerational transmission effect is solely direct or mediated by Gottfredson and Hirschi's concept of self-control. The current research extends these questions to females' psychological aggression as well as males' and females' physical violence. The models were estimated using data from the 1975 National Family Violence Survey. Like its precursor, results of the present research suggest that it is useful to (a) distinguish between mothers' and fathers' violence and (b) recognize that the intergenerational transmission of violence may be mediated by self-control. Specifically, results suggested that, whether considering physical violence or psychological aggression, fathers' violence is most likely to exert the direct social learning effect.     

Children and violence

The liposomal technology for preparing the immunostimulating complex (ISCOM) helped obtain a complex measles preparation whose antigens are represented by the structural proteins of measles virus in the bilayer phosphate-lipid membrane. Immunization of mice with the resultant preparation induced antimeasles antibodies with the maximum titer of antihemagglutinins 1:640 and of antihemolysins 1:1280. The biological activity of antibodies was confirmed in the neutralization test.     

Family violence.

Researchers and policymakers have begun to recognize the extent and severity of family violence in recent years, particularly its effects on children. Despite a flurry of research, however, there is much disagreement about the definition of violence, its development, the consequences for victims, and the most effective avenues for intervention. Similar conceptual, methodological, and practical problems are faced by those working in the areas of physical child abuse, child sex abuse, and child witnesses to spouse abuse. In further research on these complex problems, researchers are encouraged to use operational definitions that avoid terms like abuse and violence, to focus new efforts on emotional mediators of violent actions, to evaluate the effects of violence on the entire family system, and to redouble efforts to conduct systematic outcome research. Those professionals who are currently responsible for intervention are encouraged to use definitions of and responses to family violence that match those used for assaults between strangers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The public health approach to youth violence and child maltreatment prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Millions of people in the United States suffer the consequences of violence, including physical injuries, psychological trauma, and death. Solutions to violence have traditionally been reactive. Through the lens of the public health perspective, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) views violence as predictable based on various contributing factors, and thus as preventable. Within CDC, the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) leads efforts to prevent injury, death, and disability, and to reduce the suffering and medical costs caused by violence. DVP employs a multidisciplinary, public health approach to identify factors associated with violence, and to develop, evaluate, and disseminate preventive interventions. Psychology is one discipline that has contributed to our approach. The authors present a series of violence prevention initiatives funded by the CDC that are framed within a public health perspective, with attention to the contributions of psychology to youth violence and child maltreatment prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

About psychology of violence.

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Psychology of Violence; which was created as one of several efforts to increase APA's focus on violence. In this editorial, the editor shares a few of the most common questions they have received and their answers, in the hopes this information might be useful to others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The second wave of violence scholarship: Integrating and broadening theories of violence.

Violence scholarship has focused primarily on accumulating new empirical findings. Theoretical advances, however, are also essential for synthesizing and organizing empirical knowledge in ways that can advance research, prevention, intervention and policy. The articles in this special issue of Psychology of Violence represent the beginnings of a second wave of violence scholarship. There have been many calls for multi-factorial approaches to understanding violence, but most of these are fairly general injunctions to include individual, family, and social factors, which seldom include specific analyses about how these factors intersect. In contrast, the articles included here present detailed, nuanced analyses of how specific mechanisms inter-relate with each other. These mechanisms include neurobiological processes such as arousal, social cognitive processes such as automatic cognitions, relational processes such as attachment, and macrosystem processes that affect entire communities and societies. These analyses have been applied to peer victimization, sexual victimization, criminal offending, intimate partner violence, suicide, global warming, and to the commonalities among all forms of interpersonal violence. One important outcome of these authors' work is new insights for actionable steps to improve prevention, intervention, and policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Doing violence to "…violence against women."

Suggests that neither the comments by M. E. Mills (1990) and D. E. Mould (see record 1990-22858-001) on L. E. A. Walker's (see record 1989-26311-001) article nor Walker's (1990) response spoke to the point so clearly identified by Walker's article. It is argued that the incidence of women's violence toward men is largely irrelevant to the study of violence against women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Weapon-carrying and youth violence

Weapons, and firearms in particular, are widely available in the United States and are at the heart of youth violence. Many schools and communities throughout the nation have identified weapon-carrying among youth as a substantial health, educational, and social problem. In fact, one of the national health objectives for the year 2000 is to substantially reduce the incidence of weapon-carrying among adolescents. This paper reviews the prevalence of weapon-carrying by youth, reasons they carry weapons, ways that firearms are obtained, firearms and violence (especially youth violence), and the controlling of weapons in schools.     

Responding to family violence

Eight patients with achalasia were treated using laparoscopic esophagomyotomy and anterior (Dor) fundoplication. The procedures were done on patients with clinical, radiological, and manometric diagnoses of achalasia. All procedures were completed laparoscopically. Seven (88%) of the patients were eating by the 3rd postoperative day. The average hospital stay was 4.1 days (2-11 days); analgesic use was minimal. All myotomies were complete, with no patient requiring reoperation or dilation. The only complication was a mucosal laceration in one patient; this was successfully repaired laparoscopically. Follow-up from 8 to 20 months shows that swallowing is excellent in 88 per cent and good in 12 per cent of patients, and no patient requires antireflux medication. These results support minimally invasive surgical myotomy as the treatment of choice for symptomatic achalasia.     

Education in domestic violence

A baccalaureate-level, mandatory course on the social aspects of violence against women is being given as part of the curriculum at the Université du Québec à Rimouski. The course has been offered since 1990 and includes a complete array of teaching techniques such as lectures, simulations and role playing. Its aim is to impart knowledge, develop awareness, promote a change of attitudes and develop intervention abilities for nurses who may come in contact with domestic violence situations. Prior to implementation, an exploratory study was completed to determine student nurses' perceptions of domestic violence. Results indicate that, prior to taking the course, domestic violence was perceived as an individual problem. Respondents (26 female and 2 male) generally accepted society's prejudices of domestic violence as fact and ignored research results that pointed to the social realities. By the end of the course, the respondents' knowledge of the social aspects of domestic violence was better integrated. The authors conclude that specific training on domestic violence can modify false perceptions and help nurses develop the necessary competencies to deal with these situations.