Prevalence rates, reporting, and psychosocial correlates of stalking victimization: results from a three-sample cross-sectional study.

Purpose: Public health and criminal justice stalking victimization data collection efforts are plagued by subjective definitions and lack of known psychosocial correlates. The present study assesses the question of stalking victimization prevalence among three groups. Psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with stalking victimization experiences were assessed.

Low Resting Heart Rate and Stalking Perpetration.

There is consistent evidence to suggest that individuals with low resting heart rate are more likely to engage in a variety of antisocial behaviors. The present study examines whether this finding can be extended to stalking perpetration. Drawing from fearlessness theory and stimulation-seeking theory, as well as conceptual work of Meloy and Fisher, we find that individuals with low resting heart rates had significantly greater odds of engaging in stalking behavior, net of controls for sex, age, race, self-control, parental affection, delinquent peers, attitudes/beliefs toward crime, and aggression.

Assessing Intimate Partner Violence in a Control Balance Theory Framework.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role that control occupies in the motivation for, and development of, intimate partner violence (IPV). The research literature often theorizes about the importance of control in gender-based crimes; however, few studies have empirically tested these assumptions. Given the breath of theoretical approaches in examining IPV and the need for individualized explanations, the current study used concepts from Tittle's control balance theory.

Measuring the Effects of Limited and Persistent School Bullying Victimization: Repeat Victimization, Fear, and Adaptive Behaviors.

Extant research on school bullying has largely focused on the incidence rather than the modality of the experience, leaving key questions about impact unexplored. With a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 cases, the present study explores the utility of expanding the classification scheme of bullying victimization to include limited victimization and persistent victimization experiences. By examining the differences in victimization, fear of victimization, and avoidance behaviors, the present study establishes that significant differences in fear of future victimization and adaptive avoidance behaviors do exist between the groups classified as limited and persistent.

The Dark Figure of Stalking: Examining Law Enforcement Response.

Despite the growing body of scholarship on stalking victimization, the criminal justice system's response has been substantially understudied. Although scholars consider stalking to be a significant issue, its prevalence is not echoed in official data representing stalking arrests and convictions. The disparity between prevalence estimates and official data reinforces a "dark figure" of stalking that warrants further examination.

A Gendered Lifestyle-Routine Activity Approach to Explaining Stalking Victimization in Canada.

Research into stalking victimization has proliferated over the last two decades, but several research questions related to victimization risk remain unanswered. Accordingly, the present study utilized a lifestyle-routine activity theoretical perspective to identify risk factors for victimization. Gender-based theoretical models also were estimated to assess the possible moderating effects of gender on the relationship between lifestyle-routine activity concepts and victimization risk.

Defining and evaluating perceptions of victim blame in antigay hate crimes.

Victimology research often hinges on attribution of blame toward victims despite a lack of conceptual agreement on the definition and measure of the construct. Drawing on established blame attribution and intent literature, the present study evaluates psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Victim Blame Scale (PVBS) using mock jury samples in a vignette-based capital murder antigay hate crime context. Factor analyses show support for a three-factor structure with the following perceptions of victim blame subscales: Malice, Recklessness, and Unreliability.

Student attitudes toward concealed handguns on campus at 2 universities.

We examined student support for a policy that would allow carrying of concealed handguns on university campuses. Large percentages of students at 2 universities expressed very low levels of comfort with the idea of permitting concealed handgun carrying on campus, suggesting that students may not welcome less restrictive policies. Students held slightly different opinions about concealed handguns on and off campus, suggesting that they view the campus environment as unique with respect to concealed handgun carrying.

How many more guns?: Estimating the effect of allowing licensed concealed handguns on a college campus.

Among other arguments, advocates for lifting bans on carrying concealed handguns on campus propose that this would increase the prevalence of legitimately carried handguns, which might then deter crimes or be used to intervene in campus shooting incidents like the one that took place at Virginia Tech in 2007. Opponents suggest that increased prevalence of concealed handguns would lead to increases in other negative consequences, such as accidental shootings. Little empirical research has examined the potential outcomes of such a policy change, nor has existing research examined the prerequisite issue of whether lifting these bans would result in substantial increases in the prevalence of concealed handguns among students.