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Objectives: The goal of this study was to investigate the perception of financial exploitation and its causes and consequences by older adults who have firsthand experience of being exploited., Method: Thirty-one cognitively healthy older adult participants aged 50 or older were drawn from the Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elders Study. In-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using an iterative, data-driven, thematic coding scheme and emergent themes were summarized., Results: Categories of financial exploitation included (a) investment fraud, (b) wage theft/money owed, (c) consumer fraud, (d) imposter schemes, and (e) manipulation by a trusted person. Themes emerged around perceived causes: (a) element of trust, (b) promise of financial security, (c) lack of experience or awareness, (d) decision-making, and (e) interpersonal dynamics. Perceived consequences included negative and positive impacts around (a) finances, (b) financial/consumer behaviors (c) relationships and trust, (d) emotional impact, and (e) future outlook., Discussion: These narratives provide important insights into perceived financial exploitation experiences., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Child abuse and neglect (CAN) cost United States society $136 billion to $428 billion annually. Preventive interventions that reduce CAN may improve people's lives and generate economic benefits to society, but their magnitude is likely to vary greatly with assumptions about victim costs avoided through intervention., Objective: We examined the implications of different assumptions about avoided victim costs in a benefit-cost analysis of Promoting First Relationships® (PFR), a 10-session attachment and strengths-based home visiting intervention., Participants and Setting: Participants were 247 child protection-involved but intact families in Washington State randomized to receive PFR (n = 124) or resource and referral (n = 123)., Methods: We monetized intervention effects on out-of-home placements and implicit effects on CAN and calculated net present values under three scenarios: (1) benefits from avoided system costs, (2) additional benefits from avoided tangible victim costs, and (3) additional benefits from avoided tangible and intangible quality-of-life victim costs. For scenarios 2 and 3, we varied the CAN effect size and estimated the effect size at which PFR was reliably cost beneficial., Results: PFR's societal net benefit ranged from $1 (scenario 1) to $5514 - $25,562 (scenario 2) and $7004 - $32,072 (scenario 3) (2014 USD). In scenarios 2 and 3, PFR was reliably cost beneficial at a CAN effect size of approximately -0.25., Conclusions: PFR is cost beneficial assuming tangible victim costs are avoided by PFR. Research into the long-term health and economic consequences of reducing CAN in at-risk populations would contribute to comprehensive, accurate benefits models., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The consequences of poor financial capability at older ages are serious and include making mistakes with credit, spending retirement assets too quickly, and being defrauded by financial predators. Because older persons are at or past the peak of their wealth accumulation, they are often the targets of fraud., Methods: Our project analyzes a module we developed and fielded on people aged 50 an older years in the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Using this data set, we evaluated the incidence and prospective risk factors (measured in 2010) for investment fraud and prize/lottery fraud using logistic regression (N = 1,220)., Results: Relatively few HRS respondents mentioned any single form of fraud over the prior 5 years, but 5.0% reported at least one form of investment fraud and 4.4% recounted prize/lottery fraud. Greater wealth (nonhousing) was associated with investment fraud, whereas lower housing wealth and symptoms of depression were associated with prize/lottery fraud. Hispanics were significantly less likely to report either type of fraud. Other suspected risk factors-low social integration and financial literacy-were not significant., Discussion: Fraud is a complex phenomenon and no single factor uniquely predicts victimization across different types, even within the category of investment fraud. Prevention programs should educate consumers about various types of fraud and increase awareness among financial services professionals., (© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Prevalence rates for late life victimization are well-documented. The literature has expanded, in part due to the identification of elder justice as a key priority for federal funding. The interdisciplinary field of criminology has begun addressing elder victimization and its consequences, informed by General Strain Theory (GST). It is challenging to connect the findings from this research to evidence-based interventions for older victims. Trauma-informed principles (TIP) - when linked with GST - offer a means for doing so. The current review contributes to the extant literature by examining connections between these perspectives, with the goal of encouraging future research, and ultimately informing treatment for older adult victims.

Objective: There are few cost-effectiveness analyses that model alcohol outlet zoning policies. This study determines the potential decreases in homicides, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and victim and criminal justice costs associated with four policy options that would reduce the alcohol outlet access in Baltimore., Method: This cost-effectiveness analysis used associations between on-premise (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.41), off-premise (IRR = 1.76), and combined on- and off-premise outlet density (IRR = 1.07) and homicide in Baltimore. We determined the potential change in the level of homicide that could occur with changes in the density of alcohol outlets, assuming that 50% of the association was causal., Results: Reducing alcohol outlet density in Baltimore City by one quintile was associated with decreases of 51 homicides per year, $63.7 million, and 764 DALYs. Removing liquor stores in residential zones was associated with 22 fewer homicides, which would cost $27.5 million and lead to 391 DALYs. Removing bars/taverns operating as liquor stores was associated with a decrease of one homicide, $1.2 million, and 17 DALYs. Removing both the liquor stores in residential zones and the bars/taverns operating as liquor stores was associated with 23 fewer homicides, which translated to $28.7 million and 409 DALYs., Conclusions: For preventing homicides, the strategy of removing liquor stores in residential zones was preferred because it was associated with substantial reductions in homicides without closing unacceptably high numbers of outlets. It is possible that policies that close the bars/taverns operating as liquor stores would be associated with decreases in other types of violent crime.

The complex interrelationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and housing instability has been well established. Being the victim of IPV is a leading cause of homelessness for women, and once someone is homeless, their lives often spiral downward quickly. While some IPV survivors require extensive and possibly long-term assistance to achieve safe and stable housing (especially if they are contending with multiple complex issues), others could avoid homelessness if provided with immediate, individualized, and flexible assistance. For these survivors, whose housing has been otherwise stable but who face homelessness because of a crisis related to IPV, a brief intervention that includes flexible funding can restore a family's equilibrium and prevent the devastating repercussions associated with homelessness. A longitudinal evaluation of a flexible funding program in Washington, D.C., found that this brief, relatively inexpensive intervention may increase housing stability-94% of clients were housed 6 months after funding was received. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Background: Intimate partner abuse (including coercive control, physical, sexual, economic, emotional and economic abuse) is common worldwide. Advocacy may help women who are in, or have left, an abusive intimate relationship, to stop or reduce repeat victimisation and overcome consequences of the abuse. Advocacy primarily involves education, safety planning support and increasing access to different services. It may be stand-alone or part of other services and interventions, and may be provided within healthcare, criminal justice, social, government or specialist domestic violence services. We focus on the abuse of women, as interventions for abused men require different considerations., Objectives: To assess advocacy interventions for intimate partner abuse in women, in terms of which interventions work for whom, why and in what circumstances., Search Methods: In January 2019 we searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, 12 other databases, two trials registers and two relevant websites. The search had three phases: scoping of articles to identify candidate theories; iterative recursive search for studies to explore and fill gaps in these theories; and systematic search for studies to test, confirm or refute our explanatory theory., Selection Criteria: Empirical studies of any advocacy or multi-component intervention including advocacy, intended for women aged 15 years and over who were experiencing or had experienced any form of intimate partner abuse, or of advocates delivering such interventions, or experiences of women who were receiving or had received such an intervention. Partner abuse encompasses coercive control in the absence of physical abuse. For theory development, we included studies that did not strictly fit our original criteria but provided information useful for theory development., Data Collection and Analysis: Four review authors independently extracted data, with double assessment of 10% of the data, and assessed risk of bias and quality of the evidence. We adopted RAMESES (Realist and meta-narrative evidence syntheses: evolving standards) standards for reporting results. We applied a realist approach to the analysis., Main Results: We included 98 studies (147 articles). There were 88 core studies: 37 focused on advocates (4 survey-based, 3 instrument development, 30 qualitative focus) and seven on abused women (6 qualitative studies, 1 survey); 44 were experimental intervention studies (some including qualitative evaluations). Ten further studies (3 randomised controlled trials (RCTs), 1 intervention process evaluation, 1 qualitative study, 2 mixed methods studies, 2 surveys of women, and 1 mixed methods study of women and staff) did not fit the original criteria but added useful information, as befitting a realist approach. Two studies are awaiting classification and three are ongoing.Advocacy interventions varied considerably in contact hours, profession delivering and setting.We constructed a conceptual model from six essential principles based on context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) patterns.We have moderate and high confidence in evidence for the importance of considering both women's vulnerabilities and intersectionalities and the trade-offs of abuse-related decisions in the contexts of individual women's lives. Decisions should consider the risks to the woman's safety from the abuse. Whether actions resulting from advocacy increase or decrease abuse depends on contextual factors (e.g. severity and type of abuse), and the outcomes the particular advocacy intervention is designed to address (e.g. increasing successful court orders versus decreasing depression).We have low confidence in evidence regarding the significance of physical dependencies, being pregnant or having children. There were links between setting (high confidence), and potentially also theoretical underpinnings of interventions, type, duration and intensity of advocacy, advocate discipline and outcomes (moderate and low confidence). A good therapeutic alliance was important (high confidence); this alliance might be improved when advocates are matched with abused women on ethnicity or abuse experience, exercise cultural humility, and remove structural barriers to resource access by marginalised women. We identified significant challenges for advocates in inter-organisational working, vicarious traumatisation, and lack of clarity on how much support to give a woman (moderate and high confidence). To work effectively, advocates need ongoing training, role clarity, access to resources, and peer and institutional support.Our provisional model highlights the complex way that factors combine and interact for effective advocacy. We confirmed the core ingredients of advocacy according to both women and advocates, supported by studies and theoretical considerations: education and information on abuse; rights and resources; active referral and liaising with other services; risk assessment and safety planning. We were unable to confirm the impact of complexity of the intervention (low confidence). Our low confidence in the evidence was driven mostly by a lack of relevant studies, rather than poor-quality studies, despite the size of the review., Authors' Conclusions: Results confirm the core ingredients of advocacy and suggest its use rests on sound theoretical underpinnings. We determined the elements of a good therapeutic alliance and how it might be improved, with a need for particular considerations of the factors affecting marginalised women. Women's goals from advocacy should be considered in the contexts of their personal lives. Women's safety was not necessarily at greatest risk from staying with the abuser. Potentially, if undertaken for long enough, advocacy should benefit an abused woman in terms of at least one outcome providing the goals are matched to each woman's needs. Some outcomes may take months to be determined. Where abuse is severe, some interventions may increase abuse. Advocates have a challenging role and must be supported emotionally, through provision of resources and through professional training, by organisations and peers.Future research should consider the different principles identified in this review, and study outcomes should be considered in relation to the mechanisms and contexts elucidated. More longitudinal evidence is needed. Single-subject research designs may help determine exactly when effect no longer increases, to determine the duration of longitudinal work, which will likely differ for vulnerable and marginalised women. Further work is needed to ascertain how to tailor advocacy interventions to cultural variations and rural and resource-poor settings. The methods used in the included studies may, in some cases, limit the applicability and completeness of the data reported. Economic analyses are required to ascertain if resources devoted to advocacy interventions are cost-effective in healthcare and community settings.

Being a victim of bullying is linked to various social, emotional and behavioral problems potentially leading to a reduced quality of life. Furthermore, victims of bullying may cause extensive costs for society, for example by an above-average need for healthcare services. The present study was designed to quantify the costs and the loss of quality of life attributable to bullying by comparing victims with a control group of non-bullied students. A cross-sectional sample of 1293 adolescents (mean age 14.07, SD = 1.36) and their parents reported on bullying victimization, quality of life (adolescents' self-report), and annual direct (medical and non-medical) as well as indirect costs (parents' self-report) from a societal perspective (all expressed in €, year 2014 and 2015). For frequent (20.6% of our sample; costs: €8461.80 p.a.) but not occasional (13.3%; costs: €2850.06) bullying, victimization was associated with significantly higher costs compared to non-bullied adolescents (costs: €3138.00; annual difference between frequently bullied students and controls: €5323.01 p.a.; p = 0.008). Cost drivers included increased direct medical costs, but mostly indirect costs caused by productivity losses of the parents. Self-reported quality of life of frequent victims was considerably reduced (T = - 10.96; p < 0.001); also occasional bullying showed significantly reduced values in global quality of life (T = - 5.73; p < 0.001). The present findings demonstrate that frequent bullying is associated with substantial cost to society and reduced quality of life of victims. This observation underscores the need for effective school-based bullying prevention and suggests a high potential of effective programs to be cost effective as well.

Context: The threat of terrorism is intensifying with a recent rise in the number of death and injuries. Nevertheless, few articles deal with the short and long-term medical costs of treating and assisting the civilian victims of terror. The objective of this article is to review the literature and describe the medical costs of supporting victims of terrorism., Method: The authors reviewed the literature on the medical costs following terror attacks in the PubMed/Medline and Google Web sites. Relevant scientific articles, textbooks, and global reports were included in the research., Results: There was a scarcity of data related to the medical costs of terror. The authors review the few articles that describe the hospital and outpatient expenses. The terror attacks lead to increasing length of stay and the use of supplementary medical support. The authors detail the relevant global reports and working papers on terrorism that included the cost of injury and the over-all economic impact assessment., Conclusion: The medical costs result from hospital and outpatient treatment support. There is a clear need to track the long-term fate of the victims of terror. The authors recommend that future research should include all sectors of the healthcare system, including the whole rehabilitation process and have a precise tracking system for all victims.

Background: Men who have sex with men with histories of homophobic victimization bear heightened risk of unstable housing and methamphetamine use. However, it is unclear whether unstable housing explains the link between homophobic victimization and methamphetamine use in this group. The present study aims to test associations between homophobic victimization, unstable housing, and recent methamphetamine use across 24 months in a cohort of men of color who have sex with men (MoCSM)., Methods: Our analysis stems from data of 1342 person-visits from 401 MoCSM participating in an ongoing cohort study. We performed a lagged multilevel negative binominal regression to test the association between past homophobic victimization and recent unstable housing, and a lagged multilevel ordered logistic regression to test the association between past homophobic victimization recent methamphetamine use. We then performed a path analysis to test whether recent unstable housing mediates the association between past homophobic victimization and recent methamphetamine use., Results: Findings showed homophobic victimization associated significantly with increased odds of unstable housing (IRR = 1.70, 95% CI [1.35, 2.14], p < 0.001) and recent methamphetamine use (OR = 1.40, 95% CI [1.15, 1.71], p = 0.001). Mediation analysis indicated that past homophobic victimization was indirectly associated with recent methamphetamine use via unstable housing (OR = 1.06 (95% CI [1.01, 1.11], p = 0.010)., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that homophobic victimization and unstable housing should be addressed alongside treatment and prevention of methamphetamine use in MoCSM., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Restitution to victims is rarely paid in full. One reason for low rates of payments is that offenders lack financial resources. Beyond ability to pay, however, we argue that fair treatment has implications for offender behavior. This study, a survey of probationers who owed restitution, investigated the links between (a) ability to pay, (b) beliefs about restitution and the criminal justice system, and (c) restitution payment, both the amount paid and number of payments. Results indicate that perceived fair treatment by probation staff-those most directly involved with the collection of restitution payments-was significantly associated with greater payment, net of past payment behavior, intention to pay, and ability to pay. Because restitution has potentially rehabilitative aspects if offenders pay more of the court-ordered amount and if they make regular monthly payments, how fairly probation staff treat probationers has implications for both victims and for the criminal justice system.

Several states have made considerable investments into large-scale implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBTs), yet little is known about key success indicators for these implementation efforts such as cost and sustainability. To that end, the present study examined the economic impact of statewide implementation of multisystemic therapy (MST; Henggeler, Schoenwald, Borduin, Rowland, & Cuningham, 2009), a family- and community-based behavioral EBT for serious juvenile offenders in New Mexico. Participants were 1,869 youth who received MST across 23 teams during the study period. We conducted a cost-benefit analysis using metrics from state data sources that compared the cost of MST to its benefits (i.e., avoided expenses from pre- to posttreatment) in two domains: (a) behavioral health services (i.e., Medicaid claims) and (b) juvenile crime (i.e., taxpayer expenses, tangible and intangible expenses to crime victims). MST costs were based on Medicaid claims, which were reimbursed at an enhanced billing rate that was intended to cover expenses for both clinical and implementation (e.g., training, quality assurance) activities. Results suggest that implementation of MST in New Mexico over the 7-year study period may have produced net benefits, through 2 years posttreatment, of more than $4,643 per youth in avoided behavioral health claims and $15,019 per youth through reductions in juvenile crime. Stated differently, every dollar that New Mexico spent on MST appeared to have returned $3.34 for a total benefit of $64.2 million over the course of the study. We discuss implications of these findings for policymakers, administrators, and researchers who are interested in increasing the sustainability of complex EBTs in community settings., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The present study provides an estimate of the U.S. economic impact of child sexual abuse (CSA). Costs of CSA were measured from the societal perspective and include health care costs, productivity losses, child welfare costs, violence/crime costs, special education costs, and suicide death costs. We separately estimated quality-adjusted life year (QALY) losses. For each category, we used the best available secondary data to develop cost per case estimates. All costs were estimated in U.S. dollars and adjusted to the reference year 2015. Estimating 20 new cases of fatal and 40,387 new substantiated cases of nonfatal CSA that occurred in 2015, the lifetime economic burden of CSA is approximately $9.3 billion, the lifetime cost for victims of fatal CSA per female and male victim is on average $1,128,334 and $1,482,933, respectively, and the average lifetime cost for victims of nonfatal CSA is of $282,734 per female victim. For male victims of nonfatal CSA, there was insufficient information on productivity losses, contributing to a lower average estimated lifetime cost of $74,691 per male victim. If we included QALYs, these costs would increase by approximately $40,000 per victim. With the exception of male productivity losses, all estimates were based on robust, replicable incidence-based costing methods. The availability of accurate, up-to-date estimates should contribute to policy analysis, facilitate comparisons with other public health problems, and support future economic evaluations of CSA-specific policy and practice. In particular, we hope the availability of credible and contemporary estimates will support increased attention to primary prevention of CSA., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: The Forensic medicine reform in 2011 enabled the development of forensic units specialized in multidisciplinary care of victims of criminal offences. Thanks to an annual budgetary allocation, the Ministry of Justice handles the financing of judicial acts, while the health care facilities assume the medical, psychological and social aspects. The objective of this study was to determine the direct costs of medical care provided to rape victims (such as defined in the article 222-23 of the Penal Code) in order to see how its funding could be reconsidered to prevent any additional cost that could be caused by non-sufficient medical, psychological and social care. Furthermore, this first assessment may serve as a basis for further reflection on creating other medical judicial units but also for reviewing existing structures., Methods: The direct costs for medical care of a recent rape victim (<48hours) was quantified by including staff and consumables costs, treatments, biological tests and other expenses., Results: The overall time for the entire medical care procedure was approximately three hours, for an overall cost of 673.92€, of which 41.5 % (279.90€) was paid by the Ministry of Justice. The medical, psychological and social aspects stood for the major expenditure items (394.02€), attributable mainly to the biological screening tests for sexually transmissible infections (STIs)., Conclusion: These frequent situations require the convergence of human and material needs with a financial burden shared between the Ministry of Justice and health establishments. Authors suggest that in the annual hospital budgetary allocation allotted by the Ministry of Justice, the care of victims of sexual assault be based on the rate of day hospitalization "Medicine, medical specialties part time day or night common regime", allowing to provide optimal multidisciplinary care, which lessens the risks of complications and reduces the global cost created by these situations., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Victim support services, in mature societies, aim to help victims recover after suffering a traumatic event. The effectiveness of victim support has traditionally been evaluated through rates of service utilization and incidence of psychopathology such as posttraumatic stress disorder. The current study, instead, inquires into service users' unmet needs and satisfaction, and identifies factors that mediate such subjective measures, using data from a national cross-sectional survey on victims and surviving families of violent crime in Taiwan in 2011. The results reveal: 1) a gap between available and expected services, and 2) a correlation between service utilization and satisfaction, both consistent with previous studies. In addition, the current study identifies unsatisfied service users: They are homicidally bereaved, live with their spouse, suffer from post-crime financial distress and are still waiting for a court verdict on the incident. Victim support that helps victims heal through tailored services incorporating relationship counseling is proposed.

There is limited knowledge on the impact of economic resources on adverse peer relations during adolescence. This study used a nationally representative sample (n = 4725, 51% girls) of Swedish eighth-grade students (approximately age fourteen) to examine associations between economic resources and adverse peer relations in the form of peer rejection and bullying victimization. Adolescents from households in the lowest within-school household income quintile were found to be rejected by school class peers to a greater extent than more advantaged students, but an association was not found between relative household income and bullying victimization. In contrast, adolescents unable to participate in activities with peers for economic reasons experienced more rejection and were at higher risk of victimization. The results underline the multidimensionality of adverse peer relations and advance our knowledge on how economic resources relate to peer relations in youth.

Policy Points: Across the globe, the threat from terrorist attacks is rising, which requires a careful assessment of long-term medical support. We found 3 major sources of costs: hospital expenditures, mental health services dedicated to acute stress reactions, and ambulatory follow-up. During the first year, most of the costs were related to hospitalization and support for stress relief. During the second year, ambulatory and rehabilitation costs continued to grow. Public health specialists should consider these major components of costs and their evolution over time to properly advise the medical and social authorities on allocating resources for the medical and nonmedical support of civilian casualties resulting from war or terror., Context: Across the globe, the threat from terrorist attacks is rising, which requires a careful assessment of long-term medical support. Based on an 18-month follow-up of the Israeli civilian population following the 2014 war in Gaza, we describe and analyze the medical costs associated with rocket attacks and review the demography of the victims who filed claims for disability compensation. We then propose practical lessons to help health care authorities prepare for future confrontations., Method: Using the National Insurance Institute of Israel's (NII) database, we conducted descriptive and comparative analyses using statistical tests (Fisher's Exact Test, chi-square test, and students' t-tests). The costs were updated until March 30, 2016, and are presented in US dollars. We included only civilian expenses in our analysis., Findings: We identified 5,189 victims, 3,236 of whom presented with acute stress reactions during the conflict. Eighteen months after the conflict, the victims' total medical costs reached $4.4 million. The NII reimbursed $2,541,053 for associated medical costs and $1,921,792 for associated mental health costs. A total of 709 victims filed claims with the NII for further support, including rehabilitation, medical devices, and disability pensions., Conclusion: We found 3 major sources of costs: hospital expenditures, mental health services dedicated to acute stress reactions, and ambulatory follow-up. During the first year, most of the costs were related to hospitalization and support for stress relief. During the second year, ambulatory and rehabilitation costs continued to grow. Public health specialists should consider these major components of costs and their evolution over time to properly advise the medical and social authorities on allocating resources for the medical and nonmedical support of civilian casualties resulting from war or terror., (© 2017 Milbank Memorial Fund.)

Background and Aims: Treatment for opioid use disorders (OUD) reduces the risk of mortality and infectious disease transmission; however, opportunities to quantify the potential economic benefits of associated decreases in drug-related crime are scarce. This paper aimed to estimate the costs of crime during and after periods of engagement in publicly funded treatment for OUD to compare total costs of crime during a hypothetical 6-month period following initiation of opioid agonist treatment (OAT) versus detoxification., Design: Retrospective, administrative data-based cohort study with comprehensive information on drug treatment and criminal justice systems interactions., Setting: Publicly funded drug treatment facilities in California, USA (2006-10)., Participants: A total of 31 659 individuals admitted for the first time to treatment for OUD, and who were linked with criminal justice and mortality data, were followed during a median 2.3 years. Median age at first treatment admission was 32, 35.8% were women and 37.1% primarily used prescription opioids., Measurements: Daily costs of crime (US$2014) were calculated from a societal perspective and were composed of the costs of policing, court, corrections and criminal victimization. We estimated the average marginal effect of treatment engagement in OAT or detoxification adjusting for potential fixed and time-varying confounders, including drug use and criminal justice system involvement prior to treatment initiation., Findings: Daily costs of crime during treatment compared with after treatment were $126 lower for OAT [95% confidence interval (CI) = $116, $136] and $144 lower for detoxification (95% CI = $135, $154). Summing the costs of crime during and after treatment over a hypothetical 6-month period using the observed median durations of OAT (161 days) and detoxification (19 days), we estimated that enrolling an individual in OAT as opposed to detoxification would save $17 550 ($16 840, $18 383)., Conclusions: In publicly funded drug treatment facilities in California, USA, engagement in treatment for opioid use disorders is associated with lower costs of crime in the 6 months following initiation of treatment, and the economic benefits were far greater for individuals receiving time-unlimited treatment., (© 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Objective: Victims' compensation programs are positioned to serve an important therapeutic role. Their use by persons with physical and mental health problems has not been investigated. This study evaluates the extent to which applicants have physical and mental health needs and whether receiving compensation is related to these needs., Methods: Data were part of a larger study designed to assess satisfaction with victim compensation in Georgia. The sample included 500 victim compensation applicants. Individuals were surveyed about their experiences applying for compensation as well as their current wellbeing. Descriptive and multivariate analyses investigated the link between physical and mental health problems and denial of victim compensation., Results: Applicants for crime victim compensation in Georgia experienced a range of physical and mental health problems. Almost half of applicants had been diagnosed with a mental health condition, and 60% had been diagnosed with at least 1 physical health condition. Co-occurring disorders were common. In addition, being denied compensation was significantly related to having a mental health condition and to the number of diagnosed mental health conditions., Conclusions: Crime victim applicants have clear physical and mental health needs. Being denied compensation benefits is related to having a mental health disorder. These results suggest that victim compensation programs can be an intervention point for victims and their families for either receipt of direct service or referral to needed services. In addition, changes in program administration may need to be made to alleviate disparity in award benefit related to mental health status.

Background: Measures of individual socioeconomic status correlate with recurrent violent injury; however, neighborhood socioeconomic status may also matter. We conducted a review of victims of interpersonal violence treated at our trauma center, hypothesizing that the percent of the population living under the poverty level in their neighborhood is associated with recurrent violent victimization., Materials and Methods: We identified victims of interpersonal violence, ages 12-24, in our trauma registry from 2005-2010. Recurrent episodes of violent injury were identified through 2012. The percentage of the population living under the poverty level for the patient's zip code of residence was derived from United States census estimates and divided into quartiles. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to evaluate predictors of violent injury recidivism., Results: Our cohort consisted of 1890 patients. Multivariable logistic regression confirmed the following factors as independent predictors of violent injury recidivism: male sex (odds ratio [OR] = 2 [1.06-3.80]; P = 0.03), black race (OR = 2.1 [1.44-3.06]; P < 0.001), injury due to firearms (OR = 1.67 [1.12-2.50]; P = 0.01), and living in the lowest zip code socioeconomic quartile (OR = 1.59 [1.12-2.25]; P = 0.01)., Conclusions: For young patients injured by violence, the socioeconomic position of their neighborhood of residence is independently correlated with their risk of violent reinjury. Low neighborhood socioeconomic status may be associated with a disrupted sense of safety after injury and also may alter a person's likelihood of engaging in behaviors correlated with recurrent violent injury. Programs aimed at reducing violent injury recidivism should address needs at the individual and neighborhood level., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article examines how isolated instances of sexual violence affect adult female survivors' employment and economic well-being. This study draws on data from 27 in-depth, qualitative interviews with sexual assault survivors and rape crisis service providers. The findings suggest that sexual assault and the related trauma response can disrupt survivors' employment in several ways, including time off, diminished performance, job loss, and inability to work. By disrupting income or reducing earning power, all of these employment consequences have implications for survivors' economic well-being in the months or years following the assault. In addition, I argue that for many survivors, these employment consequences compound one another and ultimately shift survivors' long-term economic trajectories. By highlighting survivors' lived experiences of the financial aftermath of sexual assault, these findings help to illuminate the processes by which sexual violence decreases survivors' income over the life course. Understanding the financial effects of sexual violence can help researchers better understand and predict the recovery process, while helping practitioners to design more effective interventions for survivors., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

Objective: Many people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) face challenges to their financial stability. Resulting activities that PWUD undertake to generate income may increase their vulnerability to violence. We therefore examined the relationship between income generation and exposure to violence across a wide range of income generating activities among HIV-positive and HIV-negative PWUD living in Vancouver, Canada., Methods: Data were derived from cohorts of HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative PWUD (n=1876) between December 2005 and November 2012. We estimated the relationship between different types of income generation and suffering physical or sexual violence using bivariate and multivariate generalised estimating equations, as well as the characteristics of violent interactions., Results: Exposure to violence was reported among 977 (52%) study participants over the study period. In multivariate models controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, mental health status, and drug use patterns, violence was independently and positively associated with participation in street-based income generation activities (ie, recycling, squeegeeing and panhandling; adjusted OR (AOR)=1.39, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.57), sex work (AOR=1.23, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.50), drug dealing (AOR=1.63, 95% CI 1.44 to 1.84), and theft and other acquisitive criminal activity (AOR=1.51, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.80). Engagement in regular, self-employment or temporary employment was not associated with being exposed to violence. Strangers were the most common perpetrators of violence (46.7%) and beatings the most common type of exposure (70.8%)., Conclusions: These results suggest that economic activities expose individuals to contexts associated with social and structural vulnerability to violence. The creation of safe economic opportunities which can minimise vulnerability to violence among PWUD is therefore urgently required., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.)

Introduction: Violence against women is regarded as a major violation of human rights, and several socio-behavioral aspects among victims have been identified as important determinants of spousal violence experience. Pakistani nationally representative contextual evidence is scarce in this regard. We aimed to estimate prevalence of spousal violence, and explore its association with intergenerational transfer, and attitudinal acceptance of violence, among Pakistani ever-married women., Materials and Methods: Data of 3,687 ever-married women from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2012-13 was used to perform secondary analysis. Logistic regression analyses were conducted. Association between the different forms of spousal violence and the independent variables: intergenerational transfer of spousal violence (mother also beaten up by father); and attitudinal acceptance of spousal violence (beating is justifies if wife argues with husband) were reported as Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI)., Results: Overall, more than a third (n=1344, 37.9%)of ever-married women reported that they experienced spousal violence. Almost 68% (n=539) of the women who reported that their mothers were also beaten up by their fathers, were victims of spousal violence; and almost 47% (n=603) of the women who agreed that beating was justified if the wife argues with her husband, also suffered spousal violence. Intergenerational transfer (OR =5.71, 95%CI 4.40-7.41, p-value <0.01), and attitudinal acceptance (OR =1.66, 95%CI 1.27-2.15, p-value <0.01) were significantly associated with experience of physical violence even after adjusting for respondents' age at marriage, education level, wealth index, parity, employment status, and empowerment status., Conclusions: Spousal violence continues to haunt the lives of women in Pakistan, and is being transmitted as a learned behavior from mothers to daughters who tend to accept such violation of human rights. Girl children from such unfortunate homes may continue to transmit such behaviors, and thus may be targeted for future anti-domestic violence efforts.

Restitution is a court-ordered payment by offenders to their victims to cover the victims' economic losses resulting from the crime. These losses can be substantial and can harm victims and victims' families both directly and indirectly. But most victims do not receive reparation for their injuries, both because judges do not always impose restitution and because of problems with collecting restitution payments, even if there is a court order to do so. In this article, we review the literature on restitution and suggest that this compensatory mechanism is necessary to restore victims to where they were before the crime occurred. But monetary restitution alone is not sufficient. Making victims whole requires not only financial compensation from the offender but also procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice from the criminal justice system.

We reviewed literature to estimate the costs of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in the Canadian Criminal Justice System (CJS), and to update the total costs of FASD in Canada. The results suggest FASD is costlier than previous estimates. The costs of FASD associated with the CJS are estimated at $3.9 billion a year, with $1.2 billion for police, $0.4 billion for court, $0.5 billion for correctional services, $1.6 billion for victims, and $0.2 billion for third-party. The updated total costs of FASD in Canada are $9.7 billion a year, of which CJS accounts for 40%, healthcare 21%, education 17%, social services 13%, and others 9%.

Purpose: This study uses data collected as part of the Well-Being of Adolescents in Vulnerable Environments study to (1) compare the perceptions of neighborhood-level factors among adolescents across five different urban sites; (2) examine the associations between factors within the physical and social environments; and (3) examine the influence of neighborhood-level factors on two different health outcomes-violence victimization in the past 12 months and ever smoked., Methods: Across five urban sites (Baltimore, New Delhi, Johannesburg, Ibadan, and Shanghai), 2,320 adolescents aged 15-19 years completed a survey using audio computer-assisted self-interview technology. To recruit adolescents, each site used a respondent-driven sampling method, which consisted of selecting adolescents as "seeds" to serve as the initial contacts for recruiting the entire adolescent sample. All analyses were conducted with Stata 13.1 statistical software, using complex survey design procedures. To examine associations between neighborhood-level factors and among our two outcomes, violence victimization and ever smoked, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted., Results: Across sites, there was great variability in how adolescents perceived their neighborhoods. Overall, adolescents from Ibadan and Shanghai held the most positive perceptions about their neighborhoods, whereas adolescents from Baltimore and Johannesburg held the poorest. In New Delhi, despite females having positive perceptions about their safety and sense of social cohesion, they had the highest sense of fear and the poorest perceptions about their physical environment. The study also found that one of the most consistent neighborhood-level factors across sites and outcomes was witnessing community violence, which was significantly associated with smoking among adolescents in New Delhi and Johannesburg and with violence victimization across nearly every site except Baltimore. No other neighborhood-level factor exerted greater influence., Conclusions: This study confirms the important associations between perceptions of a neighborhood and adolescent health. At the same time, it demonstrates that not all neighborhood-level factors are associated with adolescent health outcomes in the same way across different urban contexts. Further longitudinal research is needed to examine the direction of causation between adolescent health neighborhood contexts and health outcomes and the reasons for why different urban contexts may exert varying levels of influence on the health of adolescents., (Copyright © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Financial exploitation is the most common and least studied form of elder abuse. Previous research estimating the prevalence of financial exploitation of older adults (FEOA) is limited by a broader emphasis on traditional forms of elder mistreatment (e.g., physical, sexual, emotional abuse/neglect)., Objectives: 1) estimate the one-year period prevalence and lifetime prevalence of FEOA; 2) describe major FEOA types; and 3) identify factors associated with FEOA., Design: Prevalence study with a random, stratified probability sample., Participants: Four thousand, one hundred and fifty-six community-dwelling, cognitively intact adults age ≥ 60 years., Setting: New York State., Main Measures: Comprehensive tool developed for this study measured five FEOA domains: 1) stolen or misappropriated money/property; 2) coercion resulting in surrendering rights/property; 3) impersonation to obtain property/services; 4) inadequate contributions toward household expenses, but respondent still had enough money for necessities and 5) respondent was destitute and did not receive necessary assistance from family/friends., Key Results: One-year period FEOA prevalence was 2.7% (95% CI, 2.29-3.29) and lifetime prevalence was 4.7% (95% CI, 4.05-5.34). Greater relative risk (RR) of one-year period prevalence was associated with African American/black race (RR, 3.80; 95 % CI, 1.11-13.04), poverty (RR, 1.72; 95 % CI, 1.09-2.71), increasing number of non-spousal household members (RR, 1.16; 95 % CI, 1.06-1.27), and ≥ 1 instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) impairments (RR, 1.69; 95 % CI, 1.12-2.53). Greater RR of lifetime prevalence was associated with African American/black race (RR, 2.61; 95 % CI, 1.37-4.98), poverty (RR, 1.47; 95 % CI, 1.04-2.09), increasing number of non-spousal household members (RR, 1.16; 95 % CI, 1.12-1.21), and having ≥1 IADL (RR, 1.45; 95 % CI, 1.11-1.90) or ≥1 ADL (RR, 1.52; 95 % CI, 1.06-2.18) impairment. Living with a spouse/partner was associated with a significantly lower RR of lifetime prevalence (RR, 0.39; 95 % CI, 0.26-0.59) CONCLUSIONS: Financial exploitation of older adults is a common and serious problem. Elders from groups traditionally considered to be economically, medically, and sociodemographically vulnerable are more likely to self-report financial exploitation.

Background: Much academic scholarship has explored drug use and 'addiction' in the criminal justice system., Methods: This paper explores what happens when 'addicts' are victims, through an analysis of victims of crime compensation case law within the state of Victoria, Australia., Results: We argue that the law enacts a set of unexamined assumptions about the 'problem' of addiction, including the assumption that it is incompatible to be both addict and victim. However, courts reconcile this 'dilemma' by explaining addiction as an 'effect' of trauma, violence or abuse, a seemingly sympathetic rendering of addiction. Although this appears to represent a less stigmatising approach than found in the criminal law, we argue that these processes actually produce new challenges for people who use drugs and 'addicts', and that these may be counter to the stated aims and objectives of crimes compensation law. We argue that even legal systems with an explicitly remedial rationale have the potential to generate harms, creating those who use drugs and 'addicts' as pathological in certain ways and thereby undermining their claims to citizenship. Our analysis is underpinned by a critical approach to the constitution of social problems based on the work of Carol Bacchi., Conclusion: Although the focus is on Australian law, the arguments we develop in this paper are likely to resonate beyond the specific jurisdiction reviewed here, and raise questions about the mutually interdependent role of law and policy in compounding the stigmatisation and marginalisation of people who use drugs and drug 'addicts'., (Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This article considers the compensative capacity of the victims of crime statutory schemes that are present in all eight Australian jurisdictions for primary victims of family violence. It argues that the recommendations of the Final Report on Family Violence conducted jointly by the Australian Law Reform Commission and the New South Wales Law Reform Commission in 2010, although a positive step, are insufficient to facilitate meaningful compensation to victims of family violence. In addition to the primary limitations identified by the Commissions--a requirement to report the crime to the police within a reasonable time and a requirement for multiple acts of violence to be reduced to a single act if they are related--there are other statutory barriers that disproportionately disadvantage victims of family violence. These include time limitation provisions, a requirement to report the crime to police, the restriction of compensation to prescribed categories of loss which exclude many of the social, vocational, emotional and psychological harms suffered by victims of family violence, and significant cut-backs on the non-economic component of the schemes. This article further argues that the statutory barriers cumulatively contribute to the perception of a crime as an isolated event perpetrated by a deviant individual. The article recommends that specific provisions for family violence victims should be introduced into all schemes including three categories of compensation not tied to criminal offences but rather the different forms of family violence, with a generous compensation range, and no requirement for proof of injury.

Background: Sexual violence is a serious and costly public health problem. Current research that systematically documents the broad range of economic costs of sexual violence is lacking., Purpose: To estimate the incidence and costs of sexual violence in Iowa in 2009., Methods: Using data obtained from population surveys, six Iowa government agencies, and other sources, we estimated sexual violence incidence, costs per incident, and total costs in 2009 dollars, by age and sexual violence category, and for various cost elements. We calculated direct costs of medical care, mental health care, property damage, victim services, investigation, adjudication, and sanctioning, as well as indirect costs for lost work and quality of life. We collected data in 2010-2011 and completed analysis in 2013., Results: In 2009, an estimated 55,340 individuals experienced sexual violence in Iowa, including 49,510 adults and 5,930 children. Nearly three of every four victims were women. The estimated total cost of sexual violence in 2009 was $4.7 billion, equating to $1,580 per resident. This estimate included $4.44 billion in indirect costs and $265 million in direct costs. In the same year, the government spent an estimated $100.6 million as a result of sexual violence in Iowa, more than half of which ($55.3 million) was spent on perpetrators and little ($0.9 million) on prevention., Conclusions: The economic costs of sexual violence are high for individuals and society. Cost information can help identify the burden of sexual violence relative to other social problems in Iowa and prioritize funding for prevention and intervention., (Copyright © 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We examined whether socioeconomic status (SES) could be used to identify which schools or children are at greatest risk of bullying, which can adversely affect children's health and life. We conducted a review of published literature on school bullying and SES. We identified 28 studies that reported an association between roles in school bullying (victim, bully, and bully-victim) and measures of SES. Random effects models showed SES was weakly related to bullying roles. Adjusting for publication bias, victims (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.24, 1.58) and bully-victims (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.36, 1.74) were more likely to come from low socioeconomic households. Bullies (OR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.97, 0.99) and victims (OR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.94, 0.97) were slightly less likely to come from high socioeconomic backgrounds. SES provides little guidance for targeted intervention, and all schools and children, not just those with more socioeconomic deprivation, should be targeted to reduce the adverse effects of bullying.

Background and Objective: Effective violence interventions are not widely implemented, and there is little information about the cost of violence interventions. Our goal is to report the cost of a brief intervention delivered in the emergency department that reduces violence among 14- to 18-year-olds., Methods: Primary outcomes were total costs of implementation and the cost per violent event or violence consequence averted. We used primary and secondary data sources to derive the costs to implement a brief motivational interviewing intervention and to identify the number of self-reported violent events (eg, severe peer aggression, peer victimization) or violence consequences averted. One-way and multi-way sensitivity analyses were performed., Results: Total fixed and variable annual costs were estimated at $71,784. If implemented, 4208 violent events or consequences could be prevented, costing $17.06 per event or consequence averted. Multi-way sensitivity analysis accounting for variable intervention efficacy and different cost estimates resulted in a range of $3.63 to $54.96 per event or consequence averted., Conclusions: Our estimates show that the cost to prevent an episode of youth violence or its consequences is less than the cost of placing an intravenous line and should not present a significant barrier to implementation.

Objective: People with severe mental illness are vulnerable to having other people directly take or misappropriate their disability payments. This study investigated the prevalence of different types of financial victimization and the client characteristics associated with being financially victimized., Methods: Adults (N=122) receiving inpatient or intensive outpatient psychiatric treatment who received Social Security disability payments completed assessments about money management and victimization. A path model was used to estimate the association of victimization with participant characteristics., Results: Seventy percent of participants experienced at least one type of financial victimization in the preceding 28 days; 35% ran out of money because of victimization. Victimization was significantly associated with being younger, having had more psychiatric hospitalizations, having more recent alcohol use, and, most robustly, having problems managing money (β=.52, p<.01)., Conclusions: Financial victimization of disability recipients in acute care settings is common and more likely among people with recent substance use and difficulty managing their funds.

Rapid urbanization globally threatens to increase the risk to mental health and requires a rethinking of the relationship between urban poverty and mental health. The aim of this article is to reveal the cyclic nature of this relationship: Concentrated urban poverty cultivates mental illness, while the resulting mental illness reinforces poverty. The authors used theories about social disorganization and crime to explore the mechanisms through which the urban environment can contribute to mental health problems. They present some data on crime, substance abuse, and social control to support their claim that mental illness reinforces poverty. The authors argue that, to interrupt this cycle and improve outcomes, social workers and policymakers must work together to implement a comprehensive mental health care system that emphasizes prevention, reaches young people, crosses traditional health care provision boundaries, and involves the entire community to break this cycle and improve the outcomes of those living in urban poverty.

This study expands previous work by examining individual and national level effects of economic deprivation on partner violence among college students. Three main hypotheses were tested: (1) individual level economic deprivation (i.e., ability to meet daily needs and family income) is associated with partner violence, (2) gross national income is associated with the mean rates of partner violence across nations, and (3) the association between individual level economic deprivation and partner violence varies according to the economic national context as measured by gross national income. Data for 14,090 participants from 31 nations came from the International Dating Violence Study that queried university students about violence in their relationships and relevant risk factors. A series of overdispersed Poisson hierarchical linear regression models were specified to test the hypotheses. Ability to meet daily needs, but not family income, was associated with rates of partner violence. Gross national income was also associated with mean rates of partner violence across nations as well as the relationships between ability to meet daily and partner violence and between family income and partner violence. The findings show the importance of context, as indicated by national economic standing, on rates of partner violence. Not only do economically deprived individuals experience more partner violence, but those living in poorer nations experience more partner violence, regardless of individual economic deprivation. Limitations of the study include a non-random sample and substantial variation in the study sites beyond economic standing. Nonetheless, findings indicate efforts to confront partner violence must also call for cross-national economic development., (© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background and Objectives: No recent international studies provide evidence about its prevalence, trends, or social determinants of physical fighting in adolescents. We studied cross-national epidemiologic trends over time in the occurrence of frequent physical fighting, demographic variations in reported trends, and national wealth and income inequality as correlates., Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were administered in school settings in 2002, 2006, and 2010. Participants (N = 493874) included eligible and consenting students aged 11, 13, and 15 years in sampled schools from 30 mainly European and North American countries. Individual measures included engagement in frequent physical fighting, age, gender, participation in multiple risk behaviors, victimization by bullying, and family affluence. Contextual measures included national income inequality, absolute wealth and homicide rates. Temporal measure was survey cycle (year)., Results: Frequent physical fighting declined over time in 19 (63%) of 30 countries (from descriptive then multiple Poisson regression analyses). Contextual measures of absolute wealth (relative risk 0.96, 95% confidence interval 0.93-0.99 per 1 SD increase in gross domestic product per capita) but not income inequality (relative risk 1.01, 95% confidence interval 0.98-1.05 per 1 SD increase) related to lower levels of engagement in fighting. Other risk factors identified were male gender, younger age (11 years), multiple risk behaviors, victimization by bullying, and national homicide rates., Conclusions: Between 2002 and 2010, adolescent physical fighting declined in most countries. Specific groups of adolescents require targeted violence reduction programs. Possible determinants responsible for the observed declines are discussed.

Federal agencies responsible for funding protective services to older adults are increasingly concerned with the growing incidence of financial exploitation in rural areas. The Wall Street Journal recently has reported an increasing trend of unemployed adult children migrating from urban centers to smaller rural towns and countrysides to live with their parents since 2008. This current study explores the attitudes of family caregivers regarding management of financial matters for their elderly care recipients. The major findings of the study include that adult children often (1) overestimate their parents' ability to manage their finances; (2) prefer to manage their parents' finances informally, as opposed to using legal options like power of attorney; and (3) tend to think of their parents' assets as "almost theirs." The study concludes with recommendations on the critical need for information to help families make important decisions about helping elderly parents with their finances. This information would not only promote the use of safeguards against abuse, but could potentially provide caregivers with greater confidence and protection.

This study sought to extend our understanding of the mechanisms by which intimate partner violence (IPV) harms women economically. We examined the mediating role of job instability on the IPV-economic well-being relationship among 503 welfare recipients. IPV had significant negative effects on women's job stability and economic well-being. Job stability was at least partly responsible for the deleterious economic consequences of IPV, and the effects lasted up to three years after the IPV ended. This study demonstrates the need for services and policies that address barriers to employment as a means of improving the economic well-being of low-income women with abusive partners.

The current study explored whether self-reported mental health problems among victims of violent crime (n = 151) affect their ratings of satisfaction with amount of financial compensation awarded by the Dutch state and vice versa. This topic is important to address, because satisfaction is often used as an indicator of quality of victim services. Relying on medical literature about satisfaction with compensation in patient populations, it was expected that satisfaction levels would be negatively associated with mental health problems. Mental health problems were assessed with the General Health Questionnaire. A threshold of 11/12 on this scale was used to differentiate between victims with and without probable mental health problems. In line with expectations, victims with probable mental health problems reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction than those without. Results remained unchanged after adjusting for potential confounding. Findings were discussed in light of study limitations and directions for future research.

Accusations of unjust harm doing by the ingroup threaten the group's moral identity. One strategy for restoring ingroup moral identity after such a threat is competitive victimhood: claiming the ingroup has suffered compared with the harmed outgroup. Men accused of harming women were more likely to claim that men are discriminated against compared with women (Study 1), and women showed the same effect when accused of discriminating against men (Study 3). Undergraduates engaged in competitive victimhood with university staff after their group was accused of harming staff (Study 2). Study 4 showed that the effect of accusations on competitive victimhood among high-status group members is mediated by perceived stigma reversal: the expectation that one should feel guilty for being in a high-status group. Exposure to a competitive victimhood claim on behalf of one's ingroup reduced stigma reversal and collective guilt after an accusation of ingroup harm doing (Study 5)., ((c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.)

Partner violence affects a significant number of women and their children each year. Estimates of the economic costs of partner violence are substantial. However, most estimates of the costs of partner violence are made at the aggregate level rather than the individual level. Estimating costs at the individual level allows for a wider range of costs of partner violence to be considered. This study is one of the first to examine a wide range of economic costs of partner violence and to examine the economic costs and cost-benefits of civil protective orders. Overall, including changes in quality of life, protective orders were estimated to have saved taxpayers in one small state US$85 million in a 1-year period. More generally, this study provides a framework to address more specific complexities associated with cost-benefit analyses of partner violence and the impact of justice system interventions.

There are no known studies to date examining the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with sudden and dramatic personal financial loss. A Web-based, online, nonprobability convenience survey of 172 Madoff victims (56 percent female; mean age, 60.9 years) using the Posttraumatic Stress List Checklist, civilian version was conducted eight to 10 months following the focal event. Sociodemographic information and data concerning anxiety/depression and health-related concerns were gathered by self-report questionnaire. A five-point Likert-type scale was used to assess victim response to government regulatory systems. Results demonstrated that a majority of respondents (55.7 percent) met criteria for a presumptive Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.) diagnosis of PTSD, and as a group, respondents acknowledged high levels of anxiety (60.7 percent), depression (58 percent), and health-related problems (34 percent). Victims overwhelmingly affirmed a substantial loss of confidence in financial institutions (90 percent). This raises a public health concern as to governmental response and counseling needs during times of severe economic trauma.

The article analyzes the portrayal of the male perpetrator of heterosexual domestic violence in a selection of contemporary Spanish texts (novel, drama, and autobiography) that form part of a clearly discernible cultural response to the issue of intimate partner violence in Spain today. It reads the figure of the abuser in conjunction with a range of primarily Spanish studies on domestic aggression, with the aim of showing how and why the chosen authors engage with bodies of theory that address battery. The study concludes that some cultural producers devise a strategy of eliding the male aggressor in an attempt to subvert the power he wields over the female victim.

The aim of this study is to analyze the health care costs of violence against women. For the study, we used a register-based approach where we identified victims of violence and assessed their actual health care costs at individual level in a bottom-up analysis. Furthermore, we identified a reference population. We computed the attributable costs, that is, the excess health care costs for victims compared to an identified reference population of nonvictims. Only costs within the health care sector were included, that is, somatic and psychiatric hospital costs, costs within the primary health care sector and costs of prescription pharmaceuticals. We estimated the attributable health care costs of violence against women in Denmark, using a generalized linear model where health care costs were modeled as a function of age, childbirth, and exposure to violence. In addition we tested whether socioeconomic status, multiple episodes of violence, and psychiatric contacts had any impact on health care costs. We found that the health care costs were about €1,800 higher for victims of violence than for nonvictims per year, driven mostly by higher psychiatric costs and multiple episodes of violence.

This research explores the transformation of rape crisis centers and whether directors, staff, interns, and volunteers see changes as beneficial or detrimental to rape crisis centers and the victims they serve. Data from 63 interviews with directors, staff, interns, and volunteers from six rape crisis centers located in four East Coast states indicate that although centers may have been formed for different reasons depending on when they opened, all have become more professional, rely less on volunteers, engage in more collaboration with other agencies, and have largely abandoned their traditional activism agenda. Traditional activism through political protests and membership in consciousness raising groups has been replaced by community education and outreach. Some of these changes are viewed as positive whereas others are viewed as negative.

Research demonstrates a complex relationship between television viewing and fear of crime. Social critics assert that media depictions perpetuate the dominant cultural ideology about crime and criminal justice. This article examines whether program type differentially affects fear of crime and perceptions of the crime rate. Next, it tests whether such programming differentially affects viewers' attitudes about the criminal justice system, and if these relationships are mediated by fear. Results indicated that fear mediated the relationship between viewing nonfictional shows and lack of support for the justice system. Viewing crime dramas predicted support for the death penalty, but this relationship was not mediated by fear. News viewership was unrelated to either fear or attitudes. The results support the idea that program type matters when it comes to understanding people's fear of crime and their attitudes about criminal justice.

In 1862 His Honor, Justice Johnston, issued his instructions to the jury of the New Zealand Supreme Court for two simultaneous rape trials – the alleged rape of a European woman by two Māori men, and an alleged “assault with intent to commit a rape” of a Māori woman by a European man. This article argues that those instructions should be read within an historiographical critique of British colonial expansion, print capitalism and violence. Drawing on feminist postcolonial theorizing the question posed here, is, “What is the historical, ideological context for a newspaper reporting of the possible rape of a Māori woman in 1862?