Victims of peer aggression.

Developed a peer nomination scale to assess the degree to which children are subjected to direct physical and verbal abuse by peers. Ss were 165 boys and girls in the third through sixth grades. About 10% of the children could be classified as extremely victimized. Age and sex differences in victimization were nonsignificant. Children's victimization scores were uncorrelated with their aggression scores (also assessed by peer nominations), were negatively correlated with peer acceptance, and were positively correlated with peer rejection. When children's victimization and aggression scores were treated as dual predictors of peer rejection, over half of the variance in peer rejection could be accounted for. Implications of the fact that a small group of children consistently serve as targets of peer aggression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrusive memories in perpetrators of violent crime: Emotions and cognitions.

The authors investigated factors that may determine whether perpetrators of violent crime develop intrusive memories of their offense. Of 105 young offenders who were convicted of killing or seriously harming others, 46% reported distressing intrusive memories, and 6% had posttraumatic stress disorder. Intrusions were associated with lower antisocial beliefs before the assault, greater helplessness, fear, dissociation, data-driven processing and lack of self-referent processing during the assault, more disorganized assault narratives, and greater negative view of the self, negative interpretations of intrusive memories, perceived permanent change, and self-blame. In a logistic regression analysis, the cognitive and emotional variables explained substantial variance over and above demographic factors. The results suggest that cognitive factors that predict reexperiencing symptoms in victims of crime generalize to perpetrators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subtypes of partner violence perpetrators among male and female psychiatric patients.

The goal of this naturalistic study was to examine heterogeneity among female and male civil psychiatric patients with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Participants were 567 patients drawn from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study (J. Monahan et al., 2001). The authors examined subtype composition among 138 women and 93 men with positive histories of IPV and compared these groups with 111 women and 225 men with no histories of IPV. Findings for men and women were consistent with reports from studies of male perpetrators in forensic and community settings in that generally violent/antisocial, borderline/dysphoric, and family only/low-psychopathology subtypes of perpetrators were identified in both men and women. This study provides preliminary evidence for the generalizability of typologies derived from nonpsychiatric partner violence perpetrators to psychiatric populations and suggests that typologies derived from studies of male IPV perpetrators may provide useful guidance for the investigation of female IPV perpetration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victims of crime: The roles of psychologists.

The articles that make up this Psychology in the Public Forum section dramatically portray the pervasiveness of criminal activity and the fact that every criminal act produces at least one victim of crime. The articles further document that victims frequently need the aid of mental health professionals. Unfortunately, psychologists, like other mental health professionals, have traditionally been given little, if any, training in how to work with victims of crime and violence. Psychologists, like members of other disciplines, have focused on the criminal to the neglect of the victim. This Psychology in the Public Forum section is an attempt to inform psychologists about activities initiated by the executive and legislative branches of the federal government and by the APA Task Force on the Victims of Crime and Violence. It will have served its purpose if increasing numbers of psychologists turn their attention and skills to the plight of victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective prediction of women's sexual victimization by intimate and nonintimate male perpetrators.

Although behavioral risk factors such as substance use have been hypothesized to increase women's vulnerability to sexual victimization, prospective studies provide mixed empirical support. In the current prospective study, the authors considered substance use, sexual activity, and sexual assertiveness as predictors of sexual victimization from intimate partners and nonintimate perpetrators. Among a representative community sample of women ages 18-30 years (N = 927), 17.9% reported sexual victimization over 2 years, the majority by an intimate partner. Low sexual refusal assertiveness, drug use, and prior intimate partner victimization predicted intimate partner sexual victimization. Heavy episodic drinking and number of sexual partners predicted victimization from nonintimates. The finding that there are different risk factors for sexual victimization from intimates versus nonintimates suggests the need for tailored prevention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victims of auto accidents: The quiet victims.

Discusses victims of automobile accidents as individuals in need of mental health counseling and suggests that mental health professionals should be employed to assess psychological damages to the victim and/or to assist in psychological rehabilitation. The need for established systems (legal, correctional, and mental health) and for individual lawyers and mental health professionals to interact with each other to provide this assistance is discussed. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The lingering Holocaust: Legacies in lives of descendants of victims and perpetrators.

Many of those who have been subjected to physical and emotional trauma in any of its many horrible guises eventually seek the therapeutic services of professional psychologists. Clinicians who treat survivors of genocide, other kinds of political repression and oppression, physical and sexual abuse, and torture must be skilled in understanding and intervening with this severely distressed population. This article describes the fourth in a series of annual dialogue sessions between Nazi Holocaust victims and perpetrators; all are clinicians with a personal Holocaust legacy. It is hoped that this article will stimulate readers to become more involved and proficient in the treatment of survivors, whether in individual, couple, family, or group therapies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victims of rape: Repeated assessment of depressive symptoms.

115 rape victims (aged 15–71 yrs) were examined at 2 wks and at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12 mo after the assault. A matched control group of 87 nonvictims was seen at the same intervals. To control for the effects of repeated testing, 3 additional groups of 22–26 victims were assessed only once at 2, 4, or 8 mo postrape. All Ss completed the Beck Depression Inventory and the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression. Depressive symptoms were significantly higher in victims of rape than in nonvictim controls following the assault. By 4 mo postrape, depressive symptoms in the victim group had diminished to the level shown by the nonvictim control group. Results from the single-testing victim groups indicated that repeated assessment affected the self-report measure, but not the interviewer-rated measure. Variables reflecting pre-rape functioning were more predictive of continued problems with depressive symptoms than were demographic variables or variables associated with the rape and its aftermath. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victims of crime: Their plight, our response.

Reviews the findings and recommendations of the President's Task Force on Victims of Crime (TFVC), which was established in 1982. After speaking to approximately 1,000 victims in 6 cities, the TFVC concluded that the treatment of crime victims is a national disgrace; once victims survive the initial impact of the crime, they are unwittingly drawn into a system that erodes their confidence, security, and self-worth. Factors contributing to this situation and steps that are being taken to implement the TFVC's recommendations are discussed. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the type of incident and the number of perpetrators on eyewitness memory.

Investigated 60 undergraduates' accuracy in testimony and identification following either a violent (mugging) or a nonviolent (direction-seeking) videotaped incident in which 1, 3, or 5 perpetrators participated. The relationship between Ss' objective accuracy and their subjective feeling of certainty concerning correctness was also examined. Testimony was less accurate following the witnessing of the violent incident, and the decrease in accuracy was a function of the increase in the number of perpetrators seen, especially under the violent condition. The accuracy of identification was very low, with only 27% of Ss making a correct identification; chance performance was observed with 5 perpetrators. A positive accuracy–confidence relationship held for identification under the nonviolent condition but not under the violent condition. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bullying and Victimization in Elementary Schools: A Comparison of Bullies, Victims, Bully/Victims, and Uninvolved Preadolescents.

Research on bullying and victimization largely rests on univariate analyses and on reports from a single informant. Researchers may thus know too little about the simultaneous effects of various independent and dependent variables, and their research may be biased by shared method variance. The database for this Dutch study was large (N=1,065) and rich enough to allow multivariate analysis and multisource information. In addition, the effect of familial vulnerability for internalizing and externalizing disorders was studied. Gender, aggressiveness, isolation, and dislikability were most strongly related to bullying and victimization. Among the many findings that deviated from or enhanced the univariate knowledge base were that not only victims and bully/victims but bullies as well were disliked and that parenting was unrelated to bullying and victimization once other factors were controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Instrument for Identifying Potential Repeaters Among Accidental Poisoning Victims.

The purpose of this study is to report the development of an instrument that attempts to identify the accidental poisoning victim who is most likely to repeat. Since the average number of episodes for repeaters is approximately three (Wehrle et al., 1961), repeat episodes probably account for about 33% of all poison accidents. Logically, this number could be reduced significantly if at-risk children were identified and they and/or their families treated, and if the administration of the prediction instrument itself could be an occasion for instructing parents concerning the physical and psychological hazards that contribute to poisoning accidents. The Repeat-Poison Accident Checklist (R-PAC) was constructed as an experimental device in an attempt to predict the approximately 25% of all victims who are likely to experience additional episodes. The checklist can be completed by physicians or emergency room staff after observation of the child and a brief interview with parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender Disparities in Common Sense Models of Illness Among Myocardial Infarction Victims.

Symptom attributions were contrasted between male and female myocardial infarction victims (N = 157) who were comparable on age, cardiac risk status, medical history, symptom presentation, and other variables. Women were less likely than men to attribute their prehospital symptoms to cardiac causes. In the context of hearing symptom attributions or advice from support persons, women were less likely than men to report receiving a cardiac attribution or advice to seek medical attention. Results have implications for how victim gender influences the lay interpretation of cardiac symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victims of violence and the general practitioner

BACKGROUND: Violent crime is on the increase in Britain, with 17% of the 15 million incidents of crime reported in 1991 being of a violent nature. Although there is some information on the role of accident and emergency departments for victims who sustain physical injury, little is known about the role of the general practitioner (GP) in managing the acute and longer-term sequelae of violence. AIM: To examine the links between experiencing physical of sexual assault and seeking help from GPs in London. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey of all adult attendees in one large group practice was carried out. The main outcome measures were prevalence of assault, reporting to the doctor and other people, and scores on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Impact of Events scale. RESULTS: Of the 195 people who took part, 33 (17%) reported a physical or sexual assault in the previous year. Women were three times more likely than men to report any type of assault. Women rarely spontaneously disclosed these experiences to the GP and yet the experience of violence was associated with higher levels of distress, as measured on the GHQ and the Impact of Events Scale. CONCLUSIONS: Assault is a relatively common event in the lives of people who consult their GP. Doctors could help these patients through gaining an awareness of the problem and by fostering links with voluntary services, such as victim support schemes, which can provide support, practical assistance, and advice on compensation claims and legal procedures.     

Humor and the Holocaust: Turning Comedians Into Victims to End the Millennium.

As the 2nd millennium drew to a close, Hollywood released 3 films, each starring an established comedian against a backdrop of Holocaust pathos. The films were Life Is Beautiful, Jakob the Liar, and Train of Life. The humor in each was derived from an absurd reversal of power from perpetrators to victims. It is suggested that these films exposed many to the horrors of the Holocaust for the 1st time and, for those already struggling with its legacy, addressed the unanswered questions and unfinished emotional residue of this defining event of the 20th century. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental issues in the assessment and treatment of adolescent perpetrators of sexual abuse

Sexual abuse perpetrated by adolescents is not recognized as a major problem. While there may be similarities between adults and adolescents who perpetrate sexual abuse, adolescent sexual abusers face developmental issues which are different from those of adults. It is argued that the specific needs of the adolescent sexual abuser cannot be fully understood by simply extrapolating knowledge derived from work with adult perpetrators. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the importance of the developmental issues facing the adolescent perpetrator of sexual abuse and their implications for the assessment and treatment of this group of sexual abusers.     

Using a Human Figure Drawing to Elicit Information From Alleged Victims of Child Sexual Abuse.

Ninety 4- to 13-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed by police officers using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) investigative interview protocol, following which they were shown a human figure drawing and asked a series of questions. The drawing and associated questions elicited an average of 86 new forensically relevant details. They were especially productive with 4- to 7-year-olds, who provided an average of 95 additional details (27% of their total) after the drawing was introduced despite having previously "exhausted" their memories. Information elicited using the drawing may be less accurate, however, because recognition memory prompts predominated, so such drawings should only be introduced late in investigative interviews. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Center for Victims of Torture-Guinea 2004-2005 International Mental Health Team: International Humanitarian Award.

Presents the citation for the Center for Victims of Torture--Guinea 2004-2005 International Mental Health Team, who received the International Humanitarian Award "for their outstanding commitment to the healing of torture victims and to educating the world community about torture and war trauma." A brief profile of the Center is presented, as well as the Center's award address, entitled Trauma Healing in Refugee Camps in Guinea: A Psychosocial Program for Liberian and Sierra Leonean Survivors of Torture and War (see record 2006-21079-047). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research into practice/practice into research.

This article introduces a new section of this journal devoted to the interface between research and clinical practice in the family field. The purpose of this section is to provide a vehicle through which communication between clinicians and researchers can be improved, so that each can benefit most from the work of the other. This article reviews the historical antecedents of researcher/clinician alienation, discusses the specific ways clinicians can enhance research and that research can enhance clinical activity, and describes the plan for this section of the Journal of Family Psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)