Rape myths as a challenge to objective policing: exploring attitudinal antecedents of rape myth acceptance and police officers' judgements of rape scenarios

Background: Rape cases are chronically under-reported to police at around 20%, and suffer from worrying levels of attrition (Lea, Lanvers & Shaw, 2003). Attitudes held by police officers representing acceptance of rape myths (among others) may contribute to this, by influencing decisions taken when dealing with victims. Indeed, research has demonstrated that, despite changes in practice in the UK, rape myth acceptance, and specifically victim blaming, is still present in police officers (Page, 2010; Sleath & Bull, 2012; 2015), may affect decision making (O’Keeffe, Brown, & Lyons, 2009), and may discourage woman from reporting sexual violence (Jordan, 2001, 2004; Page, 2010). This study investigated how levels of these attitudes differ between officers with and without specialist training, compared to undergraduate students, as well as how they relate to each other in an attitudinal framework. In addition, varying rape scenarios were presented to assess differences in victim and perpetrator blame between these groups. Methods: An anticipated (current) 100 (40) undergraduates, 250 (60) police officers, and 250 (50) specialist officers in sexual offences will complete measures of Ambivalent Sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996), Hostility Towards Women (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995), Power and Sex (Chapleau & Oswald, 2010), and Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression (Gerger, Kley, Bohner, & Siebler, 2007). Participants will also make victim blame judgements on rape scenarios that vary on victim reputation, relationship to perpetrator and point of initial resistance. Statistical analysis will explore the relationship between the attitudes, and their relation to victim blame judgements, across groups

Do emissions and income have a common trend? A country-specific, time-series, global analysis, 1970-2008

This paper uses Vector Autoregressions that allow for nonstationarity and cointegration to investigate the dynamic relation between income and emissions in the period 1970-2008, for all world countries. We consider three emissions compounds, namely CO2, SO2 and a composite global warming index (GWP100). These emissions include energy-related activities with a share varying from 60% (GWP100) to almost 90% (SO2). For all chemical compounds, it is found that for over two thirds of cases income and emissions are driven by unrelated random walks with drift, at 5% significance level. For one quarter of the cases the variables are found to be driven by a common random walk with drift. Finally, for the remaining 4.5% of cases the variables are trend-stationary. Tests of Granger-causality show evidence of both directions of causality. For the case of unrelated stochastic trends, one finds a predominance of emissions causing income (in growth rates), which accords with a production-function rather than with a consumption-function interpretation of the emissions-income relation. The evidence challenges the main implications of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, namely that the dominant direction of causality should be from income to emissions, and that for increasing levels of income, emissions should tend to decrease.Environmental Kuznets Curve; Emissions; Income; Cointegration; Common trends JEL Classification: Q53, Q54

CaII and NaI absorption signatures from the circumgalactic gas of the Milky Way

We combine CaII/NaI absorption and HI 21 cm emission line measurements to analyse the metal abundances, the distribution, the small-scale structure, and the physical conditions of intermediate- and high-velocity gas in the Galactic halo.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in proceeding of "Galaxies in the Local Volume" Sydney 8-13 July 200

Judging Maggie's rape: a study exploring the impact of victim-perpetrator relationship, victim reputation and initial point of resistance on police officers' judgements of victim blame, perpetrator blame, and the legitimacy of the claim

Objective(s): To examine the variation in police officers’ initial judgements of responsibility and authenticity when presented with hypothetical rape cases varying on victim reputation, initial point of resistance, and victim-perpetrator relationship. Design: Vignette Study. The independent variables were victim reputation (Good vs. Bad), initial point of resistance (Early vs. Late) and victim-perpetrator relationship (Stranger, Acquaintance, Partner, or Ex-Partner). The Dependent variables were officers’ judgements of victim and perpetrator responsibility, as well as rape authenticity. Methods: Participants were 808 Metropolitan Police Service officers. This sample was representative of this force on a number of demographic factors. Officers completed an online questionnaire battery* which included 1 of the 16 vignette variations. Officers were asked to provide ratings, on a scale of 0 (Not at all) to 100 (Completely), for victim and perpetrator responsibility, and to what extent they considered the scenario to constitute rape. Results: Results showed that officers’ judgements varied significantly between vignettes, broadly showing higher female blame, lower male blame, and lower rape ratings for scenarios where the victim resisted late, had a bad reputation, and a partner was the perpetrator. Interactions between these factors were also found. Conclusions: Results suggest that, as certain factors vary between cases, officers allocate different levels of responsibility to the victim and the perpetrator, as well as drawing conclusions regarding the validity of the crime itself. This may impact on police officers’ objectivity when investigating cases of rape, however further research is needed in this regard. *Including questionnaires analysed separatel

High-resolution absorption spectroscopy of the circumgalactic medium of the Milky Way

In this article we discuss the importance of high-resolution absorption spectroscopy for our understanding of the distribution and physical nature of the gaseous circumgalactic medium (CGM) that surrounds the Milky Way. Observational and theoretical studies indicate a high complexity of the gas kinematics and an extreme multi-phase nature of the CGM in low-redshift galaxies. High-precision absorption-line measurements of the Milky Way's gas environment thus are essential to explore fundamental parameters of circumgalactic gas in the local Universe, such as mass, chemical composition, and spatial distribution. We shortly review important characteristics of the Milky Way's CGM and discuss recent results from our multi-wavelength observations of the Magellanic Stream. Finally, we discuss the potential of studying the warm-hot phase of the Milky Way's CGM by searching for extremely weak [FeX] l6374.5 and [FeIVX] l5302.9 absorption in optical QSO spectra.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomical Notes (paper version of a talk presented at the 10th Thinkshop, Potsdam, 2013