Child sexual abuse myths: attitudes, beliefs, and individual differences

Child sexual abuse myths comprise incorrect beliefs regarding sexual abuse, victims, and perpetrators. Relations among myth acceptance, responses to disclosure, legal decisions, and victims' subsequent psychological and health outcomes underscore the importance of understanding child sexual abuse myths. Despite accurate knowledge regarding child sexual abuse among many professional and other individuals, child sexual abuse myths persist. A Google search produced 119 child sexual abuse myths, some with overlapping themes. Coders grouped myths into four categories: (a) minimizations or exaggerations of the extent of harm child sexual abuse poses, (b) denials of the extent of child sexual abuse, (c) diffusions of perpetrator blame, and (d) perpetrator stereotypes. This review provides available data regarding the prevalence for these myths, empirical research that refutes or confirms myth categories, and considerations of cultural contexts and implications.     

Sexual offenders' perceptions of their early interpersonal relationships: an attachment perspective

The present study examined the perceptions of early interpersonal experiences of sexual offenders (child molesters and rapists) and two criminal comparison groups. A grounded theory approach was applied to a comprehensive list of responses provided by the participants to questions about their early interpersonal experiences. The raw data was collapsed into 14 basic categories by grouping together responses of similar meanings. The categories were responsiveness, consistency, acceptance, boundaries, emotional regulation, autonomy, self-evaluation, developmental trauma, sexual abuse and deviation, physical abuse, loss, conflict, safety, and positive mediating interactions. In the second part of the study, the four groups were compared using the categories and the differences noted. All four groups experienced significantly negative early interpersonal experiences.     

Sexual offenders' perceptions of their early interpersonal relationships: An attachment perspective

The present study examined the perceptions of early interpersonal experiences of sexual offenders (child molesters and rapists) and two criminal comparison groups. A grounded theory approach was applied to a comprehensive list of responses provided by the participants to questions about their early interpersonal experiences. The raw data was collapsed into 14 basic categories by grouping together responses of similar meanings. The categories were responsiveness, consistency, acceptance, boundaries, emotional regulation, autonomy, self‐evaluation, developmental trauma sexual abuse and deviation, physical abuse, loss, conflict, safety, and positive mediating interactions. In the second part of the study, the four groups were compared using the categories and the differences noted. All four groups experienced significantly negative early interpersonal experiences.     

The Interlocking of Gender with Nationality,Race, Ethnicity and Class: the Narratives of Women in Hotel Work

Whilst gender in the workplace is has been extensively researched, investigation into how gender interacts with other factors such as ethnicity and class has been less explicitly considered. This article explores the interlocking of gender with other categories such as class, ethnicity, race and nationality in the context of hotel work. It draws on the narratives of women describing their experiences of working in hotels. Findings from this empirically based examination suggest that gendered and other representations at work are not constructed as a process of adding difference on to difference, where categories are considered as separate and fixed. Instead, what emerges is a negotiation of the many categories shaping identities at work, which exist simultaneously and shift according to context.     

Alcohol, drugs, and links to sexual risk behaviors among a sample of Virginia college students

This project was significant in that it administered the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (NCHRBS), a health risk assessment, to a sample of students at three public universities in Virginia. Virginia was never included in the original or subsequent nationwide assessments using this instrument. This health risk assessment is comprehensive, easy to administer, and free. The NCHRBS assesses risk behaviors in six categories including: (1) behaviors that contribute to unintentional and intentional injuries; (2) tobacco use; (3) alcohol and other drug use; (4) sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and STDs, including the HIV infection; (5) unhealthy dietary behaviors; and (6) physical inactivity. This article focuses on student responses to questions about alcohol and other drugs and sexual behaviors linked to the use of these substances. It provided baseline data on health risk behaviors of college students which can help determine wellness/health education course objectives and health promotion programming and services provided to the students within the universities. In addition, this project provided protocol to expand use of the survey statewide.     

Women,crimes, and judicial dispositions: A comparative examination of the female offender

Utilizing records from the Seattle Police Department, we explored questions of a new “masculinized” female offender and a “chivalrous” criminal justice system. Crime‐specific arrest statistics provided a means to study both questions. Arrest statistics were recoded three separate ways: according to traditional views of the “masculinity” of an offense; legalistic crime categories; and seriousness ratings. These three categories were compared by sex across a four‐year period. Comparisons of final dispositions provided the basis of a final look at the “chivalry” issue. The findings suggest that females are not making great inroads into either traditionally masculine crimes or crime in general, and while there is little in the data to suggest prejudicial treatment based on sex, chivalry is supported by certain arrest and disposition rates.     

Miao Identities,Indigenism and the Politics of Appropriation in Southwest China during the Republican Period

This paper examines the conception of Miao identities in the writings of three indigenous intellectuals during the Republican period. Being members of three different indigenous groups who are classified as Miao today, these writers imagined the Miao community differently in terms of geographical boundaries, cultural contents, and historical experiences. While these differences need to be explained by the writers' unique life histories unfolded in particular local, national and transnational contexts, these writers in general appropriated and domesticated Chinese ethnic categories to reformulate their own conceptions of the indigenous community in terms that stretched beyond the boundary of their own local groups, forming part of their political activism to struggle for official recognition of ethnic minority status in the Republican regimes' nation-building project. This politics of appropriation and recognition constitutes some indigenous groups' special form of activism in Southwest China to struggle for self-definition in the process of being integrated into the modern Chinese state. It shaped the historical conditions for indigenous responses to the Communist Party's minority policies, showing that indigenous people were not waiting passively for their historical fate of being classified according to some state-imposed supra-local ethnic identities after the Communist takeover.     

Egalitarian,sexist, and aggressive sexual materials: Attitude effects and viewer responses

I examined attitudinal effects of, and evaluative and cognitive responses to, three types of sexually explicit scenes: egalitarian, sexist, and sexually aggressive. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, I hypothesized that the three types of scenes should have different effects on attitudes relevant to sexual equality and sexual aggression. Undergraduate males (N = 115) were assigned either to a control group or to view two scenes representative of one of the three categories, and completed evaluative ratings, thought‐listing tasks, and measures of sexual attitudes and beliefs. Type of scene viewed had no effect on attitudes, but participants' evaluative and cognitive reactions were most negative following sexually aggressive scenes and most positive following egalitarian scenes. Although attitude change did not occur, negative reactions to sexist and aggressive scenes may lead to rejection of the implicit, antisocial messages in such portrayals.     

The Functions of Teacher's Gestures in the College English Classroom

This paper presents the functions of teacher’s gestures in the college English classroom according to Gregersen’s(2007)categories of gestures and aims to inform teachers that gestures have an important role in the college English.     

Cultural Contradictions and Sex Roles Revisited: a Replication and a Reassessment*

The Komarovsky-Wallin thesis of women's pretending inferiority in dating situations was replicated (287 women) and is challenged. Questions are raised as to the appropriate collapsing of categories of responses and the incidence of pretended inferiority in relation to number of dates. Data from a comparison sample of men (318 men) are also presented. Evidence does not sustain the belief of women's pretensions of inferiority.     

Building Boxes and Policing Boundaries: (De)Constructing Intersexuality, Transgender and Bisexuality

The process of social differentiation, or the process of creating boxes in which we can place other people and in which we can place ourselves, is key to the existence and persistence of social inequality. The focus of this article is on the construction and maintenance of boxes and boundaries with respect to sex, gender and sexuality. We take the existence of these boxes and boundaries for granted, organizing our lives around them in a variety of ways. Exceptions to them call our categorizations and the decisions we make based upon them into question. Particularly interesting in this context are intersexuality, transgender and bisexuality. Intersexuality, transgender and bisexuality have in common the fact that they challenge our easy reliance on categories and the boundaries between those categories. Our responses to, treatment of and understanding of these exceptions provides striking insights into our system of boxes and boundaries and, correspondingly, to sex-, gender- and sexuality-based inequalities.     

From refugees to immigrants: the legalization strategies of Salvadoran immigrants and activists

"The legalization strategies pursued by Salvadoran immigrants and activists from the 1980s to the present demonstrate that migrants' and advocates' responses to policy changes reinterpret law in ways that affect future policy. Law is critical to immigrants' strategies in that [U.S.] legal status is increasingly a prerequisite for rights and services and that immigration law is embedded in other institutions and relationships. Immigration law is defined, however, not only when it is first formulated but also as it is implemented, enabling the immigrants who are defined according to legal categories to shape the definitions that categorization produces. Immigrants and activists also take formal legal and political actions, such as lobbying Congress and filing class action suits. Through such formal and informal policy negotiations, immigrants seek to shape their own and their nations' futures."     

Self-generated motives for gambling in two population-based samples of gamblers

In the present study, self-generated responses to a question regarding reasons for gambling from two epidemiological surveys were combined and placed into another earlier motivational model for alcohol use, adapted for gambling. Of the 3601 reasons, 954 could be categorised into the model's categories: (a) coping motives (internal, negative reinforcement); (b) enhancement motives (internal, positive reinforcement); and (c) social motives (external, positive reinforcement). Results indicate that coping gamblers experienced greater gambling severity and psychopathology, enhancement gamblers were most likely to gamble while intoxicated and social gamblers were more likely to choose socially-related gambling. An examination of remaining motives suggests additional categories may be warranted – specifically financial and charitable reasons. These findings offer some support for the model; however, it may need to be expanded to account for other motives. The study highlights the advantages and limitations of using self-generated reasons to study gambling motivation.     

Social transformation,collective categories,and identity change

Changes in collective categories of identity are at the core of social transformation. The causal linkages among identity change, institutional change, and change in modes of practice are, however, complex. Developing and adapting ideas from Pierre Bourdieu's work, this article shows the coexistence in tension of a plurality of elements within each collective identity category. On this basis, it proposes a typology of responses at the level of identity to socio-political change. This allows an explanation of patterns of identity change in terms of wider social processes and resource distribution, while remaining open to the sense and complexity of the individual's experience and the moments of intentionality that arise when individuals face choices as to the direction of change. The worth of the model is shown by analysis of modes of identity change in a society now experiencing radical change in socio-political structures, namely post-1998 Northern Ireland.     

Intimate partner violence: the effect of gender and contextual factors on community perceptions of harm, and suggested victim and criminal justice responses

Using a vignette to depict physical violence by an intimate partner, a 2 (perpetrator gender) X 2 (participant gender) X 2 (frequency) X 2 (intent to cause harm) between subjects factorial design was used to examine under what circumstances individuals perceive: an incident should be illegal, the extent of harm, and appropriate victim and criminal justice responses. There were 868 participants from the Brisbane (Australia) community (48.5% males). The actions of male perpetrators were viewed more seriously and the victims were recommended to seek more forms of assistance when the perpetrator was male. There were few differences in perceptions of violence according to participant gender. The frequency of the violence affected the participant's responses but the intentions of the perpetrator did not. Results are discussed in terms of stereotypes of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the implications for help-seeking behavior by victims.     

Vegetative characteristics of urban land covers in metropolitan Tucson

In this study we developed a methodology that associated land cover categories to aerial photographs. We selected 4, 42-mile (10 km2) study sites within metropolitan Tucson, Arizona for our pilot study. Land uses within these sites covered the range of landscapes found within Pima County, Arizona, although not necessarily in proportions representative of the metropolitan area. We designated land cover categories within the pilot sites based on recent (March, 1990) aerial photographs and developed a geographical information system (GIS) database of these land cover categories. We measured vegetation attributes on randomly selected samples within each land cover category and classified vegetation occurring on specific land cover categories according to the Brown et al. (1979) system. Our land cover classification system was nominal with a hierarchical structure, facilitating organization and providing flexibility for adding new categories.Our results showed that although neighborhood parks contained the greatest vegetated areas within our four study plots, very low density housing (4 acres/house), rivers whose banks were partially stabilized, naturally occurring washes (with no bank stabilization), and natural open space contained the highest percentage of native vegetation. Within our four study sites, low density housing (4 acres/house), rivers with partially stabilized banks, naturally occurring washes (no bank stabilization), and natural open space land cover categories contained the most area that was covered with vegetation providing escape cover.     

Networks,linkages, and migration systems

Recent theoretical interest in migration systems calls attention to the functions of diverse linkages between countries in stimulating, directing,and maintaining international flows of people. This article proposes a conceptual framework for the non-people linkages in international migration systems and discusses the implications for population movement of the 4 categories and 3 types of linkages that define the network. The 4 categories include 1) state to state relations, 2) mass culture connections, 3) family and personal networks, and 4) migrant agency activities. The 3 types of linkages are 1) tangible linkages, 2) regulatory linkages, and 3) relational linkages.     

Living Arrangements, Employment Status, and the Economic Well-Being of Mothers: Evidence from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S

Using data from Brazil, Chile, and the U.S., we estimate country specific models of household income that characterize mothers according to their marital status, living arrangement, and employment status. We assess the predicted economic well-being of each type of mother relative to a benchmark of married mothers in the same country, and at various points in the income distribution. We find dramatic cross-country differences in the distribution of mothers across categories, but few differences in each type's relative economic status. In all three countries and at all points in the income distribution, mothers who are the only adults in their households have the lowest levels of predicted income, while married mothers—followed closely by cohabitors—have the highest levels.