The Importance of Domestic Violence-Sensitive Language

Abstract

It is important for judges to accurately convey what they intend when speaking to litigants involved in domestic violence. Language has idiosyncratic meaning to perpetrators and to victims. Therefore, it is imperative that judges know and understand the language of domestic violence and use it properly. This editorial comments on some of the pitfalls of improper use of language, its impact, and suggests some solutions.     

A Qualitative Analysis of College Women's Leaving Processes in Abusive Relationships

Abstract

Objective: This study assessed the process of leaving an abusive dating relationship utilizing a qualitative design. Methods: Participants included 123 college women in abusive dating relationships who participated at the beginning and end of a 10-week academic quarter. Results: Qualitative content analyses were used to analyze the transcribed responses to an open-ended question about women's leaving processes over the interim period. A variety of categories and themes emerged for women in different stages of the leaving process, consistent with the Transtheoretical Model of Change and Investment Model. Data also underscored women's lack of acknowledgment, minimization, and normalization of abuse. Conclusions: These data demonstrate the importance of dating violence intervention and prevention programming on college campuses and offer information that may be useful to college health providers who assist women in abusive dating relationships.     

Leadership Dimensions,the Critical Link for the Evolution of Collaboration

Abstract

This article traces the history of one community's efforts to coordinate services to address family violence. The current mazeof organizations in communities is overwhelming to the professionals who work in them, the political leaders who authorize them, the foundations and United Ways who fund them, and, most assuredly, to the persons for whom the various organizations were established. A review of the literature on coordination and collaboration is included as well as a discussion of leadership challenges during the various stages in the evolutionary process to provide confidential, culturally sensitive, comprehensive, accountable, and user-friendly community social service systems.     

非正常时期理想主义与群体暴力的悖论——以法德两国为例

理想主义往往让人联想到伦理学的至善，但理想主义者却往往由于对自己理论和道德的过分自信、对理想社会的过分执著而表现出对他人的不宽容，从而演化出理论上和实践上的暴力事实。法国大革命和德国纳粹为我们提供了绝好的案例来思考二者之间的悖论。     

Relational Aggression in Peer and Dating Relationships: Links to Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment

We examined the contribution of relational aggression in adolescents' peer and dating relationships to their psychological and behavioral adjustment. In the Fall and again four months later, 1279 (646 female) grade 9 students reported on relational aggression perpetration and victimization in their romantic and peer relationships, depression/anxiety symptoms (psychological adjustment) and delinquency (behavioral adjustment). Using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for Time 1 adjustment/behavior, peer relational aggression perpetration predicted depression/anxiety. Dating relational victimization also predicted depression/anxiety, but only for girls. Furthermore, girls who were perpetrators of relational aggression in both peer and dating contexts were most likely to show increases in delinquent behavior. We conclude that dating and peer relationships are not redundant, but make independent and additive contributions to adolescent adjustment. Girls, in particular, may be at greatest risk for poor outcomes when they have relationally aggressive relationships. Results also highlight the need for greater awareness of the complexity and significance of adolescent dating relationships.     

“It's the Beast Thing”

This article examines the representations of men and masculinities in contemporary crime narratives featuring a female protagonist. These “chick dick” stories (which adapt elements from the hardboiled detective novel, film noir, chick lit, and chick flicks) repeatedly engage with the gendered power dynamics made visible and problematic through the intersection of “chick” and crime genres, most particularly the sexualization of violence. In these narratives, popular masculinities operate as deployable concepts to dramatize contemporary gender relations. By tapping into the popular sentiment of a “crisis in masculinity,” chick dick texts also mobilize a rhetoric of unrepresentable male victimization and individual male pathologies. This strategy highlights the spaces and places in which masculinities are made vulnerable at the same time as it offers simplistic and individualized explanations for the systemic sexualized violence that dominate these narratives.     

The Dilemma of "Authentic Self" Ideology in Contemporary Japan

This paper examines dilemmas inherent in the pursuit of the modern ideology of "authentic self", which first emerged in the 1960s and is now widespread in contemporary cultures. The ideology is exemplified, in a religious scene, as "self-transformative" religions wherein seekers seek to transform themselves spiritually in order to realize their authentic, or "sacred" selves. Through an examination of Aum Shinrikyo, which began as a typical "self-transformative" religion but later transformed into a destructive cult, I will explain the intrinsic moral imperatives of the ideology of "authenticity". This study of Aum explores the introverted lifestyle and extreme desocialization, which resulted in obsession with the central guru, being legitimated by the ideology. This search for "authenticity" resulted in the members cutting themselves off from the reality of the world. The final analysis suggests that possible consequences of the endless pursuit of the "authentic self" are a "vacuum" self and a loss of empathy with other people. The ontological conditions created by this bring about potential destructiveness, either internal or external.     

Teenage Black Girls and Violence: Coming of Age in an Urban Environment

Abstract

Exposure to violence and fear of violence in relation to hopefulness and anger were investigated for 30 teenage Black girls 14 to 19 years of age. Information from focus groups was included to provide a context for the empirical data. Results indicated that overall the girls were hopeful, with a mean score of 135 (SD = 18.2) out of a possible score of 168. Correlation and regression procedures revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between hopefulness and exposure to violence. No significant relationship was found between anger and hopefulness. Fear of violence was positively related to exposure to violence but did not appear related to anger or hopefulness. The findings were mixed and did not capture the kind of hopelessness and anger which often appear in the literature describing children growing up in urban environments. Through the use of focus groups the teenage girls provided contextual information which seemed to indicate that many of them shared the values of mainstream society in terms of their future aspirations and assessment of their communities.     

The Prevention of School Violence

Abstract

This paper highlights theproblems of school violenceand delinquency among youth in our society. It presents research involving regression analysis of data available at the county level for the state of Illinois. A cross-sectional design is utilized for the 102 counties of that state. Results indicate that school violence isimpacted by demographics, i.e, the number of African Americans and whites, while controlling for the youth population. However, school violence is primarily affected by the level of domestic violence and the level of hate crimes in the respective counties. Evidence suggests this to be the primary focus of preven-tion.