Until relatively recently, the study of victimization has been largely outside the purview of behavioral geneticists and evolutionary psychologists. Recent victimology research, however, has shown that genetic and evolutionary forces are connected to the risk of victimization. The current study expands on these findings by examining whether genetic influences differentially explain victimization in males and females. To do so, we use a sample of sibling pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; N = 4,244). The analyses revealed no significant quantitative sex differences in the etiology of adult victimization. However, the results of this study do highlight the importance of accounting for genetic factors when studying the etiology of specific types of adult victimization. We conclude by discussing the implications of the current study for future research.

BACKGROUND: Describe trends in perpetrator characteristics and firearm use in pediatric homicides across the United States.
METHODS: Multiply-imputed data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation\'s 1976-2020 Supplementary Homicide Reports were used to estimate perpetrator characteristics (sex, age, and relationship to victim) and firearm use in pediatric homicides. Descriptive analyses were stratified by victim age group, sex, race, and five-year time periods.
RESULTS: Family members were the most common perpetrator of infant and toddler (ages 0-4) and child (ages 5-12) homicides, whereas acquaintances accounted for the majority of adolescent (ages 13-19) homicides. Perpetrator characteristics vary across victim sex and race, particularly among adolescents. Despite overall stability, there were changes in perpetrator characteristics from 1976 to 2020. There was a sustained increase in the proportion of homicides committed with a firearm. In 2016-2020, the proportion of firearm-involved homicides was an all-time high for infant and toddler (14.8%), child (53.1%), and adolescent victims (88.5%).
CONCLUSIONS: Policy interventions that improve family stability and well-being may be most effective at preventing infant, toddler, and child homicides, whereas programs that target peer and community relationships, as well as policies that focus on firearm access, may be more crucial for preventing adolescent homicides.

BACKGROUND: Bullying in school is a universal psychosocial issue that raises concerns about adolescents\' safety and mental health and is positively associated with depressive symptoms. Social support could be a preventive factor that eases bullying and its psychological distress.
OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of social support in the relationship between bullying and depressive symptoms among adolescents in Jordan. Another aim was to investigate predictors of depression based on adolescents\' sociodemographic factors.
METHODS: In this cross-sectional, non-experimental mediational study, a stratified and systematic sampling method was used to recruit 270 Jordanian adolescents.
RESULTS: Sociodemographic variables of being female, having divorced parents, having illiterate fathers, and being older in adolescence explained 12.2% of the variance in depressive symptoms. Family social support partially mediated the relationship between bullying and depressive symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that a notable proportion of adolescents experienced bullying victimization and depressive symptoms, and a positive relationship exists between these two variables. These results further highlight the role of family social support in buffering the negative impact of bullying on depressive symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS: The study\'s results emphasize the significance of developing and implementing family-centered social support initiatives by nurses to lessen adolescents\' bullying experiences and depressive symptomatology.

Recent research suggests that bullying victimization increases the risk of handgun carrying among adolescents. Yet, little to no research has considered whether different types of bullying victimization (i.e., physical, verbal, cyber) shape handgun-carrying behaviors among youth. Understanding these relationships can, however, inform intervention efforts addressing youths\' access to and motives for carrying handguns. The purposes of this study are twofold. First, we establish whether there is a relationship between bullying victimization and youth handgun carrying. Second, we seek to determine whether certain types of bullying victimization are associated more strongly with handgun carrying than others, using data from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS, n = 47,572), a statewide representative sample of Florida middle school and high school students. The results from multinomial regression models indicate that physical bullying and cyberbullying victimization were associated with an elevated risk of carrying a handgun in the past 12 months. Interventions that underscore the importance of comprehensive anti-bullying interventions that not only address traditional physical aggression among adolescents but also mitigate the evolving challenges posed by unsupervised digital spaces may reduce the risk of handgun carrying.

Hate crime is increasingly a familiar term within the domains of scholarship, policy, and activism as the harms associated with acts of targeted hostility continue to pose complex, global challenges. However, an exclusively Western-centric focus has done little to foster transnational conversations or to shape conceptual or legal frameworks in parts of the world where the challenges posed by hate and prejudice remain underexplored despite their devastating consequences. This article considers how the complexities and specificities of the Indian context disrupt the dominant assumptions of conventional hate crime frameworks. In doing so, it highlights the value of extending conventional Westernized models of thinking to different environments with different sets of challenges. Through its analysis of caste crimes and the factors that reinforce a prevailing institutional and cultural backdrop of political indifference, bureaucratic resistance, and public skepticism, the article illustrates why and how key elements of the Western framework remain ill-suited to the Indian context. The authors call instead for a creative translation of the hate crime concept, which accommodates the nature of violence within specific social contexts, and which emphasizes the institutional features that can mitigate the limitations of state capacity and intent. The process of translation has value in harnessing the benefits of the hate crime concept within countries, which lack a common framework to foster shared understanding and prioritization in relation to tackling contemporary expressions of hate. At the same time, this process enriches prevailing thinking, dismantles stereotypes, and challenges scholars of targeted violence to familiarize themselves with the unfamiliar.

UNASSIGNED: Our understanding of how immigration enforcement impacts crime has been informed by data from the police crime statistics. This study complements existing research by using longitudinal multilevel data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) for 2005-2014 to simultaneously assess the impact of the three predominant immigration policies that have been implemented in local communities. The results indicate that the activation of Secure Communities and 287(g) task force agreements significantly increased violent victimization risk among Latinos, whereas they showed no evident impact on victimization risk among non-Latino Whites and Blacks. The activation of 287(g) jail enforcement agreements and anti-detainer policies had no significant impact on violent victimization risk during the period.
UNASSIGNED: Contrary to their stated purpose of enhancing public safety, our results show that the Secure Communities program and 287(g) task force agreements did not reduce crime, but instead eroded security in American communities by increasing the likelihood that Latinos experienced violent victimization. These results support the Federal government\'s ending of 287(g) task force agreements and its more recent move to end the Secure Communities program. Additionally, the results of our study add to the evidence challenging claims that anti-detainer policies pose a threat to violence risk.

We examined how individual differences in masculine honor beliefs (MHBs) related to third-person perceptions of revenge pornography (i.e., a man distributing nude photos of his ex-girlfriend) in response to a break-up. Consistent with our hypotheses, higher levels of MHBs were associated with higher ratings of the woman as negative, higher levels of victim-blaming the woman, and higher ratings of revenge pornography as justified. Furthermore, participants perceived the woman as more at fault, and the man\'s behavior as more justified, when she cheated on him prior to his revenge (compared to when she did not cheat). Overall, our results suggest that both higher levels of MHBs and instances of infidelity inspire beliefs that disempower women victims. Our research extends our understanding of how MHBs and situational factors relate to perceptions of revenge pornography, including its justification and the stigmatization of its victims.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent worldwide, including in Latinx populations. Reported rates of IPV in Latinx populations vary widely, indicating that measurement errors may be impeding researchers\' and clinicians\' understanding of IPV in these populations. We conducted a systematic review across a range of social science databases to evaluate psychometric properties and translation methodologies of Spanish-language IPV measures. Records were included if they included Spanish measures assessing IPV victimization. We identified 91 records with a total of 70 measures and evaluated the measures\' extant psychometric evidence using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments. For the measures translated from English to Spanish, we evaluated the translation methodology based on best-practice recommendations for achieving translations that are psychometrically equivalent to their original versions. We found that validation information about measures was sparse and that few translations adhered to best-practice recommendations. Based on our a priori criteria we recommend the Plazaola-Castaño translation of the Index of Spouse Abuse. In closing, we discuss the validity evidence of translated measures independent of the original language version and best-practice recommendations in translating psychological measures.

On March 23, 2020, the United Kingdom went into national lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19. In this paper, we examine whether a policy aimed at minimizing the health consequences of the pandemic had unintended negative consequences for domestic abuse. Using data from the Metropolitan Police in England we estimate the impact of lockdown on domestic abuse in the 32 boroughs that make up the London metropolitan area. Using a before and after approach, and controlling for other factors, we show an increase in the probability of being a victim of domestic abuse during lockdown similar in magnitude to the increase experienced over the Christmas holidays. However, the overall picture masks inequalities across groups: with women, younger and older people, and people of Asian, Arab, and Middle Eastern ethnicity subject to the highest increases, reflecting vulnerabilities and existing inequalities. Of the domestic abuse-related crimes, it is the most violent crimes that saw the greatest increases during lockdown. Once lockdown restrictions are eased, rates decline but remain slightly higher than prior to lockdown up to 3 months later. The results present a clear message for policy makers: a policy adopted to alleviate one problem, even in times of crisis, must factor in the impact this may have in other areas. Failure to do so in this situation, despite existing evidence linking domestic abuse to stress, confinement, and crisis situations prior to lockdown, has resulted in an increase in domestic violence in the U.K.\'s capital city, during lockdown and beyond.

This article aimed to analyze aggression-victimization differentiation in middle-school students by empathy level, gender, and grade level. A total of 260 students living in a middle-low-socioeconomic region of Ankara, Turkey, participated in the study (mean age = 12.89, standard deviation = 0.96). Results indicated that the students were more likely to be victims of violent behaviors rather than being aggressors. We found a high probability that victims could become aggressors or vice versa. There were no significant differences between empathy and victimization-aggression. Besides, the results revealed boys were more prone to being victims and aggressors, especially concerning physical-verbal aggression and harming properties. However, girls were more likely to be victims of isolation and-to a lesser extent-verbal aggression. We discussed these results in light of literature.