The chilling effect and the most ancient form of vengeance:discrimination and victimising third parties

The recent Equality Act 2010 includes a revised definition of “victimisation”, which (in the Act’s most litigated field of employment) prohibits employers from victimising workers who use the legislation. The underlying mischief should be the deterrent effect upon litigants, or potential litigants (the “chilling” effect). One particularly pernicious deterrent is the victimisation, not of the complainant, but of a third party, such as the complainant’s spouse, loved one, or friend, “the most ancient form of vengeance”. Yet the revised definition does not address the deterrent effect per se, and specifically excludes third party victimisation from its reach. This paper explores, first, why the deterrent mischief and the chilling effect should underpin the victimisation provision, so that it addresses third party victimisation, second, the potential of existing alternative solutions in domestic law; and third, the position EU law, and under the United States’ Civil Rights Act 1964. It concludes that the best existing solution lies in EU general principles, but for the sake of certainty, a simple amendment to the existing formula is required, which would solve the problem without any undue side-effects

Risk of criminal victimisation in outpatients with common mental health disorders

Crime victimisation is a serious problem in psychiatric patients. However, research has focused on patients with severe mental illness and few studies exist that address victimisation in other outpatient groups, such as patients with depression. Due to large differences in methodology of the studies that address crime victimisation, a comparison of prevalence between psychiatric diagnostic groups is hard to make. Objectives of this study were to determine and compare one-year prevalence of violent and non-violent criminal victimisation among outpatients from different diagnostic psychiatric groups and to examine prevalence differences with the general population.Criminal victimisation prevalence was measured in 300 outpatients living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with outpatients with depressive disorder (n = 102), substance use disorder (SUD, n = 106) and severe mental illness (SMI, n = 92) using a National Crime Victimisation Survey, and compared with a matched general population sample (n = 10865).Of all outpatients, 61% reported experiencing some kind of victimisation over the past year; 33% reported violent victimisation (3.5 times more than the general population) and 36% reported property crimes (1.2 times more than the general population). Outpatients with depression (67%) and SUD (76%) were victimised more often than SMI outpatients (39%). Younger age and hostile behaviour were associated with violent victimisation, while being male and living alone were associated with non-violent victimisation. Moreover, SUD was associated with both violent and non-violent victimisation.Outpatients with depression, SUD, and SMI are at increased risk of victimisation compared to the general population. Furthermore, our results indicate that victimisation of violent and non-violent crimes is more common in outpatients with depression and SUD than in outpatients with SMI living independently in the community

Association of prior depressive symptoms and suicide attempts with subsequent victimisation - analysis of population-based data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey

Background: Symptoms of mental disorder, particularly schizophrenia, predispose to victimisation. Much less is known about the relationship between depressive symptoms and later victimisation in the general population, the influence of these symptoms on types of subsequent victimisation, or the role of symptom severity. We investigated this in nationally representative data from the UK. Methods: Data were from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007. Multivariable logistic regressions estimated association between: a. prior depressive symptoms, and b. prior depressive symptoms with suicide attempt, and types of more recent victimisation. Gender-specific associations were estimated using multiplicative interactions. Results: Prior depressive symptoms were associated with greater odds of any recent intimate partner violence (IPV), emotional IPV, sexual victimisation, workplace victimisation, any victimisation, and cumulative victimisation (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for increasing types of recent victimisation: 1.47, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14, 1.89). Prior depressive symptoms with suicide attempt were associated with any recent IPV, emotional IPV, any victimisation, and cumulative victimisation (aOR for increasing types of recent victimisation: 2.33, 95%: 1.22, 4.44). Limitations: Self-reported recalled data on previous depressive symptoms, may have limited accuracy. Small numbers of outcomes for some comparisons resulted in imprecision of these estimates. Conclusion: Aside from severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, previous depressive symptoms in the general population are associated with greater subsequent victimisation. Men and women with prior depressive symptoms may be vulnerable to a range of types of victimisation, and may benefit from interventions to reduce this vulnerability

Crime victimisation, Australia 2013-14: the South Australian perspective

Introduction This report summarises the key South Australian findings from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2013-14 (cat. no. 4530.0) which was released on 17 February 2015. Crime Victimisation, Australia provides the results of an Australia-wide crime victimisation survey undertaken by the ABS via the Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS). The results of the survey provide estimates of the extent of victimisation experienced by Australians aged 15 years and over for selected types of personal and household crimes. Also collected was information on whether or not victims reported the crime to police and, for some personal offences, whether the victim thought that the offender was under the influence of alcohol or another substance in the most recent incident. The following information focuses only on data made available by jurisdiction, however, Crime Victimisation, Australia also includes Australia-wide information related to victims such as gender, age group, marital status, relationship to offender, country of birth, location (capital city or balance of state/territory), level of highest non-school qualification, labour force status and weekly household income

The experience of victimisation among Muslim adolescents in the UK : the effect of psychological and religious factors

This study set out to explore the levels of victimisation experienced by Muslim adolescents in the UK, the extent to which victimisation is conceptualised in religious terms, and the extent to which individual differences in the experience of victimisation is related to personal factors, psychological factors and religious factors. Data provided by 335 13- to 15-year-old Muslim students from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales demonstrated that one in four Muslim students (25%) reported being bullied because of their religion. These students saw their religious identity as being a more important cause of their victimisation than their ethnicity, their colour, or their name. Male and female Muslim students were equally vulnerable to victimisation. Psychological and religious variables predicted individual differences in vulnerability to victimisation among Muslim students

Offenders as Victims of Crime? An Investigation into the Relationship Between Criminal Behaviour and Victimisation

In this paper we consider the association between victimisation and offending behaviour using data from the Youth Lifestyles Survey. We consider the impact of violent, non-violent and persistent offending on the probability of being a victim of violent and non-violent crime and find a positive association between these using univariate probit estimates. However, taking into account the endogenous nature of offending and victimisation via a bivariate probit model, we find that univariate estimates understate the association. We suggest that policy recommendations should only be based on the bivariate analysis of the association between offending and victimisation.

Emotional abuse of girls in Swaziland: prevalence, perpetrators, risk and protective factors and health outcomes

Background: Research on emotional child abuse in sub–Saharan Africa is scarce. Few studies thus far have examined prevalence, risk and protective factors for emotional child abuse or the associations between emotional abuse and girls’ health. Methods: A nationally representative two–stage, cluster–sampled, household survey of females aged 13–24 years (n=1244) on childhood abuse victimisation was conducted. Participants completed interviewer–assisted questionnaires. Associations between emotional abuse and putative risk, and protective factors and health outcomes were analyzed using separate logistic regression models accounting for sampling design. Marginal effects of cumulative risk factors for emotional abuse victimisation were examined. Results: Lifetime prevalence of emotional abuse was 28.5% with 58.3% of these girls reporting many abusive incidents. The most common perpetrators were female (27.8%) and male (16.7%) relatives and, more rarely, biological parents. Risk factors associated with emotional abuse were frequent caregiver changes (odds ratio (OR) 1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.970, poverty (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.12–2.03), physical abuse (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.45–2.71) and sexual abuse (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.57–3.10) victimisation. Being close to one’s mother was a protective factor (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.80–0.97). Risk for emotional abuse increased from 13% with no risk factors present to 58.4% –with all four risk factors present. Health outcomes associated with emotional child abuse were suicidal ideation (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.30–2.63) and feeling depressed (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.31–2.71). Conclusions: Girls in Swaziland experience high levels of emotional abuse victimisation. Emotional abuse is associated with economic disadvantage, family factors, other types of abuse victimisation and poor mental health. Therefore, a holistic approach to prevention is needed, incorporating poverty reduction and programmes to improve parent– child relationships, reduce the use of harsh criticism, and change parenting social norms

Incidence of bullying and victimisation among adolescents in New Zealand

Bullying and victimisation are highly prevalent among young people, and both bullies and victims exhibit negative outcomes (Stassen Berger, 2007). Adolescents are greatly involved in bullying and experience particularly adverse outcomes in comparison with children (Kim & Leventhal, 2008; Simon-Davies, 2011). Furthermore bullying phenomena are under-researched in New Zealand samples. This paper aims to describe the nature of bullying and victimisation in a large sample of New Zealand adolescents and compare the findings to results from international samples. Four types of bullying will be assessed: traditional bullying inside the school, traditional bullying outside the school, cyber bullying via text message and cyber bullying via the internet. The same four types of victimisation will also be assessed

Enigmas of the Equality Act 2010 - "Three uneasy pieces"

The Equality Act 2010 was designed to simplify as well as unify British discrimination law. While there has been some significant unification, there are a number of areas where it has fallen short with regard to simplification, indeed it has introduced or cemented complexity and confusion. This article examines three such areas concerning two of the protected characteristics (pregnancy/maternity and gender reassignment) and one of the claims (victimisation) within the Equality Act 2010. Subjects: Employment Law; English Law; Human Rights Law & Civil Liberties Keywords: discrimination; Equality Act 2010; victimisation; gender reassignment; pregnancy/ maternity discriminatio