The present thesis was carried out in part fulfilment of the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. It is presented in portfolio format, comprising of two individual papers although a total thesis abstract provides an overview of the entire thesis. The first paper is a systematic review of existing empirical research. It explores the predictive validity of risk assessment tools for imminent (short-term) violence and aggression in forensic psychiatric settings. The second paper is an empirical study exploring how frontline nursing staff both predict and emotionally cope with experiencing violence and aggression in a high-security setting. Paper one was prepared for Aggression and Violent Behavior and paper two for The International Journal of Forensic Mental Health; so, follow their respective author guidelines. Mental health, and forensic mental health nurses have been identified as being at particular risk of experiencing patient perpetrated violence and aggression (PPVA). There is relatively little research investigating how nursing staff predict and cope with more immediate, imminent inpatient violence and aggression, specifically within secure (forensic) settings. Negative outcomes of PPVA are widely accepted and demonstrated within empirical literature, including increased anxiety and stress for staff, fractures to the therapeutic relationship between patients and staff, and difficulties with staff retention and absenteeism for the organization. Due to the extensive negative outcomes associated with PPVA, a wealth of research has focused on developing the area of violence risk assessment. Despite this, there remains limited understanding regarding the utility of existing risk assessment tools for predicting and assessing violence risk over brief time frames (i.e. days to weeks). Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to explore the predictive validity of violence risk assessment tools for imminent, short-term risk in inpatient forensic psychiatric settings. Findings demonstrated that multiple tools had decent predictive validity, however quality scores were impacted by small sample sizes. The Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression- Inpatient Version was the most effective tool with the highest mean quality score. The main limitations were the small number of studies assessing some of the included tools and the level of ambiguity between studies regarding the definition of imminent, short-term violence. Developing a shared understanding of what constitutes short-term risk and improving the number and quality of studies on the largely neglected tools, should therefore be research priorities. How nurses actually recognize and predict inpatient violence and aggression in forensic psychiatric settings, and how they emotionally cope with the aftermath, are poorly explored and understood processes. A social constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze the transcripts from 12 interviews with frontline nursing staff from an inpatient high-security setting. A model was constructed integrating nurses' beliefs and assumptions about subtypes of violence, their efforts to use observation skills in order to aid risk prediction, and their resultant emotional experiences following PPVA. Nurses emotional coping seemed to be affected by several factors relating to the culture of the organization and the accessibility of support. Seemingly, knowing the patient helped nurses to better identify underlying needs leading to violent behavior. This understanding helped nurses to implement targeted, needs-led interventions to address these unmet needs, and so reduce recurrent and cyclical violence. Recommendations are made to build upon, and utilize nursing skills in risk prediction and management, and to help better support the emotional impact of experiencing PPVA within forensic psychiatric settings.

This thesis will discuss the results of a two-year 90 game study to consider the role violence and aggression plays in competitive minor hockey and its role as a mechanism for injury. The second objective of this thesis was to determine the contextual factors that lead to injury on the ice. Using a mixed methods approach, the study followed three minor hockey teams from the Ottawa-Gatineau region over two sporting seasons. The study found that players are not being injured due to aggressive or violent play but rather players are being hurt within the rules of the game. The contextual factors that were shown to lead to injury included: (1) body-checking, (2) time of the game, (3) player’s body mass, (4) position played and (5) legal plays. Injuries were also broken down by anatomical site (head/neck, upper body and lower body); the upper body was affected by injury most.

The diploma thesis is of theoretic-empirical character, with focus on aggression in children at middle school level. The First part describes theory, typology and development phases of aggression. The thesis also deals with the periods of pubescence. Attention is given to oddities in aggressive expressions of children in the pubescence period. Furthermore gives information about possible causes of aggression. The thesis deals also with prevention and possibilities of handling aggression. Connected with the thesis is the practical part which is made using survey research. Results are written down and compared with the in advance stated hypothesis.

This thesis will discuss the results of a two-year 90 game study to consider the role violence and aggression plays in competitive minor hockey and its role as a mechanism for injury. The second objective of this thesis was to determine the contextual factors that lead to injury on the ice. Using a mixed methods approach, the study followed three minor hockey teams from the Ottawa-Gatineau region over two sporting seasons. The study found that players are not being injured due to aggressive or violent play but rather players are being hurt within the rules of the game. The contextual factors that were shown to lead to injury included: (1) body-checking, (2) time of the game, (3) player’s body mass, (4) position played and (5) legal plays. Injuries were also broken down by anatomical site (head/neck, upper body and lower body); the upper body was affected by injury most.

Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, taken from a regional Employment Service, this PhD explores in depth, how frontliners cope with the experience of customers' violence on the frontline. Analysis of empirical data led to the finding that frontliners cope in a number of ways which were both collective and individual. The coping mechanisms used were influenced by the different organisational constructions of customer violence. This PhD has brought the emotional labour and the organisational violence literature together using insights from both to inform the other and aid understanding of not only organisational violence in general, but specifically the way that frontliners cope with the experience of customer violence. This is an aspect somewhat neglected in both the emotional labour literature and the organisational violence literature to differing extents. Although the emotional labour literature does examine ways that frontliners cope with the difficulties of customer service, it frequently fails to examine the interplay of the formal and informal organisation in influencing the means of coping used by frontliners and it has yet to consider the way that frontliners cope specifically with customer violence. The organisational violence literature tends to take the concept of violence as an unproblematic, objective term and ignores the fact that violence is a constructed subjective concept. I see this as problematic. The more interpretevist literature, which does recognise the polysemic nature of violence, only considers customer violence in passing. This literature completely fails to consider the part that the customer sovereignty plays in this violence, a significant omission, which I believe, has implications for our understanding of organisational violence. A number of theoretical points from this study have wider implications that are applicable to more than just the regional Employment Service explored. It was found that the customer sovereignty ideology played an important role in not only the ways that frontliners cope, but also in customer violence in general. Customer sovereignty underpinned the invisibility of violence and the concern for customers' well-being over those of frontliners. Both these findings were applicable to other frontline organisations. This study also found that the customer service ideology contributed towards conditions which fostered customer violence. This PhD also found that those with hierarchical power will be able, to some extent; to impose their construction of what is violent on those with less hierarchical power. However, this study emphasises the importance of human agency in arguing that those with less hierarchical power will still be able to contribute to creating organisational reality. Workers were not taken to be passive recipients of the dominant approach, but were helped shaped the construction of violence. This finding has implications for not only the construction of customer violence within organisations, but for the nature of power and the construction of organisational reality. This study has outlined many areas that need further consideration. The relationship between the customer service ideology and customer violence is currently under-researchedM. ore studies are needed examining this in different frontline settings, including both public and private sectors. Specifically, research is needed to consider the extent to which this ideology is used to justify customer violence and difficult frontline conditions in general. In examining the ways that frontliners cope with the experience of customer violence; this study integrated both the emotional labour and organisational violence literature. It is hoped that in using insights from both to inform the other, together with my own empirical research, this PhD has deepened understanding of not only the coping devices used by frontliners, but also customer violence in general.

Sixty percent of youth indicate exposure to violence. Such exposure is a noted risk factor for youths' well-being, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding whether exposure to violence predicts impaired academic performance. The purpose of this quantitative study was to test a model with cognitive, behavioral, and emotional sequelae of exposure as mediators of the relationship between exposure to violence and academic performance among adolescents who are at risk for exposure and attend inner-city high schools. Ninety-nine students, primarily female and African-American, in Grades 10 to 12 at two public schools in a major mid-Atlantic metropolitan district completed self-report measures for exposure to violence, aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, psychoemotional distress, and academic performance. A series of linear regressions was used for mediational analysis. Path coefficients were interpreted to test the proposed causal model. Consistent with previous research, a weak, but statistically significant bivariate relationship was found between exposure and grade point average (GPA). However, the relationship was indirect, mediated by students' aggressive cognitions: Higher levels of aggressive cognitions provided the best predictors of negative relationships exposure to violence with GPA. These findings have important social change implications. In particular, findings suggest that educators, parents, and mental health professionals can strengthen academic performance among adolescents with higher academic potential who are exposed to violence by offering support for positive coping styles and alternatives to attitudes that normalize aggression.

The diploma project called "Problems with Violence in School Educational Environment" is divided into the parts - Introduction, Theoretical Part, Empirical Part, Conclusion. The Theoretical Part is separated into the five chapters - Demarcation and Definition of Concepts, Division of Aggression, Shows of Children's Violent Manners, Shows of Adolescents' Manners, Resolution of Aggression. The Empirical Part of the thesis verifies set hypotheses and targets. It is investigated, what type of aggression teachers meet towards their own person in their occupation, whether they meet more with aggression of boys or girls. The attributes of aggressors are also researched - what school results they have according to their teachers, what sort of families they come from. There is monitored link between action games or action movies and possible connection with frequency of aggression. During the study, we are discovering how often teachers in schools solve the problems connected with pupils' aggression and in which taught subjects violence and lack of discipline occur according to teachers' experience. Some educators state experience with cyber bullying in their jobs. They inform how often they meet with it, how they specifically react when they run into cyber bullying in the connection with their own person, and how...