Journal of Interpersonal Violence

This multigenerational study empirically demonstrates the extent to which offspring whose parents experienced childhood abuse are at increased risk of being abused or neglected.Females with substantiated childhood sexual abuse and nonabused comparison females were assessed at six points spanning 18 years in a prospective, longitudinal study.Nonabusing parents or caregivers and offspring were also assessed.Descriptive results indicate that offspring born to mothers with histories of sexual abuse were more likely to be born preterm, have a teenage mother, and be involved in protective services.Abused mothers were more likely to be high-school dropouts, be obese, and have experienced psychiatric problems, substance dependence, and domestic violence.Results provide evidence for the advantages of intervention and prevention programs for victims of childhood maltreatment and their families.Primary prevention/intervention efforts extending throughout development and focusing on the cumulative risk to offspring will likely improve victim outcomes and curtail intergenerational transmission of adversity.

Over multiple generations, American Indian communities have endured a succession of traumatic events that have enduring consequences for community members. This article presents a multilevel framework for exploring the impact of historically traumatic events on individuals, families, and communities. The critical connection between historically traumatic events and contemporary stressors is also discussed at length.

Social service professionals are more frequently identifying children who witness adult domestic violence as victims of that abuse. This article expands common definitions of how children witness adult domestic violence. A total of 31 research articles that met established quality criteria were included in this review. A variety of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive-functioning problems among children were found to be associated with exposure to domestic violence. Factors that appear to moderate the impact of witnessing violence—such as whether the child was also abused, child gender and age, and the time since last exposure to violence—were identified. Concerns about research methodology used in this area of research and the application of this knowledge also are raised.

Although male rape is being reported more often than before, the majority of rape victims continue to be women. Rape myths-false beliefs used mainly to shift the blame of rape from perpetrators to victims-are also prevalent in today's society and in many ways contribute toward the pervasiveness of rape. Despite this, there has been limited consideration as to how rape prevention programs and policies can address this phenomenon, and there is no updated information on the demographic, attitudinal, or behavioral factors currently associated with rape myths. This research aimed to address this gap by examining the correlates of rape-myths acceptance (RMA) in published studies. A total of 37 studies were reviewed, and their results were combined using meta-analytic techniques. Overall, the findings indicated that men displayed a significantly higher endorsement of RMA than women. RMA was also strongly associated with hostile attitudes and behaviors toward women, thus supporting feminist premise that sexism perpetuates RMA. RMA was also found to be correlated with other "isms," such as racism, heterosexism, classism, and ageism. These findings suggest that rape prevention programs and policies must be broadened to incorporate strategies that also address other oppressive beliefs concurrent with RMA. Indeed, a renewed awareness of how RMA shapes societal perceptions of rape victims, including perceptions of service providers, could also reduce victims' re-victimization and enhance their coping mechanisms.

Using survey responses collected via the Internet from a U.S. national probability sample of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults (N = 662), this article reports prevalence estimates of criminal victimization and related experiences based on the target's sexual orientation. Approximately 20% of respondents reported having experienced a person or property crime based on their sexual orientation; about half had experienced verbal harassment, and more than 1 in 10 reported having experienced employment or housing discrimination. Gay men were significantly more likely than lesbians or bisexuals to experience violence and property crimes. Employment and housing discrimination were significantly more likely among gay men and lesbians than among bisexual men and women. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Information about the relationship of experiencing abuse or witnessing domestic violence in childhood to the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood is scant. The relationship of childhood physical or sexual abuse or growing up with a battered mother to the risk of being a victim of IPV for women or a perpetrator for men was studied among 8,629 participants in the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study conducted in a large HMO. Each of the three violent childhood experiences increased the risk of victimization or perpetration of IPV approximately two-fold. A statistically significant graded relationship was found between the number of violent experiences and the risk of IPV. Among persons who had all three forms of violent childhood experiences, the risk of victimization and perpetration was increased 3.5-fold for women and 3.8-fold for men. These data suggest that as part of risk assessment for IPV in adults, screening for a history of childhood abuse or exposure to domestic violence is needed.

The Danger Assessment (DA) is an instrument designed to assess the likelihood of lethality or near lethality occurring in a case of intimate partner violence. This article describes the development, psychometric validation, and suggestions for use of the DA. An 11-city study of intimate partner femicide used multivariate analysis to test the predictive validity of the risk factors on the DA from intimate partner femicide cases (N = 310) compared with 324 abused women in the same cities (controls). The results were used to revise the DA (four items added; one "double-barreled" item divided into two), and the calculated weights (adjusted odds ratios) used to develop a scoring algorithm with levels of risk. These levels of risk were then tested with an independent sample of attempted femicides (N = 194) with a final outcome of .90 of the cases included in the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Although prevention efforts aimed at eliminating the occurrence of sexual assault are clearly needed, it is also important to consider how we can prevent further trauma among those already victimized. Prior research suggests that rape survivors may experience victim-blaming treatment from system personnel ( termed secondary victimization or the second rape). This research examined how postassault contact with community systems exacerbated rape victims' psychological and physical health distress. Findings revealed that the majority of rape survivors who reported their assault to the legal or medical system did not receive needed services. These difficulties with service delivery were associated with both perceived and objective measures of negative health outcomes. Contact with the mental health system, rape crisis centers, or religious communities was generally perceived by victims as beneficial. This study suggests that the trauma of rape extends far beyond the assault itself, as negative community responses can significantly elevate distress.

A 33-item Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC-33) is presented, and the psychometric properties of this scale are summarized from four separate studies. Developed to assess the impact of childhood abuse on later (adult) functioning, the TSC-33 consists of five subscales (Dissociation, Anxiety, Depression, Post-Sexual Abuse Trauma-hypothesized [PSAT-h], and Sleep Disturbance) and a total scale score. Data suggest that the TSC-33 and its associated subscales are reasonably reliable measures that display some predictive and discriminative validity with regard to childhood sexual abuse. Other variables appear to elevate checklist scores as well, however, such as physical abuse history and mental health client status, although apparently not gender.

This article will present data gathered by the authors through structured clinical interviews of 561 paraphiliacs regarding demographic characteristics, frequency and variety of deviant sexual acts, and number and characteristics of victims. Results show that nonincarcerated sex offenders (1) are well educated and socioeconomically diverse; (2) report an average number of crimes and victims that is substantially higher than that represented in the current literature; and (3) sexually molest young boys with an incidence that is five times greater than the molestation of young girls. The relevance of these findings is discussed.

The increasing reliance on digital communications and remote working arrangements has introduced new opportunities for workplace sexual harassment. Technology-facilitated workplace sexual harassment involves unwelcome and/or threatening sexual conduct via mobile, online and other digital platforms within workplace contexts. While face-to-face sexual harassment is widely addressed in organizational policies and legislation, technology-facilitated forms remain comparatively underexamined, particularly from a perpetration perspective. This study presents the findings from a national Australian survey ( n = 3,356), examining the prevalence, modality, attitudinal correlates and demographic predictors of workplace sexual harassment perpetration among respondents who identified as men or women. Binary and multinomial logistic regression models were used to identify predictors of perpetration across modalities, whereas negative binomial regression models examined behavioral intensity and cross-modality associations among perpetrators ( n = 870). Overall, 26.0% of respondents reported engaging in at least one form of workplace sexual harassment, including 3.4% who engaged exclusively in technology-facilitated harassment, 8.1% exclusively in face-to-face harassment and 14.5% in both modalities. Discriminatory attitudes and sexual harassment myth acceptance emerged as the strongest attitudinal predictors of perpetration. Younger age, identifying as a man and urban residence were also associated with elevated odds of perpetration, with the largest effects observed among dual-modality perpetrators. Higher technology-facilitated behavior counts were associated with higher face-to-face behavior counts (incidence rate ratio = 1.19, p < .001), indicating substantial overlap between modalities. These findings suggest that technology-facilitated workplace sexual harassment forms part of a broader pattern of workplace sexual harassment perpetration and highlights the importance of prevention strategies that address discriminatory attitudes, sexual harassment myths and technology-facilitated behaviors within workplace policy and practice.

We need to build broader, comprehensive and well-established curricula incorporating violence prevention along with other life skills, prevention practices, health information, character building and decision-making. We might be able to take advantage of the curricular revolution that is likely to arrive soon. This revolution will be from the greater deployment of artificial intelligence to personalize the learning process. Strategies are needed to overcome the obstacles to the collaborations required to create these comprehensive curricula. Evaluations are needed of these comprehensive approaches.

Domestic violence (DV), death by suicide, and death by overdose are major public health concerns in the United States. While existing studies have documented associations of DV with both suicide and overdose, most studies utilize nonfatal outcomes and lifetime DV exposure. In this population-based case-control study, we aimed to estimate the association of both suicide death and overdose death with involvement in a DV case, either as a victim or alleged perpetrator, referred for felony charges in the year prior to death. All deaths in King County, Washington, United States or deaths occurring elsewhere among King County residents were included ( N = 113,388), as were all felony DV referrals to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Suicide deaths ( n = 2,243) and overdose deaths ( n = 3,578) were separately matched to deaths of all other causes, and conditional logistic regression was used to determine associations of case status with DV referral in the year prior to death. We found an association of DV referral as a defendant with both suicide (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 3.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] [2.33, 5.81], p < .01) and overdose (aOR = 2.47, 95% CI [1.67, 3.66], p < .01). We also found an association of DV referral as a victim with overdose death (aOR = 4.36, 95% CI [2.76, 6.87], p < .01) but not with suicide (aOR = 0.74, 95% CI [0.18, 3.02], p = .42). These findings highlight a need for suicide and overdose prevention efforts among people involved in DV cases. Future research could evaluate prevention strategies and examine mediating links between DV and both suicide and overdose.

This study investigates the association between adolescent violent victimization and intergenerational educational mobility (i.e., whether one's educational attainment exceeds, matches, or falls below that of one's parents) in adulthood, as well as how this relationship varies by race and ethnicity. Data were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative cohort following U.S. adolescents into adulthood. The analytic sample included 8,620 respondents with data at Wave I (1994-1995; ages 12-19) and Wave V (2016-2018; ages 33-44). Educational mobility was categorized as (a) upward, (b) stable, or (c) downward based on respondents' highest educational attainment at Wave V compared to their parents' highest educational attainment at Wave I. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the association between self-reported violent victimization from Wave I and patterns of educational mobility. Overall, 24.8% of respondents experienced upward educational mobility, 14.9% downward mobility, and 60.3% stable educational mobility. In the full sample, violent victimization was not significantly associated with educational mobility. In stratified analyses, violent victimization was significantly associated with a lower likelihood of upward educational mobility (relative risk ratios [RRR] = 0.763, 95% CI [0.594, 0.982]) among non-Hispanic Black respondents. Findings suggest that adolescent violent victimization may constrain opportunities for upward educational mobility among Black individuals. Addressing adolescent violence exposure through prevention and school-based support may help reduce intergenerational educational inequities.

Research on child sexual abuse has predominantly focused on cases that typically begin in early childhood. By contrast, sexual abuse and boundary violations that first occur during adolescence have received comparatively little attention. This study aims to analyze the similarities and differences in the age of abuse onset in childhood and adolescence, considering victim characteristics and abuse-related factors. The study is based on anonymously collected data from the German Sexual Abuse Telephone Helpline covering the years 2016 to 2024. The sample comprises 1,935 reported cases of sexual abuse that began in childhood or adolescence. The study examined similarities and differences between victims whose abuse began in childhood versus those whose abuse began during adolescence using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and logistic regression analyses. The age of onset in childhood was significantly more likely to be associated with contact, non-penetrative abuse. By contrast, the age of onset in adolescence was significantly linked to penetrative acts. Childhood-onset abuse cases occurred more often within the family, with fathers and grandfathers being the predominant perpetrators. By contrast, abuse that began in adolescence was significantly associated with non-familial contexts, most commonly involving strangers, sports coaches, and teachers as perpetrators. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable in specific contexts, such as institutional settings. This developmental phase is characterized by growing autonomy, sexual exploration, and spending more time outside the family environment. These factors can make adolescents vulnerable to abuse. Professional fields and society need to raise awareness and learn to recognize and respond to the needs of victims who experienced abuse during adolescence.

Previous research highlights critical Veteran-civilian differences in antisocial behavior, including unique demographic and offense characteristics among justice-involved Veterans and disproportionately high involvement of Veterans in family violence. However, comparatively limited empirical attention has investigated potential victim characteristics of Veterans with criminal-legal involvement, resulting in a limited understanding of these Veterans’ criminogenic and rehabilitative needs. Using a nationally representative sample of incarcerated adults convicted of violent offenses, the current study compared offense and victim characteristics among incarcerated Veterans ( N = 1,112) and civilians ( N = 10,448) and among incarcerated Veterans with and without histories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or combat exposure. Veterans had a greater likelihood than civilians of being incarcerated for sexual offenses and for offenses against persons who were female; under age 18 years old; well-known to the offender; and a spouse, child, or stepchild of the offender. Veterans also had a greater likelihood of acting alone and a lower likelihood of using a firearm at the time of offense. Offense and victim characteristics were not consistently associated with Veteran histories of PTSD or combat exposure. Findings are broadly consistent with the extant literature highlighting potentially elevated rates of family violence among Veterans compared to civilians. Findings support the potential benefit of developing guidance for screening and identification efforts, coordination and integration of resources and services to mitigate risk among at-risk Veterans and their families, and rehabilitative interventions for Veterans with criminal-legal involvement.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among LGBTQ+ individuals differs from experiences of cisgender heterosexual individuals. LGBTQ+ individuals report higher rates of IPV and face unique dynamics related to their minority gender and sexual identities, such as identity-related abuse. Guided by the Minority Stress Theory, this study is based on the premise that stigma associated with sexual and gender minority identities contributes to an increased risk of IPV as well as poorer mental health outcomes. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, this study explored the experiences of IPV and related impact on mental health outcomes, namely symptoms of depression and suicide risk, in LGBTQ+ individuals residing in Spain. A total of 375 LGBTQ+ individuals completed quantitative surveys. After completing the survey, participants were given the option of participating in a follow-up interview. A total of 17 individuals participated in qualitative interviews. Quantitative analyses encompassed chi-square testing, ANOVA, and regression analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Integration of results was drawn through narratives and joint display. Findings provide insight into the dynamics of IPV including identity-related abuse among LGBTQ+ individuals and highlight the complexity of their victimization experiences. Findings indicate that IPV victimization increases symptoms of depression and suicide in the sample, with qualitative data emphasizing the severity of these mental health outcomes. Additionally, qualitative themes reflect the complexities on IPV experiences among LGBTQ+ individuals and how these experiences impacted their mental health. These findings have important implications for developing preventive measures and intervention strategies tailored for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Sexual misconduct remains a pervasive issue across university settings, with research consistently demonstrating that women experience disproportionately high levels of harm and that men are the predominant perpetrators. This article explores students’ reflections on their engagement with, and learnings from, an Australian Law School’s sexual misconduct training program. Drawing on qualitative data from five focus groups with law students who had participated in the program ( N = 20), we explored how students interpreted bystander concepts, how participants described the role of gendered norms in shaping confidence and intervention practices, and how facilitator gender was perceived to influence engagement. Our analysis explored three interrelated themes: (a) student confidence and competence in bystander intervention; (b) gendered dynamics of engagement and participation and (c) the perceived influence of facilitator gender on the training experience. Findings revealed participant uncertainty about recognising harm and navigating the social risks associated with intervention, particularly within their peer networks. Participant accounts also highlighted gendered differences in engagement with the training. While many women described engaging closely with the material, some men reported discomfort and concerns about the social repercussions of intervening. Participants further emphasised the importance of how men are positioned within prevention efforts, with some suggesting that deficit-based approaches discouraged men’s engagement, whereas framing men as allies was perceived to encourage participation. Reflections on the influence of gender were mixed. While some participants highlighted the symbolic value of male facilitators in encouraging male engagement, others emphasised that facilitator skill and program framing were more important than gender alone. The study suggests that peer-led programs grounded in practical examples and inclusive facilitation may strengthen bystander intervention and support men’s engagement as allies in sexual misconduct prevention.

Festschrift for Jon Conte's research idea. Effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adults exist but are not widely available. Among those who have access, there is variability in response: some do not engage, some are better within a few sessions and some are not better at the endpoint. Even among trained providers, there is drift from adherent delivery over time. Clients with PTSD typically receive whatever the provider has to offer. An alternative approach is measurement-based care (MBC) that focuses on outcomes versus treatment model or content. MBC is the regular collaborative review of free and valid measures of PTSD, with treatment planning adjusted based on results. The hypothesis is that MBC will affect provider behavior with greater attention to recovery. MBC is conceptualized as a client-centered, recovery-focused approach. The test is a naturalistic prospective randomized trial with three conditions: usual care, MBC and MBC+ (consultant support). It is feasible and low burden, as providers are permitted to deliver treatment for PTSD based on their own clinical judgement.

Stalking is a behavior that negatively impacts individuals of all gender identities, and yet public threat perceptions often revolve around cisheteronormative relationship stereotypes. The present qualitative study aimed to explore how observers construct threat perceptions associated with stalking, focusing on perpetrator and victim gender (man, woman, nonbinary) and relationship type (stranger, ex-intimate). Undergraduate psychology students ( N = 243) completed an online vignette survey, answering four exploratory open-ended questions that detail concerns related to the perpetrator’s and victim’s behavior and their relationship. Reflexive thematic analysis generated four themes: Perceptions of Escalation and Dangerous Behavior; Normalization, Minimization, and Justification of Stalking Behavior; Relational Dynamics and Misconceptions of Consent ; and Victim Blame and Protection Strategies . Findings suggest that gendered stereotypes and victim-blaming narratives persist among young adults. Greater public awareness of the prevalence, nature, diversity, and harms associated with stalking may lead to better protection for gender diverse victims and ensure their experiences are recognized and sincerely appreciated in social, clinical, and legal contexts.