Umeå universitets logga

Past-year sexual, physical, and psychological violence against women and men aged 60 to 74 years was studied. The data derived from a nationally representative survey on violence in which approximately 2,800 women and men aged 60 to 74 years in Sweden participated. Women were significantly more likely to have been subjected to at least one form of violence in the past year. The prevalence of sexual violence as well as systematic and repeated psychological violence was found to be significantly higher for women than for men. Sexual violence was the most common form of violence against women. Systematic and repeated psychological violence was the most common form of violence against men. Additional gender differences were found in relation to victim characteristics. While associations among women were found between violence victimization and sociodemographic characteristics, health as well as social capital, only health-related characteristics were found to be associated with past-year violence victimization among men. Among women, economic problems, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, lack of trust in other people, and not having anyone to talk to were associated with violence victimization. Poor psychological health and an at-risk consumption of alcohol were found to be associated with violence victimization among men. The results highlight the importance of research on violence victimization to assess gender differences also when inquiring into the situation among persons in older generations. The results also indicate practical implications for caring professions; the need to inquire into the experiences of violence among older persons and to pay particular attention to these characteristics when encountering women and men in this age interval.

Background: Being sexually violated by a perpetrator to whom one has strong emotional and social ties may be exceedingly traumatic as it involves a serious betrayal and violation of basic trust.

Objective: To examine the prevalence and revictimization of this type of sexual violence in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and its covariance with adverse psychosocial conditions and experiences in childhood.

Participants and setting: A representative sample of 10,337 Swedish women and men aged 18–74.

Method: A combined online and postal survey. Attrition bias was adjusted for by a calibration and weighting procedure based on official register information. Logistic regression was applied to calculate odds ratios (OR) and adjusted odds ratios (AOR).

Results: The results showed that 25% of the women and 7% of the men had been sexually violated by closely related perpetrators at some time in their life. Victimization in childhood generated an OR of 4.3 (p < .001) for revictimization in adulthood. Most psychosocial indicators of an adverse childhood situation were significantly linked (OR) to victimization of sexual violence, but insignificant when controlling for the influence of confounders (AOR). The importance of the total burden of psychosocial childhood adversity was illustrated in that 12% of women and 2% of men without indicators of an adverse childhood situation were sexually victimized in adulthood, while the corresponding figures for those reporting at least nine aspects of an adverse childhood situation were 47% and 15%, respectively.

Conclusion: The importance of integrating sexual victimization into a holistic psychosocial context in prevention and treatment was emphasized.

This study aimed at describing female drinking from young adolescence to middle age in a female Swedish community cohort (N = 238). Different aspects of alcohol habits were assessed at the ages of 14, 27, and 43, and the analyses focused on stability and change over this time. The results showed that large variations in alcohol habits over the life course were normally occurring phenomena. Furthermore, advanced drinking habits were neither necessary nor sufficient for developing heavy drinking or alcohol-related symptoms in adult age. The developmental patterns found in this study resembled the developmental patterns earlier described in male cohorts.

In this article we analyse recorded verbal interactions between victims and offenders in the presence of mediators. Our aim is to illuminate how victims interact, communicate and position themselves in relation to the offender. We inquire whether victims benefit from verbal interaction with offenders during a process of mediation. According to this study there are no easy answers. Victims act in diverse ways depending on their aims and the situation. They may act as moral entrepreneurs, adopt consensus-seeking strategies or take oppositional positions. This research may be informative for those who are interested in which benefits victims can achieve when they communicate with offenders in the framework of restorative justice.