Sexual victimization is typically presented as a gender-based problem involving a female victim and a male offender. Science, policy, and society focus on female victims at the expense of male victims. Male sexual victimization is thus understudied compared with female sexual victimization. By performing a critical interpretive synthesis of research papers, policy documents, and gray literature ( N = 67) published in four electronic databases from January 2000 through September 2017, this article establishes the prevalence of male sexual victims and the causes that underlie the underrepresentation of this group in existing research and current policy. The prevalence rates of male sexual victims vary considerably, with up to 65% of men reporting sexual victimization. The underrepresentation of male victims was found to be rooted in prevailing gender roles and accepted sexual scripts in society, together with rape myths and stereotypical rape scripts. The former prescribes men as the dominant and sexually active gender. The latter denies male sexual victimization and frames women as “ideal victims.” Combined, these prevailing societal perceptions of men, male sexuality, and sexual victimization prevent men from self-identifying as victims and inhibit them from seeking help to cope with the adverse consequences of sexual victimization. Addressing the gender differences in sexual victimization requires societal and political changes that challenge prevailing stereotypical perceptions of sexual victims. Such changes could result in improved support services for male sexual victims.

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As an increasingly popular alternative to prison sentences, electronic monitoring is assumed to generate fewer side effects and to be more humane than imprisonment. While most research on electronic monitoring focuses on its financial or technical implications for penal policy, or on numbers and recidivism, this article analyses the experiences of 27 Belgian convicted offenders with electronic monitoring. Overall, most preferred electronic monitoring to prison, but this was not the case for all the offenders and every circumstance. These findings show that electronic monitoring cannot necessarily be considered a 'softer' alternative to imprisonment. The results imply that, as well as reducing overpopulation in prisons, electronic monitoring may contribute to a decrease in risks for society and the positive empowerment of offenders. Such empowerment can increase their chances of living a crime-free life, which means electronic monitoring can be considered an important step forward for offenders in regaining control over their own lives.

The importance of the critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) to review quantitative and qualitative research, and to critically develop new theory, is increasingly recognized and evidenced by the increase in published CIS reviews. However, the flexibility embedded in the method hampers its implementation and exacerbates concerns about trustworthiness. This paper seeks to determine the extent of transparent reporting and soundness of execution in published CIS reviews by developing assessment criteria based on CIS key features. We analyzed 77 CIS reviews published between 2006 and 2018 for their reporting practices. Findings indicate that reporting practices of CIS key features are suboptimal. We recommend that authors better document their CIS to increase the transparency of their study and suggest authors to rely on described guidelines to select and conduct their CIS. To this end, our reported evaluation criteria could assist authors, reviewers, and journal editors in their evaluation of the quality of CIS studies.

(1) Background: Sexual violence (SV) is a major public health problem, with negative socio-economic, physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health consequences. Migrants, applicants for international protection, and refugees (MARs) are vulnerable to SV. Since many European countries are seeing high migratory pressure, the development of prevention strategies and care paths focusing on victimised MARs is highly needed. To this end, this study reviews evidence on the prevalence of SV among MAR groups in Europe and the challenges encountered in research on this topic. (2) Methods: A critical interpretive synthesis of 25 peer-reviewed academic studies and 22 relevant grey literature documents was conducted based on a socio-ecological model. (3) Results: Evidence shows that SV is highly frequent in MARs in Europe, yet comparison with other groups is still difficult. Methodologically and ethically sound representative studies comparing between populations are still lacking. Challenges in researching SV in MARs are located at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, societal, and policy levels. (4) Conclusions: Future research should start with a clear definition of the concerned population and acts of SV to generate comparable data. Participatory qualitative research approaches could be applied to better grasp the complexity of interplaying determinants of SV in MARs.

Introduction -Taking care of a family member with a mental illness imposes burden on various aspects

The recent focus on extending risk assessment and treatment in forensic mental health with protective factors relates to the increasing interest in strengths-based approaches in various professional disciplines: law (e.g. human rights), criminology (e.g. desistance), mental health care (e.g. recovery), forensic psychology (e.g. the Good Lives Model), special needs education (e.g. Quality of Life) and family studies (e.g. family recovery). In this article, we will discuss the available knowledge with regard to strengths-based approaches for offenders with mental illness, in relation to these different disciplines. Several dilemmas are observed across these disciplines: (1) "Living apart together": the integration of different disciplines; (2) "Beyond Babylonian confusion and towards more theoretical research": conceptualization of strengths-based practices in different fields; (3) "No agency without autonomy": the individual in context; and (4) "Risks, strengths and capabilities": the search for an integrated paradigm. In our view, these different disciplines share a shift in how humankind is viewed, respecting agency in the interaction with people who have offended. Yet, differences apply to the objectives that the disciplines strive for, which warrants not to eclectically consider strengths-based working in each of the disciplines as 'being small variations of the same theme'.

This article studies how burglars select a house to burglarize. We draw on the rational choice perspective to investigate how burglars select a target by relying on house-related attributes to optimize a combination of perceived rewards, efforts and risk. It extends current applications of the discrete spatial choice framework to burglary target selection by adopting the house as the spatial unit of analysis and studies burglars' target selection process in a larger and more diverse study area than that of earlier studies. Using data on 650 residential burglaries and on approximately 500,000 residential properties in the Belgian province East Flanders, we consider a discrete spatial choice model of burglary target selection to establish which house-related attributes influence burglars' target selection process. Our findings demonstrate that terraced houses, houses without a garage, houses that have not been outfitted with a central heating and/or air-conditioning system and houses nearby burglars' residences are more likely to be selected. Overall, our analysis suggests that burglars rely on effort-related attributes to distinguish between targets while higher perceived rewards actually decrease the odds of a house being burglarized. Risk-related attributes are unimportant for burglars' target choice. Highlights We study the burglary target selection process at the house-level  We apply the discrete choice model with a choice set of over 500,000 houses  Higher perceived rewards reduce the odds of burglary  Lower perceived efforts increase the odds of burglary  Burglars do not rely on risk-related information to distinguish between targets