Domestic violence : perpetrator programs in Western Australia

This symposium explores policy, organisational, practice, and research issues in the delivery of legally mandated programs for men who have acted violently in their intimate relationships. It will draw on the findings of a collaborative project between corrections and a number of non-government agencies contracted to provide services. The paper will provide an overview of some of the systemic and policy issues that impact upon on program delivery and evaluation issues, and the experiences of female partners of men attending programs.

Female university students' perceptions of a sexual assault when victim and perpetrator gender are varied

This study examines the general impressions and blame attributions of Trinidadian university students in cases of sexual assault. Participants were 132 female students from the University of the West Indies, Faculty of Social Sciences. Each respondent read one of four sexual assault scenarios, in which victim and perpetrator gender were varied. Participants' impressions of the incident, opinions about each party's behaviour, blame attributions, attitudes about reporting the incident to the police, desired outcome, and their reasons for these were then assessed. Consistent with Burt's rape myth theory, the qualitative and quantitative results showed a tendency for participants to attribute an internal locus of control to female victims, and to blame them more than males. Although same sex events evoked significantly more emotional and disgust-related reactions, these reactions did not translate into different seriousness scores, or different ideas about whether the victim should report the incident to the police. Although respondents showed an ability to separate their initial reactions from their attitudes about the legal status of the event, many of the response patterns indicated gender role biases on the part of these future professionals.

Intimate partner violence perpetrator subtypes and their developmental origins: implications for prevention and intervention

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major issue for many Australian families and yet progress towards the development of effective prevention and behaviour change programs has been relatively slow. In this paper, it is proposed that the tendency to treat perpetrators as a homogenous group has hampered progress, and that treatment outcomes can be improved by tailoring treatment responses to a small set of personal and offence-related characteristics. It explores the developmental origins and trajectories of these presentations and identifies some new directions for further research in this area.

Attitudes and perceptions of workers to sexual harrassment

The authors investigated how individual factors (age, gender, gender role, past experiences of sexual harassment) and organizational factors (gender ratio, sexual harassment policies, the role of employers) related to workers' attitudes toward and perceptions of sexual harassment. In Study 1, participants were 176 workers from a large, white-collar organization. In Study 2, participants were 75 workers from a smaller, blue-collar organization. Individuals from Study 2 experienced more sexual harassment, were more tolerant of sexual harassment, and perceived less behavior as sexual harassment than did individuals from Study 1. For both samples, organizational and individual factors predicted workers' attitudes toward and experiences of sexual harassment. Individual factors—such as age, gender, gender role, past experiences of sexual harassment, and perceptions of management's tolerance of sexual harassment—predicted attitudes toward sexual harassment. Workers' attitudes, the behavioral context, and the gender of the victim and perpetrator predicted perceptions of sexual harassment. The authors discussed the broader implications of these findings and suggested recommendations for future research.

Sentencing of male and female child sex offenders : Australian study

Research suggests that, in line with the chivalry hypothesis of female offending, a range of mitigatory factors such as mental health problems, substance abuse, and personal experiences of abuse are brought into play when women who offend against children are brought to trial. This is reflected in sentencing comments made by judges and in the sanctions imposed on the offenders, and as a result female offenders are treated differently to male offenders. The current study investigated this in an Australian context. Seven cases of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse were identified over a 6-year period through the Austlii database. Seven cases of male-perpetrated child sex abuse matched as far as possible to these were identified. Court transcripts were then located, and sentencing comments and sanctions imposed were analysed. All offenders were sentenced to imprisonment, but in general the women were more likely than the men to receive less jail time and lower non-parole periods because their personal backgrounds or situation at the time of the offending (i.e., difficulties with intimate relationship, male dependence issues, depression, loneliness and anger) were perceived as worthy of sympathy, and they were considered as likely to be rehabilitated. Further investigations are needed to support these findings.

Attitudes and perceptions of workers to sexual harassment

This thesis highlights the importance of workers’ perceptions of and attitudes to sexual harassment. Past researchers have found that a variety of individual factors (age, gender, gender role, and past experiences of sexual harassment), and organisational factors (gender ratio, sexual harassment policies and the role of employers), correlate with the incidence of sexually harassing behaviours. Two studies presented in this thesis extend this research and were designed to investigate how these factors relate to workers’ attitudes towards and perceptions of sexual harassment. Study one investigated 176 workers from a large, white-collar organisation. Study two sampled 75 workers from a smaller, blue-collar organisation. By comparing two different workplaces the effect of the organisational climate was investigated. Individuals from Study two experienced more sexual harassment, were more tolerant of sexual harassment and perceived less behaviour as sexual harassment compared with individuals from Study one. The organisational context was found to affect the way in which organisational and individual factors related to workers' attitudes to and their experiences of sexual harassment. However, the factors that influenced workers’ perceptions of sexual harassment were stable across both studies. Although workers’ attitudes to and their perceptions of sexual harassment were significantly correlated, they were influenced by different factors. Overall, workers’ perceptions of sexual harassment were influenced by their attitudes, the behavioural context, and the gender of the victim and perpetrator. In contrast, attitudes to sexual harassment appeared to be more strongly influenced by individual factors, such as age, gender, gender role, past experiences of sexual harassment, and perceptions of management’s tolerance of sexual harassment. The broader implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are suggested.

Communicating the 'unspeakability' of violent acts in cinema

This paper explores the forensic testimony employed in James Benning‟s experimental narrative film Landscape Suicide (1986, 16mm, 95min USA). As a belated example of Judith Walker‟s „Trauma Cinema‟, this film in part re-enacts the court transcripts of two perpetrators of physical violence: Ed Gein and Michelle Protti. Teenager Protti killed another student with a kitchen knife after having been subjected to bullying by a group of girls and Wisconsin farmer Gein shot a storekeeper‟s wife, took the body home to then skin and dissect it. Gein‟s case is said to have provided the model for the cinematic serial killers portrayed in Psycho (1959), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). In its strategy of communicating or representing the overwhelming and traumatic impact of violence cinematically Landscape Suicide is contrasted to the melodrama and shock of mainstream violence in Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs for its ability to identify „unspeakable‟ aspects of overwhelming experience. This paper will concentrate on the representation of Ed Gein‟s violent acts, rather than Protti‟s and enlists recent neurological research that suggests a model for forgetting that is identifiable in the film‟s structure and content.

Researching bullying with students : a lens on everyday life in an innovative school.

Bullying is a serious problem in schools. This paper reports on a project in which the authors worked with a group of secondary students in an innovative school in the north of England to research issues of bullying and safety. The student researchers used photographs to stimulate conversations with focus groups of their peers. The data showed that while there was little serious bullying in the school, there was an everyday practice of name-calling, isolation, and physical hassling associated with the formation and maintenance of a hierarchy of sub-cultural groupings in the school. The students’ research not only challenges the notion of bullying as necessarily involving a perpetrator and victim, but also offers a lens through which to examine the imbrication of educational differentiation via setting, testing and choice with youth identification practices. It is suggested that this project also has implications for the ways in which one understands and works for inclusion.

Professionals' attributions and referral decisions in cases of domestic violence

This thesis is the first national study of workers who have contact with victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. It highlights that the victim and perpetrator's gender, as well as the relevant professional's agency type and experience, all influenced their attitudes to, and service delivery decisions with, domestic violence-related clients. The portfolio utilises four case studies to examine the way that two Victorian sex offender programs attempt to balance risk-need and good lives principles in the assessment and treatment of sex offenders.

An empirical investigation of women's affective responses to filmed violence

This thesis examined the subjective emotional responses of women to depictions of violent and sexually violent film. Findings highlighted the significance of contextual factors, such as the gender of the perpetrator and victim upon viewers, and found that exposure to sexual violence in the media has important implications for women. The portfolio's four case studies demonstrate the complexities involved in making risk judgements and treatment planning given the diversity of offences and needs, as well as the implications these decisions can have when determining the amenability of offenders to specific sex offender treatment.

Prosecutors' perceptions of the utility of 'relationship' evidence in sexual abuse trials

For successful prosecution of sex offences, defined elements that comprise each charge (such as the acts that occurred and offenders’ identities) need to be established beyond reasonable doubt. This study explored the potential benefit (from a prosecution perspective) of eliciting another type of evidence; evidence regarding the relationship between the victim and perpetrator that may explain the victim’s responses.

Fourteen prosecutors representing every major Australian jurisdiction participated in individual interviews or a focus group where they were asked to reflect on the perceived relevance of relationship evidence in sex offence trials, and the potential impact of this evidence on court process and outcomes.

All prosecutors gave strong support for the premise of including relationship evidence in victim and witness statements, as well as in suspect interviews; however, this type of evidence was not routinely being included in interviews or admitted in trials.

The majority of the discussion centred on:

Offending competency and coercive control in intimate partner violence

This paper considers some of the ways in which intervention approaches for perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) might be enhanced through the explicit consideration of the offense process. It is suggested that those who are experts in perpetrating this type of violence routinely use coercive controlling violence in intimate relationships. This group, for whom violence is instrumental, are not only likely to be at highest risk of offending, but also the most difficult to treat. They are more likely to have long developmental histories of violence, hold entrenched attitudes, and utilize knowledge about the effects of intimidation to avoid detection. It is suggested that specific consideration of what is known about the causes and correlates of IPV in those who follow this approach-explicit pathway can improve the outcomes of current perpetrator behavior change programs.

Venting anger in cyberspace: self-entitlement versus self-preservation in #roadrage tweets

The increase in the popularity of social media and access to portable smart-technology means more drivers are using forums to vent their frustrations about driving. A content analysis was performed on 80,923 twitter posts relating to road rage collected over a 13-month period. The aim was to understand what sources of anger drivers report on social media. Approximately two thirds of the analysed tweets related directly to anger over another driver perceived as a perpetrator of inappropriate behaviour. Judgements of the improper speed of other drivers were the most common tweets. However, a general attitude also emerged where other drivers were seen as "idiots," "unskilled," and "should not be driving." Such a downward comparison is likely to predispose drivers to unjustly blame other drivers for frustrating situations that may be out of their control. Twitter appears to be a social media forum commonly used to vent anger by drivers. Posts ranged from text message, a photo of the offending vehicle or of the driver, or a 6-s video filmed while driving. The sample of tweeted angry comments indicated that many drivers used smart technology to express their anger. However, the motivation behind this action may vary and may be to express anger, report the incident, or to warn the public. The findings highlight the need for further research to understand the prevalence and danger of anger-provoked distraction with smart technology.

Attachment style and less severe forms of sexual coercion : a systematic review

Few studies have examined how attachment insecurity (i.e., attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance) is associated with the more subtle and less severe forms of sexual coercion, such as verbal threats and partner manipulation. This is despite the fact that past research has indicated some of the relationship behaviors exhibited by insecurely attached individuals represent behaviors indicative of either the perpetration or victimization of less severe forms of sexual coercion. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review on the association between attachment style and less severe forms of sexual coercion. Our search, which included published journal papers, book chapters, and theses published between January 1970 and October 2014, yielded 1091 records. Examination of these records against exclusion criteria yielded 11 studies that focused on the associations between attachment orientation and perpetration of sexual coercion (n = 3), sexual coercion victimization (n = 3), or both perpetration and victimization (n = 5). Findings revealed that attachment anxiety appeared to be more consistently associated with being the victim of sexual coercion than attachment avoidance. In terms of perpetration, attachment avoidance was more consistently associated with sexual coercion. These findings were observed when examining the association between attachment dimensions and motives for sexual coercion. The findings also revealed gender to be a moderator for victimization. This review provides insights into how attachment style may influence the perpetration and victimization of sexual coercion.