Although victim blaming in the context of sexual assault is often emphasized, little research has compared rates of victim blaming following sexual assault relative to other forms of criminal victimization. There are a variety of risk factors for the development of psychopathology following trauma exposure (Brewin et al., 2000). One risk factor is negative social reactions from professional or personal others when the survivor discloses their experience (Dworkin et al., 2019).
Over the past two decades, there has been increasing attention paid to the strangulation that occurs in the context of domestic violence cases. While strangulation was previously thought of primarily as a mode of homicide, nonfatal incidents of strangulation in the context of domestic violence has only recently received more attention. When strangulation occurs in the context of domestic violence, it is a direct demonstration of power and control an offender has over another individual’s life or death.
Intimate partner violence often occurs in households with children, which results in 16% of children witnessing psychological IPV and approximately 18% of children witnessing physical IPV (Hamby, Finkelhor, Turner, & Ormrod, 2011).
After decades of a steady decline in the frequency of intimate partner homicide (IPH) in the United States, IPH has begun an alarming upward climb (Fridel & Fox, 2019). There is also increasing concern regarding IPHs that include additional fatal victims. One study estimated that 20% of all victims of intimate partner-related homicides were non-intimates killed in addition to the intimate partner (Smith et al., 2014) while another suggested that 32% of mass shooting events from 2014 through 2017 involved the killing of the shooter’s intimate partner (Zeoli & Paruk, 2020).
Much of the research on firearm owners implies that the U.S. population can be divided into two groups—those that own guns and those that do not; however, there is a third group—those thinking of getting a gun and almost nothing is known about this group. A survey on gun ownership, experiences, and behaviors was deployed online via Prolific in June and July 2020 to recruit women from the general U.S. population who were planning on getting a gun (n = 187), who owned a gun (n = 288), and who did not own or plan to own guns (n = 968).
Intimate partner violence (IPV) against transgender individuals is highly prevalent. According to a national survey of 27,715 transgender individuals, for example, one study found that 54% had experienced some form of intimate partner violence (James et al., 2016). Despite this high rate, few studies exist related to transgender intimate partner violence.
Stalking is a significant social issue. The inconsistency as to what defines stalking has resulted in the creation of different methods to measure the crime. The aim of the present study was to assess the level of stalking behavior in terms of severity within a randomly selected sample of 924 cases from the database of the National Stalking Helpline. Item response theory analyses is a statistical process that provides for the design, analysis, and scoring of tests, questionnaires, and similar instruments measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables.
Research focusing on the arrest and processing of domestic violence offenders has garnered much attention in previous years. Research has shown that the arrest of domestic violence offenders and their prosecution with a guilty disposition can result in a lower recidivism rate and may have a deterrent effect (Maxwell, Garner, & Fagan, 2001; Tolman & Weisz, 1995).
