Why Do Bystanders Report Intimate Partner Violence? Insights into Real-Life Reasoning from Those Who Actually Intervened

As intimate partner violence (IPV) often remains unknown to police, bystanders can play a crucial role in prevention and further escalation of IPV. However, little is known about what brings them into action by reporting incidents of IPV to authorities. As such, we use statements of bystanders who filed reports about IPV incidents to an official domestic violence agency in the Netherlands (N = 78), to investigate the reasoning and motivations for reporting their suspicions. Results show that the reasons for bystanders to report IPV differ depending on the relational dynamics between partners. In situations perceived as intimate terrorism, involving a hierarchical abusive relationship between a man offender and a woman victim, bystanders primarily reported when previous helping initiatives proved inefficient, and they did so to prevent further harm, often particularly in relation to the woman victim. In situations perceived as situational couple violence, involving a symmetrical abusive relationship, bystanders primarily reported when escalation appeared, and they did so to prevent further harm to involved children. We conclude that bystanders report IPV incidents when the need for help is clear, and their motivation for acting concerns the well-being of victims. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence about real-life bystander intervention in emergencies and highlight the need for understanding intervention as context-specific in order to design effective intervention initiatives.

A different kind of risky business: Men who manage men in the sex industry

Drawing from qualitative interview data, this article examines men who manage men in the sex industry. A gendered lens reveals that male sex work management engages with sexual and gender scripts in ways that are quite distinct from female sex work. These third parties assume that male sex workers can defend their own security but notably also worry about male workers victimizing them, even as they opportunistically deploy hegemonic masculinity in their business and security practices. The article highlights and reflects on how these framings shape managerial strategies, perceptions of risk and the law, and experiences of stigma.

Harms of third party criminalisation under end-demand legislation: undermining sex workers' safety and rights

After Canada's laws criminalising sex work were struck down by the Supreme Court for violating sex workers' rights and new end-demand legislation was passed in 2014. These new laws however continue to criminalise sex work third parties (i.e. venue owners/managers) who gain material benefits, despite evidence that managed in-call venues can provide important protections for sex workers. As part of a longstanding community-based study in Vancouver, this analysis drew on 25 in-depth interviews with third parties who provide services for indoor sex workers. We explored how end-demand third party criminalisation shapes indoor sex workers' working conditions, health and safety. We found that most third parties were women and current/former sex workers, problematising assumptions of third parties as exploitative male "pimps". Third parties provided client screening, security and sexual health resources for sex workers, yet end-demand laws restricted condom availability and access to police protections in case of violence, thereby undermining sex workers' health and safety. Our findings highlight that third party criminalisation under end-demand legislation reproduces the unsafe working conditions under the previous laws deemed unconstitutional by Canada's highest court. Legislative reforms to decriminalise all aspects of the sex industry, including sex workers' right to work with third parties, are urgently needed.

Combat Workplace Sexual Harassment by Third Parties? Reframing Institutional Measures and Cultural Transformation in South Korea

This study investigated the risk factors for workplace sexual harassment in South Korea using cross-sectional data of the 2014 and 2017 Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS). A generalized linear model specified with a Poisson distribution and log link function was performed. Females, younger adults, jobs in services or sales, tasks that involve visiting places where clients reside, and significant work time contribution to customers were associated with increased gender harassment and unwanted sexual attention. Evidence suggests that third parties and male-oriented culture may pose a serious threat to healthy working conditions.

Minimal or reasonable? Considering the ethical threshold for research risks to nonconsenting bystanders and implications for nonconsenting participants

When research poses risks to non-participant bystanders, it is not always practicable to obtain their consent. One approach to assessing how much research risk may be imposed on nonconsenting bystanders is to examine analogous circumstances, including risk thresholds deemed acceptable for nonconsenting research participants and for nonconsensual risks imposed outside the research setting. For nonconsenting participants, US research regulations typically limit risks to those deemed to be "minimal." Outside the research context, US tort law tolerates a more flexible "reasonable" risk threshold. This article advances a preliminary case that nonconsenting participants and nonconsenting bystanders exposed to similar research risks may be entitled to the same level of protection, but that risks generated by research may not be special in kind. Thus, limiting research risks to those that are "reasonable," rather than demanding that they be held to the "minimal" standard, may be the best approach for both nonconsenting participants and nonconsenting bystanders. Further work is needed to establish whether the descriptive standards used to support the analogies relied on here are normatively justifiable, as well as the extent to which the minimal risk standard and the reasonable risk standard would lead to meaningfully different outcomes in practice.

The Monsanto Papers: Poisoning the scientific well

OBJECTIVE

Examination of de-classified Monsanto documents from litigation in order to expose the impact of the company's efforts to influence the reporting of scientific studies related to the safety of the herbicide, glyphosate.

METHODS

A set of 141 recently de-classified documents, made public during the course of pending toxic tort litigation, In Re Roundup Products Liability Litigation were examined.

RESULTS

The documents reveal Monsanto-sponsored ghostwriting of articles published in toxicology journals and the lay media, interference in the peer review process, behind-the-scenes influence on retraction and the creation of a so-called academic website as a front for the defense of Monsanto products.

CONCLUSION

The use of third-party academics in the corporate defense of glyhphosate reveals that this practice extends beyond the corruption of medicine and persists in spite of efforts to enforce transparency in industry manipulation.

Maintaining shared knowledge of acquaintance: methods people use to establish who knows whom

Acquaintance is a fundamental determinant of how people behave when interacting with one another. This article focuses on how this type of personal knowledge is an important consideration for people as social actors. Studying naturally occurring social encounters, I describe how speakers use particular references to convey whether a recipient should be able to recognize a non-present third party. On some occasions, however, the presumption of recognizability or non-recognizability that underpins the use of a particular reference proves questionable. By exploring how recipients can challenge reference forms, and thereby reject claims of either recognizability or non-recognizability, I explain how people establish and maintain a shared understanding of who knows whom. I conclude by discussing motivations for this behaviour, and thereby contribute to understanding the commonsense reasoning that underpins orderly conduct in this aspect of social encounters.