Community-Level Factors As Positive and Negative Correlates of Sexual Aggression Perpetration Among Adolescent Boys.

Often, perpetrators of sexual violence first aggress in their teens. Presently, very little is known about environmental factors that may influence adolescents' engagement in sexual aggression. Drawing upon data collected at 27 high schools in the Northeast United States, this study is the first to test the association between community-level factors and male adolescents' sexual aggression. A series of backward linear regressions determined that 10 of 19 community variables were associated with males' sexual aggression, which were then used to generate a ratio of positive to negative correlates of sexual aggression for each high school. In multilevel analyzes, as hypothesized, the ratio of positive to negative correlates was positively associated with schools' sexual aggression perpetration rates. We discuss the study's implications for future sexual assault research and prevention interventions.

An Israeli Model for Predicting Fear of Terrorism Based on Community and Individual Factors.

The purpose of the study was to suggest a model for predicting fear of terrorism using theoretical explanations that predict fear of crime. The study focused on two different levels of analysis: community and individual. The sample consisted of 507 Israeli adults. Predictions of fear of terrorism and fear of crime were conducted with two path analysis models, calculated using AMOS software. Fear of terrorism was predicted directly by gender, age, prior victimization, religiosity, and neighborhood disorder. The findings allow the researchers to offer a predictive model for fear of terrorism based on a combination of theories that explain fear of crime as well as a theory concerning the link between fear of death and religion. A combination of environmental theories (e.g., the Broken Windows theory), theories related to personal variables (e.g., the Vulnerability theory), and the Terror Management theory can produce an adequate theoretical framework for explaining fear of terrorism.

Variables psicosociales del entorno comunitario asociadas a procesos de desadaptación social en adolescentes: reflexiones a partir de un estudio de caso / Psychosocial Variables of Community Environment Linked to Social Maladjustment Processes in Adolescents: Reflections from a Case Study

Se analiza la incidencia de un conjunto de variables relacionales y del entorno social construido que actúan como factores de riesgo en procesos de desadaptación social de adolescentes en un barrio de Temuco, Chile. Como técnicas para la producción de datos, se emplearon: la observación participante, las entrevistas focalizadas, el análisis documental, los talleres de discusión grupal y el análisis estructural de redes. En un análisis en progreso de los datos, bajo la lógica de construcción de teoría desde la base, se caracteriza la dinámica barrial en cinco dimensiones: convivencia comunitaria, acción institucional en la comunidad, norma comunitaria, abordaje familiar del comportamiento infantil y adolescente y apropiación del espacio público. Se propone que estas dimensiones en el polo negativo actuarían como variables criminógenas en el espacio comunitario.

This article analyses the incidence of a group of relational and social context constructed variables that act as risk factors in processes of social maladjustment of adolescents in a neighborhood belonging to Temuco city, Chile. The techniques used to produce the data were participant observation, focalized interviews, document analysis, group discussion workshops and structural analysis of networks. In a progressive analysis of the data, using grounded theory, the neighborhood dynamics is characterized by five dimensions: community cohabitation, institutional action in the community, community norm, family approach to child and adolescent behavior; and community taking of the public space. It is proposed that these dimensions in its negative pole would act, within community space, as conducive to crime variables.