Showing posts with label Domestic Violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Domestic Violence. Show all posts
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
A gene that could explain why the red mist descends
A "red mist" gene that could be responsible for ordinarily peaceful people becoming violent and aggressive while drunk has been identified by scientists.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent7:00PM GMT 22 Dec 2010, The Telegraph
The team of researchers have found a genetic mutation in the brain that may contribute to violently impulsive behaviour under the influence of alcohol.
The researchers sequenced the DNA of a number of impulsive volunteers and compared those sequences with DNA from an equal number of non-impulsive people. They found that a single DNA change that blocks a gene known as HTR2B was predictive of highly impulsive behaviour.
The gene affects serotonin production and detection in the brain.Serotonin is a neurotransmitter known to influence many behaviours, including impulsivity.
"Interestingly, we found that the genetic variant alone was insufficient to cause people to act in such ways," said Dr David Goldman at National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Maryland, USA. "Carriers of the HTR2B variant who had committed impulsive crimes were male, and all had become violent only while drunk from alcohol, which itself leads to behavioural disinhibition."
In collaboration with researchers in Finland and France, Dr Goldman and colleagues studied a sample of violent criminal offenders in Finland. The hallmark of the violent crimes committed by individuals in the study sample was that they were spontaneous and purposeless.
They found the association with HTR2B gene and then conducted studies in mice and found that when the equivalent gene is knocked out or turned off, mice also become more impulsive. A report of the findings is published in Nature.
"Impulsivity, or action without foresight, is a factor in many pathological behaviours including suicide, aggression, and addiction," said Dr Goldman. "But it is also a trait that can be of value if a quick decision must be made or in situations where risk-taking is favoured."
Violent games not to blame for youth aggression: new study
December 14, 2010
How depressed young people are strongly predicts how aggressive and violent they may be or may become. Contrary to popular belief, however, exposure to violence in video games or on television is not related to serious acts of youth aggression or violence among Hispanics in the US, according to new research by Dr. Christopher Ferguson from Texas A&M International University. His findings are published online in Springer's Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
The potential negative effects of violent video games on adolescent antisocial behavior, and youth violence in particular, is a highly debated issue, both in academic circles and among the general public and policy makers. However, to date, the research is inconclusive largely due to methodological problems.
Ferguson recruited 302 mainly Hispanic youth between the ages of 10 and 14 years, from a small Hispanic-majority city population on the border of Mexico, as part of a larger study of youth violence. They were interviewed twice – once at the start of the study and again 12 months later.
Ferguson looked at their exposure to violence both in video games and on television as well as negative life events, including neighborhood problems, negative relationships with adults, antisocial personality, family attachment, and delinquent peers. He also assessed the styles of family interaction and communication, adolescents' exposure to domestic violence, depressive symptoms, serious aggression, bullying and delinquent behavior.
His analyses show that 75 percent of young people played video games within the past month on computers, consoles or other devices, and 40 percent played games with violent content. Boys were more likely than girls to play violent games. One year later, 7 percent reported engaging in at least one criminally violent act during the previous 12 months, the most common being physical assaults on other students or using physical force to take an object or money from another person. Nineteen percent reported engaging in at least one nonviolent crime during the same period, with shoplifting and thefts on school property at the top of the list.
In addition, Ferguson found that depressive symptoms were a strong predictor for youth aggression and rule breaking, and their influence was particularly severe for those who had preexisting antisocial personality traits. However, neither exposure to violence from video games or television at the start of the study predicted aggressive behavior in young people or rule-breaking at 12 months.
Ferguson concludes: "Depressive symptoms stand out as particularly strong predictors of youth violence and aggression, and therefore current levels of depression may be a key variable of interest in the prevention of serious aggression in youth. The current study finds no evidence to support a long-term relationship between video game violence use and subsequent aggression. Even though the debate over violent video games and youth violence will continue, it must do so with restraint."
More information: Ferguson CJ (2010). Video games and youth violence: a prospective analysis in adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence; DOI: 10.1007/s10964-010-9610-x
Children from broken homes 'nine times more likely to commit crimes'
Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit crimes than those from stable families, Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said.
Mr Duncan Smith said the breakdown of marriage had led to the fracturing of society, as well as addiction, crime and lost productivity and tax revenues that, in all, cost Britain around £100 billion a year.
He accused Labour of undermining family life during their time in government and said the country had paid a “heavy price”.
In a speech to Relate, a counselling charity, he said: “All the evidence shows that family influences educational outcomes, job prospects, and even life expectancy.
“That means that positive, family-friendly policies can bring wide-ranging benefits to society. But when government abandons policies that support families, society can pay a heavy price."
Divorce rows to be dealt with outside the courts as mediation to become compulsory
By Paul Bentley
Last updated at 8:27 AM on 18th October 2010
Thousands of feuds between divorcing couples will be dealt with outside the courts in an overhaul of the family justice system, it emerged last night.
Instead of dragging cases through the courts for weeks, a Whitehall review of the system will recommend a massive reduction in the levels of lawyer interference in divorce cases.
It will become compulsory for couples to try mediation before rushing into legal proceedings over disputes over children and money.
The family court system is currently under ‘tremendous strain’, according to David Norgrove, who is chairing the review.
Last year, the number of disputes heard in courts rose 16 per cent to about 137,000. On average, childcare cases last 56 weeks.
Mr Norgrove said: ‘This is really intolerable for both children and parents — and damaging.’
Under the proposals, which will be published in full early next year, as many cases as possible will be dealt with by mediation.
For most people, Facebook is a harmless way to keep in touch with friends and family
But flirtations on the social networking site are now becoming a major factor in marriage breakdowns.
Family lawyers have revealed that the problem has become so great that almost every divorce they have dealt with in the past year has involved the website. One expert said she had dealt with 30 cases in the last nine months and Facebook had been implicated in them all. Whilst another online law company said one in five of their divorce petitions in the past year contain references to Facebook.
Emma Patel, the head of family law at Hart Scales & Hodges Solicitors, said the site acted like a "virtual third party" in splits. "Facebook is being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns, and it is quite remarkable that all the petitions that I have seen here since May have cited Facebook one way or another," she said. "Its huge popularity as well as the lure of sites like Second Life, Illicit Encounters and Friends Reunited are tempting couples to cheat on each other. Suspicious spouses have used these to spy and find evidence of flirting and even affairs, which have then led to break-ups."
She said that many of divorces came after partners found "flirty messages" on the Facebook wall of their partner – and also "inappropriate suggestive chats" which spouse's can see. The lawyer said that she urged all clients to "stay off" Facebook during divorce proceedings – as it could throw a spanner in the works of it going smoothly – especially if they post photos of new lovers.
She said: "They feel compelled to share their feelings online, and, in some cases, they not only express their stress, but also make inflammatory accusations against their partner. Divorce is a highly-charged and emotional time, but it is vital not to turn the situation into a public slagging match, played out for everyone to see online. The situation has deteriorated so badly that we advise feuding couples to avoid these sites until their divorces are settled."
Parents who split up are damaging children's welfare by using them as 'ammunition', according to a senior court judge
Children are being used as ammunition in separations say a senior judge. Photograph: Getty/John Wilkes
Parents who split up are damaging their children's welfare by using them as "ammunition" in the separation process, according to England's most senior family court judge.
Sir Nicholas Wall said separating parents "rarely behave reasonably" and in his experience "the more intelligent the parent, the more intractable the dispute".
Child protection: MPs must act on the scandal of seized children
Britain's child protection system is off the rails, and only the politicians who built it can fix it, says Christopher Booker
Britain's social workers took a beating again last week. On the orders of the children's minister, Tim Loughton, full versions of two harrowing case reviews of the Baby P tragedy were published. They found fault not only with Haringey's social workers but with lawyers, the police and health professionals, Under pressure from social workers, reviews of two similar cases in Yorkshire are still being kept under wraps.
Meanwhile, an Ofsted report found that 119 children died or suffered serious injury last year through social workers' failure to intervene.
Still largely hidden from view, however, is that other scandal, in its way just as disturbing, in which the failure of our child protection system is the very opposite: the seizure of thousands of children a year from loving homes, for no good reason.
The 'cycle of violence' otherwise known as the 'intergenerational theory' is often referred to when considering the effects of domestic violence on children; however research findings are inconsistent, and there is no automatic cause and effect relationship.
We believe that this theory is disempowering and ineffective when working with children. A boy who has witnessed domestic violence does not have to grow up to be an abuser and a girl does not have to become a victim of domestic violence later in life.
Ann Rule has written many true crime books, not only about women who suffer or die at the hands of people they know or who are complete strangers, but about men who do too. Her website is www.annrules.com
'But I Trusted You and other true cases'
'Too Late to Say Goodbye' - 'To all women who are living in fear of recrimination and stalking, in a kind of captivity, at the hands of men they once loved and trusted'
'Smoke, Mirrors and Murder'- Writing about 'pathological jealousy' Ann Rule says 'A woman in this kind of relationship is caught in a cage - as sure as if she were actually hemmed in by iron bars... What they once believed was true love was really their partners' need to control them.'
'Although SH and her children are safe, there are... women and children who are not. They are somewhere along the inexorable progression from the promise of love to disappointment to isolation to emotional abuse to fear to loss of hope... It shouldn't be that way.'
