Search results for "Crime"
showing 10 items of 420 documents
Childhood adversities and distress - The role of resilience in a representative sample.
2016
While adverse childhood experiences have been shown to contribute to adverse health outcomes in adulthood, specifically distress and somatic symptoms, few studies have examined their joint effects with resilient coping style on adult adjustment. Hence, we aim to determine the association between resilient coping and distress in participants with and without reported childhood adversities. A representative German community sample (N = 2508) between 14-92 years (1334 women; 1174 men) was examined by the short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Brief Resilience Coping Scale, standardized scales of distress and somatoform symptoms. Childhood adversity was associated with reduced ad…
Neighborhood characteristics and violence behind closed doors: The spatial overlap of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence
2018
In this study, we analyze first whether there is a common spatial distribution of child maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence (IPV), and second, whether the risks of CM and IPV are influenced by the same neighborhood characteristics, and if these risks spatially overlap. To this end we used geocoded data of CM referrals (N = 588) and IPV incidents (N = 1450) in the city of Valencia (Spain). As neighborhood proxies, we used 552 census block groups. Neighborhood characteristics analyzed at the aggregated level (census block groups) were: Neighborhood concentrated disadvantage (neighborhood economic status, neighborhood education level, and policing activity), immigrant concentration…
Childhood Adversities and Adult Headache in Poland and Germany.
2015
Objective Various childhood adversities have been found to be associated with chronic pain in adulthood. However, associations were moderate in most studies, i.e. odds ratios (OR) were between one and two. Method An internet survey was performed in 508 Polish and 500 German subjects. A total of 19 childhood adversities were selected and their associations with headaches explored. Age, gender and country were included as potential confounders, as well as their two-way interaction with the risk factors. Results Two strong risk factors were identified. (1) A combined score for physical and emotional neglect showed an odds ratio (OR) of 2.78 (p < .002) to the frequency of headache in adulthood …
Minimization of childhood maltreatment is common and consequential: results from a large, multinational sample using the childhood trauma questionnai…
2016
Childhood maltreatment has diverse, lifelong impact on morbidity and mortality. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is one of the most commonly used scales to assess and quantify these experiences and their impact. Curiously, despite very widespread use of the CTQ, scores on its Minimization-Denial (MD) subscale-originally designed to assess a positive response bias-are rarely reported. Hence, little is known about this measure. If response biases are either common or consequential, current practices of ignoring the MD scale deserve revision. Therewith, we designed a study to investigate 3 aspects of minimization, as defined by the CTQ's MD scale: 1) its prevalence; 2) its latent struc…
The impact of attachment distress on affect-centered mentalization: An experimental study in psychosomatic patients and healthy adults
2018
Introduction We investigated the impact of attachment distress on affect-centered mentalization in a clinical and a non-clinical sample, comparing mentalization in a baseline condition to mentalization under a condition of attachment distress. Methods The sample consisted of 127 adults who underwent inpatient psychosomatic treatment, and 34 mentally healthy adults. Affect-centered mentalization was assessed by analyzing participants’ narratives on interpersonal situations in a baseline condition with the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), and an experimental condition inducing attachment distress with the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP). Unlike the LEAS, the AAP is…
Lichen sclerosus Mistaken for Sexual Abuse – Prevention of Victimization
2014
This case report describes the forensic examination of 7 girls aged between 4-11 years with suspected sexual abuse. The children had been reported by local pediatricians, hospital physicians or authorities such as the youth welfare office and police due to mucosal changes in the anogenital area. All children presented with a clearly delimited, porcelain-like white discoloration of the skin in the anal and genital area with atrophic conversion to parchment-like skin. The markedly vulnerable skin exhibited very different manifestations of hemorrhagic dermal and mucosal defects in the area of the labia, the clitoris, the perineum and the perianal region. The hymen was intact in all cases. The …
CITES, wild plants, and opportunities for crime
2017
The illegal trade in endangered plants damages both the environment and localcommunities by threatening and destroying numerous species and important natural resources. There is very little research which systematically addresses this issue by identifying specific opportunities for crime. This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary study which brings together criminological and conservation science expertise to identify criminal opportunities in the illegal wild plant trade and suggest strategies in order to prevent and mitigate the problem. Methodologically, the study adapts a crime proofing of legislation approach to the UN Convention on the International Trade in Endangered…
Legal Norms Against the Italian Mafia
2016
Legislation expressly aimed at combating mafia-type crimes in the Italian criminal system has long represented a specific and distinctive set of rules, comprising provisions of criminal law, procedural criminal law and penitentiary law, and including provisions of administrative and civil law of a more preventive kind. However, the law constitutes only one aspect of the complex Italian anti-mafia policy, which indeed results from the combination of several factors, such as human losses, political choices, legislative solutions, evolving case law and reactions of the civil society. In the international arena, among the multiple actors engaged at various levels in the fight against organised …
Organised Crime and the Economy: a Framework for Policy Prescriptions
2014
In this paper we discuss policies to combat organised crime from the perspective of economic analysis. We introduce concepts such as supply and demand for Mafia and the implied notion of equilibrium to build a framework to classify the contexts in which organised crime interferes with the economy. We then use this framework to discuss policy interventions, distinguishing between policies implemented by the State and mobilisation of civil society. We show that using the economic approach helps understand the aspect of persistence of criminal organisations and identify vicious circles of different nature. The broad spectrum of State policies identified includes norms on competition, on the ef…
Effective strategies for targeted attacks to the network of Cosa Nostra affiliates
2022
AbstractNetwork dismantling has recently gained interest in the fields of intelligence agencies, anti-corruption analysts and criminal investigators due to its efficiency in disrupting the activity of malicious agents. Here, we apply this approach to detect effective strategies for targeted attacks to Cosa Nostra by analysing the collaboration network of affiliates that participate to the same crimes. We preliminarily detect statistically significant homophily patterns induced by being member of the same mafia syndicate. We also find that links between members belonging to different mafia syndicates play a crucial role in connecting the network into a unique component, confirming the releva…