In the legal and mental health fields little is known about the therapeutic impact of courtroom psychology during criminal trials. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the inter-relating factors of law and psychology throughout criminal trials as experienced by lawyers and psychologists. Research questions explored the influence of courtroom psychology on criminal trial proceedings and challenges as experienced by both criminal trial attorneys in presenting mental health evidence, and by psychologists when testifying during criminal trials. Further exploration focused on the significance of courtroom psychology, and how lawyers and psychologists perceived courtroom psychology impacting justice for victims and influencing offender rehabilitation sentencing decisions. Procedural justice was the conceptual framework utilized in this investigation, and therapeutic jurisprudence was the theoretical base that guided this study. A qualitative-phenomenological research design was applied by interviewing 4 criminal law attorneys and 4 clinical forensic psychologists. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis of the data collected: (a) an increase in the enhancement of psycho-legal services, (b) a need for additional education, (c) a desire to improve professional relationships through collaborative efforts, and (d) a demand for requiring advanced training. These results may serve as a foundation for professionals to provide ethically effective and relevant legal-therapeutic services for progressing courtroom psychology measures. Implications for positive social change from this research include recommendations to government, legal, and mental health system entities to consider generating and readjusting standards of practice that govern criminal trial proceedings.

<p>Everyday thousands of children and teenagers live through the hell of bullying. This theoretical research essay describes analyses and gives a literature overview of the phenomenon of bullying from eight different ideal-typical aspects based on Max Weber’s concept of Ideal types as a tool to make text analysis. The essay also investigates and compares three studies with focus on what methodological tools the researchers have employed to come to their conclusions. With the results from this investigation the research essay discusses possible explanations to why results, conclusions and understanding on the self-concept and self-esteem of perpetrators of bullying are so contradictory between researchers. Findings suggest that differences in gender in the sample, sample-size and age-group variations could be possible explanations to why results differ between studies. The essay discusses bullying from a power theory perspective and presents thoughts on how such a perspective could be employed in future research. It also suggests more research in the sociological discipline and investigations on a contextual and organisational level considering that the present study has shown that the academic field of bullying have not been researched to a great extent from this perspective.</p>

<p>I möten mellan människor sker samspelet på ett kommunikativt plan där den professionella förhållningen innebär att bemöta och inte bara att möta en annan person. Polisens bemötande har stor betydelse för hur ett brottsoffer bearbetar upplevelsen av brottet hon upplevt. Syftet med studien var att undersöka och beskriva polisens uppfattningar av bemötande av brottsoffer, utifrån deras personliga erfarenheter av att vara brottsoffer. Studien genomfördes med en fenomenografisk forskningsansats och kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer av sex poliser. I en fenomenografisk studie är avsikten att försöka hitta variationen i och kategorisera människors erfarenheter i det tilltänkta undersökningsområdet. Resultatet visade att polisens olika uppfattningar av bemötande av brottsoffer kunde delas in i tre kvalitativt skilda beskrivningskategorier. Naturligt-, förvärvat- och rutinmässigt bemötande. Naturligt bemötande var något som fanns med sedan uppväxten, förvärvat bemötande var något som förvärvades genom olika erfarenheter, i rutinmässigt bemötandet gick arbetsuppgiften före bemötandet av brottsoffren. Studien visade också att brottsoffrets lidande hade en avgörande betydelse för polisens bemötande. Fler studier inom ämnet är att rekommendera för att få en större inblick och förståelse för hur polisens erfarenheter kan avspegla sig i mötet med brottsoffer, samt att öka kunskapen om hur negativa följder av erfarenheter kan förebyggas inför nya möten med brottsoffer.</p>

Over the past two decades, violence at work has become the object of an increasing level of attention. The objective of the thesis is to analyse how the development of violence at work as a social problem might be understood. The studies in the thesis examine trends in exposure to violence at work among different occupational groups (I), the attention focused on violence at work in trade journals (II), the measures proposed to combat the problem in trade journal articles (III) and in the occupational injury reports made by the victims themselves (IV). The first study shows that, according to victim surveys, levels of exposure to work-related violence have increased since the beginning of the 1980s. The increases are greatest in relation to the female-dominated occupations found in the care provision sectors. Study II presents a quantitative content analysis of trade journals from the period 1978–2004. The results show that there has been an increase in the amount of attention focused on violence at work. The results indicate that definitions of violence have expanded and that attention has become focused on new groups of victims and perpetrators. Study III examines the ways in which trade journals describe measures to combat violence at work. The results indicate that there has been a shift from viewing violence as a problem that should be resolved at the workplace as a health-and-safety issue, to increasingly viewing it as a problem that should be resolved externally with the help of the justice system. Study IV is based on an analysis of occupational injury reports from staff in the care sector who have been exposed to violence at work. Irrespective of the nature of the risk situation that preceded the violent incident, the staff who have been exposed to violence at work would prefer to see the problem resolved internally at the workplace. / Våld i arbetslivet har under de senaste två decennierna fått en större uppmärksamhet. Syftet med avhandlingen är att analysera hur utvecklingen av våld i arbetslivet som samhällsproblem kan förstås. I fyra delstudier behandlas omfattningen och utvecklingen av utsatthet för våld i arbetslivet bland olika yrkesgrupper (I), hur våld i arbetslivet uppmärksammats i facklig press (II) och vilka åtgärder som förespråkas i facklig press (III) samt i arbetsskadeanmälningar (IV). Gemensamt för avhandlingens studier är att de tar upp frågor som rör förändring över tid, hur utvecklingen kan förstås och vilka konsekvenser förändringarna för med sig. I den första studien visas att utsatthet för arbetsrelaterat hot och våld enligt svenska offerunderökningar har ökat sedan 1980-talets början. Ökningarna är störst för de kvinnodominerade jobben inom välfärdssektorerna. I studie II görs en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av facklig press 1978-2004. Resultaten visar att uppmärksamheten för våld har ökat och pekar på vidgade definitioner av våld och att nya grupper uppmärksammas som offer och förövare. I studie III undersöks hur åtgärder mot hot och våld i arbetslivet uppmärksammas i facklig press. Resultaten indikerar att våld i arbetslivet har gått från att ses som ett problem som skall lösas som en intern arbetsmiljöfråga på arbetsplatsen till att allt oftare ses som ett problem som ska lösas externt med hjälp av polis och rättsväsende. Det har skett en förskjutning mot ett förrättsligande när det gäller hur våld i arbetlivet ska åtgärdas. Utvecklingen kan sammanfattas som en rörelse ett arbetsmiljöproblem till ett brottsproblem. Studie IV utgår från en analys av arbetsskadeanmälningar från vård- och omsorgspersonal som utsatts för våld i arbetet. När man ser till de åtgärdsförslag som de utsatta själva föreslår för att undvika att våldet skall inträffa igen så framgår att det finns en diskrepans mellan de åtgärder som uppmärksammas i facklig press och de åtgärder som personalen efterfrågar. De våldsutsatta ser främst att våldsproblemet, oavsett vilken risksituation som föregått våldet, löses internt på arbetsplatsen. Adekvata resurser i form av tid och personal för att utföra arbetet efterfrågas gång på gång. Insatser av externa aktörer såsom polis och rättsväsende efterfrågas däremot inte. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Submitted.

Everyday thousands of children and teenagers live through the hell of bullying. This theoretical research essay describes analyses and gives a literature overview of the phenomenon of bullying from eight different ideal-typical aspects based on Max Weber’s concept of Ideal types as a tool to make text analysis. The essay also investigates and compares three studies with focus on what methodological tools the researchers have employed to come to their conclusions. With the results from this investigation the research essay discusses possible explanations to why results, conclusions and understanding on the self-concept and self-esteem of perpetrators of bullying are so contradictory between researchers. Findings suggest that differences in gender in the sample, sample-size and age-group variations could be possible explanations to why results differ between studies. The essay discusses bullying from a power theory perspective and presents thoughts on how such a perspective could be employed in future research. It also suggests more research in the sociological discipline and investigations on a contextual and organisational level considering that the present study has shown that the academic field of bullying have not been researched to a great extent from this perspective.

This thesis assessed responses toward rape against women as experienced by the victims and victim supporters in the context of the interaction between victims, supporters, and formal agencies in Tanzania. The overall research design was based on triangulation with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. A semi-qualitative study, in which free listings and semi-structured questionnaires were used, explored social reactions from 44 community nurses and 50 rape victims (Paper I). A tool developed from this first study was utilized for collecting data on people’s attitudes and their behavior toward rape and rape victims from a representative community sample of 1505 men and women aged 18-65 years (Paper II). Both studies helped to access suitable rape victims and supporters who participated in the third study to share experiences on the process of rape disclosure to formal and informal social networks (Papers III and IV). The results highlighted the salient social reactions and how rape victims perceived the impact of these reactions. Half of the participants interpreted rape situations based on social relationships, circumstances, and social status of the woman, rather than the legal definition. Two-thirds of the adults explained they would express negative social reactions toward a victim in some rape scenarios, and this correlated with their attitudes towards rape and rape victims. A variety of barriers in the informal and formal networks with potentially negative impacts on rape reporting, service utilization and, health outcomes were identified. In conclusion, successful interventions aimed at improving people’s response to rape, rape disclosure and, health outcomes in Tanzania should assume a holistic approach to address the negative factors identified at the individual, family and, community levels without forgetting the normative context that appears to underlie most decisions and practice.

The focus of the thesis is on violent offenders with schizophrenia and their relatives. The aims were to explore incidence of violent crimes, the extent to which family members were victims, to investigate individual background factors among violent offenders, and to identify psychotic symptoms and triggering factors associated with fatal violence. In addition, parents were interviewed to build an understanding of their experiences and emotional reactions. One study examined all 369 male individuals who had committed a violent crime (assault, homicide or attempt to any of these crimes), who in a pre-trial forensic psychiatric evaluation (FPE) during 1992-2000 were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and who were referred to forensic psychiatric treatment. Although the majority of the 615 victims was unacquainted to the offenders, family members or male acquainted were most at risk of being severely injured or killed as victims. Background factors were studied for the 207 Swedish offenders who for their first time were subjects of a FPE during the study period. There were indications that those offenders who targeted family members had an earlier onset and more severe course of their mental illness. During the study period, 48 offenders committed homicides. Of the 52 victims, 83% were family members or acquainted to the offender. Those who killed a family member had more often delusions and/or hallucinations, were less often intoxicated, had to a lesser extent committed a previous violent crime and they were younger at the time of the homicide. Parents, who were interviewed, were very emotionally involved in their adult sons, although they were not living together. Ignorance regarding the diagnosis of their son and his criminality negatively influenced the contacts, both between parent and son and between parent and professionals in psychiatry. However, the referral to forensic psychiatric treatment gave the parents hope for a positive development.

I möten mellan människor sker samspelet på ett kommunikativt plan där den professionella förhållningen innebär att bemöta och inte bara att möta en annan person. Polisens bemötande har stor betydelse för hur ett brottsoffer bearbetar upplevelsen av brottet hon upplevt. Syftet med studien var att undersöka och beskriva polisens uppfattningar av bemötande av brottsoffer, utifrån deras personliga erfarenheter av att vara brottsoffer. Studien genomfördes med en fenomenografisk forskningsansats och kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer av sex poliser. I en fenomenografisk studie är avsikten att försöka hitta variationen i och kategorisera människors erfarenheter i det tilltänkta undersökningsområdet. Resultatet visade att polisens olika uppfattningar av bemötande av brottsoffer kunde delas in i tre kvalitativt skilda beskrivningskategorier. Naturligt-, förvärvat- och rutinmässigt bemötande. Naturligt bemötande var något som fanns med sedan uppväxten, förvärvat bemötande var något som förvärvades genom olika erfarenheter, i rutinmässigt bemötandet gick arbetsuppgiften före bemötandet av brottsoffren. Studien visade också att brottsoffrets lidande hade en avgörande betydelse för polisens bemötande. Fler studier inom ämnet är att rekommendera för att få en större inblick och förståelse för hur polisens erfarenheter kan avspegla sig i mötet med brottsoffer, samt att öka kunskapen om hur negativa följder av erfarenheter kan förebyggas inför nya möten med brottsoffer.

Extant literature, while plentiful on the topic of serial homicide in general, does not adequately examine the phenomena of healthcare professionals who serially murder their patients. Using a sample of 58 healthcare serial killers located within North America, South America and Europe between the years of 1970-2010, this study examines notable pre- and post-offence behaviours of healthcare serial killers. Patterns related to offender etiology, victim cultivation, crime scene behaviour and techniques of evasion were explored. The findings from this study suggest that the pre- and post-offence behaviours of healthcare serial killers can be examined from the theoretical framework of confidence men or ‘con men.’ The findings from this study also suggest that healthcare serial killings and offenders who perpetrate them continue to be elusive and warrant additional scholarly attention to reduce their likelihood of engaging in homicide undetected for extended periods of time. Policy implications are also discussed. / UOIT

Street harassment, the sexual harassment by strangers in public places, is a common experience shared by many women and has been linked with other forms of sexual victimization. The negative impact of street harassment, such as fear and behavior to avoid being harassed, points to the need for preventing the behavior. This study sought to determine whether the documentary-style film War Zone may be effective in impacting men’s attitudes toward street harassment, and whether the effectiveness of the film would depend on men’s hostility toward women and level of peer acceptance for street harassment. Findings do not support the effectiveness of War Zone as a component of street harassment prevention. However, the data does suggest that endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women predicts a lack of empathy, and that endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women, a lack of empathy, and peer acceptance of street harassment predict acceptance of street harassment.