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The "once bitten, twice shy" (OBTS) hypothesis argues that crime victims who change their involvement in risky lifestyle behaviors reduce their likelihood of experiencing repeat victimization. Tests of this hypothesis have yielded weak to mixed results, which may be due to methodological issues. We address these methodological issues by testing the OBTS hypothesis for repeat drugging victimization with survey data from a panel of three freshman cohorts at three large, public universities. Supportive of the OBTS hypothesis, the multivariate results show that, on average, those not drugged at Time 1 or Time 2 and those drugged at Time 1 and Time 2 increased the number of days they binge drank in the past month significantly more than those who were drugged at Time 1 only. Our findings have implications for both victimology theory and drugging prevention programming.

AbstractA self-report survey was administered in 2022 to measure experiences of sex trafficking victimization among a national sample of adults using the federal legal definition and behaviorally specific language. A total of 1,462 respondents were included in the final sample, with data weighted to increase the representativeness of the population. Approximately 2.5% of respondents could be classified as experiencing sex trafficking victimization at some point in their lives. More respondents experienced sex trafficking as a minor only (1.5%) compared to as an adult only (0.6%) or as both a minor and adult (0.4%). A small portion of respondents who experienced sex trafficking as an adult reported their experiences to anyone (38.9%). Although some sex trafficking victims shared vulnerability factors with known victims in high-risk groups, not all victims reported experiencing these challenges. Research should continue to measure sex trafficking in the general population to inform individual and community interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public belief in redeemability reduces punitiveness and increases support for policy measures such as rehabilitation, expungement, and housing and employment opportunities. Although racial attitudes are known to influence a wide range of criminal justice policy opinions, their effects on beliefs about redeemability and condemnation have not been fully explored. Using data from a 2019 YouGov survey of a national sample of White U.S. adults (N = 766), the current study estimates the effects of three distinct racial attitudes—racial resentment, racial sympathy, and White nationalism—on three measures of belief in redeemability: 1) a race‐neutral measure, 2) a measure of belief in redeemability of Black offenders, and 3) a measure of condemnation of Black offenders. The results indicate that belief in redeemability is high—for offenders in general and for Black offenders. These findings are supported by a second 2022 YouGov survey of White U.S. adults (N = 1,505). Racial sympathy and White nationalism have significant effects across all three outcomes, with the positive effect of White nationalism on condemnation of Black offenders being the largest across the three models. These findings suggest that although most Whites agree that formerly incarcerated people are redeemable, racial attitudes influence these beliefs, especially for Black offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to high rates of interpersonal victimization and perpetration among adolescents, schools have implemented bystander intervention (BI) training to educate students to intervene to prevent or stop violence. These trainings function much like an application of scripts for guardianship in action. The current study builds on the overlapping and complementary bodies of BI and routine activities research by testing whether participation in BI training, namely Green Dot (GD), influences individuals' underlying ability to intervene. Using four years of survey data collected from high school students (N = 2,374–3,443), we use item response theory to model the difficulty of engaging in different BI behaviors. We then estimate multivariate ordinary least squares regression models, one for each year, to estimate the effect of GD training on students' ability to intervene. The item response theory results show that BI behaviors differ in terms of how "difficult" they are for respondents to engage in. Findings show that in each year, GD training increased students' underlying ability to intervene. Our findings suggest BI training and guardianship in action scripts should take into account this varying difficulty of intervention behaviors to best train individuals for successful intervention to prevent victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates non-cisgender and non-heterosexual individuals experience higher rates of intimate partner violence compared to their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts. It is unknown if this is the case for intimate partner cyber abuse (IPCA). Thus, the current study examines IPCA prevalence rates among a sample of adults in intimate partnerships and compares these rates across four partnership categories, defined by gender identity and sexual orientation. We also assess prevalence rates within five IPCA domains and patterns of recurring victimization. Findings suggest victimization experiences may differ across partnership categories and highlight the need for further research with non-heterosexual and non-cisgender populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure to take responsibility for intervening has been identified as a primary barrier to bystander intervention. Building on these findings, we examine how perceptions of responsibility affect responses to witnessing victimization in the online realm—a topic that has received limited attention. Using a maximum-likelihood selection model, we analyze data from the Pew American Trends Panel (N = 3709) to estimate the effects of respondents' perceptions of the role different groups should play in addressing online harassment on their likelihood to engage in intervention, target hardening, or inaction in response to witnessing online harassment, conditioned upon their likelihood of having witnessed such behavior. Findings indicate that the greater role respondents believe online users should have in addressing online harassment, the more likely they are to intervene. (b =.310). The greater role respondents believe law enforcement or elected officials should have in addressing online harassment, the less likely they are to intervene (b = −.135 and −.072, respectively). These findings have implications for future efforts to curb online harassment through users' crime prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, Catholics make up more than 50 million members of the adult population, or about one in five Americans. It is unclear whether their religious affiliation shapes Catholics' views on public policy issues, ranging from the legality of abortion to criminal justice practices. Capital punishment is especially salient, given that Pope Francis announced in 2018—as official Catholic Church teaching—that the death penalty is "inadmissible" under all circumstances. Based on two national surveys, the current project explores Catholics' support for state executions before (2017) and after (2019) the Pope's momentous change in the church's Catechism. At present, little evidence exists that Pope Francis's doctrinal reform has impacted Catholics, a majority of whom—like Americans generally—continue to favor the death penalty for murderers. Data from our additional 2020 MTurk survey show that only 17.0% of Catholic respondents could correctly identify the Church's position on capital punishment. Despite these results, Pope Francis's teachings provide Catholic leaders and activists with a compelling rationale for opposing the death penalty and holding Catholic public officials accountable for espousing offenders' execution. Further, for the next generation of Catholics, instruction in the inadmissibility of capital punishment, as part of the Church's consistent ethic of life, will be integral to their religious training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technology advances, new opportunities for partners to gain power and control in their romantic relationships are readily available. New cyber-based behaviors have slowly garnered scholarly attention, but measurement-related issues have not. We take the logical next steps to (1) develop and validate a comprehensive measure of intimate partner cyber abuse (IPCA) for adults using classical test theory and item response theory and (2) estimate IPCA prevalence rate for a range of relationship types. A sample of 1,500 adults, currently in an intimate partner relationship, 18 years or older, and living in the United States, completed an online questionnaire about their IPCA experiences within the 6 months prior. Two parameter logistic modeling and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a five-dimensional structure: cyber direct aggression, cyber sexual coercion, cyber financial control, cyber control, and cyber monitoring, with 14.85% of the sample experiencing at least one dimension. These IPCA dimensions were examined for differential functioning across gender identity, race, student status, and relationship type. Collectively, the findings have implications for IPCA measurement and related research, including theoretically derived hypotheses whose findings can inform prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beliefs about race, especially racial resentment, are key predictors of public support for capital punishment and punitiveness generally. Drawing on a conceptual innovation by political scientist Jennifer Chudy, we explore the utility of transferring into criminology her construct of racial sympathy – or Whites' concern about Blacks' suffering. First, across three data sets, we replicate Chudy's finding that racial sympathy and resentment are empirically distinct constructs. Second, based on a national-level 2019 YouGov survey (n = 760 White respondents) and consistent with Chudy's thesis, racial sympathy is then shown to be significantly related to the race-specific view that capital punishment is discriminatory but not support for the death penalty or harsher courts. Racial sympathy also is positively associated with advocacy of rehabilitation as the main goal of prison. Notably, in all models, racial resentment has robust effects, increasing punitive sentiments. Taken together, the results suggest that racial sympathy is a concept that can enrich criminologists' study of how racial beliefs shape crime policy preferences in the United States and beyond, especially those with disparate effects on Blacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many college students who experience sexual assault experience subsequent (i.e., repeat) sexual assault incidents. There is also an established relationship between sexual assault and binge drinking. The "once bitten, twice shy" (OBTS) hypothesis suggests that those who experience alcohol- or drug-related (AOD) sexual assault would reduce how frequently they binge drink in an effort to avoid repeat victimization. We test this hypothesis by analyzing two years of survey data collected from a panel of three cohorts of freshmen women. Supportive of OBTS, our analyses reveal that students who experienced an AOD-related sexual assault at time 1 only reduced the number of days they binge drank from time 1 to time 2 and that this change significantly differed from repeat victims. Implications for efforts to reduce sexual victimization against college women are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent randomized controlled trial reported that Green Dot (GD)—a bystander intervention training program that targets popular opinion leaders for intensive training—reduced school-level interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization. Expanding GD's targeted group members to include "mavens" of bystander intervention—those who spread bystander intervention norms to others by communicating with peers—may increase the effectiveness of such training. Self-report data collected from students at the 13 intervention high schools in Kentucky are analyzed to identify characteristics of those who engage in discussions with peers about preventing interpersonal violence. Findings show that students who engage in more frequent bystander behaviors are more likely to have such conversations with peers, but GD participants were no more likely than nonparticipants to discuss preventing interpersonal violence with peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That rehabilitation ceremonies are ongoing in problem-solving courts throughout the country also indicates that court officials are optimistic about the potential for ceremonies to be part of the process of successful reintegration for those who have committed crimes. Some courts hold "rehabilitation ceremonies" for ex-offenders who have done certain things to prove to the community that they have left behind a life of crime -- such as completing rehabilitation programs and community service activities, taking responsibility and apologizing for their past crimes, and/or staying crime-free for a certain period of time (such as five years). At these public rehabilitation ceremonies, ex-offenders are declared "rehabilitated" and free from all legal penalties and other collateral sanctions of their crimes.How much would you agree or disagree that rehabilitation ceremonies for ex-offenders will help them reintegrate back into the community and stay out of crime? Ex-offenders can give these certificates to licensing agencies, employers, and state officials to show that they have paid their debt to society for their crimes.How much would you agree or disagree that "certificates of rehabilitation" will help ex-offenders be reintegrated into their communities and stay out of crime? That is, rehabilitation ceremonies that come with a certificate would offer official "signals" for the state that offenders are now "just like the rest of us" The broader point of this line of argument is that true offender reintegration will remain incomplete if the burden is placed solely on offenders not only to be rehabilitated but also to overcome the stigmatizing, life-long barriers potentially faced by all "ex-offenders.". [Extracted from the article]

Collateral sanctions are separate from the direct punishments for crimes (such as a prison sentence or a probation term) and offenders are generally not told about these restrictions when they are convicted of a crime. Thus, Redeemability is a mean index ( = .718) created from the respondents' opinions (1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree) to the following four statements: (1) "Most offenders can go on to lead productive lives with help and hard work"; (2) "Given the right conditions, a great many offenders can turn their lives around and become law-abiding citizens"; (3) "Most criminal offenders are unlikely to change for the better"; and (4) "Some offenders are so damaged that they can never lead productive lives." For example, because most Americans commit crimes for which they have not been detected (e.g., illegal drug use, driving while intoxicated, domestic violence, tax fraud, and common crimes), it is an empirical question whether a criminal record reliably distinguishes who is morally appropriate for jury service (see Barnes, 2014; Pratt, Barnes, Cullen, & Turanovic, 2016). When specific crime types were used, the level of support declined, but was still 66 percent for violent offenders, 63 percent for white-collar offenders, and 52 percent for sex offenders. The remaining states impose some conditions limiting jury service, such as a waiting period following sentence completion, nature of the conviction offense, type of jury, and dismissal as a potential juror simply on the basis of a felony conviction (see Binnall, 2016, 2018a). [Extracted from the article]