Search results for "050901 criminology"

Adjusting the Knox test by accounting for spatio-temporal crime risk heterogeneity to analyse near-repeats

2020

The near-repeat phenomenon usually occurs with any crime. Hence, to implement preventive measures, it is of great interest to figure out at which spatio-temporal scale crimes are more likely to be repeated by offenders. The Knox test is the most used statistical tool for evaluating the presence of the near-repeat phenomenon given a dataset of crimes that are located in space and time. The classic version of this test assumes that crime risk is homogeneous in both space and time, although this assumption rarely holds in reality. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to highlight the necessity of adjusting the standard version of the Knox test, including spatial and temporal effects th…

Actuarial Risk Assessment of Sexual Offenders

2016

A Brief History of Sexual Offender Risk Assessment

2016

The assessment of risk of further offending behavior by adult sexual perpetrators has come a long way since the early 1900s. From risk estimations based on clinical observation and environmental changes in the 1920s, anthropological and longitudinal studies of juvenile offenders in the 1930s, the examination of psychoneurotic patients in the 1940s to the application of actuarial prediction to clinical assessment in the 1950s, researchers and practitioners have sought to identify valid and reliable measures of recidivism risk in sexual offenders. The emphasis in risk prediction slowly changed following Meehl’s (1954) seminal contributions to the clinical-statistical debate which introduced t…

Personality correlates of gaslighting behaviours in young adults

2021

This study focused on gaslighting, a specific type of psychological violence occurring in intimate relationships, where one partner displays controlling behaviours towards the other. The aim of the research was to analyse the association between gaslighting behaviours and dysfunctional personality domains of both abusers and survivors, respectively assessed through the PID-5-IRF and the PID-5-BF. A group of 250 young adults (males=124), aged 18–30 years (M=22.99, SD= 3.02), took part in this study. Our results showed that (a) for abusers, detachment, disinhibition and psychoticism were positively associated with gaslighting behaviours, and (b) for survivors, antagonism, disinhibition and ps…

The role of moral disengagement and cognitive distortions toward children among sex offenders

2018

This study investigated the individual and social characteristics, moral disengagement strategies and cognitive distortions toward children among 120 sex offenders in Italian jails. A semistructured interview was administered to collect data about family, social and medical histories, utilizing the Moral Disengagement Scale and the Hanson Sex Attitude Questionnaire. Results showed that sex offenders with sexual abuse trauma in their past had higher scores of moral disengagement and cognitive distortion toward children than sex offenders without sexual abuse trauma. In particular, the highest levels of moral disengagement, cognitive distortions related to children as sexual objects and sexua…

The Cycle of Violence: Examining Attitudes Toward and Experiences of Corporal Punishment in a Representative German Sample

2018

The use of corporal punishment (CP) is controversial despite the negative consequences of its use that have been documented. Consequences include the use of CP by those who experienced CP themselves, described in the theory of the cycle of violence. There are little data on the cycle of violence, especially on those who break it and in representative samples. This study examines the cycle of violence in a representative sample by analyzing experiences of and attitudes toward CP. Attitudes toward, and own experiences of, CP by their parents were assessed in a sample of 2,519 individuals (female 54.6%, age range = 14-99 years, M = 48.9 years). Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify…

Environmental Dysfunctions, Childhood Maltreatment and Women’s Intimate Partner Violence Victimization

2017

International audience; Childhood maltreatment is considered a crucial explanatory variable for intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood. However, a developmental multifactorial model for the etiology of IPV is not shared by researchers yet. This study has investigated the role of a wide range of childhood maltreatments and family and social dysfunctions in predicting IPV; furthermore, it tests a model where childhood maltreatment mediates the relationship between environmental dysfunctions and IPV. The sample included 78 women: IPV (38) and non-IPV (40). The Italian version of the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) Interview was used to assess the presence of adverse childho…

Implicit Theories of Child Sexual Exploitation Material Offenders: Cross-Cultural Validation of Interview Findings

2019

Offense-supportive cognitions are thought to result from underlying implicit theories (ITs). As child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) users are a distinct type of sex offender, Bartels and Merdian proposed that CSEM offenders hold five different ITs from those endorsed by contact sex offenders (i.e., Unhappy World, Self as Uncontrollable, Child as Sexual Object, Nature of Harm [CSEM variant], and Self as Collector), linked by an assumption about the Reinforcing Nature of the Internet. This article reports a conceptual content analysis of 23 interviews conducted with CSEM offenders in the United Kingdom and Spain. Support for all CSEM-specific ITs was found across both samples, providing…

Raising Spanish Children With an Antisocial Tendency: Do We Know What the Optimal Parenting Style Is?

2018

Families can play an essential role in preventing violent and antisocial behaviors, which are considered a significant public health issue. However, some studies argue that most children are antisocial only during adolescence, and even teenagers can mimic antisocial behavior in ways that are normative and well-adjusted. This study analyzed patterns of competence and adjustment in young adults with and without an antisocial tendency during adolescence from authoritative (characterized by warmth and strictness), authoritarian (strictness but not warmth), indulgent (warmth but not strictness), and neglectful (neither warmth nor strictness) families. Emergent research has indicated that in a E…

Perceived Neighborhood Social Disorder and Attitudes Toward Reporting Domestic Violence Against Women

2007

This study aims to explore the relationship between perceived neighborhood social disorder and attitudes toward reporting domestic violence against women. Data from a national representative sample ( N = 14,994) of Spaniards 18 years old and older were used. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that perceived neighborhood social disorder is negatively associated with attitudes toward reporting domestic violence against women. These results take into account the potential confounding effects of gender, age, socioeconomic status, perceived frequency of domestic violence against women, and size of city on reporting attitudes. Findings support the idea that to reduce and prevent do…