Marie Bruvik Heinskou

Taking a Chance

This article analyzes the meaning of alcohol in relation to young people’s sexuality, with focus on acquaintance rape. Drinking is a way to stage oneself as mature; it is intentionally used by both male and female youth to make sexual pleasure possible. It is argued that in the context of sexuality among young people, there is a fine line between freedom and gender-specific restrictions. The research on acquaintance rape and alcohol drinking among the youth is traditionally dominated by the concept of risk. This article introduces the concept of chance, along with risk, to grasp the complexities of the grey zone situations of acquaintance rape among the youth. The risk of social stigma within the gender game increases with drinking alcohol simultaneously as the chances of expanding the limitations of gender roles also increase with drinking. These social stigmas, embedded in the gender roles, are central to understanding when a pleasurable situation turns into an acquaintance rape. The article is based on 95 police reports of rape and 37 focus groups on alcohol and sexuality of the Danish youth. The analysis takes it onset in a single case.

On the Actual Risk of Bystander Intervention: A Statistical Study Based on Naturally Occurring Violent Emergencies

Objectives: Bystander studies have rarely considered the victimization risk associated with intervention into violent, dangerous emergencies. To address this gap, we aim to identify factors that influence bystanders’ risk of being physically victimized. Method: We observed bystander behavior from video surveillance footage of naturally occurring violence in nighttime economy settings, and data were analyzed with a logistic regression model. Results: Data show that approximately one of the six interventions results in some type of victimization, typically with a relatively low degree of severity. The bystander’s social group membership, the setting of the emergency, and the bystander’s intervention type are estimated as risk factors for victimization. Conclusions: Previous research suggests that a bystander’s social group membership with victims promotes intervention behavior. Our results expand the role of social group membership as being a factor that also influences whether the intervening bystander is victimized.

Consolation in the aftermath of robberies resembles post-aggression consolation in chimpanzees

Post-aggression consolation is assumed to occur in humans as well as in chimpanzees. While consolation following peer aggression has been observed in children, systematic evidence of consolation in human adults is rare. We used surveillance camera footage of the immediate aftermath of nonfatal robberies to observe the behaviors and characteristics of victims and bystanders. Consistent with empathy explanations, we found that consolation was linked to social closeness rather than physical closeness. While females were more likely to console than males, males and females were equally likely to be consoled. Furthermore, we show that high levels of threat during the robbery increased the likelihood of receiving consolation afterwards. These patterns resemble post-aggression consolation in chimpanzees and suggest that emotions of empathic concern are involved in consolation across humans and chimpanzees.

Trusting the other or taking a chance? An investigation of chance and trust temporalities

Theories of modernity and risk society argue that increasing levels of risk fundamentally alter or lower the level of trust in society. In this article we argue that this assumption is based in a fallacious theoretical link between trust and risk. Rather than calculative assessment of risk and specific events, trust directs anticipation towards process. First, we outline dominant approaches to trust as a question of actions and uncertainty of outcomes, arguing that these approaches treat trust and chance as interchangeable, conflating the different socio-temporalities within which risk and trust, respectively, reside. Secondly, the issue of temporality is traced in Luhmann’s work on trust and it is demonstrated how his dichotomous treatment of social time conflates markedly different temporal experiences. As a solution to this, the article presents the notion of a third temporal mode of the process present from Deleuzes concept of becoming. This is theoretically reconnected to the process present to trust theory, arguing that the uncertainty trust deals with, is connected to process experience rather than expectations of the future. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and empirical consequences of a socio-temporal distinction between trust and chance, and argue that trusting is an epistemological slip and space of non-reflexivity, that transform time to process.

Sexuality in Transit: gender gaming and spaces of sexuality in late modernity

Through an investigation of a reported rape, this article suggests that we conceive sexuality as a transitional object that changes and transforms depending on space and temporality. This makes sexuality difficult to grasp within specific and stable frames of gender and power analysis. Applying such an approach, the complexities of sexual assault, changing power relations and unstable narratives of gender and sexuality are illuminated. The analysis shows that the traditional divide between public and private has dissolved and that public spaces of pop culture are drawn into spaces of intimacy and thereby renegotiated and domesticated.

Caring collectives and other forms of bystander helping behavior in violent situations

Social science research has traditionally described bystanders in violent emergencies as being passive. Recent evidence, however, stresses that bystanders typically intervene proactively and successfully in violent, dangerous emergencies. This article examines the multiple ways bystanders act in situations of violence, with the aim of moving beyond the understanding of bystanders as being either passive or active. Based on a qualitative analysis of surveillance camera recordings of urban public assaults, the study maps different types of bystander behaviors as they unfold in real-life violent events. The first part of the analysis is summarized in a typology that covers three types of bystander action: distancing, ambivalence, and involvement. The second part shows that the involvement action also unfolds through coordinated interactions between the bystanders, what the article characterizes as a ‘caring collective.’ This interactional aspect of bystander involvement has rarely been examined in the bystander literature, which tends to focus on individual bystander actions and motivations.

Buying stolen goods: the ambiguity in trading consumer-to-consumer

Abstract This study investigates the buying of stolen goods in Denmark. The study consists of a self-report survey based on a representative sample of the general Danish population (n = 2311) and six focus group interviews consisting of both informants experienced with buying stolen goods and of those with no experience (n = 37). The survey showed that 4.8% had bought stolen goods, while 15.7% were uncertain whether they had bought stolen goods. Young people, males, and unemployed were more likely to purchase stolen goods. No clear correlation between income and buying stolen goods was found. Focus groups suggest the buyers of stolen goods did not buy stolen goods because they could not afford legitimate products. We recommend targeting consumers not interested in buying stolen goods with information about how to avoid such activity.