Brandon Sparks

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Verified

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• PhD
• Assistant Professor at St. Francis Xavier University

Purpose of Review Incels (involuntary celibates) have recently garnered media attention for seemingly random attacks of violence. Much attention has centered around the misogynistic and violent discourse that has taken place in online incel forums as well as manifestos written by incels who have perpetrated deadly attacks. Such work overlooks the e...

Incel refers to an online group of young males who feel frustration and despair at being repeatedly neglected on the dating market. Despite gaining notoriety for a number of public attacks, the majority of incel research is comprised of analyses of their forums rather than of individuals themselves. This provides a good contextual overview of the i...

Introduction The rise of technology has ushered in a new means of sexual expression, commonly referred to as sexting, which involves the sending of sexual messages or images of oneself to another person. Growing in popularity particularly among youth and young adults, the sending of images to current or potential romantic or sexual partners is incr...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an experiential learning assignment designed for criminology and forensic psychology students, requiring them to attend a Crown Court trial in the public gallery or to engage with a virtual mock trial. 48 students were surveyed to measure the impact of experiential assignments in helping students better und...

Sexual and romantic rejection are issues that humans have faced for centuries. Recently, experiences such as these have developed into a form of identity and community rallying point. Involuntary celibates (incels) are one example of this phenomenon; however, the group have achieved notoriety for their association with violent attacks and promotion...

Although the motivation for perpetrating non-consensual distribution of intimate images (NCDII) forms the basis for legal judgements, little is known about its role in public judgements. The primary purpose of the present study was to assess whether the type of motivation for perpetrating NCDII influenced public judgements of the victim, offender,...

Presentation on an experiential learning assignment that has been used in multiple classrooms, which has also been published in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education (see https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511253.2023.2297443)

Incels (involuntary celibates) are a misogynistic online subculture of men who form their identity around their perceived inability to establish sexual relationships. This commentary addresses the critique presented by Carian et al. (2023) in "Intervening in Problematic Research Approaches to Incel Violence," published in Men and Masculinities. Car...

Introduction: Memes are a viable way to introduce students to psychology concepts and to actively engage with class content. Statement of the Problem: Given our ever-increasing engagement with technology, educators have been calling for innovative ways to engage with students who are often steeped in internet culture. Literature Review: Building...

Although sexual and romantic rejection is not exclusive to the 21st century, it is only recently that this experience has developed into a form of identity and community rallying point. Involuntary celibates (incels) have been associated with violent attacks and misogyny in the mainstream and, more recently, have become the subject of exploratory r...

Background Empirical knowledge of psychopathy is often misrepresented in the media and miscommunicated to the general public. This can have practical implications in legal settings. This research investigated how the labels used when discussing individuals characterised by psychopathic traits impacts lay judgements and attributions of them. Methods...

While the killing of one’s own infant is an undoubtedly harrowing crime, there exists little research exploring attitudes toward these individuals. Such work has focused primarily on depictions of mothers, yet U.K. government data indicate that the majority of infant homicide cases involve paternal suspects. A sample of U.K. residents (n = 245) par...

Experiential learning is an effective pedagogical tool that has been associated with several beneficial student outcomes. Given the complex and applied nature of criminal justice courses, educators in these fields have sought to implement experiential learning, developing several impactful initiatives along the way. However, many of these require e...

Introduction: Memes are a viable way to introduce students to psychology concepts and to actively engage with class content. Statement of the Problem: Given our ever increasing engagement with technology, educators have been calling for innovative ways to engage with students who are digital natives. Literature Review: Building on Kath et al. (2022...

The advent of technology has dramatically changed the way sexual violence is perpetrated and experienced. Understanding the context of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) and risk factors associated with perpetration are key to effective prevention efforts. The present study explores three IBSA behaviours—coerced sexting, non-consensual dissemination o...

Unlabelled: Incels-a ragtag collection of young males who have rallied around their shared experience of romantic rejection-have slowly emerged as an online group of interest to researchers, no doubt as a result of several high-profile attacks. Much of this work has centered around incels' dating experiences, sexual attitudes, and online forums. H...

Arts-based teaching methods have been used to enhance higher education teaching across disciplines including medicine (Emami et al., 2021; Smith et al., 2021; Yakhforoshha et al., 2018) and teacher education (Srivastava et al., 2019; Zakaria et al., 2019). Integrating art throughout the curriculum can be a transformative force that presses students...

The murdering of one’s own infant may be one of the most harrowing crimes imaginable. Despite this and decades of debate over gendered infanticide laws, there exists little empirical work exploring attitudes toward individuals who have committed infant homicide. Such work has focused primarily on depictions of mothers, yet UK government data indica...

There has been little study of animal sexual abuse (ASA). Subsequently, little is known about veterinary medical professionals' (e.g., Veterinarians, Veterinary Technicians, Veterinary Nurses) knowledge of ASA and how they may contribute to the prevention of ASA. Thus, the objective of this paper is to comprehensively study ASA in a sample of veter...

Incels-a ragtag collection of young males who have rallied around their shared experience of romantic rejection-have slowly emerged as an online group of interest to researchers, no doubt as a result of several high-profile attacks. Much of this work has centered around incels' dating experiences, sexual attitudes, and online forums. However, it is...

Presentation given June 15, 2022 at the British Psychological Society Division of Forensic Psychology conference in Solihull, UK.

Incel refers to an online group of young males who feel frustration and despair at being repeatedly neglected on the dating market. Despite several high-profile attacks, the majority of incel research is comprised of qualitative analyses of their forums. This provides a good contextual overview of the incel community but does not capture the experi...

Purpose of review: Incels (involuntary celibates) have recently garnered media attention for seemingly random attacks of violence. Much attention has centered around the misogynistic and violent discourse that has taken place in online incel forums as well as manifestos written by incels who have perpetrated deadly attacks. Such work overlooks the...

Rape myths (RMs) are a complex set of cultural beliefs and attitudes that support and condone sexual violence, mainly by shifting blame from the perpetrator to the victim. Much empirical attention has been paid to how RMs perpetuate cultural norms that justify sexually assaultive behaviours, with research demonstrating that individuals who have hig...

There has long been concern among academics and those in criminal justice professions regarding the public’s seemingly enthusiastic support for punitive responses to sexual offenders, such as long sentences, residency restrictions, registration, and community notification. Yet there has been little research to date on what motives may be driving th...

The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) has been widely used to measure gay men’s erectile functioning. However, the IIEF was initially developed using a sample of men whose sexual orientation was unspecified. Using scales not validated for specific populations can result in inaccurate assessments. The purpose of the current study was t...

Despite the common occurrence of sexual violence in intimate partner violence (IPV) and its association with increased risk of intimate partner homicide, intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) is often overlooked in the literature. As a result, little is known about risk factors that may be unique to IPSV perpetrators. The present study utilizes a...

There has long been concern among academics and those in criminal justice professions regarding the public's seemingly enthusiastic support for punitive responses to sexual offenders, such as long sentences, residency restrictions, registration, and community notification. Yet there has been little research to date on what motives may be driving th...

Over the past several decades, societal responses to juvenile crime has evolved from harsh sentences (including death) to more lenient punishments in congruence with our greater understanding of adolescent development. However, some groups of young offenders, such as those convicted of sexual offenses, appear to have fallen victim to a more punitiv...

Over the past several decades, societal responses to juvenile crime has evolved from harsh sentences (including death) to more lenient punishments in congruence with our greater understanding of adolescent development. However, some groups of young offenders, such as those convicted of sexual offenses, appear to have fallen victim to a more punitiv...

A damaging belief exists that to become a victim of sexual violence, victims must be deemed sexually desirable. As a result, sexual violations where the victims are individuals whom society may deem as less attractive—such as overweight women—may elicit less empathy for the victim or minimize the likelihood they are believed. Yet, there is some evi...

Introduction: While overweight women report higher rates of sexual violence than women of other weight categories, there exist biases that undermine people’s perceptions of these experiences (Tilley, 2015). Specifically, overweight women are often attributed as being less sexually desirable, skilled, and experienced, which some believe is necessary...

Introduction: Overweight women are subject to a set of prejudicial attitudes referred to as anti-fat attitudes. These attitudes presume that overweight women are undesirable and, therefore, should be grateful for any sexual attention including rape (Clarke & Stermac, 2011). Similar to anti-fat attitudes, rape myths are a set of false, prejudicial a...

Since the mid-1800's, the Western world's response to juvenile offending has continued to evolve, reflecting our increasing understanding of adolescent development, the formative role of their environment, and their treatment amenability. Yet the 1980's fostered in a new response to juvenile crime, one of fear and retribution. Perhaps no group has...