RESUMO
Sexual minority groups experience elevated risk across a range of adverse outcomes. Previous studies from the USA showed that these risks include contact with the criminal justice system for sexual minority females but not for males. This study examined whether this relationship between sexual minority status and criminal behavior was also found in a more secular country like the Netherlands with more progressive attitudes toward sexual minorities. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine whether this relationship applied to various types of crime and could be explained by unmeasured familial factors. Longitudinal data from the Dutch national population, including 75,362 individuals in a same-sex relationship and 3,464,906 individuals in opposite-sex relationships, were used to compare the risk of crime among males and females in same-sex and opposite-sex unions. Discordant sibling models were included to increase control over possible sources of confounding from shared familial factors. Analyses were repeated for six types of crime, including property offenses, violence, vandalism, and public order offenses, traffic offenses, drugs offenses, and other offenses. The results showed that the direction of the associations between same-sex relationships and offending differed for men and women. In general, men in same-sex relationships were less likely to be a suspect of crime compared to those in opposite-sex relationships [odds ratio (OR) = 0.685; p < .001]. Women in same-sex relationships exhibited higher risk than those in opposite-sex unions (OR = 1.560; p < .001). Similar patterns emerged for most crime types and the discordant sibling models yielded conclusions that were substantively similar to those among the total population.
RESUMO
Purpose: Insecurities and social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions, may have elevated tensions at home, consequently increasing the risk of domestic violence. The present study aims to examine changes in the prevalence, nature, and type of reporter of domestic violence following the various restrictions implemented to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the Netherlands. Methods: All official domestic violence reports recorded by the 26 Dutch domestic violence agencies in 2019 and 2020 were collected and analyzed. Time-series forecasting analyses, using a SARIMAX model, were conducted to predict the trend of domestic violence reports during the first lockdown and to compare the predicted trend with the observed trend. Results: The observed trend of the registered prevalence of domestic violence did not substantially differ from the predicted trend based on pre-pandemic data. Similarly, findings regarding the nature of domestic violence suggest no clear divergence of pre-pandemic trends during the lockdown period. Nonetheless, a shift was found from professional reporters (e.g., the police) to non-professional reporters (e.g., neighbors). Conclusions: The prevalence of domestic violence reports in the Netherlands did not increase. However, the COVID-19 restrictions may have led citizens, especially neighbors, to detect domestic violence more often.
RESUMO
Previous findings show that collaborative interviews with pairs of eyewitnesses can result in more accurate testimony than individual interviews, and that partners remember more together if they acknowledge, repeat, rephrase and elaborate upon each other's contributions. In the present study, we investigated whether these findings differ for pairs of acquainted and unacquainted partners, respectively. Participants viewed a violent movie in the cinema and took part in three eyewitness interviews approximately five days later. The first and the last interview were always individual. The second interview was individual in the nominal condition (N = 22 pairs), collaborative with a known partner in the acquainted condition (N = 21 pairs), and collaborative with a stranger in the unacquainted condition (N = 20 pairs). We replicated benefits of collaborative eyewitness interviews, in terms of error pruning as well as delayed cross-cuing. However, we found no significant differences between acquainted and unacquainted pairs, neither in recall performance nor in retrieval strategies during the collaborative interview. Regardless of acquaintance, pairs who elaborated upon each other's contributions during the collaborative interview, remembered more together. The findings are evaluated within the theoretical framework of transactive memory. Practical implications for investigative interviewers are discussed.
