Public Understanding of Coercive Control in Northern Ireland

Coercive control is characterised by negative behaviours which intimidate, threaten, and humiliate a person or restrict a person’s liberty. In addition to being a known risk factor for experiencing other forms of violence, research has linked coercive control to symptoms of psychological distress and suicidality. In the UK, coercive and controlling behaviours within intimate and familial relationships have been legislated as offending behaviours. However, there still exists a lack of international evidence on wider public knowledge and understanding of coercive control. The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (NILT) is an annual cross-sectional representative survey of social policy topics. Participants are adults aged 18 years or over. Concerning coercive control, respondents were presented with two relationship scenarios: obvious and less obvious coercive control. Following each scenario, respondents indicated their level of agreement to ten statements covering attitudes towards coercive control, victims of coercive control, talking about coercive control, and whether coercive control is a crime. Respondents indicated whether they had heard of the term ‘coercive control’. Predictors of coercive control awareness were assessed using multinomial logistic regression. Mixed analysis of variance assessed if agreement levels to the ten statements varied by type of coercive control and victim gender. Most respondents said that they had heard of the term coercive control and knew what it meant. Those who had not heard of coercive control at all were more likely to be on a lower income, less qualified and younger, when compared to those who said they knew what the term meant. Significant interactions between coercive control type and victim gender were evident for all ten statements. While most respondents are aware of the term coercive control, a significant number have not and are therefore unlikely to recognise the signs of this type of abuse.

Judgments About Male Victims of Sexual Assault by Women: A 35-Year Replication Study

Sexual assault of men by women has received increasing attention in recent years, as has research on rape myths about male victims. This study is a cross-generational replication of a 1984 study of college students’ judgments about male and female victims in a scenario involving a sexual assault carried out by male or female assailants. The 1984 data ( n = 172) were compared with those of a 2019 cohort ( n = 372) in a 2 (participant gender) x 2 (assailant gender) x 2 (victim gender) x 2 (cohort) factorial design to assess potential generational changes in perceptions of victims. Judgments by male participants of male victims of assaults carried out by women changed notably over time. The 2019 male cohort was less likely to judge that the victim initiated or encouraged the incident (40% in 1984 compared with 15% in 2019) and derived pleasure from it (47.4% in 1984 compared with 5.8% in 2019). In contrast, the 2019 female cohort was more likely to attribute victim encouragement (26.9% compared with 4.3% in 1984) and pleasure to the male victim (25% in 2019 compared with 5% in 1984). A similar gender pattern occurred in judgments of how stressful the event was for the male victim. Analysis of the 2019 data revealed that overall, despite scientific and cultural shifts that have occurred over the past three decades, participants continued to judge the male victim of assault by a female to have been more encouraging and to have experienced more pleasure and less stress than in any other assailant/victim gender combination. Results are discussed in relation to gendered stereotypical beliefs and male rape myths, as well as possible sensitization to power differentials inspired by the #MeToo movement. We emphasize the need for greater awareness and empirical attention to abuse that runs counter to preconceived notions about sexual victimization.

Perceptions of Common Rape: How Rape Myth Acceptance, Victim Gender, and Victim Resistance Affect Victim and Perpetrator Blame Attributions in Party Rape and Date Rape

Among rape perception studies, common types of male rape remain understudied. Using a randomized vignette design, I sampled 622 college students from a large Southwestern university to examine how victim gender and victim resistance influence blame attributions in party rape and date rape. Results revealed important interactions between victim gender, victim resistance, and rape type. Among other effects, resistance only affected victim blame in date rapes involving male victims. Results indicated that how respondents perceive victim and perpetrator responsibility, and which factors influence these perceptions, vary across rape type and victim gender. Implications for the rape perception literature are discussed.

The Influence of Authority Role and Victim Gender on Perceptions of Female-Perpetrated Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse is often perceived differently based on characteristics of the victim and the perpetrator. However, unknown is whether variations in perceptions occur when the relationship to and gender of the victim are manipulated—particularly when the offender is a woman. The current study sought to explore whether authority role (neighbor, teacher, family, or clergy) and victim gender affect perceived outcomes for the victim. A factorial vignette design was used to randomly assign participants to one of eight conditions, and a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to assess differences in perceived victim outcomes for the vignettes. Results showed significant differences for authority role, victim gender, and the interactions between authority and victim gender for nearly all dependent variables. Respondents recognized that the scenarios presented were damaging and harmful; however, certain authority positions (i.e., teachers) were sexualized leading to diminished perceptions of negative outcomes, particularly for male victims.

Unravelling the Homicide Drop: Disaggregating a 25-Year Homicide Trend in the Netherlands

The Western homicide drop is a known fact, but the reasons behind the drop have so far mainly focused on macro explanations. In this study, we argue that to understand the homicide drop, it is necessary to first explore whether the drop is general or specific. We do this by examining the subtypes of homicide together with perpetrator and victim demographic characteristics. This study seeks to describe the nature and scope of homicidal violence in the period 1992–2016 in the Netherlands, disaggregating by subtype of homicide, and perpetrator and victim gender constellation and age. In doing so, we make use of the Dutch Homicide Monitor. Findings show that the Dutch homicide drop is significantly related to homicides resulting from disputes and robberies and intimate partner homicides. The gender constellation and age distribution in all homicide types are further explored. This study highlights the importance of disaggregating data by subtype in unravelling the homicide drop.

Perception of Risk in Intimate Partner Violence Is Influenced by Risk Scales, Perpetrator and Victim Gender, and Mental Illness Diagnosis: A Risk Communication Study With Laypeople

Despite considerable research on the predictive accuracy of risk scales, there is limited research exploring other factors that influence perceptions of risk. We recruited participants (N = 1,955) from Amazon's Mechanical Turk to read a vignette about a fictional intimate partner violence offender, varying risk level on a fictional scale (low or high), perpetrator gender (cis male, cis female, or transgender female), victim gender (cis male or cis female), and mental health diagnosis (none, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorder). The strongest effect was for the risk scale, with offenders perceived as highest risk when the scale reported “high risk” as opposed to “low risk.” The other main effects were also statistically significant. Cases were perceived as riskier when the perpetrator was cis male or the victim was cis female. Regarding mental health diagnosis, the highest risk ratings were provided in the schizophrenia condition. There was also a significant interaction among risk level, perpetrator gender, and diagnosis. The extent to which participants relied on gendered stereotypes about the relationship between mental illness and violence when providing risk judgments should be examined in future research. Overall, these findings enhance our understanding of characteristics that are secondary to risk level but are likely to influence case management decisions in cases of intimate partner violence.

Visual estimates of blood loss by medical laypeople: Effects of blood loss volume, victim gender, and perspective

A severe hemorrhage can result in death within minutes, before professional first responders have time to arrive. Thus, intervention by bystanders, who may lack medical training, may be necessary to save a victim’s life in situations with bleeding injuries. Proper intervention requires that bystanders accurately assess the severity of the injury and respond appropriately. As many bystanders lack tools and training, they are limited in terms of the information they can use in their evaluative process. In hemorrhage situations, visible blood loss may serve as a dominant cue to action. Therefore, understanding how medically untrained bystanders (i.e., laypeople) perceive hemorrhage is important. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the ability of laypeople to visually assess blood loss and to examine factors that may impact accuracy and the classification of injury severity. A total of 125 laypeople watched 78 short videos each of individuals experiencing a hemorrhage. Victim gender, volume of blood lost, and camera perspective were systematically manipulated in the videos. The results revealed that laypeople overestimated small volumes of blood loss (from 50 to 200 ml), and underestimated larger volumes (from 400 to 1900 ml). Larger volumes of blood loss were associated with larger estimation errors. Further, blood loss was underestimated more for female victims than male victims and their hemorrhages were less likely to be classified as life-threatening. These results have implications for training and intervention design.

Identifying femicide locally and globally: Understanding the utility and accessibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators

Femicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, has received an unprecedented rise in international attention in the past decade, prompting increased discussions about how to define and measure femicide. Following a review of definitions and indicators, this article examines the utility of numerous sex/gender-related motives and indicators (SGRMIs) for distinguishing femicide from other homicides as well as the accessibility of these indicators in data sources typically accessed by social science researchers. Specifically, using a comprehensive database whose primary focus is femicide, the presence of SGRMIs in male-perpetrator/female-victim homicide – those killings most closely aligned with the concept of femicide – is compared to other perpetrator–victim gender combinations. Results show that multiple SGRMIs are more common in male-perpetrator/female-victim killings than other homicides, meaning they are useful for distinguishing femicide as a distinct type of violence. However, accessibility to information is weak with high proportions of missing data. Implications of these findings for prevention are discussed, including how data biases may be putting the lives of women and girls at risk and the need to emphasize prevention as the priority for data collection rather than administrative needs of governments.