PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the interpersonal problems andmental health of college students according to their experience of bullies and of being victims of bullying in childhood and adolescence. METHODS: The questionnaire was completed by 221 college students in J city. Data were collected during November and December, 2015. The data were analyzed and interpreted using descriptive statistics and ANOVA with the PASW Statistics 18.0 program. RESULTS: Nearly 65% of participants reported having experienced bullying victimization, bullying perpetration when they were in elementary, middle or high school. Interpersonal problems were significantly different between victims or victim-perpetrator and a control group (F=13.12, p<.001). Mental health was significantly different between victims, perpetrator or victim-perpetrator and a control group, (F=13.15, p<.001). CONCLUSION: Participants commonly reported experiencing bullying while at school and these reports were associated with higher interpersonal problems and lower levels ofmental health. Bullying experience needs further investigation as a preventable cause of interpersonal problems and mental health problems across the lifespan.
Adolescent ; Bullying* ; Crime Victims ; Humans ; Mental Health

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence (DV) is associated with serious consequences for victims, children, and families, and even national economies. An emerging literature demonstrates that DV also has a negative impact on workers and workplaces. Less is known about the extent to which people are aware of coworkers' experiences of DV. METHODS: Using data from a pan-Canadian sample of 8,429 men and women, we examine: (1) awareness of coworker DV victimization and perpetration; (2) the warning signs of DV victimization and perpetration recognized by workers; (3) whether DV victims are more likely than nonvictims to recognize DV and its warning signs in the workplace; and (4) the impacts of DV that workers perceive on victims'/perpetrators' ability to work. RESULTS: Nearly 40% of participants believed they had recognized a DV victim and/or perpetrator in the workplace and many reported recognizing more than one warning sign. DV victims were significantly more likely to report recognizing victims and perpetrators in the workplace, and recognized more DV warning signs. Among participants who believed they knew a coworker who had experienced DV, 49.5% thought the DV had affected their coworker's ability to work. For those who knew a coworker perpetrating DV, 37.9% thought their coworker's ability to work was affected by the abusive behavior. CONCLUSION: Our findings have implications for a coordinated workplace response to DV. Further research is urgently needed to examine how best to address DV in the workplace and improve outcomes for victims, perpetrators, and their coworkers.
Child ; Crime Victims ; Domestic Violence* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Workplace Violence

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to clarify mediating effects of self-concept on mental health of children and adolescents who fell victim to violence. METHODS: A survey was conducted on 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from 2 elementary schools and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students from 3 middle schools (n=2,391). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and AMOS. RESULTS: The mean scores of mental health and self-concept in the subjects were 4.5 and 184.9 respectively. The rate of poor mental health in students who had fallen victim to violence was more than twice as high as that in students who had never experienced it. The self-concept of students who experienced violence had a tendency to decline. Violence experience and self-concept accounted for 47.7%(43.0% for boys and 53.4% for girls) of the changes in mental health. The indirect mediating effects of self-concept were significant. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, the following is suggested. Schools should offer a self-concept improvement program for students with a distorted self-concept caused by falling victim to violence. It could help such adolescents have a positive self image and improve their mental health.
Adolescent* ; Child* ; Crime Victims* ; Humans ; Mental Health* ; Negotiating* ; Violence*

PURPOSE: This study is attempted to figure out the characteristics of sexual abuse victimization in low- and high-grade elementary school children and furthermore to help develop appropriate preventive educational programs against sexual abuse by grade. METHODS: Data were collected from 156 sexual abuse victims who were elementary school children and visited the Child Sexual Abuse Response Center in D City during the period from 2010 to 2012. Differences in general and victimization-related characteristics between low and high graders and the correlations among the characteristics were analyzed. RESULTS: The results showed statistically significant difference between low and high graders in two variables: offender-victim relationship, and the type of sexual abuse. Offender-victim relationship was in a significant correlation with the duration of victimization (r=.576, p<.001), frequency of abuse (r=.546, p<.001), location (r=-.479, p<.001), and time (r=.435, p<.001). The type of sexual abuse was in a significant correlation with frequency (r=.175, p=.029) and time (r=.261, p=.001). CONCLUSION: Appropriate educational programs should be developed for preventing sexual assaults in consideration of difference in victimization-related characteristics between low and high graders. In addition, such programs should be applied fittingly to the learners'grade, gender, and cognitive level.
Child Abuse, Sexual ; Child* ; Crime Victims* ; Humans ; Sex Offenses*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Filicide, the murder of a child by his or her own parent, is a multifaceted phenomenon with diverse causes and characteristics. This study aimed to review the present state of knowledge regarding demographic, psychosocial, clinical, and legal characteristics of filicide. METHODS: Domestic and International database were systematically searched with keyword of "filicide" for studies published until October, 2010, in English or Korean. Of the 107 searched articles, those that were overlapped in contents or out of the scope of this review were excluded. Finally, total 88 literatures were included in this review. RESULTS: The characteristics of the parents who committed filicide varied greatly by the type of the sample enrolled in studies. The results of the review suggested that little is known about the factors that confer victimization risk to children. The legal punishment was also different by nations. CONCLUSION: Given the range of capability of filicide, mental health professionals should be alert to the possibility of filicide in a variety of parents. A systematic and more focused research to elucidate reliable predictors of filicide is needed to better prevent these tragic events.
Child ; Crime Victims ; Homicide ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Parents ; Punishment

BACKGROUND: Workplace victimization is considered a major social stressor with significant implications for the wellbeing of employees and organizations. The aim of this study was to examine the influences of employees' personality traits and organizational politics on workplace victimization among Ghanaian employees. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected from 631 employees selected from diverse occupations through convenience sampling. Data collection tools were standardized questionnaires that measured experiences of negative acts at work (victimization), the Big Five personality traits, and organizational politics. RESULTS: The results from hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that among the personality traits neuroticism and conscientiousness had significant, albeit weak relationships with victimization. Organizational politics had a significant positive relationship with workplace victimization beyond employees' personality. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that compared with personal characteristics such as personality traits, work environment factors such as organizational politics have a stronger influence on the occurrence of workplace victimization.
Crime Victims* ; Data Collection ; Ghana ; Humans ; Occupations ; Politics*

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare differences in perception and knowledge of child abuse and child disciplinary practices according to the history of child abuse victimization. METHODS: A questionnaire survey on child abuse was conducted with 491 adults raising children. We compared the perception and knowledge of child abuse and child disciplinary practices between two groups of adults with and without a history of childhood abuse victimization. RESULTS: The group with a history of childhood abuse had lower levels of knowledge of child abuse (F=6.990, p<0.01) and engaged in more negative disciplinary practices (F=5.974, p<0.05) than those without. However, no differences in the perception of child abuse were observed between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that adults with a history of childhood abuse have lower levels of knowledge of child abuse and use more negative disciplinary practices in raising their children. This highlights the need to administer not only educational but also more direct hands-on interventions to vulnerable parents in order to foster healthy parenting and disciplinary practices.
Adult ; Child ; Child Abuse ; Child ; Crime Victims ; Humans ; Parenting ; Parents

The present study attempts to understand the features of North Korean male defectors' emotive, cognitive and behavioral responses to criminal victimizations when compared with general Korean male population, the reference group, and to explore mental health and medical policy implications from the statistical analyses. Using and analyzing merged data from 'Crime Victimization in Korea, 5 (2006),' and 'A Survey on North Korean Refugees (2006),' the author found that group differences do exist in the components of emotive, cognitive and behavioral responses to possible victimizations from crimes and violences. For each of emotive and cognitive responses to threat of victimizations, North Korean defectors scored significantly higher than general male population except perceived vulnerability. For behavioral responses, however, North Korean defectors scored significantly lower. These results were interpreted to provide the evidences for the need of transformations of micro- and macro-level health policies for North Korean defectors.
Crime ; Crime Victims ; Criminals ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Mental Health ; Refugees ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

The number of reports of school bullying is not decreasing despite the efforts of various organizations. The effects of such phenomena are no longer limited to the victims and relevant schools, but should be considered to be a far-reaching social problem. In the past, the concept of school bullying was limited to physical threats and verbal abuse. Nowadays, school bullying is also understood to include social ostracism, sexual assault, and organized violence. Bullying involving cyberspace has been especially aggravated recently. In the event of school bullying, we must also consider bystanders as potential perpetrators and victims. There are three steps to managing school bullying: first, prevention; second, an appropriate response from the school and therapy in the event of bullying; third, minimizing the aftermath for the perpetrators and victims. Most victims complain of vague physical symptoms like headache, abdominal pain, and fatigue. Pediatricians involved in the primary treatment session should be especially alert for these early clues of victimization. Psychiatrists meet students who have already suffered from bullying. A victim often exhibits emotional and behavioral changes such as refusal to attend school, high anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, and greater potential toward self-mutilation or suicide. Long-term observational studies on not only the perpetrators and victims but also bystanders, who often comprise the majority of students, are necessary. Doctors should become more attentive to new developments in school bullying and engage themselves more with education on and prevention of school bullying.
Abdominal Pain ; Anxiety ; Bullying ; Crime Victims ; Depression ; Disulfiram ; Fatigue ; Headache ; Humans ; Psychiatry ; Social Problems ; Suicide ; Violence

The association of sexual victimization with self-esteem, depression, and problematic internet use was examined in Korean adolescents. A total of 695 middle and high school students were recruited (413 boys, 282 girls, mean age, 14.06±1.37 years). The participants were administered the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form (ETISR-SF), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT). The associations between sexual abuse and the level of self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and problematic internet use were analyzed. Adolescents who had experienced sexual abuse showed lower self-esteem, more depressive symptoms, and greater problematic internet use compared with adolescents who had not experienced sexual abuse. In the path model, sexual abuse predicted lower self-esteem (β=−0.11; 95% CI=−0.20, −0.04; p=0.009), which predicted higher depressive symptoms (β=−0.34; 95% CI=−0.40, −0.27; p=0.008). Depressive symptoms predicted problematic internet use in a positive way (β=0.23; 95% CI=0.16–0.29; p=0.013). Sexual abuse also predicted problematic internet use directly (β=0.20; 95% CI=0.12–0.27; p=0.012). The results of the present study indicate that sexually abused adolescents had a higher risk of depression and problematic internet use. For sexually abused adolescents, programs aimed at raising self-esteem and preventing internet addiction, as well as mental health screening, are needed.
Adolescent* ; Crime Victims ; Depression* ; Female ; Humans ; Internet* ; Mass Screening ; Mental Health ; Sex Offenses*