Ingroup Empathy, Help, and Blame After Anti-LGBT+ Hate Crime

Crimes motivated by hatred toward a person's sexual orientation or gender identity typically cause greater physical and emotional harm than comparative crimes not motivated by hate. Compounding these impacts, hate crime victims receive less empathy, less support, and are blamed more for their victimization both by society in general and by criminal justice agencies. However, as hate crimes are the epitome of intergroup hostility, the crimes are also likely to engender an ingroup empathy bias in which fellow LGBT+ people provide greater empathy to hate crime victims, potentially motivating greater support and reducing victim blaming for these particularly marginalized victims. Across three studies, we examined LGBT+ participants' empathic reactions to hate crime victims, along with their willingness to help victims and blame victims. In the Pilot Study (N = 131) and Study 1 (N = 600), we cross-sectionally showed that indirect experiences of hate crimes predicted a stronger LGBT+ identity which, in turn, was associated with greater empathy that predicted greater willingness to help victims and blame the victim less. In Study 2 (N = 657), we experimentally manipulated the motivation of a crime (hate vs. non-hate) and the group membership of the victim (ingroup-LGBT+ vs. outgroup-heterosexual) and found that crimes that had one or more group elements (i.e., involved an ingroup member and/or was motivated by hate) elicited greater empathy that, in turn, increased the willingness to help the victim and reduced victim blaming. Together, the findings provide cogent evidence that LGBT+ communities respond to anti-LGBT+ hate crimes with overwhelming empathy, and this ingroup empathy bias motivates helping behaviors and reduces victim blame, thereby buffering the marginalizing consequences of hate crimes. Policy implications include acknowledging and harnessing the importance of shared identities when practitioners and criminal justice agencies respond to anti-LGBT+ hate crimes.

Hate Crimes Against Trans People: Assessing Emotions, Behaviors, and Attitudes Toward Criminal Justice Agencies

Based on a survey of 593 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United Kingdom, this study shows that direct anti-LGBT hate crimes (measured by direct experiences of victimization) and indirect anti-LGBT hate crimes (measured by personally knowing other victims of hate crime) are highly prolific and frequent experiences for LGBT people. Our findings show that trans people are particularly susceptible to hate crimes, both in terms of prevalence and frequency. This article additionally highlights the negative emotional and (intended) behavioral reactions that were correlated with an imagined hate crime scenario, showing that trans people are more likely to experience heightened levels of threat, vulnerability, and anxiety compared with non-trans LGB people. The study found that trans people are also more likely to feel unsupported by family, friends, and society for being LGBT, which was correlated with the frequency of direct (verbal) abuse they had previously endured. The final part of this study explores trans people's confidence levels in the Government, the police, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in relation to addressing hate crime. In general, trans people felt that the police are not effective at policing anti-LGBT hate crime, and they are not respectful toward them as victims; this was especially true where individuals had previous contact with the police. Respondents were also less confident in the CPS to prosecute anti-LGBT hate crimes, though the level of confidence was slightly higher when respondents had direct experience with the CPS. The empirical evidence presented here supports the assertion that all LGBT people, but particularly trans individuals, continue to be denied equal participation in society due to individual, social, and structural experiences of prejudice. The article concludes by arguing for a renewed policy focus that must address this issue as a public health problem.

The Short and Longer Term Impacts of Hate Crimes Experienced Directly, Indirectly, and Through the Media

A longitudinal study ( N = 774) explored the short and longer term impacts of anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) hate crime experienced directly, indirectly, and through the media. In the short term, being a victim (direct) or personally knowing of a hate crime victim (indirect) was positively associated with vulnerability, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions after reading about a hate crime. Direct victims were also less empathic toward other victims and engaged in more victim-blaming. A structural equation model showed direct experiences (via personal vulnerability and empathy) and media experiences (via group-threat and victim-blaming) to be cross-sectionally associated with behavioral intentions. Media experiences also had lasting demobilizing impacts on actual behaviors, again serially mediated by group-threat and victim-blaming. The findings highlight the emotional and behavioral impacts of hate crimes on both direct victims and on the wider LGBT community. They also raise questions about media reporting of hate crimes and the role of victim-blaming.

Feeling for and as a group member: Understanding LGBT victimization via group-based empathy and intergroup emotions

In two experimental studies (N = 120; N = 102), we apply intergroup emotions theory (IET) to examine the effects of hate crime on other community members. With participants from an oft-targeted group - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans people, we are the first to show empirically that hate crimes elicit more pronounced emotional and behavioural responses in other members of the victims' community than comparable non-hate crimes. The findings also reveal the psychological processes behind these effects. Consistent with IET, hate crimes were seen to pose more of a group-based threat and so led to heightened emotional reactions (anger and anxiety) and, subsequently, to behavioural intentions (avoidance and pro-action). Importantly, we also show that hate crime victims, due to increased perceptions of similarity, received more empathy than non-hate crime victims. Such empathy, although neglected in previous research, was shown to be a potential mediator in understanding the indirect effects of hate crime. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to psychological theory and their potential to support the argument for the utility and appropriateness of hate crime legislation.

Lower incidence of post-dural puncture headache with spinal catheterization after accidental dural puncture in obstetric patients

BACKGROUND

Accidental dural puncture (ADP) and post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) are important complications of obstetric regional anesthesia. Inserting the catheter intrathecally after ADP to prevent PDPH has gained popularity. Nonetheless, data on the effect of an intrathecal catheter on PDPH and epidural blood patch (EBP) rates are mixed. Our primary objective was to examine if spinal catheterization reduces the incidence of PDPH after ADP in obstetric patients.

METHODS

Anesthetic records of 29,749 regional blocks performed between January 1997 and July 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. In all blocks containing an epidural component, 18-gauge epidural needles were used. All patients who experienced a witnessed ADP or PDPH without ADP were identified. Data from patients with or without a prolonged spinal catheter were compared.

RESULTS

There were 128 events of witnessed ADP (0.43%). Following known ADP, 39 women had an epidural catheter placed at a different level and 89 had an intrathecal catheter (20-gauge) for at least 24 h. Sixty-one patients developed PDPH after observed ADP (48%). Prolonged intrathecal catheter placement significantly reduced the incidence of PDPH after ADP to 42% compared with 62% in those who have the catheter re-sited epidurally [odds ratio = 2.3 (95% confidence interval 1.04-4.86); P = 0.04].

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of ADP, PDPH and blood patching is similar with previously published studies. After witnessed ADP, inserting the epidural catheter intrathecally significantly reduced the incidence of PDPH.

S K- and Mo L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy to determine metal-ligand charge distribution in molybdenum-sulfur compounds

Mo L-edge and S K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy were applied to investigate the charge distribution between Mo and S in a series of Mo thiolate compounds, which serve as amide-sulfur H-bonding models and exhibit different redox potentials arising from polar group effects and ligand hydrogen bonds near the redox center. For all oxidized complexes, the S K-edge spectra exhibit a thiolate-based pre-edge feature centered at 2470.2 eV and the inflection point oCCurs at 2472.0 eV. No intense pre-edge feature is observed in the spectra for the reduced Mo model compounds and the energy shift of the S K-edge position depends on the S-ligand. Correlations between ligand charge density and the redox potential of the Mo-S cores are observed.

Crossover between thermally assisted and pure quantum tunneling in molecular magnet Mn12-acetate

The crossover between thermally assisted and pure quantum tunneling has been studied in single crystals of high spin (S = 10) uniaxial molecular magnet Mn12 using micro-Hall-effect magnetometry. Magnetic hysteresis and relaxation experiments have been used to investigate the energy levels that determine the magnetization reversal as a function of magnetic field and temperature. These experiments demonstrate that the crossover occurs in a narrow ( approximately 0. 1 K) or broad ( approximately 1 K) temperature interval depending on the magnitude of the field transverse to the anisotropy axis.

Titanium alkoxide complexes: condensed phase and gas phase comparisons

The complex [Ti(2,4-dimethyl-2,4-pentanediolate)2]2 (1) has been synthesized from [Ti(OiPr)4] by transesterification with a stoichiometric amount of 2,4-dimethyl-2,4-pentanediol. We have characterized complex 1 in the solid state by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and in the gas phase by desorption chemical ionization mass spectrometry (DCI-MS). The structural and mass spectrometric data show complex 1 to be stable as a dimer in both the solid and gas phases. The retention of dimeric nuclearity in the gas phase sets complex 1 apart from other simple titanium alkoxide complexes [Ti(OiPr)4] and [Ti(OMe)4]4 that give rise to respective families of molecular ions in the DCI-MS experiment. The highest mass molecular ions for Ti alkoxide complexes in the gas phase may reveal the highest nuclearity that these complexes achieve in condensed phases. According to this interpretation the complex [Ti(OiPr)4] is principally dimeric in the gas phase and probably also in the pure liquid phase and should be represented by the formula [Ti(OiPr)4]2.

Determination of the mineral phases and structure of the bone-implant interface using Raman spectroscopy

The bone-implant interface formed in a canine distal femur was examined by means of a Raman microprobe using an implant model designed to test calcium phosphate surface coatings. By using the 960 cm-1 band of calcium phosphate to characterize the interface and adjacent mineral, we obtained spatial and compositional information about the attachment of bone to the synthetic calcium phosphate coating on a titanium support. The interface between bone and the synthetic calcium phosphate is approximately 30-40 microns in width.

Molecular structure at the bone-implant interface: a vibrational spectroscopic characterization

Test implant plates surgically retrieved from distal femurs of dogs were studied by Raman spectroscopy in order to characterize the bone-implant interface. The implant surface consisted of phosphate mineral, plasma sprayed on a titanium substrate. On the basis of its spectroscopic signature, the phosphate mineral of bone and the implant surface formed a mixed phase in the interface.

A Raman and infrared spectroscopic investigation of biological hydroxyapatite

Raman spectra were acquired on ox femur samples treated with hydrazine to remove the organic components of bone. A large increase in the signal-noise ratio of the mineral spectrum resulted from the exposure of the mineral surface and the removal of fluorescent components of the organic matrix. The effect of hydrazine treatment of the mineral matrix has been reinvestigated and shown to be slight on the basis of second derivative FTIR data. This is the first time that this high resolution technique has been applied to biological minerals.

Resonance raman spectroscopic studies of axial ligation in oxyhemoglobin, oxymyoglobin, and nitrosylmyoglobin

Raman intensity measurements for the Fe-O2 stretching band of HbO2 (Hb = hemoglobin) have been used to construct an excitation profile, which shows that resonance enhancement occurs mainly via the B and Q transition; no contribution is detectable from an out-of-plane charge-transfer transition. Direct coupling of VFe-O2 to the porphyrin pi-pi* transitions is explained on the basis of competition between the pi* orbitals of porphyrin and O2 for Fe d pi electrons. The RR spectrum of MbNO (Mb = myoglobin) at pH 8.4 is due solely to six-coordinate heme--NO, but lowering the pH to 5.8 converts the RR spectrum to one characteristic of five-coordinate heme--NO, consistent with Fe-ImH (ImH = imidazole) dissociation via protonation. The Fe-NO stretching frequencies are at 553 and 596 cm-1 for the high- and low-pH forms, as expected, but the low-pH form shows an additional 15NO-sensitive band, at 573 cm-1, which is assigned to Fe-N-O bending in the five-coordinate complex. The RR spectrum of MbO2 shows a shoulder at approximately 270 cm-1, which shifts down by approximately 3 cm-1 upon 18O2 substitution, and is suggested to contain the Fe-ImH stretching mode. The weakness of VFe-ImH, relative to VFe-O2, is attributable to the lack of ImH involvement in the heme pi bonding.

Transcutaneous oxygen monitoring during exercise stress testing

Transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcPO2) was compared with simultaneous arterial oxygen tension (PaO2) in 3 normal young adults and 4 pediatric lung disease patients at rest and during exercise to assess the usefulness of tcPO2 monitoring during exercise stress testing. At rest, the regression coefficient of tcPO2 on PaO2 was 0.78 +/- 0.03 (SEM) (r = 0.924; P < 0.0005). During exercise, the regression coefficient of tcPO2 on PaO2 was 0.88 +/- 0.02 (r = 0.958; P < 0.0005), indicating that tcPO2 approximates PaO2 equally well at rest and during exercise. After a step change in inspired oxygen concentration (FIO2) from 0.21 to 0.17, there was no significant difference in the tcPO2 time constant at rest (66.2 +/- 8.5 s) and during exercise (73.0 +/- 3.1 s). Neither PaO2 nor tcPO2 fell in normal subjects during graded exercise stress testing. However, in 3 of 4 pediatric lung disease patients, there were decreases in both PaO2 (40.7 +/- 11.6 Hg) and tcPO2 (28.7 +/- 10.0 mm Hg) during 7 exercise stress tests. These results indicate that tcPO2 approximates PaO2 equally well at rest and during exercise.

The induction of tumours and other lesions in hamsters by a single subcutaneous injection of 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene or urethane on the first day of life

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