Perceptions of Social Capital Before and After the Perpetration of Femicide, Homicide, and Other Serious Crimes: Evidence from Argentina.

Over the past two decades, femicide-the gender-based killing of women or girls-has become an issue of international concern. Yet relatively little data on perpetrators exist. Current research primarily focuses on individual risk factors with less attention on community and societal factors. We use a social capital approach to examine femicide by analyzing the extent to which crime perpetrators experience and perceive social punishment (exclusion) from their social networks. Using a quota sampling strategy, we administered a cross-sectional questionnaire to perpetrators of femicide (N = 71), male-male homicide (N = 73), and other serious crimes (N = 64) across four prisons in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other crime perpetrators served as a control to the two lethal crime groups. Perceived social capital scores were assigned based on responses to two scales adapted from the World Bank's "Integrated Questionnaire for the Measurement of Social Capital." Before committing murder, femicide and homicide perpetrators' scores were not statistically different. Yet after the crime, femicide perpetrators retained significantly greater scores than homicide perpetrators. The perceived social capital scores of other crime perpetrators did not change after the commission of their crimes. As a secondary objective, we examined the individual and social contexts of femicide perpetrators. Most (85%) of the femicide perpetrators could name at least one other person in their social network whom they knew to be physically violent during disagreements with their partner, while 11% stated that "everyone" they knew used violence during disagreements. Although the penalty for committing femicide and homicide is ostensibly equivalent-a life sentence of 50 years-we found that the informal social punishment femicide perpetrators perceived is less severe than that experienced by homicide perpetrators. These data indicate a lack of social punishment for femicide, compared to other crimes, showing social legitimization of the crime. These findings support the development of community-level interventions to prevent femicide.

Assessing Racial Disparities in Homicide Sentencing: Findings From Brazil.

Over the past four decades, hundreds of studies have examined the presence of racial disparities in criminal punishment. The bulk of this research has been conducted in the United States and a few other western democracies, with limited research assessing the presence of racial disparities in criminal sentencing for homicides in South America. Using information gathered via original data collection on homicide cases from five different capital cities in Brazil, the current study examines two criminal court outcomes: whether a defendant was convicted and the length of sentence. Findings reveal the absence of racial disparities in conviction decisions, even though Black and Brown defendants received longer sentence lengths. Supplementary analyses show racial disparities in sentence length are most pronounced when the homicide victim was White. Implications for studying court outcomes in international contexts are discussed.

Clustering of Obesogenic Behaviors Associated With Bullying Roles Among 100,794 Adolescents.

Obesogenic behaviors have been individually associated with bullying during adolescence. However, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet manifest themselves in synergy and even behavioral profiles in which positive and negative behaviors coexist can be more positively associated with psychosocial outcomes. The present study aimed to analyze the association between clusters of obesogenic behaviors and different bullying roles in Brazilian adolescents. This cross-sectional study used data from the Brazilian School-based Health Survey-PENSE, 2015. A total of 100,794 male and female adolescents of the ninth-grade elementary school participated in the study. Students responded to an electronic questionnaire. Clusters of obesogenic behavior consisted of physical activity, exposure to sedentary behavior, and diet, and the different roles in bullying were: participant, victim, bully, and bully-victim. Binary logistic regression with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was used for data analysis (p < .05). Multiple adjustments and complex sampling procedures were employed. Adolescents in the cluster "Health-promoting sedentary behavior and Diet" had reduced chances of participating in bullying (odds ration [OR] = 0.70; 95% CI [0.64, 0.76]), of being a victim (OR = 0.87; 95% CI = 0.76-0.99), and being the bully (OR = 0.65; 95% CI [0.59, 0.71]); and those from the cluster "Health-promoting physical activity and Diet" had reduced chances of participating (OR = 0.81; 95% CI [0.76, 0.87]), being a victim of bullying (OR = 0.86; 95% CI [0.76, 0.98]), being the bully (OR = 0.79; 95% CI [0.72, 0.85]), and being a bully-victim (OR = 0.74; 95% CI [0.61, 0.90]), when compared to those from the "health-risk" cluster in the adjusted analysis. Clusters of obesogenic behavior may reduce adolescent bullying: victim, bully, and bully-victim benefit when exposed to healthier behavioral profiles. The school setting must recognize bullying as a problem and therefore simultaneously promote multi-component interventions to tackle physical activity, sedentary behavior, and eating behavior. Outcomes other than obesity should be acknowledged when promoting obesogenic behaviors.

Violent Extremism and Moral Disengagement: A Study of Colombian Armed Groups.

Violent extremism is commonly conditioned by a variety of psychological processes and mechanisms that when activated or deactivated aid implication in extreme behavior, including destructive actions with a large dose of cruelty against people and groups. One of those processes is moral disengagement, which was originally postulated by Bandura. To test this relationship, the present research focused on studying these mechanisms in members of Colombian illegal armed groups. Total sample size was 18 (14 males and four females) demobilized members of the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia [AUC]) and guerrilla organizations (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], National Liberation Army [ELN], among others), which had participated directly or indirectly in violent actions against people and groups, which included murders, tortures, and massacres. Qualitative methodology was used, specifically in-depth interviews and content analysis. This analysis led to the verification in the narratives of the participants of the use of all the mechanisms of moral disengagement described by Bandura aiming to justify their behavior within the armed group. The most noteworthy mechanisms were those that minimized participation (especially, attributing behavior to obeying orders: displacement of responsibility) and moral justification, especially, the context of confrontation. Moral disengagement processes are found in armed group members (such as insurgency, terrorist organizations, or militias). These mechanisms cancel ordinary psychological reactions of rejection, fear, and moral controls that oppose the carrying out of cruelty and extreme violence.

School Attachment and Violent Attitudes Preventing Future Violent Behavior Among Youth.

Evidence derived from social information theories support the existence of different underlying cognitive mechanisms guiding violent behavior through life. However, a few studies have examined the contribution of school variables to those cognitive mechanisms, which may help explain violent behavior later in life. The present study examines the relationship between school attachment, violent attitudes, and violent behavior over time in a sample of urban adolescents from the U.S. Midwest. We evaluated the influence of school attachment on violent attitudes and subsequent violent behavior. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypothesis in a sample of 579 participants (54.9% female, 81.3% African American). After controlling for gender and race, our results indicated that the relationship between school attachment and violent behavior over time is mediated by violent attitudes. The instrumentalization of the school context as a learning environment aiming to prevent future violent behavior is also discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence Among Older Portuguese Immigrant Women in Canada.

One third of the immigrant population around the world is made up of women. Of these women, many belong to the Portuguese community. Immigrants account for more than one in five Canadians. The Portuguese older immigrant women living in Canada are vulnerable to be victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), which is a prevalent and important global health issue that affects differently diverse groups. There are few available researches regarding IPV on this population. The objective of this study is to understand how Portuguese older immigrant women living in Canada experience IPV. This is a qualitative study with a social phenomenological focus. Alfred Schutz's motivation theory was used to analyze the impulses that led older women to face IPV. The data were collected from July to October 2013 in the Greater Toronto Area. Ten women 60 years or older were included in the study. The participants perceived themselves as being victimized by their current or ex partners. They are unhappy and suffer from a variety of health problems, which they related to their experience of IPV. These factors, along with participants' personal beliefs, and their legal situations as immigrants in Canada, made them act, either in a way that would try to maintain their relationships, or tried to escape the violent situation. IPV is a complex phenomenon, with different perceptions surrounding it. The experiences of the older immigrant women showed that ending the marriage is not always a possibility to them because of cultural issues and their immigrant status in Canada. Some women wish help and support to improve their relationships.

Perfiles criminológicos: el arte de Sherlock Holmes en el siglo XXI

resumen está disponible en el texto completo

Summary Within the frame of an international interest to explain and reduce violent behavior, criminological profiles provide relevant knowledge on the characteristics and circumstances concerning violent events, their authors and victims. In this review the main lines of investigation on this subject are addressed, as well as some of the most important findings and inquiries yet to be solved. Finally, some challenges and perspectives of this type of research and the application of criminological profiles are discussed. Our conclusions include the necessity of developing a line of research to generate an insight into this subject in general, as well as to assess its applicability in specific contexts in Spanish speaking countries. Even though criminological profiles have been simultaneously supported and criticized, the findings in this research area evince the possibility of creating useful criminological profiles with accuracies above the random level. However, the outcomes of studies related to this subject suggest a precautionary approach with respect to its achievements. This manuscript reviews the research on criminological profiles from five study areas: a) crime and delinquent typologies; b) behavioral patterns and the theory of facets; c) spatial patterns and geographical profiles; d) temporal patterns and chrono-ecological rhythms, and e) reliability and validity. Studies in crime and delinquent typologies are marked within a clinical focus, in which deductive logic, experience of the profiler and analysis of previous cases are the keys to tackle cases of unknown aggressors. One of the representative models in this line is that of the FBI, which proposes a classification of murder scenes that are related with two different types of delinquents: unorganized (probably with mental disorder) and organized (probably psychopaths). This model also propounds the existence of a third type called "mixed" category, which includes characteristics from both previously mentioned types. The main contribution of clinical methodology has been the identification of socio-demographic characteristics common in persons committing crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery, pyromania and even terrorist acts; the selection of a victim type; characteristics of their modus operandi, and motivations referred to by perpetrators for justifying the deed. Recent research goes beyond mere descriptive studies by means of co-occurrence analysis of variables. From this viewpoint, hypotheses are posed and demonstrated based upon the study of large samples, this resulting knowledge is then applied to the analysis of new cases, casuistics (statistical methodology). This perspective originates the identification of behavioral patterns that initially give no support to previous classifications but propound more specific categories. Results from different type of offenses consistently indicate the existence of some useful behavioral patterns for the identification of the various ways of perpetrating a crime and its relation to distinct types of criminals. Among the main identified patterns are: violence used, level of planning and aggressor-victim relationship. Besides, the evidence supports the idea of a relation between the characteristics in the commission of a crime (information from the crime scene and the victims) and the characteristics of those persons responsible of the crime (in terms of the useful information leading to their identification and capture). The results of an investigation from a statistical viewpoint suggest that typologies can not be seen as static or rigid and that it is necessary to review the evidence backing up those typologies before using it in crimes committed by unknown aggressors and in contexts differents from the ones initially proposed. The theory of facets is the most representative model along this line. One of the most crucial findings so far is the existence of spatial patterns and their applicability in the elaboration of geographical profiles. In this sense, the relations between the zones in which crimes occur and the possible characteristics of the criminals have been studied. Results indicate that offenders tend to perpetrate their offenses in familiar places and near the areas in which their everyday life takes place. This knowledge has been useful for the development of computer programs that can predict the area where a criminal may live in or in which he may remain most of the time, based on the information available from the case investigation (for example, the place where the victims disappeared or where the bodies were found). Studies in this area indicate that the choice of places and victims is not at random, even in crimes that may be classified as impulsive. With respect to chrono-ecological patterns, there is evidence pointing to a relation between the commission of a crime and certain biological rhythms associated with annual, seasonal and lunar rhythms; though the information relating the lunar cycle and homicides is still controversial. In relation to the validity and reliability of profiles, research indicates that profiles depend on the type of offense, quality and quantity of available information, as well as the abilities of the persons performing the profile. Valid and reliable profiles are associated with both a large amount of available information and with the fact that persons trained in doing profiles are endowed with abilities of logical thinking and insight into human behavior. However, it is not quite clear if the main ability for producing accurate profiles is that of analysis and level of general intelligence on the part of the profile designer or a specific type of knowledge or training. In spite of the achievements in the study of profiles at international level, Latin America has experienced a slow development in this area. Mexico in particular, is not an exception. Publications on this subject in Spanish are really scarce. The development in the research on profiles and the questions pending an answer lead us to propose, as well as to discuss, the necessity for the development of a research line in criminological profiles in countries like Mexico with the aim of making a contribution at international level to the identification of behavioral, cognitive, criminological, spatial and chrono-ecological patterns. Besides, there is a need to corroborate whether if the international findings are valid in our contexts, and to what extent they can be introduced into our practice. Finally, we propound that this research line be permanent and independent of immediate reactions in the face of crimes creating great impact. This line must be constituted upon the basis of theoretical models empirically demonstrated, the search of relations between available information in crime cases of unknown aggressors and data that may be useful for the identification and capture of offenders. Among the challenges and perspectives of criminological profiles we must go beyond deductive tools to approach a science based on scientific evidence.