Study Title-Based Framing Effects on Reports of Sexual Violence Factors in College Students

Objective: There are many methodological issues in studying sexual violence, including potential framing effects. Framing effects refer to how researchers communicate the purpose of a study to par-ticipants, such as, how the study is advertised or explained. The aim of the current study was to inves-tigate if framing effects were associated with differences in participants’ self-reported experiences of sexual violence and related correlates. Methods: College students (N = 782) were recruited to par-ticipate in one of four identical studies that differed in the title: “Questionnaires about Alcohol,” “Questionnaires about Crime,” “Questionnaires about Health,” or “Questionnaires about Sexual As-sault.” Participants chose one of the four studies and completed measures of sexual violence as well as attitudinal and behavioral measures in randomized order. Results: We found significantly more reports of childhood sexual abuse (33.6% vs. 18.5%), rape (33.9% vs. 21.1%), higher frequency of vic-timization (M = 11.35 vs. 5.44), and greater acknowledged rape for bisexual people (46.2% vs. 0.0%) in the Sexual Assault condition compared to other conditions. There were no differences in sexual violence perpetration or attitudinal or behavioral measures. Conclusion: These results revealed that framing effects, based on the study title, affect outcomes in sexual victimization research. Rape was reported 1.6x more in the “Sexual Assault” condition than in the “Health” condition. It is unclear whether these framing effects reflect self-selection bias or framing related increased reports in the Sexual Assault condition, suppression of reports in other conditions, or a combination thereof.

Whose Knowledge Is Under the Lens? A Contribution to the Debate Sparked by Clark and Walker's 2011 Research Ethics in Victimization Studies: Widening the Lens

The starting point for this commentary is the fruitful exchange of ideas on the ethics of victimization research, published in this journal in 2011, sparked by Clark and Walker's article, “Research Ethics in Victimization Studies: Widening the Lens”. This article provoked a flurry of responses that, taken altogether, provide an illuminating cornerstone for the ethical debates and issues surrounding victimization research. It further inspired us to reflect upon and share our experiences on conducting victimization research at that particular intersection of academia and advocacy that we both occupy. What struck us about this exchange was the absence of any discussion about the role of anti-violence against women advocates, service providers, and organizations in victimization research.

Study Title-Based Framing Effects on Reports of Sexual Violence and Associated Risk Factors in College Students

Objective: There are many methodological issues in studying sexual violence, including potential framing effects. Framing effects refer to how researchers communicate the purpose of a study to participants, such as, how the study is advertised or explained. The aim of this study was to investigate if framing effects were associated with differences in participants’ self-reported experiences of sexual violence and related correlates. Methods: College students ( N = 782) were recruited to participate in one of four identical studies that differed in the title: “Questionnaires about Alcohol,” “Questionnaires about Crime,” “Questionnaires about Health,” or “Questionnaires about Sexual Assault.” Participants chose one of the four studies and completed measures of sexual violence as well as attitudinal and behavioral measures in randomized order. Results: We found significantly more reports of childhood sexual abuse (33.6% vs. 18.5%), rape (33.9% vs. 21.1%), higher frequency of victimization ( M = 11.35 vs. 5.44), and greater acknowledged rape for bisexual people (46.2% vs. 0.0%) in the sexual assault (SA) condition compared to other conditions. There were no differences in sexual violence perpetration or attitudinal or behavioral measures. Conclusion: These results revealed that framing effects, based on the study title, affect outcomes in sexual victimization research. Rape was reported 1.6× more in the “Sexual Assault” condition than in the “Health” condition. It is unclear whether these framing effects reflect self-selection bias or framing related increased reports in the SA condition, suppression of reports in other conditions, or a combination thereof.

Factors Associated with Victimization Experiences Among Juveniles Detained in a Chinese Correctional Facility: A Longitudinal Study

Prison victimization constitutes a serious problem for organizations and individuals. It disrupts order in an institutional environment, and the experience of victimization can have a long-lasting psychological effect on incarcerated population, particularly juveniles. Relevant research suggests that the deprivation model and the importation model can help explain the occurrence of prison victimization. Using longitudinal data collected from a youth custodial facility in China, the current study examines factors that are believed to be predictors of prison victimization. Negative binomial regression, a commonly used tool for the analysis of prison victimization research using count data, is employed in the current study. The findings suggest that prior victimization experiences, reported record of violent delinquency, prison visitation, and demographics have significant impacts on in-prison victimization. The public policy implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the study.

A Black Box Warning: The Marginalization of White-Collar Crime Victimization

The study of white-collar crime has become a subfield of criminology receiving great attention, though victimization calls for additional research. The black box warning, used by the Food and Drug Administration to denote potential serious hazards of a drug or device, is an apt metaphor for the neglect often associated with the identification, depth, consequences, and, at times, violent nature of white-collar crime victimization. Research on victims is evolving, though compared to street-level crime remains marginalized, despite the serious harms caused by the former. This article offers a review of what researchers have accomplished and identifies topics of concern. White-collar crime targets a wide spectrum of the population and a high number of people, but the black box of victimization demonstrates the need for research that further enhances knowledge and informs policy.

Adolescent Coping: In-Person and Cyber-Victimization

Cyber-victimization has become a serious concern facing adolescents in the digital age. Given the differences and similarities between cyber-victimization and in-person victimization, research needs to examine whether prior understanding of coping with in-person victimization applies to coping with cyber-victimization. The purpose of this study was to compare the use and effectiveness of coping strategies in both in-person and cyber-victimization contexts in a sample of adolescents (N = 321; 11-15 years old) in the United States. Results indicated that adolescents tend to use more strategies overall to cope with in-person victimization than cyber-victimization, and female adolescents used more distraction and social support from friends than male adolescents. Adolescents also used problem solving, social support from friends and family/adults, and distraction more frequently than distancing and retaliation; when problem solving was used, adolescents felt positive about the outcome, regardless of victimization type. The use of retaliation was negatively associated with coping efficacy for both situations. Further, social support from friends and social support from family/adults were associated with coping efficacy for cyber-victimization. Our findings can be used to inform interventionists about which strategies adolescents perceive work best to cope with cyber-victimization.

Ethical questions in children sexual victimization research

Ethics in the research with children has become a very important topic due to an increasing number of research involving children resulting in an increasing number of academic papers on this topic. Conducting social research in the field of child sexual victimization presents double vulnerability: firstly, it involves research with a vulnerable population, and secondly, the topic itself is sensitive. This raises numerous ethical questions and can result in researcher?s unwillingness to explore this particular field. The aim of this paper is to answer the question of specific ethical challenges in researching sexual victimization of children. The specific questions addressed in the paper include the following: 1) Are there any specific ethical guidelines for researching child sexual victimization, and 2) What ethical questions are specifically addressed in child sexual victimization research? The answers provided on the basis of the analysis presented in the paper are: 1) There are no specific ethical guidelines for conducting epidemiology research of child sexual victimization, and 2) It is difficult to single out ethical questions specific for this research area from available literature (only few authors are addressing specific ethical issues in this type of victimization research). Therefore, it is concluded that more attention should be focused on ethical issues in epidemiologic research of child sexual victimization.

Hearing the Silence: Children’s Voices on Violence

Each year more than five million children in the United States are exposed to traumatizing events in their communities. This paper presents a discussion of multiple areas in violence and victimization research that needs to be continued as well as provides suggestions on how to un-silence child survivors through bridging the gaps between research and practice. It reviews the overarching problem of violence in the U.S. at the domestic and global levels and the effects of victimization. Suggestions on how to study possible mediators and moderators of victimization and individual and family adjustment, including: 1) The ecological perspective; 2) Court process and verdict; and 3)Utilization of victim services, are explored. Finally, a rationale and examples of combining qualitative and quantitative methods in future research that uses children’s attributions of violence as a mediator are presented.