Legal Protection Against Domestic Violence in India: Scope and Limitations

This paper deals with the scope and limits of legal measures to curb domestic violence against women in India. The Indian state has enacted several laws in the past to address the issue and recently a new comprehensive law is added to the list. The new law has become an alternative to many urban victims. Yet, a review of the performance of the old and new laws on domestic violence proves that legal measures to curb domestic violence have serious limitations. They could neither guarantee any reduction in the extent of such violence, nor could they expedite the justice delivery system in India. Much remains to be done to ensure gender justice in a patriarchal society. Discussion here is based on secondary data and supplemented by field data collected through qualitative research informed by feminist epistemology in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal.     

家庭暴力受害经历与青少年犯罪之间的因果关系研究

家庭暴力与青少年犯罪作为共存于家庭和社会的两大问题,两者之间存在着密切的联系。本文以多维的视角,揭示了家庭暴力受害经历与青少年犯罪之间的因果关系,并提出了在干预家庭暴力视野下的青少年犯罪预防策略。     

Official Crime Statistics and Survey Data: Comparing Trends of Youth Violence between 2000 and 2006 in Cities of the Czech Republic,Germany, Poland,Russia, and Slovenia

Based on official crime statistics, violent crimes of youths in Germany and Central and Eastern Europe had appeared to have increased considerably between 1990 and 2000. Survey data that can overcome limitations of police data and allow to compare crime trends across countries are rare. Based on self-report delinquency studies of 15 year old juveniles in 1998–2001 (SRD) and 2006 (ISRD-2) using compatible questionnaires in Germany and Central and Eastern Europe (partly in the same cities), trends of attitudes towards violence, of victimisation experiences and self-reported wanton and instrumental violence are compared cross-nationally. There is substantially less approval of violence in 2006 and a corresponding decrease of victimisation experiences and violent behaviour between 1999 and 2006. Official crime statistics show serious limitations. The results are discussed with respect to theories of modernisation and social change.     

Protecting Battered Women

Abstract

Summary. Domestic violence is a major societal problem that affects millions of people. The American legal system is attempting to assist victims of domestic violence by designing laws that offer various types of protection. The civil laws have been expanded to provide protection to more people, such as dating partners, same-sex couples, and people who offer help to victims. In addition, a victim of domestic violence can seek a particularized form of relief, designed for their specific situation. The laws will vary between jurisdictions, but the movement is towards more complete and effective laws that assist people who are in violent situations.     

Crime,politics, and minority populations: Use of official statistics in the united states and Japan

Although the governments of the United States and Japan differ markedly in racial ideology, official crime statistics in both nations reflect political arrangements which marginalize minority populations. In both nations, official crime statistics reveal more about the attempts of majority populations to label minority populations as a criminal class than about variations in criminal behavior across racial populations. While there is no racially pure Black population in the United States, there is a “black” category within official statistics, and the statistics are used to justify crime control policies which have a disparate impact on the diverse peoples who are socially‐perceived as Black. While there are undeniably non‐Japanese populations in Japan, there are no racial categories for them in official statistics which define them out of existence; except where crime statistics are concerned, so that the police can monitor the criminality of “foreigners.” In both societies, official categorization of race in crime statistics implies that crime is a minority problem; government statistics reinforce official ideology that crimes by “foreigners” and “black violence” are the real threats to civil society.     

THE PRIVATIZATION OF VIOLENCE*

Norbert Elias's (1939) work on “the civilizing process” highlighted the long‐term decline in violence within Western societies. A substantial amount of more recent anthropological and historical evidence suggests that violence has evolved not just quantitatively but qualitatively as well. In particular, the social characteristics of the parties to violence have changed over time. Drawing on Donald Black's (1976, 1993a) theoretical ideas on conflict management, the present paper proposes that as intimate social ties weakened and the state strengthened, collective and nonintimate forms of (nonpolitical) violence declined significantly. Consequently, violence increasingly became less public, more private. Pockets of residual public violence can, however, still be found within modern state societies. Privatization varies, then, across time and social space.     

Preferences for Police Response to Domestic Violence: A Comparison of College Students in Three Chinese Societies

While a large amount of research has been conducted in the West on domestic violence related issues, only a small number of studies have focused specifically on Chinese societies. Using survey data collected from Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei, this study compares college students’ preferences for traditional and proactive police intervention into domestic violence and assesses the determinants of such preferences in the three Chinese societies. The findings indicate that Hong Kong students showed the highest level of support for traditional police response, followed by students in Beijing and Taipei, while students in Taipei displayed the strongest preference for proactive police response, followed by students in Hong Kong and Beijing. College students’ preferences for traditional police response were shaped mainly by their locality, whereas their preferences for proactive police intervention were influenced chiefly by their attitudes toward violence and gender roles. Directions for future research are discussed.     

‘Till Death Us Do Part’: spousal homicide in early modern Russia

The history of domestic violence, let alone domestic homicide, in Russia has yet to be written. This article focuses on the legal attitudes to domestic and especially marital homicide in early modern Russia and explores types of and methods used in spousal killings. The research is based on court records in addition to laws, legal documents and other sources. Its preliminary conclusions include assumptions about scale of domestic violence, gender of perpetrators and victims, main trends in domestic homicide and their connections with available explanatory frameworks. The study reveals that Russian households were violent places accounting for different types of assaults and homicides, but in all these acts women died more frequently than men. Marital homicide occurred in all social groups in Russia. Motives and methods for marital homicides were consistent with gendered theories of power relations. Penal policies also reveal harsher treatment of women than men, pointing to the gendered definitions of power disciplining methods.     

EXAMINING THE (IR)RELEVANCE OF AGGREGATION BIAS FOR MULTILEVEL STUDIES OF NEIGHBORHOODS AND CRIME WITH AN EXAMPLE COMPARING CENSUS TRACTS TO OFFICIAL NEIGHBORHOODS IN CINCINNATI*

Different operational definitions of neighborhood boundaries could generate differences in empirical relationships between ecological dynamics and crime. As a call for research on whether aggregation bias is an issue for related studies, this note compares bi‐level models predicting re‐arrest for domestic violence with census tracts versus officially defined city neighborhoods as macro units. Results indicate that both types of units generate the same substantive findings at the aggregate and individual levels of analysis. Similarities also exist between these results and those from previous multilevel studies of crime and victimization despite differences in the aggregate units across studies (including block groups).     

Domestic violence among immigrants from India: What we need to know — and what we should do

Little research has been reported on domestic violence among Indian immigrant families in the United States. While one national survey suggests that this is not a major problem, several smaller scale studies that focus specifically on South Asian immigrants suggest there is a substantial hidden problem warranting attention. In order to assist future research, this paper presents an integrated theoretical model to explain domestic violence in Indian immigrant communities. The model draws on feminist theory, family violence research, acculturation theory and victimological and crime opportunity theories. The model also provides a framework for thinking about possible intervention strategies. Those likely to provide more immediate benefits are discussed.     

Culture,Philosophy and Crime: The Japanese Experience

As societies modernize, one usually sees rapidly increasing rates of conventional crime. Contrary to this trend, Japan has experienced patterns that have either declined or remained basically horizontal during this process. In fact, this Oriental society is one of the few nations that has not had a positive development/crime correlation. Expanding on a societal explanatory approach suggested by Reischauer, this article describes how cultural traditions within Japan may explain this phenomenon, how their dark side of crime is also related to these cultural features, and how Implications for research are specified.     

Global Governance,Criminalisation and Environmental Change

This article examines the environmental impact of criminalisation. It argues that developing societies are increasingly drawn into globalised networks that inextricably link the global and local, the legal and illegal. This means that in order to understand the causes of environmental degradation it is no longer useful to focus on the formal institutions and practices of government and business. Instead, this article uses the concept of the shadow state to examine and understand the causes of environmental change in two illustrative cases of Madagascar and Belize.     

What's So Special about Specialized Courts? The State and Social Change in Salt Lake City's Domestic Violence Court

The nationwide growth in specialized or problem‐solving courts, including drug courts, community courts, mental health courts, and domestic violence courts, among others, raises questions about the role of the state with respect to social change. According to social control theories of the state, especially theories of technocratic or rationalized justice, law is increasingly about efficiency, speed, and effectiveness. Specialized courts, however, take on a social problem approach to crime, seeking to address crime's “root causes” within the individual, the society, and the larger culture in ways more characteristic of social movements. Are specialized courts about social control or social change? This study examines state action in a specialized court in domestic violence in order to examine this question. I focus on a domestic violence court that arose in February 1997 and four years later employed full‐time judges, prosecuting and defense attorneys, and numerous other staff to handle all misdemeanor domestic violence cases in Salt Lake County, Utah. I ask how legal, political, and community officials justify the court and its operation in order to examine some important issues about the role of the state and social change. Ultimately, I suggest that my findings about the complementary roles of social control and social change within domestic violence courts have implications not only for critical theories of technocratic justice and for the battered women's movement but also for democratic theories of the state.     

Crime in Asia: Toward a Better Future

There are two fundamental ways to reduce crime: fix crime prevention weaknesses or build on crime prevention strengths. Three crime prevention strengths that have delivered most Asian societies comparatively low and falling levels of violence are considered: (1) war reduction as a path to reduction of common criminal violence; (2) comparatively low levels of inequality; (3) comparatively low ratios of stigmatizing to reintegrative social control that respects human dignity. Transformative justice that addresses the root causes of wars, reduces inequalities of wealth and power, and empowers communities to do their own restorative justice are paths considered for building a nonviolent Asian future.     

Religion, State Power, and Domestic Violence in Muslim Societies: A Framework for Comparative Analysis

This article focuses on the issue of domestic violence in Muslim societies in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The analytical framework is comparative, emphasizing four factors and the interplay among them: shari'a (Islamic law), state power, intrafamily violence, and struggles over women's rights. The comparative approach historicizes the problem of domestic violence and impunity to consider the impact of transnational legal discourses (Islamism and human rights) on "local" struggles over rights and law. The use of shari'a creates some commonalities in gender and family relations in Muslim societies, notably the sanctioning and maintenance of male authority over female relatives. However, the most important issue for understanding domestic violence and impunity is the relationship between religion and state power. This relationship takes three forms: communalization, in which religious law is separate from the national legal regime; nationalization, in which the state incorporates religious law into the national legal regime; and theocratization, in which the national legal regime is based on religious law.     

The idea of a Southern Criminology

Southern Criminology is a theoretical perspective that shifts the focus from the state criminal justice process to global inequalities, transnational crime, and postcolonial politics. While recognising the importance of this shift in perspective for a globalising world, this paper asks two difficult questions. Firstly, how easy is it to generalise about whole regions of the world in advancing a political viewpoint? Secondly, is it possible for those in the West to imagine an alternative global criminology, if non-Western societies really do have different cultural values and epistemologies? For example, how should we respond to traditional practices among Indigenous Australians or a Confucian understanding of crime? These questions may make a Southern Criminology sound impossible in the same way as other varieties of critical theory. But this paper is intended to strengthen this emerging movement by acknowledging, and working through, potential difficulties.     

现代生命医学与美国相关法律的发展

近30年来现代医学技术的高速发展及惊人进步挑战着世界各国的法律及道德观念.本世纪更因生命科学的巨大发展而被命名为生命科学世纪.现代生命科学在变革世界的同时也带来了史无前例的道德伦理问题,引发了激烈的争论.为了适应这些新的发展,美国的法律做出了相应的变革.这些新的法律法规影响着美国人民的工作生活及几乎所有的法律领域,例如医疗法、家庭法、遗产法、商业法、专利法、刑法等都极大程度地受到现代医学及相关法律的制约与影响.当代各个领域中的美国律师及政治领导人必须熟悉生命医学的有关法律,以为社会提供高质量和全方位的服务.生命医学法律更是当代世界及美国政坛的激战舞台,美国总统布什于2006年7月19日第一次使用了总统否决权,驳回了美国国会新通过的干细胞研究的法律,此举引发了激烈的政治波澜.着重介绍当代美国生命医学法律中的最热点论题,包括医疗决定权、安乐死、人类克隆及人胚胎干细胞研究等有关法律的发展过程及存在的问题与面临的挑战.     

Russian Robber Barons: Moscow Business, American Style

Russia after communism is a hotbed of crime. Russian Robber Barons addresses villainy in market construction and draws on U.S. experience for comparisons. Crime will not be eradicated in Russia, nor has it been eliminated elsewhere, but a carefully crafted legal system can reduce damage wrought by unproductive criminal activity and guide entrepreneurs into legal operations beneficial to themselves and society. Robber baron activities match Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, but Mafia-style crime is merely destructive. Economic success demands that Russia join Western market societies in the search for laws to throttle destructive crime and encourage entrepreneurship.     

SUBTERRANEAN SOURCES OF SUBCULTURAL DELINQUENCY BEYOND THE AMERICAN DREAM*

Are subcultural forms of crime and delinquency wholesale rejections or distorted reflections of core values of market-oriented societies? Current evidence casts doubt on the former position, while contemporary theory suggests the possibility that a culture of competition encourages hierarchic forms of self-interest, leading to the acceptance of inequality and anomic amorality and, ultimately, to group-related delinquency. Oddly, the effects of this culture of competition and hierarchic self-interest have not previously been documented empirically in sociological or criminological research, even though this step is fundamental and crucial to the argument that subcultural crime and delinquency derive from market-driven values. We analyze data from four sites in East and West Germany to identify the strands of a subterranean causal web that link core values of market society to subcultural delinquency.     

论国际犯罪与国内犯罪的关系

国际犯罪是指由国际法创设或者推动因而被国际社会普遍确定为犯罪、严重危害国际社会共同利益的行为,跨国性、涉外性、违反公约性都不是国际犯罪的基本特征。国际犯罪不是从国内犯罪发展而来的,它们是两个互不隶属的并列范畴,是"犯罪"这一共同上位概念之下的子概念,从渊源上讲,两者基本上分属国内法与国际法两大法律体系。国际犯罪与国内犯罪之间有明确的界限,主要体现在犯罪危害的性质、针对的法律关系和法律制定者不同三方面。