This study examines relationship violence among college students, focusing on the predictive roles of their sociodemographic characteristics and domestic violence beliefs. College students experience an extremely high level of abuse among intimate partners, with prevalence rates ranging between 20 and 50%. Since relationship violence among college students is such a widespread problem, it is important to understand what lies at the foundation of this type of abuse. Findings from previous studies demonstrate correlations between sociodemographic characteristics and perpetration of relationship violence as well as correlations between beliefs supportive of abuse among intimate partners and perpetration of relationship violence. However, research to date fails to fully explore the potential interactions between these variables. In an attempt to fill this void, the current study uses data from the Relationship Characteristics Study conducted in 2001, which includes a sample of 1,938 college students, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of relationship violence among college students. This study examines the associations between students' (1) sociodemographic characteristics, including race and ethnicity, university year, parents' education, family income, parents' marital status, and students' relationship status as well as additional risk factors, consisting of alcohol consumption, drug use, and witnessing interparental violence, (2) domestic violence beliefs, including empirically-based and myth-based domestic violence causation endorsements as well as physical and sexual abuse, stalking, and verbal abuse definitions, and (3) relationship violence perpetration, including negotiation, psychological aggression, physical assault, sexual coercion, and injury. Separate analyses are conducted for male and female college students. Based on previous research and theoretical foundations, it was expected that both college students' sociodemographic characteristics and their domestic violence beliefs would be predictive of relationship violence perpetration. It was further hypothesized that students' sociodemographic characteristics would impact their domestic violence beliefs. Findings generally support these expectations. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

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The six research papers and journal articles that form this submission all focus on the nature of and response to young people and young adults who have experienced relationship violence and non-partner sexual violence in New York City (NYC). These six empirical papers are based on three primary research studies in which I was the Principal Investigator spanning four years of research work: • A quantitative study of 1,312 young people in NYC high schools, • A survey of 65 survivors of sexual violence about their experiences with services (hospital, counselling, police and criminal justice) in NYC, and • A comprehensive survey of 39 emergency departments in NYC about acute care provision for sexual assault patients. These studies are innovative in that all three are ‘firsts’ in the field of violence prevention and response: ‘Partners and Peers’ was the first study of its kind to explore the prevalence of sexual and dating violence in NYC amongst high school students. This study found that 16.2% or more than 1 in 6 students surveyed reported experiencing sexual violence at some point in their lives. Of these youth, 10.1% reported experiencing non-partner sexual violence (sexual abuse or forced sex), and 14.1% reported experiencing sexual violence from a dating partner. The survey was available in both Spanish and English (both versions translated and back-translated). Passive parental consent and student assent were obtained with parental consent letters available in English, Spanish and Chinese. Three ethical review boards, including the NYC Department of Education, approved this study. ‘A Room of Our Own’ was the first study to explore from survivors’ own perspectives their satisfaction with the care and support they received post-assault in NYC with the majority of respondents having experienced a sexual assault under the age of 25 (study was approved by eight Ethics Review Boards), and ‘How Safe is NYC’ was the first study to comprehensively map protocols, procedures and services offered across Emergency Departments in NYC including how adolescent patients are treated. All three of these studies garnering significant media coverage which appeared in the New York Sun, The Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Daily News, El Diario and on CBS news (TV) and WBAI radio. Three of the six submitted publications have already been ranked internally as part of the Moray House School of Education’s REF submission (my 4th REF submission was another journal article on a different area of child protection) and they have all been recognised as internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour. This body of work has had and continues to have significant implications for practice as highlighted in this thesis. The study of survivors’ perspectives and acute care responses in emergency departments led directly to a change in New York State Law for ambulance destination designation and a commitment from the NYC Mayor for Sexual Assault Forensic Services in all public NYC hospitals. The school-based study findings also directly led the NYC Chancellor to change the disciplinary regulations in all New York City high schools in relation to adolescent relationship violence. This research highlights the need for practitioners, policymakers and researchers to better understand the nature of relationship violence and non-partner sexual violence among adolescents and young adults in New York City in order to develop evidence-informed programmes and policies for prevention and response.

This study aims to examine the experiences of different professions of how women who report violence in close relationships experience the preliminary investigation process and which factors affect women's participation during the investigation. The study is conducted through eight semi-structured interviews with different professional groups who worked with women exposed to violence in close relationships. The various professions we have chosen to interview work with sheltered housing, at women's shelters, within the police and at the social administration. The material has been analyzed through thematic analysis with an abductive approach. We analyze the result using symbolic interactionism and the normalization process as a theoretical perspective. The results of the study show that the police response affects women's propensity to participate in investigations. The police response can both motivate and discourage women. The competence of the police is therefore important in order to be able to respond to women in the right way. Information, feedback and trust in the police are factors that can influence the extent to which the woman will participate during the preliminary investigation process. / <p>2022-01-31</p>

Sammanfattning Titel: ’’Det är ju ett våldsamt liv, att vara missbrukare’’- Socialsekreterares syn på ASI- intervjuns användbarhet beträffande våld i nära relationer  Författare: Isabell Eklöf och Mimmi Wallin Nilsson  Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare inom alkohol-och drogmissbruksområdet uppfattar ASI-intervjuns användbarhet att identifiera våld i nära relation samt stödja våldsutsatta och våldsutövare. Data samlades in genom fem semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare inom alkohol- och drogmissbrukområdet med erfarenhet av ASI i Sverige. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av tidigare forskning och begreppen handlingsutrymme samt relationskompetens, yrkeskompetens och handlingskompetens. Resultatet visar att ASI-intervjun är ett bra verktyg för att screena våld i nära relation men inte för att stödja våldsutövare och våldsutsatta. Flertalet faktorer påverkar ASI-intervjuns användbarhet; bland annat klienternas komplexa problematik, relationen mellan socialsekreterare och klient, samt socialsekreterarens intresse att ställa följdfrågor. Troligtvis hade ASI-intervjun varit mer användbar om frågornas utformning justerats. En slutsats är att det är upp till den enskilde socialsekreteraren och dess handlingsutrymme hur användbar ASI-intervjun är. / Abstract Title: ”It is a violent life to be an addict” - Social workers' views on the usefulness of the  ASI interview regarding violence in intimate relationships.  Authors: Isabell Eklöf and Mimmi Wallin Nilsson  The purpose of the study was to investigate how social workers in the alcohol and drug abuse field perceive the ASI interview’s usefulness to identify violence in intimate relationships and support victims and perpetrators. Data were collected through five semi- structured interviews with social workers in the alcohol and drug abuse field with experience of ASI in Sweden. The result was analyzed with previous research, the concept room for maneuver, relational competence, professional competence and action competence. The results showed that ASI is useful for screening violence in intimate relationships, but not for supporting perpetrators and victims. The social workers' interest in asking follow-up questions, clients' complex problems and the relationship between social worker and client are examples of what affects the ASI' usefulness. ASI could be more useful if the questions were adjusted. One conclusion is that the individual social worker and their room for maneuver determines the ASI’s usefulness.

This purpose of this study was to combine two bodies of literature on relationships, attachment and violence. Given the impact of men's physical aggression and emotional abuse on women, it is likely that these behaviors would also affect attachment. A model proposing that women's attachment style mediated and moderated the relationship between partners' physical and emotional abuse and the stability of women's relationships was tested. Archival data were used from two waves of interviews with a sample of lowincome, ethnically diverse community women. Most (89%) of the initial 835 participants of Project HOW: Health Outcomes of Women completed at least one additional interview providing information on the status of their initial relationships. Of these women, 39% were African American, 30% were Euro-American, and 31% were Mexican American. The effects of men's psychological abuse and physical violence on women's attachment style were tested with regression analyses. The interrelationships between partners' abuse, attachment and relational stability were tested with SEM. Attachment style was expected to moderate the associations among variables and mediate the impact of partners' negative behavior on relational stability. In regression analyses, partners' psychological abuse predicted avoidant and anxious, but not secure attachment ratings. Violence, although significant, explained less variance than psychological abuse for insecure attachment ratings. SEM indicated Physical Aggression was not a significant predictor of Attachment Rating in any group. Moderation was not found. There were no differences between attachment groups. Therefore, attachment was tested in the sample as a mediator. As in analyses for each group, the path from Physical Aggression to Attachment Rating was not significant. In the final model, Emotional Abuse predicted Physical Aggression and Attachment Rating mediated the effect of Emotional Abuse on Relational Stability. Specifically, Emotional Abuse increased (insecure) Attachment Rating, which decreased Relational Stability. Overall, previous research in the violence literature was extended by showing that emotional abuse affected attachment, rather than the reverse.

Les jeunes adultes commettent plus souvent des conduites violentes au sein de leur couple que les adultes plus âgés. Le but de cette étude est de proposer une classification de jeunes adultes violents au sein de leur couple à l’aide de variables motivationnelles et d’évaluer la validité discriminante des profils au niveau de variables liées à la violence psychologique et physique et de comparer les profils motivationnels à un groupe de jeunes adultes non violent. Les 457 participants de cette étude sont des jeunes adultes de la population générale provenant de la région de Québec et de Montréal. L’analyse de classification two-step cluster à permis de trouver trois profils distincts : (1) le réactif (2) le commun et (3) l’hostile. Les analyses comparatives démontrent que les réactifs sont ceux qui commettent le plus d’actes de violence physique différents, que les communs sont les moins violents, les moins en détresse et perçoivent l’impact de leur violence moins négativement et que les hostiles sont ceux qui sont les plus violents, les plus en détresse et perçoivent l’impact de leur violence plus négativement. Les individus non violents sont significativement moins en détresse et consomment moins d’alcool que tous les profils violents. Les résultats serviront à obtenir une meilleure compréhension des individus violents, à améliorer le dépistage des individus les plus à risque de recourir à la violence au sein de leur couple et d’effectuer de la prévention en les sensibilisant aux caractéristiques des individus violents. / Young adults exhibit violent behavior within their relationships more frequently than do older adults. The goal of this study, using motivational variables, is to propose a classification of young adults who perpetrate relationship violence and assess the discriminant validity of profiles in terms of variables linked to psychological and physical aggression and compare the motivational profiles to those of non-violent young adults. The 457 participants in this study are young adults from the general population in the Quebec City and Montreal areas. Classification based on a two-step cluster analysis resulted in three distinct profiles: (1) reactive, (2) common and (3) hostile. Comparative analyses suggest that those with a reactive profile engage in the greatest number of different acts of aggression, those with a common profile are the least violent, the least distressed and perceive the impact of their violence less negatively, whereas those with a hostile profile are the most violent, they experience the greatest distress and perceive the impact of their aggression most negatively. Non-violent individuals are significantly less distressed and consume less alcohol than all those with violent profiles. Findings will lead to a better understanding of violent individuals as well as improve detection of individuals who are most likely to resort to relationship violence and prevent this by raising awareness of the characteristics of violent individuals.

I likhet med många andra länder har våld i nära relation, sexuellt våld och våld mot barn uppmärksammats mer och mer i Sverige de senaste fem decennierna. I takt med att kunskapen om våld i nära relation har ökat har det också vuxit fram en kritik mot brister inom rättsväsendet, i synnerhet när det gäller att ge skydd och upprättelse till de som utsätts för dessa former av våld. Genom denna utveckling ställs det idag andra krav på de rättsliga aktörerna gällande kunskap och bemötande. Syftet med denna avhandling är att utforska hur relationsvåldsspecialiserade åklagare förhandlar om sina professionella identiteter i relation till de förändrade diskurserna om professionalitet inom rättsväsendet. Studien bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med 32 relationsvåldsspecialiserade åklagare på åtta åklagarkammare runt om i Sverige. Utifrån en narrativ och emotionsteoretisk ansats belyser avhandlingen hur dessa åklagare iscensätter en respektabel professionalitet i relation till möten med målsägande, tilltalade och rättsliga aktörer samt i relation till särskilda arbetsuppgifter, så som att leda förundersökningar, fatta beslut om åtal samt vara part i rätten. Avhandlingen synliggör de normativa motsättningar och spänningar som åklagarna upplever och hanterar i sitt arbete. I sina narrativ rör de sig mellan, och förenar, positioneringar kring objektivitet-engagemang, rationalitet-magkänsla, skepticism-lyhördhet, auktoritet-ödmjukhet, distans-närhet och iscensätter på detta sätt en komplex professionell respektabilitet. En av avhandlingens centrala slutsatser är att den professionella respektabiliteten iscensätts genom en prövande och ambivalent hållning till den auktoritet och makt som arbetet bygger på. Genom berättelser om tvivel och maktlöshet, snarare än genom berättelser om ofelbarhet och autonomi, konstrueras professionalitet som ett lärande, reflexivt projekt. Inom en professionell kontext där känslor kan anses vara särskilt nedtystade, bidrar analysen av åklagarnas tal om emotioner med ett viktigt perspektiv. Analysen visar att tal om känslor tänjer den diskursiva uppdelningen mellan ett professionellt respektive ett privat jag och fungerar som ett narrativt element som både bekräftar och utmanar gränserna för den professionella respektabiliteten. Som helhet, bidrar avhandlingen till det kriminologiska forskningsfältet i de nordiska länderna genom att synliggöra en central rättslig aktör, åklagare, och bidrar till fältet om våld i nära relationer genom att belysa varför strukturer och praktiker som har kritiserats under så lång tid består men också hur de kan förändras. / As in many other countries, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and violence against children have been the focus of an increasing amount of attention in Sweden over the past five decades. As the knowledge on relationship violence has increased, the Swedish criminal justice system (CJS) has faced growing criticism for its failure to protect and provide redress to the victims of these forms of violence. Justice system actors are facing new demands in terms of their levels of knowledge and the quality of the service they provide for those they meet in the context of their work. The aim of the dissertation is to explore how prosecutors who specialise in relationship violence negotiate their professional identities and their normative boundaries in relation to the changing discourses of professionalism within the criminal justice system. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 32 prosecutors specialised in relationship violence, from eight prosecutors’ offices in different parts of Sweden. On the basis of a narrative and emotion theoretical approach, the dissertation explores how these prosecutors accomplish professional respectability in relation to situations where they meet with complainants, defendants and legal actors as well as in relation to specific work tasks, such as the leadership of police investigations, making indictment decisions and presenting the prosecution case in court. The dissertation discusses the normative dilemmas and tensions the prosecutors experience and handle in their work. In their narratives, they both shift between, and manage to reconcile, objectivity-engagement, rationality-gut feeling, scepticism-receptiveness, authority-humility and distance-intimacy, and in doing so perform a complex professional respectability. One of the dissertation’s central conclusions is that professional respectability is performed by maintaining an exploratory and ambivalent attitude towards the power and authority that their work is based on. By means of narratives of doubt and powerlessness, rather than narratives of infallibility and autonomy, professionalism is constructed as a learning, reflexive project. In a professional context in which emotions may be viewed as being particularly suppressed, the analysis of the prosecutors’ speech on emotions constitutes an important perspective. The speech about feelings disrupts the discursive separation between a professional and a private self and often serves to both confirm and challenge the boundaries of professional respectability. Overall, the dissertation contributes to the field of Nordic criminology by raising the visibility of prosecutors as a central legal actor, and to the field of relationship violence by illuminating why structures and practices that have been criticised for such a long time endure, but also how they may be changed.