Editorial
| Date | 09 January 2017 |
| Published date | 09 January 2017 |
| Pages | 1-1 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-10-2016-0257 |
| Author | Jane L. Ireland,Robert J. Cramer |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Aggression, conflict & peace,Sociology,Gender studies,Gender violence,Political sociology, policy & social change,Social conflicts,War/peace |
Jane L. Ireland and Robert J. Cramer
The current edition of JACPR proves particularly varied, capturing content ranging from school
shootings to sexual sadism. It showcases the range of topics that JACPR handles and how
varied a field we apply our science to. We commence with an invited paper on sexual sadism that
presents an excellent outline of the state of knowledge and empirical data to demonstrate the
wider offending potential. Indeed, the value of this paper is very much in the attention it gives to
sexual sadism as a specific risk factor for non-sexual offending.
This is then followed by a piece on personality and its association with attitudes towards war and
peace. Using a varied sample the study demonstrated a role less for personality in terms of core
dimensions and more for authoritarianism, arguing for measurement of this concept to
be captured within future research aiming to address war and peace. This is then followed by a
paper that dedicates itself to exploring political order for peace, capturing political and security
trajectories in Eurasia. The lack of research capturing this area is duly noted. For readers
interested in rule of law, conditions of peace, and fuzzy space analysis this work will be of
particular assistance.
Following is a paper on school shootings that focusses on sentencing perceptions for the
juveniles involved. The authors demonstrate how social support and peer victimisation of the
perpetrators were factors contributing to a tendency not to recommend custody. Race and
gender also contributed, a finding not unique to this study but nevertheless re-confirming how
influential such factors can be. Following this is a paper on contact sports and aggression, with a
focus on provocation. What is interesting about this study was the finding that instrumental
aggression was most associated with involvement in contact sport and not unregulated
emotional aggression; what precedes or causes this is unclear but it could be speculated that the
control taught within sports could be a useful factor to consider.
The edition then moves from a focus on adolescents to consideration of domestic violence and
the use of the domestic abuse risk assessment tool (DASH) where perpetrators were monitored
over a 12-month period. Two factors were identified as valuable in distinguishing between those
that recidivated and those that did not, –criminal history and separation. This is unsurprising
considering the importance of these particular risk items in the field, but it suggests importance in
separating risk items from “essential”risk items.
Continuing with the theme of adult perpetration is the final paper of this edition, on workplace
bullying. Over half the sample disclosed bullying with an association with mental health
symptoms and counterproductive interpersonal behaviours demonstrated. The importance of a
systems approach to managing workplace bullying was well considered. In many ways this
brings us back to the importance of the earlier papers and the value in accounting for impact and
context as we reach our judgements on the causes and management of aggression and the
promotion of peace; in short, it is rarely about the individual and more about the systems.
DOI 10.1108/JACPR-10-2016-0257 VOL. 9 NO. 1 2017, p.1, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1759-6599
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JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICTAND PEACE RESEARCH
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Editorial
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