Violent ideations (VIs) have potential significance across clinical, forensic and research contex... more Violent ideations (VIs) have potential significance across clinical, forensic and research contexts. They feature in dominant theories of violence, are a candidate risk factor in violence prediction and are a potential target for therapeutic intervention. Given this, there is a need for multi-item psychometrically supported measures of VIs. We report on the development and validation of the 'Violent Ideations Scale' (VIS): a brief measure of VIs. In a normative sample of N=1276 older adolescents, we evaluated the dimensionality, sex invariance, concurrent validity and discriminative power of the VIS. The VIS showed unidimensionality, minor measurement differences across males and females, correlated well with a pre-existing measure of violent ideations and showed a strong relation to criminal violence. These features support the use of the VIS as a research tool and as a possible source of information regarding violence risk in clinical and forensic settings.
In diesem Artikel vertreten wir die Auffassung, dass gute kriminologische Forschung in multikultu... more In diesem Artikel vertreten wir die Auffassung, dass gute kriminologische Forschung in multikulturellen Kontexten eine weit reichende Anpassung in Forschungsdesign, Planung und praktischer Umsetzung verlangt. Dies beinhaltet unter anderem: angepasste Strategien zur Kontaktaufnahme mit den am wenigsten integrierten Minderheiten einer Gesellschaft, qualitativ hochwertige and methodisch abgesicherte Fragebogenübersetzungen, eine sorgfältige Befragerschulung und eine anschliessende systematische Untersuchung der kulturellen Äquivalenz der gemessenen Konstrukte. Wir illustrieren diese Punkte anhand der Erfahrungen im Zürcher Projekt zur sozialen Entwicklung von Kindern (z-proso). z-proso ist eine Längsschnittstudie, welche im Rahmen des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms „Kindheit, Jugend und Generationenbeziehungen im gesellschaftlichen Wandel“ (NFP 52) des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds durchgeführt wurde.
Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of children's internalizing sy... more Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of children's internalizing symptoms and aggressive behavior in cycles of peer victimization. We hypothesized that victimization increases internalizing problems, reactive, and indirect aggression, which in turn were expected to increase the likelihood of later peer victimization. Methods Data from four waves of a longitudinal study among a culturally diverse sample of 7-to 11-year-olds were used. Peer victimization was assessed via children's self-reports. Parents and children rated internalizing symptoms. Teachers provided information about proactive, reactive, and indirect aggression. We tested our hypotheses using path models with maximum likelihood estimation. Multiple imputation was used to treat the missing values. Results Path analyses revealed that peer victimization increased later internalizing symptoms and reactive and indirect aggression when controlled for previous problem behavior. In contrast, proactive aggression was not affected by peer victimization. Reactive aggression and internalizing symptoms mediated the effect of prior on later peer victimization. Conclusions Our findings indicate that children's problem behavior may contribute to an escalating cycle of peer victimization.
Academic journals increasingly request a full disclosure of financial conflict of interest (CoI).... more Academic journals increasingly request a full disclosure of financial conflict of interest (CoI). The Committee for Publication Ethics provides editors with guidance about the course of action in the case of suspected non-disclosure. No prior study has examined the extent to which journal articles on psychosocial interventions disclose CoI, and how journal editors process requests to examine suspected undisclosed CoI. Four internationally disseminated psychosocial interventions were examined. 136 articles related to an intervention, co-authored by intervention developers and published in health sciences journals were retrieved as requiring a CoI statement. Two editors refused consent to be included in the study. COI disclosures and editor responses were coded for 134 articles. Overall, 92/134 (71%) of all articles were found to have absent, incomplete or partly misleading CoI disclosures. Disclosure rates for the four programs varied significantly between 11% and 73%. Journal editors were contacted about 92 published articles with no CoI disclosure or a disclosure that was considered problematic. In 65/92 (71%) of all cases the editors published an ‘erratum’ or ‘corrigendum’. In 16 of these cases the journal had mishandled a submitted disclosure. The most frequent reason for non-publication of an erratum was that the journal had no disclosure policy at the time of the publication (16 cases). Consumers of research on psychosocial interventions published in peer-reviewed journals cannot currently assume that CoI disclosures are adequate and complete. More efforts are needed to achieve transparency.
This report presents findings from a representative delinquency and victimization survey in Monte... more This report presents findings from a representative delinquency and victimization survey in Montevideo, and develops a policy framework for violence prevention in Uruguay
This paper examines the frequency of violent death and regicide amongst 1,513 monarchs in 45 mona... more This paper examines the frequency of violent death and regicide amongst 1,513 monarchs in 45 monarchies across Europe between AD 600 and 1800. The analyses reveal that all types of violence combined account for about 22 per cent of all deaths. Murder is by far the most important violent cause of death, accounting for about 15 per cent of all deaths and corresponding to a homicide rate of about 1,000 per 100,000 ruler-years. Analyses of trends over time reveal a significant decline in the frequency of both battle deaths and homicide between the Early Middle Ages and the end of the eighteenth century. A significant part of the drop occurred during the first half of the period, suggesting that the civilizing processes assumed by Norbert Elias started between the seventh and the twelfth centuries. Finally, preliminary analyses suggest that regicide has a significant ‘autoregressive’ component in that the murder of the predecessor and the pre-predecessor increases the risk of homicide for the current monarch. It is suggested that such bundles of regicide may be interpreted as part of extended periods of civil wars and feuding that accompanied the state-building process. The paper concludes by suggesting several individual and contextual risk factors that may be involved in the risk of regicide.
Violent ideations (VIs) have potential significance across clinical, forensic and research contex... more Violent ideations (VIs) have potential significance across clinical, forensic and research contexts. They feature in dominant theories of violence, are a candidate risk factor in violence prediction and are a potential target for therapeutic intervention. Given this, there is a need for multi-item psychometrically supported measures of VIs. We report on the development and validation of the 'Violent Ideations Scale' (VIS): a brief measure of VIs. In a normative sample of N=1276 older adolescents, we evaluated the dimensionality, sex invariance, concurrent validity and discriminative power of the VIS. The VIS showed unidimensionality, minor measurement differences across males and females, correlated well with a pre-existing measure of violent ideations and showed a strong relation to criminal violence. These features support the use of the VIS as a research tool and as a possible source of information regarding violence risk in clinical and forensic settings.
In diesem Artikel vertreten wir die Auffassung, dass gute kriminologische Forschung in multikultu... more In diesem Artikel vertreten wir die Auffassung, dass gute kriminologische Forschung in multikulturellen Kontexten eine weit reichende Anpassung in Forschungsdesign, Planung und praktischer Umsetzung verlangt. Dies beinhaltet unter anderem: angepasste Strategien zur Kontaktaufnahme mit den am wenigsten integrierten Minderheiten einer Gesellschaft, qualitativ hochwertige and methodisch abgesicherte Fragebogenübersetzungen, eine sorgfältige Befragerschulung und eine anschliessende systematische Untersuchung der kulturellen Äquivalenz der gemessenen Konstrukte. Wir illustrieren diese Punkte anhand der Erfahrungen im Zürcher Projekt zur sozialen Entwicklung von Kindern (z-proso). z-proso ist eine Längsschnittstudie, welche im Rahmen des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms „Kindheit, Jugend und Generationenbeziehungen im gesellschaftlichen Wandel“ (NFP 52) des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds durchgeführt wurde.
Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of children's internalizing sy... more Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of children's internalizing symptoms and aggressive behavior in cycles of peer victimization. We hypothesized that victimization increases internalizing problems, reactive, and indirect aggression, which in turn were expected to increase the likelihood of later peer victimization. Methods Data from four waves of a longitudinal study among a culturally diverse sample of 7-to 11-year-olds were used. Peer victimization was assessed via children's self-reports. Parents and children rated internalizing symptoms. Teachers provided information about proactive, reactive, and indirect aggression. We tested our hypotheses using path models with maximum likelihood estimation. Multiple imputation was used to treat the missing values. Results Path analyses revealed that peer victimization increased later internalizing symptoms and reactive and indirect aggression when controlled for previous problem behavior. In contrast, proactive aggression was not affected by peer victimization. Reactive aggression and internalizing symptoms mediated the effect of prior on later peer victimization. Conclusions Our findings indicate that children's problem behavior may contribute to an escalating cycle of peer victimization.
Academic journals increasingly request a full disclosure of financial conflict of interest (CoI).... more Academic journals increasingly request a full disclosure of financial conflict of interest (CoI). The Committee for Publication Ethics provides editors with guidance about the course of action in the case of suspected non-disclosure. No prior study has examined the extent to which journal articles on psychosocial interventions disclose CoI, and how journal editors process requests to examine suspected undisclosed CoI. Four internationally disseminated psychosocial interventions were examined. 136 articles related to an intervention, co-authored by intervention developers and published in health sciences journals were retrieved as requiring a CoI statement. Two editors refused consent to be included in the study. COI disclosures and editor responses were coded for 134 articles. Overall, 92/134 (71%) of all articles were found to have absent, incomplete or partly misleading CoI disclosures. Disclosure rates for the four programs varied significantly between 11% and 73%. Journal editors were contacted about 92 published articles with no CoI disclosure or a disclosure that was considered problematic. In 65/92 (71%) of all cases the editors published an ‘erratum’ or ‘corrigendum’. In 16 of these cases the journal had mishandled a submitted disclosure. The most frequent reason for non-publication of an erratum was that the journal had no disclosure policy at the time of the publication (16 cases). Consumers of research on psychosocial interventions published in peer-reviewed journals cannot currently assume that CoI disclosures are adequate and complete. More efforts are needed to achieve transparency.
This report presents findings from a representative delinquency and victimization survey in Monte... more This report presents findings from a representative delinquency and victimization survey in Montevideo, and develops a policy framework for violence prevention in Uruguay
This paper examines the frequency of violent death and regicide amongst 1,513 monarchs in 45 mona... more This paper examines the frequency of violent death and regicide amongst 1,513 monarchs in 45 monarchies across Europe between AD 600 and 1800. The analyses reveal that all types of violence combined account for about 22 per cent of all deaths. Murder is by far the most important violent cause of death, accounting for about 15 per cent of all deaths and corresponding to a homicide rate of about 1,000 per 100,000 ruler-years. Analyses of trends over time reveal a significant decline in the frequency of both battle deaths and homicide between the Early Middle Ages and the end of the eighteenth century. A significant part of the drop occurred during the first half of the period, suggesting that the civilizing processes assumed by Norbert Elias started between the seventh and the twelfth centuries. Finally, preliminary analyses suggest that regicide has a significant ‘autoregressive’ component in that the murder of the predecessor and the pre-predecessor increases the risk of homicide for the current monarch. It is suggested that such bundles of regicide may be interpreted as part of extended periods of civil wars and feuding that accompanied the state-building process. The paper concludes by suggesting several individual and contextual risk factors that may be involved in the risk of regicide.
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Papers by Manuel Eisner
Wir illustrieren diese Punkte anhand der Erfahrungen im Zürcher Projekt zur sozialen Entwicklung von Kindern (z-proso). z-proso ist eine Längsschnittstudie, welche im Rahmen des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms „Kindheit, Jugend und Generationenbeziehungen im gesellschaftlichen Wandel“ (NFP 52) des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds durchgeführt wurde.
Wir illustrieren diese Punkte anhand der Erfahrungen im Zürcher Projekt zur sozialen Entwicklung von Kindern (z-proso). z-proso ist eine Längsschnittstudie, welche im Rahmen des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms „Kindheit, Jugend und Generationenbeziehungen im gesellschaftlichen Wandel“ (NFP 52) des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds durchgeführt wurde.