Anna Costanza Baldry

Femicide is a wide-spread lethal form of violence against women. Despite its diffusion, to date, very few studies analyzed possible victims’ age differences in regard to fatal risk factors for femicide. To this aim, we carried out archive research on Italian femicide cases in the last decade, by comparing prior types of violence suffered and motives for femicide, which are considered crucial fatal risk factors for femicide, across adolescent/young (15–24 years), adults (25–64 years) and older women (65–93 years). From 2010 to 2019 we found 1207 female victims. Characteristics of victims, perpetrators, and their relationship were consistent with those found by international studies and underlined that the majority of femicides were perpetrated by an intimate partner. The results regarding fatal risk factors comparisons across age groups showed the existence of significant differences regarding both types of violence suffered prior to femicide and motives for femicide. The results are discussed in terms of policy implication and intervention.

Being able to perceive the risk of further violence can be an essential step toward seeking help, leaving the abuser, and eventually reducing the risk of revictimization. The current study looks at the individual and contextual risk factors related to perception of risk and, subsequently, their influence on the decision of 83 battered women to leave the abusive partner after 1 year as well as on revictimization. Results indicated that perceiving more risk is a predictive factor in the decision to leave the partner. A dangerous side of gratitude emerged about future revictimization. Results are discussed for clinical implications.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a widespread phenomenon. Despite the prevalence of IPV in Western societies, most cases remain unnoticed or at least unreported to authorities. Social psychologists have been investigating bystanders’ reactions to IPV, to understand which factors may influence the willingness to intervene in support of a female victim of violence. We review a research programme that directly investigated personal and situational factors that make potential bystanders believe a woman victim of IPV deserves and needs (their) help and support, and what, on the contrary, makes them deny any such willingness to help. We present evidence about the situational antecedents of bystander’s reaction, the underlying mechanisms of this intervention, and an extension of such evidence to non-prototypical cases, i.e., to an IPV episode occurring within a same-sex couple. We conclude by discussing future directions, and by highlighting the theoretical and practical contributions of this programme of research to the understanding of IPV for both researchers and practitioners.

Background. This article presents results from the evaluation of the Tabby Improved Prevention and Intervention Program (TIPIP) for cyberbullying and cybervictimization. TIPIP is theoretically designed to address cyberbullying and cybervictimization. It is the first program in this field developed combining the Ecological System Theory and the Threat Assessment Approach. Method. The Tabby Improved program was evaluated using an experimental design with 759 Italian students (aged 10–17 years) randomly allocated via their classes to either the Experimental or Control Group. Results. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed a significant decrease both in cyberbullying and cybervictimization among students who received the intervention with a follow-up period of six months. The program was more effective for boys than for girls. Conclusions. Because cyberbullying is a cruel problem negatively affecting those involved, validated interventions that prove their efficacy in reducing the problem using experimental designs should be widely tested and promoted, paying particular attention to implementing a program fully to increase and guarantee its effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of contextual factors on the attribution of responsibility to female victims of an intimate partner violence (IPV) episode. The victim’s infidelity and the perpetrator’s alcohol abuse constituted the contextual factors in the investigation. The bystander’s age, gender, and attitude towards gender roles were predicted to influence the attribution of responsibility to an IPV victim, and their willingness to help. An experimental study was conducted with 464 Italian participants with two independent conditions incorporated into a fictional scenario, measuring the different levels of the dependent variables under investigation. The participants were randomly assigned to different conditions provided their answers via an anonymous questionnaire. The participants attributed more responsibility to the victim when they admitted infidelity, controlling for gender role norms and sexism. Attribution of responsibility, male gender, and attitudes towards the male gender role were significantly associated with less willingness to help the victim. The results point to the importance of increasing the bystander’s role in preventing IPV by addressing gender role norms and their impact on the justification of violence. The study complements the existing literature by providing new evidence of the barriers that prevent the bystander’s intervention in IPV episodes. A clearer understanding of these barriers will help to develop strategies that aim to prevent violence in the future.

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the overlap between school and cyberbullying according to the different types of involvement in such behaviors. The current study involved 2,785 Italian students, ages 11–17 recruited from 7 secondary schools, who anonymously self-reported about school and cyberbullying as victims and/or perpetrators. Based on their responses, students were classified as ‘only-bullies,’ ‘only-victims,’ ‘bully/victims,’ or ‘not involved’ in school and/or online. To explain the relationship between school and online bullying, 2 theoretical frames were tested: role continuity and role inversion. Results showed that, for girls, ‘school only-bullies’ were not overlapping with ‘cyber only-bullies,’ and ‘school only-victims’ were not overlapping with ‘cyber only-victims,’ but these categories were related for boys. ‘School bully/victims’ were significantly overlapping with ‘cyber bully/victims’ for both boys and girls. It was concluded that the role continuity approach is most appropriate to explain these 2 disturbing problems in adolescents especially for boys. Intervention efforts should especially target the bully/victims group.