The purpose of this study was to develop a measure to understand victimization in the workplace, defined as the degree to which individuals perceive themselves as being hurt by an aggressive act that was deemed to be intentional. The definition is based on a review of the workplace aggression literature. The study followed a multi-phase procedure to develop this measure. Items were developed using a deductive process based on the construct definition. Subject matter experts reviewed the developed 30 items to assess content validity. Two independent samples were used to reduce the measure to the most appropriate and representative items to reflect the construct of perceived victimization. The construct validity of the final eight-item perceived victimization measure was examined against a theoretical nomological network. Findings suggest reliability and preliminary validity evidence for the perceived victimization measure, which may be used in research and applied settings. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Sexual assault among college students in the US has prompted debate about how to prevent and punish such crimes. Under Title IX and the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter from the Office for Civil Rights, universities are required to undertake the prevention, investigation, and punishment of sexually violent offenses on college campuses. However, the vast majority of victims do not report their assaults, whether on campus or to the police. The current study investigated the effect of victim reporting on perceptions of sexual assault. Two undergraduate samples, one from a small liberal arts college (n = 197) and another recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 56), were randomly assigned to read a vignette of an alleged sexual assault including one of four reporting conditions: no reporting, reporting to on-campus administrators, reporting to law enforcement, or reporting both on campus and to law enforcement. Outcome measures included whether the participant believed an assault had taken place, measures of victim and perpetrator culpability, and scales measuring the extent to which the participant accepts rape myths (RMA) and believes in a just world (JWB). Results failed to demonstrate an effect of victim reporting type, but did find a significant effect of gender such that males blamed the victim more and were less likely to believe an assault had taken place than females. RMA also mediated this relationship, such that the effect of gender on perceptions was accounted for by differences in RMA. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

South Africans live in a traumatized society where crime and violence are a big crisis. It is specially farm attacks that in the recent time show an increase. At the moment there are 274 farmers per 100 000 of the population in comparison with for example 153 policemen per 100 000, that are being murdered each year. In this study, a trauma counselling program is established, especially to give social support to victims of farm attacks. There are different reasons why a trauma counselling program for victims of farm attacks bas to be established: Farm attacks increase rapidly, - more than any other crimes. Farm attacks and - murder are brutal and gruesome. The farm attackers focus on torture and the infliction of severe pain and suffering. The fear that is inspired by this, leads to the termination of basic assumptions such as, that people are invulnerable, that there is a reason for everything happening and that something good will come forth. The termination of these basic assumptions lead to long term bio psychological changes in the life of the victim, his/her family and loved ones that saw or heard about the attack. This form of traumatization needs counselling. The purpose of this research was to determine the traumatic experience and the needs of victims after a farm attack. Through explanatory, descriptive, and exploratory evaluative research a way to establish and to guide the victims to take control of their lives, on the same level of social functioning as before the attack, is suggested. In this study the focus were on the following goals: Knowledge has to be gathered about the intensity of the attack and post traumatic stress reaction To achieve this aim a questionnaire for victims of farm attacks in the Northwest province has been designed and completed. The results show that there is a need for a trauma counselling program for victims of farm attacks. A trauma counselling program was designed after the results of the questionnaire were interpreted, other programs evaluated, and behavioural models studied The group work process seems to be the most appropriate to implement. The single system as method was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the designed counselling program. The results showed that the program could be used successfully to bring the necessary and desired changes in the lives of the victims of farm attacks / Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Victim offender overlap is a relatively new area of research with most studies having focused on applying this concept to the study of assault and homicide. Research in intimate partner violence has found that there exists a group of victim offenders or individuals who are involved in initiating, sustaining, and engaging in intimate partner violence as both victims and offenders (Johnson & Ferraro, 2000; Steinmetz, 1980). This Master’s thesis explored the concept of victim offender overlap in connection to intimate partner violence (IPV). Bivariate analyses were conducted using Paul C. Friday, Vivian Lord, M. Lyn Exum, and Jennifer L. Hartman’s (2003-2005) data, Evaluating the Impact of a Specialized Domestic Violence Police Unit in Charlotte, North Carolina. The findings suggest that there is a separate group of individuals involved in intimate partner violence who are both victims and offenders. Furthermore, the three groups (offenders only of IPV, victims only of IPV, and victim/offenders of IPV) were found to be different across gender, past criminal involvement, and future criminal activity as predicted. Suggestions for future research and the implications of the findings are discussed.

Relationships between victim race, defendant race, participant characteristics, and general perceptions were assessed as they pertained to the final verdict. Photographs and brief date rape vignette were given to 339 participants. Participants were also asked to respond to follow-up questionnaire, Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Short Form scale, and Feeling Thermometer. Finally, participants were asked to render a final verdict, guilty or not guilty. Results indicated that participants’ perceptions relating towards responsibility significant predicted the likelihood of a guilty verdict being rendered. Additionally, results showed that there were significant differences across victim race and defendant race on verdict, such that overall the further the victim and defendant were apart on the color line, the more likely it would be for that case to receive a guilty verdict. Several participant variables also had significant effects on verdict, assignments of responsibility, and warmth towards specific racial groups. Results, future directions, and general implications are discussed.

In the aftermath of armed conflict, peace and justice are no longer perceived as contradictory. Scholars and practitioners alike have increasingly argued that societies emerging from periods of conflict or repression need to address legacies of past mass violence and human rights abuses in order to sustain peace. This is the rationale behind the evolving field of transitional justice. While it is stated that transitional justice also makes headway in contemporary peace agreements, existing literature tends to remain unspecific. Albeit being the most victim-centred among the range of transitional justice mechanisms, the incorporation of reparation for victims of mass violence into peace agreements is particularly under-researched. This research gap is even more puzzling as it is a “basic maxim of law that harms should be remedied” (Roht-Arriaza 2004: 121). In response to this, this thesis establishes that only around a third of intra-state peace agreements signed from 2000 to 2009 have addressed reparation. Further, by means of an analytical framework that embeds thematic analysis within the structure of framing theory’s model of meaning-making, it maps how the studied peace agreements assign meaning to reparation in their texts. As a result, two themes labelled ‘reparation as the fulfilment of basic needs’ and ‘reparation as an act of justice’ are identified as constituting the broader patterns of meaning held within peace agreements’ reparation provisions. While the language of the latter equips harmed individuals with rights as victims, the former theme focuses instead on individual vulnerability and collective development needs. It deemphasises the link between harm experienced and violation committed. As it is suggested that the employment of particular themes and terminology lifts certain issues up the agenda while marginalising others, peace agreements’ authoritative meaning-making directly impacts on the lives of those victimised during conflict. Hence, this thesis highlights the need for more systematic research in this area to strengthen evidence-based reparation advocacy during peace processes.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Identification of the victims of a mass fatality incident is considered a basic human right.Forensic odontology frequently makes a significant contribution to the identification process following major disasters, and is considered a primary identifier in the Interpol Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Guidelines. Many authors have indicated that to achieve identification with dignity and respect requires practical guidelines and standard operating procedures. No internationally accepted guidelines currently exist for the practice of forensic odontology in DVI situations. This report documents the development of a comprehensive practice guide for use by Australian forensic odontologists in a mass fatality incident. To understand the value of this document in a professional context the project also looked at the development and application of forensic odontology in multiple fatality incidents in Australia. This evolution has seen forensic odontology grow from a spasmodically used ad-hoc service to the consistent professional service delivered by practitioners today. The research question addressed in this project was “Is the Delphi technique is an appropriate tool to assist the Australian Society of Forensic Odontology to develop a set of guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for Disaster Victim Identification practices”? Thirty one members of the Australian Society of Forensic Odontology and four members of various Australian police services and the private disaster management sector participated in the project. The participants set the level of consensus against which they wished to work and took 4 rounds to reach agreement on the contents of the document. The resultant document, the “Disaster Victim Identification Forensic Odontology Guide” is comprehensive in coverage, meets many of the criteria established to define quality and places the Australian Society of Forensic Odontology at the vanguard of professionalism in the forensic odontology community, and confirms the Delphi technique was an appropriate tool to assist in the development of a set of guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for Disaster Victim Identification practices.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Identification of the victims of a mass fatality incident is considered a basic human right.Forensic odontology frequently makes a significant contribution to the identification process following major disasters, and is considered a primary identifier in the Interpol Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Guidelines. Many authors have indicated that to achieve identification with dignity and respect requires practical guidelines and standard operating procedures. No internationally accepted guidelines currently exist for the practice of forensic odontology in DVI situations. This report documents the development of a comprehensive practice guide for use by Australian forensic odontologists in a mass fatality incident. To understand the value of this document in a professional context the project also looked at the development and application of forensic odontology in multiple fatality incidents in Australia. This evolution has seen forensic odontology grow from a spasmodically used ad-hoc service to the consistent professional service delivered by practitioners today. The research question addressed in this project was “Is the Delphi technique is an appropriate tool to assist the Australian Society of Forensic Odontology to develop a set of guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for Disaster Victim Identification practices”? Thirty one members of the Australian Society of Forensic Odontology and four members of various Australian police services and the private disaster management sector participated in the project. The participants set the level of consensus against which they wished to work and took 4 rounds to reach agreement on the contents of the document. The resultant document, the “Disaster Victim Identification Forensic Odontology Guide” is comprehensive in coverage, meets many of the criteria established to define quality and places the Australian Society of Forensic Odontology at the vanguard of professionalism in the forensic odontology community, and confirms the Delphi technique was an appropriate tool to assist in the development of a set of guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for Disaster Victim Identification practices.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2010. / Adviser: Jana Jasinski. Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-52).