This study explores the relationship between fear of various types of sexual offenders and a belief that those sexual offenders should be subject to sex offender registration. We hypothesized that those who offend against children would elicit the most fear; consequently, the most feared offenders would be rated as most requiring registration. As…

A popular misconception among the general public is that sex offenders most often victimize strangers. To better understand these misconceptions about sex offenders, this study determines the frequency of misperception in the general public and establishes if the misconceptions are related to the policy of sex offender registration. Using a…

Adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system face multiple challenges on their pathway to adulthood. These adolescents not only have an increased risk of committing future crimes and are further at risk of not becoming healthy, productive adults. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk and protective factors and associations…

Sexual violence against people with disabilities is widespread and linked to negative public health and social outcomes. The objectives of the present study were to describe and analyze and thus provide an overview of the current state of affairs concerning sexual assault among people with disabilities, including reported prevalence and trends,…

The Strengthening Families in Canada Family Violence Prevention Project was aimed at engaging immigrant and refugee communities in family violence prevention. The project, which received support from the Community Mobilization Program, National Crime Prevention Strategy, involved a partnership of four community health and education organizations.…

Relying on a structured observation guide listing a large number of variables shown to be good predictors of aggression in bars by past researchers, trained observers spent a total of 444 hours collecting data in 25 licensed drinking establishments in Hoboken, New Jersey. Observations took place at two separate time periods, 7:30pm-10:30pm and…

This study examined inmate perceptions on what is important in appropriately communicating concepts covering the American criminal justice system to children of incarcerated parents. Inmates interviewed at two facilities in Arkansas claimed that they knew little about meanings or consequences of their actions before and after indictment.…

In the wake of several high-profile shootings at schools in the United States, most notably the shootings that occurred at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, the United States Secret Service (Secret Service) and the United States Department of Education (ED) embarked on a collaborative endeavor to study incidents of planned (or…

The objective of this study is to develop and test a model of online protection behaviour, particularly regarding the use of virus protection. Hypotheses are proposed concerning the predictors of the intention to engage in virus protection behaviour. Using a survey of 273 college students who use the Internet, a test of the hypotheses is conducted…

"Get tough" approaches for responding to sex crimes have proliferated during the past decade. Child pornography in particular has garnered attention in recent years. Policy makers increasingly have emphasized incarceration as a response to such crime, including accessing child pornography. Juxtaposed against such efforts is a dearth of knowledge…

With the advent of mandatory and pro-arrest laws for incidents of intimate partner violence, there has been an increase in the number of women arrested for domestic violence. Several explanations are posed in the literature that attempt to explain such a rise, including the hypothesis that women are being arrested not for offensive violence but…

Previous research indicates that many individuals who perceive themselves to be at no risk of HIV have recently engaged in risky sexual behaviors (Klein et al., 2003; Schroder et al., 2001). Because HIV risk has been associated with partner violence (Maman et al., 2000), it is important to examine self-perceived risk and actual sexual risk…

This report describes the results of an exploratory study of juvenile justice programs where managers and practitioners are attempting to build youth interventions with strength-based, positive youth development principles. Previous researchers have not adequately documented how such reforms take place, let alone whether they produce effective…

In the following study, the authors examine factors that explain citizen participation in crime prevention activities in Boston. Using survey data from a random sample, census data, and official crime and arrest data, the authors identified a wide range of individual- and community-based indicators that could potentially explain citizen…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine nine states' policy responses to the Unsafe School Choice Option between 2002 and 2007. These states had 199 schools designated as "persistently dangerous schools" since 2002. Unsafe School Choice Option is one of the school choice options of the No Child Left Behind law that required…