Introduction to the Special Issue on Hate, Prejudice and Discrimination

(First paragraph) Welcome to issue 8.4 of the Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research. This issue presents a special initiative addressing hate, prejudice, and discrimination in unique contexts. Articles in this issue reflect a combination of empirical and theoretical work. These articles address a range of timely topics, including, but not limited to, factors influencing perceptions of immigration, demographically based biases in legal decisions, and multi-level framing of aggression and conflict in international settings. Two clear themes emerged to offer new theoretically informed insights into hate, prejudice, and discrimination

A Social-Ecological Framework of Theory, Assessment, and Prevention of Suicide

The juxtaposition of increasing suicide rates with continued calls for suicide prevention efforts begs for new approaches. Grounded in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) framework for tackling health issues, this personal views work integrates relevant suicide risk/protective factor, assessment, and intervention/prevention literatures. Based on these components of suicide risk, we articulate a Social-Ecological Suicide Prevention Model (SESPM) which provides an integration of general and population-specific risk and protective factors. We also use this multi-level perspective to provide a structured approach to understanding current theories and intervention/prevention efforts concerning suicide. Following similar multi-level prevention efforts in interpersonal violence and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) domains, we offer recommendations for social-ecologically informed suicide prevention theory, training, research, assessment, and intervention programming. Although the SESPM calls for further empirical testing, it provides a suitable backdrop for tailoring of current prevention and intervention programs to population-specific needs. Moreover, the multi-level model shows promise to move suicide risk assessment forward (e.g., development of multi-level suicide risk algorithms or structured professional judgments instruments) to overcome current limitations in the field. Finally, we articulate a set of characteristics of social-ecologically based suicide prevention programs. These include the need to address risk and protective factors with the strongest degree of empirical support at each multi-level layer, incorporate a comprehensive program evaluation strategy, and use a variety of prevention techniques across levels of prevention

Editorial

We commence this edition with an invited paper by David DeMatteo, Suraji Wagage, and Jaymes Fairfax-Columbo on cyberstalking. Their paper considers the role of law and public opinion in this rapidly evolving area of study. One of the most interesting findings represents the difference between public opinion and the legal concept of cyberstalking; public opinion does not support the (legal) suggestion that cyberstalking should be considered alongside more general stalking. This reflects a move in the literature more generally that considers cybercrime distinct in many ways from contact offending. Indeed, it parallels considerably with the cyberbullying literature, which some would argue is simply another term for cyberstalking. What DeMatteo and colleagues present, however, is an interesting outline of current opinion in this area of work. The term “cyber action” is also used on occasion and this appears a far less emotive term to use than stalking. The lack of alignment between legal and public opinion provides a marked indication that this is perhaps the next area to focus on

Moral Disengagement in Legal Judgments

We investigated the role of moral disengagement in a legally-relevant judgment in this theoretically-driven empirical analysis. Moral disengagement is a social-cognitive phenomenon through which people reason their way toward harming others, presenting a useful framework for investigating legal judgments that often result in harming individuals for the good of society. We tested the role of moral disengagement in forensic psychologists\u27 willingness to conduct the most ethically questionable clinical task in the criminal justice system: competence for execution evaluations. Our hypothesis that moral disengagement would function as mediator of participants\u27 existing attitudes and their judgmentsa theoretical bridge between attitudes and judgmentswas robustly supported. Moral disengagement was key to understanding how psychologists decide to engage in competence for execution evaluations. We describe in detail the moral disengagement measure we used, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across two separate samples. The four-factor measure accounted for a total of 52.18 percent of the variance in the sample of forensic psychologists, and the model adequately fit the data in the entirely different sample of jurors in a confirmatory factor analysis. Despite the psychometric strengths of this moral disengagement measure, we describe the pros and cons of existing measures of moral disengagement. We outline future directions for moral disengagement research, especially in legal contexts

Multiple rare-earth ion environments in amorphous (Gd2O3)(0.230)(P2O5)(0.770) revealed by gadolinium K-edge anomalous x-ray scattering

A Gd K-edge anomalous x-ray scattering (AXS) study is performed on the rare-earth (R) phosphate glass, (Gd2O3)0.230(P2O5)0.770, in order to determine Gd⋯Gd separations in its local structure. The minimum rare-earth separation is of particular interest given that the optical properties of these glasses can quench when rare-earth ions become too close to each other. To this end, a weak Gd⋯Gd pairwise correlation is located at 4.2(1)Å, which is representative of a metaphosphate R⋯R separation. More intense first-neighbor Gd⋯Gd pairwise correlations are found at the larger radial distributions, 4.8(1), 5.1(1), and 5.4(1)Å. These reflect a mixed ultraphosphate and metaphosphate structural character, respectively. A second-neighbor Gd⋯Gd pairwise correlation lies at 6.6(1)Å which is indicative of metaphosphate structures. Meta- and ultraphosphate classifications are made by comparing the R⋯R separations against those of rare-earth phosphate crystal structures, R(PO3)3 and RP5O14, respectively, or difference pair-distribution function (ΔPDF) features determined on similar glasses using difference neutron-scattering methods. The local structure of this glass is therefore found to display multiple rare-earth ion environments, presumably because its composition lies between these two stoichiometric formulae. These Gd⋯Gd separations are well-resolved in ΔPDFs that represent the AXS signal. Indeed, the spatial resolution is so good that it also enables the identification of R⋯X(X=R, P, O) pairwise correlations up to r∼9Å; their average separations lie at r∼7.1(1), 7.6(1), 7.9(1), 8.4(1), and 8.7(1)Å. This is a report of a Gd K-edge AXS study on an amorphous material. Its demonstrated ability to characterize the local structure of a glass up to such a long range of r heralds exciting prospects for AXS studies on other ternary noncrystalline materials. However, the technical challenge of such an experiment should not be underestimated, as is highlighted in this work where probing AXS signal near the Gd K edge is found to produce inelastic x-ray scattering that precludes the normal AXS methods of data processing. Nonetheless, it is shown that AXS results are not only tractable but they also reveal local structure of rare-earth phosphate glasses that is important from a materials-centered perspective and which could not be obtained by other materials characterization methods.J.M.C. is grateful to the Royal Commission of the Great Exhibition 1851 for a 2014 Design Fellowship hosted by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) where work done was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and X-ray 1-BM beam line of the Advanced Photon Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility, all under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. J.M.C. and R.J.N. are also indebted to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant No. GR/L41035 for funding

Analysis of Personality, Suicide, and Self‐Injury in Emerging Adulthood

Nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) is a maladaptive coping strategy that is of significant clinical concern for behavioral health professionals in college settings. Relationships between NSSI, acquired capability for suicide, interpersonal cognitions, and five‐factor model personality traits were assessed in a survey‐based study that included 192 young adults in a college setting. Results indicated that those with an affirmative suicide attempt history, greater acquired capability for suicide, and elevated neuroticism had an increased likelihood of lifetime NSSI

Mental Health and Drivers of Need in Emergent and Non-Emergent Emergency Department (ED) Use: Do Living Location and Non-Emergent Care Sources Matter?

Emergency department (ED) utilization has increased due to factors such as admissions for mental health conditions, including suicide and self-harm. We investigate direct and moderating influences on non-emergent ED utilization through the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use. Through logistic regression, we examined correlates of ED use via 2014 New York State Department of Health Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System outpatient data. Consistent with the primary hypothesis, mental health admissions were associated with emergent use across models, with only a slight decrease in effect size in rural living locations. Concerning moderating effects, Spanish/Hispanic origin was associated with increased likelihood for emergent ED use in the rural living location model, and non-emergent ED use for the no non-emergent source model. \u27Other\u27 ethnic origin increased the likelihood of emergent ED use for rural living location and no non-emergent source models. The findings reveal \u27need\u27, including mental health admissions, as the largest driver for ED use. This may be due to mental healthcare access, or patients with mental health emergencies being transported via first responders to the ED, as in the case of suicide, self-harm, manic episodes or psychotic episodes. Further educating ED staff on this patient population through gatekeeper training may ensure patients receive the best treatment and aid in driving access to mental healthcare delivery changes