Psychology of Violence

Objective: This paper proposes a conceptual model for gender differences in outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, broadly conceived as including physical, sexual, emotional, and coercive control forms of abuse, as well as stalking. Method: Literature review of PsycInfo and PubMed databases. Results: The literature reviewed suggests these negative effects are not equally distributed by gender—studies indicate that women

Physical violence is one of  the most researched in the fields of  health because their characteristics and effects are obvious. But psychological violence can go unnoti-ced for being a much more subtle event and has mani-festations that are not always obvious. One of  the terms that will reveal new elements in the psychological violence is gaslighting, so far it has not been considered fully clarified as psychological construct, reason why a theoretical review was undertaken. Method: A systema-tic review with the CONRICyT tool and Google Scho-lar brought back a total of  302 articles that were reviewed, among them only 10% remain in our research because most of  them were related to other fields or did not had features useful to increase the theoretical defini-tion of  the construct. Conclusion: gaslighting is a systematic and intentional process that drives a person to believe that he or she is losing his/her sanity; it works through denial, lying, use of  false information and disqualification of  feelings and perceptions of  the person who is the victim of  gaslighting, among other characteristics and consequences.

Domestic violence towards children is a serious social problem in different aspects
throughout human history. Although it is a phenomenon that takes place at the
micro level, causes and consequences of violence against children must be viewed
from a wider perspective in order to prevent this kind of violence, but also for a
better understanding of the phenomenon. The aim of this study is to examine the
relation of contextual (negative life events) and dispositional (personality traits)
factors, and their interactions with the physical and emotional forms of violent
behavior towards children. The short version of the Big five plus two questionnaire
(BF+2-70) was applied for measuring the personality traits. Examination of the
space of domestic violence was carried out using the Violent Behavior
Questionnaire among adults (VBQ), and the Questionnaire of Life Events (QLE) was
administered for getting an information about negative life events. The research
involved 324 participants (79.3% male) from the general population who have
children, aged 19 to 65 years. The average age of respondents was 42.98 years (SD
= 11.91). To examine the relation of personality traits, negative life events and their
interactions with one hand, and the forms of violence against children on the other
hand, there were applied two hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis. The
set of predictors in the analysis consisted of negative life events (Step 1),
personality traits (Step 2) and the interaction of negative life events and
personality traits (Step 3). Results indicate that significant contributions to the
prediction of physical violence against children generate negative life events (B =
.01, Exp(B) = 1.11, p<.01), as well as the dimensions Neuroticism (B = .06, Exp(B) =
1.06, p<.01), both in the positive direction. In the case of emotional violence against
children, as the best predictors showed a negative life events (B = .06, Exp(B) =
1.06, p<.05), but also the interaction of negative life events with Negative valence
dimension (B = . 02, Exp(B) = 1.02, p<.01). The interaction indicates that people with
higher Negative valence and a number of negative life event exert more emotional violence against children. Results show that violent behavior towards children is
important to consider from the interactional perspective of contextual and
dispositional factors in the case of emotional violence, while in the case of physical
violence towards children these factors have an equally important role.

In late 1990s, Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler employed an economic model for the study of human wars based on a conceptualisation of war as a contingency of either greed or grievance.  Their econometric analysis concluded that “some societies are much more prone to conflict than others, simply because they offer more inviting economic prospects for rebellion.”  This finding has been since problematized on many fronts.  Different than most reviews, this paper questions the conceptual grounds of the model using anthropocentric lenses.  Without doubting that economic factors may be important in war,  I will argue that the model was premised on an inferential theory of rebellion that assumed a crude human nature, resulting in an inadequate theory of war causes. I refer briefly to the Ethiopian civil war to show in practice the limitations of the model’s assumptions.

Lone wolf terrorism is an unnerving threat currently facing the American public. With terrorism on the rise and widespread internet accessibility for most in the US, the potential for individuals to become self-radicalized and carry out attacks on the behalf of politically violent entities has never been higher. This paper looks at the socio-psychological forces surrounding the radicalization process that lone wolf terrorists enter before they carry out an attack. These "forces" take the forms of mechanisms and triggers and end up forging a violent individual. Acquiring the ability to recognize these forces could help prevent lone wolf-inspired attacks in the future.

Objective: This paper proposes a conceptual model for gender differences in outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, broadly conceived as including physical, sexual, emotional, and coercive control forms of abuse, as well as stalking. Method: Literature review of PsycInfo and PubMed databases. Results: The literature reviewed suggests these negative effects are not equally distributed by gender—studies indicate that women

OBJECTIVES: Child abuse has negative consequences on health functioning and the self-concept. Prior studies have garnered support for these relationships in younger adults; yet few studies have looked at the effects of abuse on health in older adults and the psychosocial variables, specifically self-efficacy, that may influence the abuse-health relationship. METHODS: Data obtained from the Physical Health and Disability Study were used to explore the impact of child abuse on current medical problems among older adults who were screened on physical disability status (N=1396, Mean age = 67, SD = 10.2). The study was conducted in South Florida and employed a multiethnic sample that is representative of the general population in this area. RESULTS: Child abuse was associated with the number of current medical problems and disability. Child abuse was also related to lower self-efficacy, and self-efficacy explained the relationship between abuse and the number of health problems. CONCLUSI...

This research forms a gender study based on the novel Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James (2012) due to its major impact as a mass phenomenon worldwide, which affect, above all, the female group. As this novel makes an apology for violence, this study aims to analyze the keys to its success through an explanatory research in which gender inequality in society is valued from the acceptance of the myths of romantic love and micromachismos represented in this novel and, likewise, contrasting whether there is a correlation between this success and a tendency to sadomasochistic sexual fantasies which may have been awaken in the reader community through this novel. With a sample of 102 subjects, results of the research revealed that these myths and micromachismos existing in society are, in many cases, identified in theory but accepted in daily practice and sadomasochism was not a successful ingredient in the impact of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Objective: To understand the conditions under which a group of women recruited from antenatal, mental health, and substance abuse services disclose abuse in response to routine screening for intimate partner violence and their constructions of the impact of routine screening. Method: In-depth interviews with 20 women followed up 6 months after disclosing abuse in response to screening. Results: Women were

The main aim of this study was to explore the latent structure of violence and victimisation
based on the factor analysis of the Peer Violence and Victimisation Questionnaire
(PVVQ), as well as to examine the correlates of violence and victimisation.
The sample included 649 secondary school students (61.8% male) from the urban
area. Besides the PVVQ, the Aggressiveness questionnaire AVDH was administered.
Based on parallel analysis, three factors were extracted in the violence domain, as
well as in the victimisation domain of the PVVQ. The factors were interpreted as a
physical, verbal and relational form of violence and victimisation, which is in line
with common classifications. The correlations of those forms with the aggressiveness
dimensions were positive. The relationships with gender, school grade and school
achievement referred to the importance of interaction effects between the mentioned
characteristics of students and the tendency towards violence or being exposed to
it. The main result is that boys from lower school grades and students with lower
school achievement in general, are more prone to manifesting physical violence and
more often are the target of physical violence. These groups of students are the target
groups for preventive programs. The resulting effects indicated the complexity of
the violence phenomenon and pointed to the need to consider the wider context of
student’s characteristics in the determination of violence.

Objective: This paper proposes a conceptual model for gender differences in outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, broadly conceived as including physical, sexual, emotional, and coercive control forms of abuse, as well as stalking. Method: Literature review of PsycInfo and PubMed databases. Results: The literature reviewed suggests these negative effects are not equally distributed by gender—studies indicate that women

Objective Why do people justify intergroup violence? In this paper we examine attitudes towards violence perpetrated by indigenous activists to claim for rights and violence by pólice officers against indigenous people. We assess the role that perceived pólice legitimacy, procedurally just policing towards the indigenous minority group and group identity play in the justification of intergroup violence. Method We present findings from two surveys (Study 1, n=1493, Study 2, n=198) and an experiment (Study 3, n=76) conducted among indigenous people in Chile. Studies 1 and 2 measure perceptions of police procedural justice towards indigenous people. Study 3 manipulates the fairness with which police officers treat indigenous people. Effects of procedural justice on police legitimacy (Studies 2 and 3) and attitudes towards violence for social change and social control (Studies 1-3) are analyzed. Result Higher perceptions of procedurally just policing towards indigenous people predict mo...

Objective: This paper proposes a conceptual model for gender differences in outcomes of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, broadly conceived as including physical, sexual, emotional, and coercive control forms of abuse, as well as stalking. Method: Literature review of PsycInfo and PubMed databases. Results: The literature reviewed suggests these negative effects are not equally distributed by gender—studies indicate that women

This study examines whether exposure to community violence is indirectly related to academic performance through anxious/depressed symptoms and delinquent behaviors. Three hundred eighteen mothers and adolescents who participated in a longitudinal investigation were interviewed when adolescents were age 10, 14, and 16. Community violence exposure at age 14 was significantly related to anxious/depressed symptoms and delinquent behaviors. Delinquent behaviors (but not anxious/depressed symptoms) were significantly associated with academic performance at age 16. Exposure to community violence was indirectly related to academic performance through delinquent behaviors. There was no significant indirect effect of exposure to community violence on academic performance through anxious/depressed symptoms. Covariates included sociodemographics and exposure to child abuse. Age 10 anxious/depressed symptoms, age 10 delinquent behaviors, and age 14 academic performance were also included in the...

Background: A large body of research has produced vast quantities of empirical data on risk factors for violence in a range of countries and community contexts. Despite the unquestionable successes of this research in cataloguing these risk factors, relatively little is known about the situational factors and mechanisms that translate risks for violence into enactments of violence itself. Without stronger explanations of these situational pathways to violence, understandings of violence remain “fuzzy.” This special issue aims to address this important limitation through a focus on the situational dimensions of violence. Key points: Although directly observing violence is often ethically and methodologically challenging, the studies in this special issue demonstrate the value of better understanding the situational contexts that shape the well-documented affective, interactional, and behavioral variables and processes that constitute violent enactments. Examining these processes and ...