The Darker the Skin, the Greater the Disparity? Why a Reliance on Visible Injuries Fosters Health, Legal, and Racial Disparities in Domestic Violence Complaints Involving Strangulation.

The reliance on external injuries for justice is misguided given that assault injuries may be less visible among victims of color due to increased melanin in the skin. To date, however, less is known whether racial/ethnic disparities extend to officers' identification of signs of nonfatal strangulation (NFS). The current study estimates the extent of NFS indicators identified by officers who completed a standardized strangulation assessment in 133 family violence complaints.

How Victims of Strangulation Survived: Enhancing the Admissibility of Victim Statements to the Police When Survivors are Reluctant to Cooperate.

Holding perpetrators accountable for family violence is challenged when survivors are reluctant to testify. In light of recent Supreme Court precedents limiting the admissibility of statements to law enforcement in victimless prosecutions, the current study examined 130 cases of nonfatal strangulation (NFS) to determine whether case characteristics and themes across survivors' on-scene statements can help prosecutors combat common legal defenses raised when victims are unavailable for trial. The history of prior violence and how only 6% of perpetrators stopped strangling victims on their own suggests that NFS complaints should be investigated as an attempted homicide until evidence suggests otherwise.

The Relationship Between Rape Myth Acceptance and Sexual Behaviors.

An extensive amount of research has been devoted to understanding rape myths, especially in the context of sexual attitudes. Few studies have examined sexual actions as a correlate of rape myth acceptance (RMA). As such, this study utilizes the Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA) and its four distinct subscales to examine adherence to rape myths and an individual's view of sex and sexuality in a sample of 1,310 college students.

Burnout Among Forensic Interviewers, How They Cope, and What Agencies Can Do to Help.

The current study used quantitative and qualitative responses from 250 forensic interviewers (FIs) in the United States to examine predictors of burnout and personal coping mechanisms. Findings indicated that burnout was primarily driven by work-related factors including frequently feeling overwhelmed with job-related duties, inadequate organizational support, and direct exposure to graphic materials involving children. Moreover, having a higher degree of compassion satisfaction and being non-White significantly mitigated symptoms of burnout.

Are parents at a higher risk for secondary traumatic stress?: How interviewing child victims impacts relationships with forensic interviewer's friends and family.

Background: Forensic interviewers are at a heightened risk for secondary traumatic stress (STS) due to their frequent interactions with victims of child maltreatment (Bonach & Heckert, 2012). To date, however, few studies have examined the negative effects of this work on interviewers' social and emotional well-being.

Objective: The present study seeks to explore the effect of STS on the relationships of forensic interviewers, including those with friends, family, and their respective children.

The influence of elevated carbon dioxide and water availability on herbaceous weed development and growth of transplanted loblolly pine (Pinus taeda).

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings were grown in competition with native weeds using soil and seed bank collected from recently chopped and burned areas near Appomattox, Virginia. One-year-old seedlings were planted and weeds allowed to germinate from the native seed bank while being exposed to CO(2) (ambient and elevated - approximately 700 ppm) and water (water stressed and well watered) treatments for approximately one growing season in a greenhouse.

Stand dynamics and the evaluation of forest decline.

The importance of understanding effects of stand dynamics on growth as they relate to identifying and evaluating forest declines is discussed. Decline diseases and some of their characteristics are reviewed, as are general patterns of normal growth and development of forest trees and stands. The need to develop an expectation of normal growth is discussed and a minimally sufficient set of growth stratifying factors; namely, site quality, stand density and age, is proposed.