Psychometric validation of the Brief Symptom Inventory 25 Forensic (BSI-25-F)

The Brief Symptom Inventory 25 Forensic (BSI-25-F) is a screening instrument for measuring the psychophysical distress of prisoners and forensic patients. The aim of the study was to validate the instrument. For this purpose, 165 forensic patients, 312 general psychiatric patients, and 1359 people from the general population completed the BSI-25-F. In addition, the data of the long-term prisoners who were studied when the instrument was originally developed were used for comparison. The item analyses revealed acceptable to very good item characteristics within the target samples of the prisoners and the forensic patients for the majority of the items. Reliability tests also showed acceptable to good values for the target samples. The differential validity but not the factorial validity could be proved. To conclude, the new BSI-25-F represents an economic, practicable, and reliable screening instrument for identifying prisoners who are in a need of treatment.     

A Gramscian Approach to Studying the Judicial Decision-Making Process

This paper applies a Gramscian analytical framework to scrutinise the judicial decision-making process. Based on two distinct research projects, the article explores how, on one hand judges in criminal courts can be identified as part of the bureaucratic machinery of the state, as ‘technicians of repression’; whereas, on the other hand, human rights judges can be distinguished as providing ‘moral and intellectual leadership’ in their production and reproduction of certain values. Some of the key questions this article seeks to answer are: What is the role of hegemony in the judicial decision-making process? To what extent are legal actors both ‘technicians of repression’ and ‘moral and intellectual leaders’? This paper uses examples from empirical research conducted at courts in Argentina and at the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights to identify and explore this dual role of judges as both repressive technicians and moral and intellectual leaders in neo-liberal capitalist societies.     

The Life and Death of New Political Parties in the Low Countries

Numerous new parties have emerged since voters became less loyal to established political parties. A number of these survived and have been analysed intensely, especially green and radical right parties; many other new parties disappeared and have been neglected by party research. This article analyses the fate of all 30 political parties that entered parliament in the Netherlands or Belgium between 1950 and 2003. Qualitative comparative analysis is used to identify characteristics of both surviving and disappeared new parties. Conditions related to party origin (roots in civil society, organisational newness, initial programmatic profile) are scrutinised, as are conditions pertaining to the party’s developmental process (party organisational strength and the occurrence of defections or party splits). Surviving parties are characterised by strong, rooted organisations that have not suffered defections. Most disappeared parties lacked a strong organisation and roots and have experienced shocks that they could not absorb. Organisational newness makes new parties vulnerable.     

The Effects of Congruence in Policy Priorities on Satisfaction with Democracy

There is widespread agreement that better policy representation increases citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. Previous research on this topic has generally focused on ideological congruence between citizens and representatives. In this article, it is argued that public–elite agreement on policy priorities is another essential aspect of policy representation, but has been largely overlooked in this context. Citizens whose issue concerns are higher on elites’ agendas should be more satisfied with the functioning of democracy. This hypothesis is tested by linking voter survey data to candidate survey and news media content data from the 2009 German Longitudinal Election Study. The results show that citizens whose issue concerns are salient amongst party candidates and in the media campaign coverage are indeed more satisfied with democracy in their country. This effect exists not only for congruence with the party for which individuals voted, but also for agreement with the other parties.     

Väter in Elternzeit. Deutungen,Aushandlungen und Bewertungen von Familien- und Erwerbsarbeit im Paar

Berliner Journal für Soziologie - Der Anteil von Vätern, die Elternzeit beanspruchen, ist mittlerweile auf über ein Drittel angestiegen. Der Beitrag analysiert Deutungen...     

Dating ivory by determination of 14C, 90Sr and 228/232Th

A method is described to determine the time of death of elephants. This is accomplished by analysis of the radionuclides 14C, 90Sr and 228/232Th in known samples of ivory, and in samples of unknown age. The reliability of this method is considerably increased by multi nuclide analysis.     

Mind This Gap,Too: Political Orientations of People with Disabilities in Europe

Political Behavior - People with disabilities constitute one of the largest minority groups in Europe, and yet our knowledge about how they relate to the political system remains limited. In...     

Qualitative Experteninterviews in Internationalen Organisationen

The article addresses the question of how to categorize different expert interviews in empirical research on international organizations. First of all, we discuss what is unique in analysing International Organizations. Afterwards, four different types of expert interviews are distinguished depending on the interest in the subject. Finally, the article connects the typology of expert interviews with the discussion of the organizational turn in IO-studies and discusses the consequences of the methodological approach proposed in this article. The findings are underlaid by case studies from research on international organizations.