Safeguarding rural Australia: addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : intentional violent harm to others in an Australian rural context: analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to intentional violence perpetrated or experienced by males living in regional and remote Australia . and which were available in public data bases at production. The nature of intentional violent acts can be physical, sexual or psychological or involve deprivation or neglect.

Safeguarding rural Australia: addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : unintentional violent harm including injuries in an Australian rural context : analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to unintentional serious and violent harm, including injuries, to males living in regional and remote Australia . and which were available in public data bases at production. Such harm typically might be caused by, for example, transport accidents, occupational exposures and hazards, burns and so on. Thus unintentional violent harm can cause physical trauma the consequences of which can lead to chronic conditions including psychological harm or substance abuse.

Safeguarding rural Australia : addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : consequences of violent harm in a rural Australian context : analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. The report considers extant data which have been sourced with respect to some of the consequences of violent acts, incidents, harms and risky behaviour involving males living in regional and remote Australia and which were available in public data bases at production.

Safeguarding rural Australia : addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : suicide and other violent self-harm in an Australian rural context : analysis of secondary data

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in September 2009 (see Carrington et al. 2009) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. The report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to self-harm and suicide among males living in regional and remote Australia and which were available in public data bases at production time. Moreover, specific areas of concern regarding elevated rates of suicide for rural males and data anomalies which emerged during our examination of these data are discussed.

Predictors of violent reconvictions and mortality among impulsive alcoholic violent offenders: A prospective study

Acts of violence lays a great burden on humankind. The negative effects of violence could be relieved by accurate prediction of violent recidivism. However, prediction of violence has been considered an inexact science hampered by scare knowledge of its causes. The study at hand examines risk factors of violent reconvictions and mortality among 242 Finnish male violent offenders exhibiting severe alcoholism and severe externalizing personality disorders. The violent offenders were recruited during a court-ordered 2-month inpatient mental status examination between 1990—1998. Controls were 1210 individuals matched by sex-, age-, and place of birth. After a 9-year non-incarcerated follow-up criminal register and mortality data were obtained from national registers. Risk analyses were applied to estimate odds and relative risk for recidivism and mortality. Risk variables that were included in the analyses were antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), a comorbidity of ASPD and BPD, childhood adversities, alcohol consumption, age, and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype. In addition to risk analyses, temperament dimensions (Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire [TPQ]) were assessed. The prevalence of recidivistic acts of violence (32%) and mortality (16%) was high among the offenders. Severe personality disorders and childhood adversities increased the risk for recidivism and mortality both among offenders (OR 2.0–10.4) and in comparison between offenders and controls (RR 4.3–53.0). Offenders having BPD and a history of childhood maltreatment emerged as a group with a particularly poor prognosis. MAOA altered the effects of alcohol consumption and ageing. Alcohol consumption (+2.3%) and age (–7.3%) showed significant effects on the risk for violent reconvictions among the high activity MAOA (MAOA-H) offenders, but not among the low activity MAOA (MAOA-L) offenders. The offenders featured temperament dimensions of high novelty seeking, high harm avoidance, and low reward dependence matching Cloninger’s definition of explosive personality. The fact that the risk for recidivistic acts of violence and mortality accumulated into clearly defined subgroups supports future efforts to provide for evidence based violence prevention and risk assessments among violent offenders.

Can Mixed Martial Arts be Ethically Defended?: Autonomy, Paternalism and the Harm Principle

Abstract Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) founded in 1993 have been under scrutiny for the past two decades. Unlike boxing, the ethical status of MMA and whether it is morally defensible have rarely been analyzed in the academic literature. I argue that MMA requires such an analysis because it is inherently violent. The purpose of this study was to examine elite-level MMA by referring to the ethical concepts of autonomy, paternalism and the Harm Principle. Findings from interviews with MMA athletes as well as my personal experience of MMA were presented to establish a deeper understanding of the sport and what it means to train and compete in a sport defined as violent. The conceptual analysis and findings of MMA athletes' experiences in this investigation resulted in the conclusion that MMA is ethically defensible. Additional findings, implications and recommendations for further research were also discussed.

Violence, Crime, and Violent Crime

I propose a dual conceptualization of violent crime. Since violent crime is both violence and crime, theories of aggression and deviance are required to understand it. I argue that both harm-doing and rule breaking are instrumental behaviors and that a bounded rational choice approach can account for both behaviors. However, while some of the causes of harm-doing and deviance (and violent and nonviolent crime) are the same, some are different. Theories of crime and deviance cannot explain why one only observes individual and group differences in violent crime and theories of aggression and violence cannot explain why one observes differences in all types of crimes. Such theories are “barking up the wrong tree.”

Adolescent protective behaviour to reduce drug and alcohol use, alcohol-related harm and interpersonal violence

Typically adolescents' friends are considered a risk factor for adolescent engagement in risk-taking. This study took a more novel approach, by examining adolescent friendship as a protective factor. In particular it investigated friends' potential to intervene to reduce risk-taking. 540 adolescents (mean age 13.47 years) were asked about their intention to intervene to reduce friends' alcohol, drug and alcohol-related harms and about psychosocial factors potentially associated with intervening. More than half indicated that they would intervene in friends' alcohol, drug use, alcohol-related harms and interpersonal violence. Intervening was associated with being female, having friends engage in overall less risk-taking and having greater school connectedness. The findings provide an important understanding of increasing adolescent protective behavior as a potential strategy to reduce alcohol and drug related harms.

Embodied vulnerabilities : responding to violent encounters through installation practices

This practice-led research was initiated in response to a series of violent encounters that occurred between my fragile installations and viewers. The central focus of this study was to recuperate my installation practice in the wake of such events. This led to the development of a ‘responsive practice’ methodology, which reframed the installation process through an ethical lens developed from Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical phenomenology. The central propositions of this research are the reconceptualisation of ‘violent encounters’ in terms of difference whereby I accept viewers responses, even those which are violent, destructive or damaging, and secondly that the process operates as a generative excess for practice through which recuperative strategies can be found and implemented. By re-examining this process as it unfolded in the three phases of the practical component, I developed strategies whereby violated, destroyed or damaged works could be recuperated through the processes of reconfiguration, reparation and regeneration. Therefore my installations embody and articulate vulnerability but also demonstrate resilience and renewal.

Data Report No. 1 : Self-harm Including Suicide

This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to self-harm and suicide in Australia. Moreover, specific areas of concern regarding elevated rates of suicide for rural males and data anomalies which emerged during our examination of these data are discussed. Additional commentary resulting from exploration, examination and analyses of secondary data is published online in complementary reports in this series.

Safeguarding Rural Australia : Data Report No. 2 - Intentional Violence

This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to intentional violence perpetrated or experienced by males in regional and remote Australia. The nature of intentional violent acts can be physical, sexual or psychological or involve deprivation or neglect. We have presented under the headings of: self-harm including suicide; homicide; assault, sexual assault and the threat of assault; child abuse; other family and intimate partner violence; harassment, stalking and bullying; alcohol related social violence; and animal abuse. State variations in interpersonal violence are also presented. Additional commentary resulting from exploration, examination and analyses of secondary data is published online in complementary reports in this series.

Safeguarding Rural Australia: Data Report No. 3 - Unintentional Violence

This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to unintentional serious and violent injuries to males living in regional and remote Australia. Such injuries typically might be caused by, for example, transport accidents, occupational exposures and hazards, burns and so on. Thus unintentional violent incidents cause physical trauma the consequences of which can sometimes lead to chronic conditions including psychological harm or substance abuse. Additional commentary resulting from exploration, examination and analyses of secondary data is published online in complementary reports in this series.

Masculinity, rurality and violence

The assumption that the size, anonymity and weakened social controls of urban living generates social conflict, disorganization and higher rates of crime and violence has been an article of faith in much criminological and social scientific inquiry since the nineteenth century (i.e. Tönnies 1897; Shaw and McKay 1931; Levin and Lindesmith 1937; Nisbet 1970; Baldwin and Bottoms 1976; Felson 1994). The paper challenges this article of criminological faith and questions the utility of urban centric criminological theorizing about the causes of violence in rural settings. Drawing on descriptive data that show that rural men present a relatively high risk of inflicting harm upon themselves and others, this paper explores the larger socio-criminological question as to why this might be. The question is examined in relation to the processes of community formation that shape the everyday architecture of rural life. We explore how that architecture has historically valorized violent expressions of masculinity grounded in a relationship between men's bodies and the rural landscapes they inhabit - but how the legitimacy of these violent expressions are being challenged by sweeping social, economic and political changes. One psycho-social response to these sweeping social changes to rural life, we conclude, is a resort to violence as a largely strategic practice deployed to recreate an imagined rural gender order.