Perceptions of Sexual Violence Terms Used in Statutes Throughout the United States.

The terminology used to describe sexually violent offenses vary, and how these labels are interpreted by the public remains unclear. This study explores the terms for the primary-legally most severe-offense of sexual violence in legal statutes across the United States and investigates how different terms evoke different perceptions about crime severity. Results indicate that nine different terms are used to identify the primary offense of sexual violence in state statutes, with significant differences in perceived severity for these terms. The findings have implications for the public's (mis)understanding of sexual violence and the treatment of survivors and perpetrators.

But Someone Was Right There: An Examination of How Third-Party Presence Is Associated With Rape and Sexual Assault Victim Help-Seeking Behavior and Reports to Police.

This research evaluates whether third-party presence is associated with rape and sexual assault (RSA) victims help-seeking and reporting to police, addressing a gap in the literature about how the presence of a third-party is associated with victim behavior. This research uses secondary data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Findings indicate that third-party presence has no statistically significant association with help-seeking and marginal significance with police reporting. This research focuses on third-party presence as a precursor to understanding victim help-seeking behaviors and reports to police. This research raises questions about the expected role of third parties in RSA victimizations.

Twenty-Five Years of Research and Advocacy on Violence Against Women: What Have We Accomplished, and Where Do We Go From Here? A Conversation.

This article is a conversation between two academic experts, Callie Rennison and Nikki Jones, who endeavor to sum up what has been accomplished in eliminating violence against women in the United States during the 25 years of the journal's existence. Domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment are discussed. Although prevalence rates are down in domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment remain persistent problems. Looking at violence against women from an analysis of President Trump voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Rennison and Jones observe the extent to which the current ideas and attitudes of women-both young and old-will need to change before violence can be eliminated. Rather than viewing events in the United States as totally negative, they see them as presenting new opportunities for greater understanding of violence against women and for new methods of prevention and perpetrator accountability.

Comparing Violent Victimization Experiences of Male and Female College-Attending Emerging Adults.

Despite increased attention to college student victimization, gaps remain. In particular, relatively little is known about violence against males and females outside sexual and intimate partner violence. This study uses data from the National Crime Victimization Survey to compare male and female students' violent victimization overall as well as relational and sexual violence. Findings reveal gendered differences and similarities. Results have implications for policies to prevent violence and support victims. Implications for victim services are particularly relevant given the critical developmental period for college students learning coping skills that shape their adult lives and addressing harms resulting from violent victimization.

The Influence of Adult Role Statuses on Violent Victimization Reporting.

Drawing on data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, this article extends on the contributions from developmental and life course criminologists by investigating the relationship between adult role status and police notification. Our findings point to the important gender differences. Age and reporting are curvilinearly related among female victims but linearly related among males. Having children (in the home) increases the odds of police reporting by female victims, whereas being married does so for male victims. Our findings push forward our understanding of gender and age disparities in selfreporting victimization and highlight the need to better understand how one's orientation to the criminal justice system changes as he or she transitions in (and out) of adult roles through the life course.

Victim Injury and Social Distance: A National Test of a General Principle of Conflict.

Our inquiry focuses on why some violent offenses but not others result in injury to the victim. Building on existing theory nested in the paradigm of pure sociology, we propose and test a general principle of conflict: Victim injury varies directly with social distance. This principle predicts that offenders are more likely to harm victims with whom they are less well acquainted and less similar culturally. We test three hypotheses derived from this principle with data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and find little support for the theory. Rather, findings suggest exactly the opposite of that predicted: As social distance between offender and victim increases, the odds of victim injury decreases. Recommendations of additional research are made.

Violence Against College Women: A Review to Identify Limitations in Defining the Problem and Inform Future Research.

Over the past 25 years, our understanding about violence against college women has greatly expanded, but it has been concentrated in particular areas. As a result, despite this increased attention, significant gaps in our knowledge still exist. One is a failure to take stock in how "violence" is defined and assess whether its current use adequately covers the variety of risks to which college women are exposed. We identify limitations in how the current literature operationalizes violence against college women and illustrate how addressing these limitations can inform and advance the field by identifying new patterns and correlates. We also propose a research agenda to explicitly examine the definition and scope of "violence" as considered in the study of college women.

Intimate relationship status variations in violence against women: urban, suburban, and rural differences.

Woman abuse varies across intimate relationship categories (e.g., marriage, divorce, separation). However, it is unclear whether relationship status variations in violence against women differ across urban, suburban, and rural areas. We test the hypothesis that rural females, regardless of their intimate partner relationship status, are at higher risk of intimate violence than their urban and suburban counterparts. Results indicate that marital status is an important aspect of the relationship between intimate victimization and geographic area and that rural divorced and separated females are victimized at rates exceeding their urban counterparts.

Reflexive retaliation for violent victimization: the effect of social distance on weapon lethality.

During the course of being victimized, why do people sometimes fight back with their fists; in other cases, with a knife or blunt object; and at other times, with a firearm? One theory is that the weapons involved in self-defense, also known as reflexive retaliation, become less lethal as offenders and victims become more intimate and alike culturally. Using National Crime Victimization Survey data, we test hypotheses derived from this theory and primarily find support. This article concludes by discussing implications for future work.

Social distance and immediate informal responses to violent victimization.

There are a number of ways that victims of violence informally handle attacks as they unfold. Their responses range in severity from physical resistance, to talking it out with the offender, to running away, to cooperating. Why do victims respond in a more or less severe manner? Cooney (2009) suggests that social distance is part of the answer: the further the relational or cultural distance between offender and victim, the more severe the latter's response. Using National Crime Victimization Survey data, we test hypotheses derived from this theory and find oppositional findings. Specifically, results indicate that closer social distance predicts more severe responses. We conclude by discussing the implications of this finding for future work, especially as relates to the study of self-protective behavior.

The influence of childhood maltreatment and self-control on dating violence: a comparison of college students in the United States and South Korea.

Various aspects of social learning and self-control theories have been applied to partner violence among multiple samples in the United States, but these theoretical approaches have been less commonly studied cross-culturally. Consequently, childhood maltreatment and low self-control have been identified as risk factors for various outcomes in primarily American samples. This study examined the relationships between childhood maltreatment, low self-control, and dating violence among college students in South Korea and the United States. Findings indicated that experiencing childhood maltreatment and having low self-control were key predictors of perpetration and victimization for both psychological and physical relationship violence. Witnessing interparental violence during childhood was less consistently predictive of one's involvement in a violent dating relationship. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.

Reporting to the police by Hispanic victims of violence.

Though reporting violence to the police has been extensively investigated, the nature of Hispanic reporting of victimization has not. This is surprising because Hispanics are the fastest growing and largest ethnic group in the United States. Using over a decade of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, this article investigates Hispanic reporting of victimization relative to non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, American Indians, and Asians. Findings show that Hispanics are significantly less likely to report the most serious of violence compared to non-Hispanic Whites, but are more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to report simple assaults. Few reporting differences between Hispanics and other victim groups were observed. In addition, analyses indicate a positive relationship between educational attainment and reporting by Hispanics-a predictor not shared by any other group.

Reassessing who contributed most to the decline in violence during the 1990s: a reminder that size does matter.

Descriptions of the 1990s crime drop point to the importance of declines in firearm violence among young, Black, urban males. This extant research is valuable but incomplete in terms of the crimes considered and the degree of disaggregation considered. This study complements current work on fatal violence by providing a comprehensive description of nonfatal violence trends using highly disaggregated data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Through disaggregation we describe how the risk for nonlethal serious violence differs among a variety of victim populations, how these risks varied over time, and the contribution made by each group to the overall decline in crime. We also examine how firearm violence, and violence by a variety of victim/offender categories contributed to the aggregate drop in nonfatal serious violence.