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Globally, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has sparked unexpected and violent outbursts against doctors, nurses, and other health personnel. In the Indian context, studies on violence against doctors and other medical staff largely focus on supply-demand imbalances in health care, overcrowding, drug shortages, negligence of critical care patients, lack of diagnostic and other essential devices (e.g., X-ray and ultrasound equipment and oxygen cylinders), deaths of patients, and bribery and corruption (collusion between doctors and pharmaceutical companies). While these factors explain such violence against medical personnel partly, we argue that it is largely rooted in a lack of trust in doctors and hospitals, which eroded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze the covariates of trust in public and private health-care providers based on an all-India panel survey and delineate policies to rebuild trust, especially in public health care.

Using a large-scale dataset from Hong Kong, this study describes the prevalence of cyberbullying and examines how gender and grade level relate to cyberbullying among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Participants were 1,855 students from secondary schools (Forms 1 to 7). Students were given an anonymous questionnaire that included a scale for reporting their experiences of cyberbullying. Responses indicated that 17.8% of students reported cyberbullying and 30.9% experienced at least one type of cyberbullying in the past three months. Curses, insults, and humiliation were the most common types of cyberbullying. Males reported higher rates of bullying and victimization than did females. The overall rates of bullying and victimization peaked in Forms 2 or 3 and in Form 6. Cyberbullying among secondary students in Hong Kong is a serious problem that needs immediate attention. Potential intervention programs should target males and students in Forms 2, 3, and 6. Programs should mainly aim to reduce online curses, insults, and humiliation by students.

While China’s economic reforms have produced undeniably positive outcomes, a rapid increase in popular protests has become most striking in recent years. As protests grow steadily in both scale and frequency, the government continues to tout social stability as the chief concern of China today. These mounting tensions reflect a direct clash of horns between the maintenance of stability and the public’s desire to exercise their rights, frequently culminating in acts of repression by the Chinese state in order to quell the unrest. This raises an important question: how can the relationship between repression and popular protest in China be characterized? More specifically, which precise circumstances of popular protest elicit the employment of China’s repressive state capacity? Taking into account both theoretical perspectives and empirical analysis, this paper attempts to elucidate the issue by first collating a large body of data to clarify the precise characteristics of popular protest, then undertaking quantitative analysis to identify which factors trigger the mobilization of China’s machinery of repression. Furthermore, this study identifies that in recent years, the use of state repression has risen in parallel with an increasing emphasis on the principle of “maintaining social stability” in China.

The relationship between climate change and violent behavior has been well documented in previous studies. Violence has two dimensions: outward violence (i.e., crime) and inward violence (i.e., suicide). To our knowledge, rigorous empirical studies have not been performed to investigate how climate change affects both criminal and suicidal behavior. This study aims to estimate the effects of climate change on crime and suicide in Japan by using prefecture-level monthly panel data on climate, crime, and suicide between 2009 and 2015. Even after controlling for prefecture, yearly, and monthly effects, we found that many climate factors affected both crime and suicide in Japan. In particular, more aggressive behavior and an increased number of suicides were observed when the average temperature increased. Furthermore, we predicted how changes in the climate of Japan will affect future patterns of criminal and suicidal behavior based on two climate change scenarios.

Recent statistics report a significant increase in individuals reporting they have been raped by a stranger they met through the Internet (Internet facilitated rape or IFR). Previous literature has primarily focused on child victims; hence, the overriding aim of this study is to further our understanding of IFR in terms of crime scene behaviour. One hundred and forty-four IFR cases and two comparative samples of age-matched stranger rapists (confidence approach and surprise approach) were coded for 38 crime scene behaviours. Findings suggest that the platforms IFR offenders used to meet their victims were not suggestive of the behaviour they were likely to display. In terms of specific offence behaviours, the IFR and confidence approach rapists were considerably similar, but both samples were comparatively different from the surprise approach rapists. Thus, this may indicate that the method of approach used by a stranger rapist has a significant effect on the subsequent rape crime scene behaviour displayed regardless of any prior contact. A smallest space analysis of the IFR sample revealed three distinct themes of behaviour, criminal sophistication, interpersonal involvement and violence with 71% of offenders displaying one dominant theme. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Singapore Prison Service (SPS) plays a central role in providing effective rehabilitation to violent offenders to protect public from violent crimes that result in physical or psychological harm. Rehabilitation of violent offenders starts with psychological risk assessments to inform on intervention needs through various specialised psychology-based correctional programmes developed, enhanced and delivered for violent offenders. SPS psychologists have adopted a systematic and evidence-informed approach towards assessing the risk and needs of offenders through an automated triaging system developed to screen for offenders who have a pattern of committing serious or persistent violent offences at the start of their incarceration. Offenders’ risk and needs are then assessed by psychologists using well-established structured professional judgement tools that consider various static and dynamic factors empirically related to violence. Psychologists then develop a coherent case formulation explaining the offender’s violence risk and needs. Psychologists in the SPS General Violence Unit sharpen their assessment and intervention effectiveness through conducting research and evaluations on a regular basis to determine whether local offenders may present with unique needs. For example, the findings of their needs analysis indicated high-risk offenders, relative to low-risk offenders, tend to present with difficulty in social problem solving, which in turn was attributed to the presence of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and emotion dysregulation. The findings informed on the development of an open group violence intervention programme, HERO (Honour, Empathy, Resilience, Ownership), where participants are required to undergo four designated core modules targeting antisocial peer relationships, emotion dysregulation, maladaptive thoughts and beliefs, and poor conflict resolution. There are additional elective modules depending on their needs, which include schema therapy to address early maladaptive schemas, and conflictual family relationships which have contributed to domestic violence. With Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) being the main treatment modality, HERO includes Good Lives Model and elements of narrative therapy to guide participants towards developing a new prosocial identity, through visualising their “True Self”. The distinction between the “True Self” and “Fighter Role” is constantly referenced to in the modules to highlight the discrepancies between their current behaviours and desired prosocial identity. The HERO programme is conducted within a Transformative Environment (TE) within a prison Institution in SPS. Beyond attending HERO, participants engage in other structured activities in the TE that provide them with opportunities for the practice, rehearsal and/ or reinforcement of newly acquired skills in HERO.