The Helpseeking Experiences of Men Who Sustain Intimate Partner Violence: An Overlooked Population and Implications for Practice

For over 30 years, research has shown that men can and do sustain intimate partner violence (IPV) from their female partners. This is the first large-scale, nationally-based, quantitative study to systematically detail the helpseeking experiences of men who have sustained IPV from their female partners. The sample is composed of 302 men who were recruited from resources specializing in men’s issues. Results indicate that men who seek help for IPV victimization have the most positive experiences in seeking help from family/friends, and mental health and medical providers. They have the least positive experiences with members of the DV service system. Cumulative positive helpseeking experiences were associated with lower levels of abusing alcohol; cumulative negative experiences were associated with higher rates of exceeding a clinical cut-off for post-traumatic stress disorder. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the social service sector and for future research.     

Perceptions of Safety in Intimate Relationships: Group Differences Based on Gender and Setting

Intimate partner violence continues to be prevalent, resulting in negative consequences for the individuals involved and for society as a whole. Perceptions of safety in relationships where intimate partner violence is present is an understudied topic in the literature. The Safety Assessment of Future Events Scale (SAFE) was developed to assess respondents’ perceptions of safety in their intimate relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine whether group differences existed on respondents’ SAFE scores. 428 participants from community and clinic samples completed the SAFE and other measures contained in a southwest university’s marriage and family therapy clinic intake packet. ANCOVA was used to control for gender and setting in determining if group differences existed on the SAFE based on measures assessing interpersonal violence, relational adjustment, intrapersonal symptoms, and PTSD symptoms. Results indicated group differences based on gender, interpersonal violence victimization, and relational adjustment.     

Examining the Link Between Domestic Violence Victimization and Loneliness in a Dutch Community Sample: A Comparison Between Victims and Nonvictims by Type D Personality

The current study investigated whether differences in loneliness scores between individuals with a distressed personality type (type D personality) and subjects without such a personality varied by domestic violence victimization. Participants (N = 625) were recruited by random sampling from the Municipal Basic Administration of the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch and were invited to fill out a set of questionnaires on health status. For this study, only ratings for domestic violence victimization, type D personality, feelings of loneliness, and demographics were used. Statistical analyses yielded main effects on loneliness for both type D personality and history of domestic violence victimization. Above and beyond these main effects, their interaction was significantly associated with loneliness as well. However, this result seemed to apply to emotional loneliness in particular. Findings were discussed in light of previous research and study limitations.     

Die Zukunft der Verfassung

Eine Verfassung ist das Ged?chtnis der Demokratie, das gefestigte Lebenserfahrungen, bew?hrte Institutionen und erprobte Werte verbindlich an die Zukunft weitergibt. Wenn gegenw?rtig der Staat in der Erwartung an das Recht und insbesondere in seiner Finanzkraft überfordert wird, die Kraft zur Freiheit – insbesondere zu Ehe und Familie – in den Industriestaaten nachzulassen scheint, die Naturwissenschaften neue Anfragen an das Verfassungsrecht stellen, der Verfassungsstaat sich in der Europ?ischen Union und in einer weltoffenen Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft neu bew?hren muss, wird die Verfassung als "Rechtsquelle" – in ihren Entstehens- und Geltungsgrund – neu entfaltet werden müssen. Die Verfassung formt den Staat als Teil der Staatengemeinschaft, bindet ihn in Menschenwürde und Freiheitsrechten, erneuert ihn in der Idee der Freiheit und des Parlamentarismus, fordert eine Balance zwischen freiheitlicher Verschiedenheit und Gleichheit vor dem Gesetz, sichert eine Elementargerechtigkeit für Staatsvolk und Inl?nder, zugleich aber auch Entfaltungsm?glichkeiten für die Vielfalt individueller Handlungsvorhaben zu entwickeln.     

Hybrid Texts and Uniform Law? The Multilingual Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union

The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) is shaped by the language in which it is drafted—i.e. French. However, because French is rarely the mother tongue of those drafting that case law, the texts produced are often stilted and awkward. In addition, those drafting such case law are constrained in their use of language and style of writing (owing to pressures of technology and in order to reinforce the rule of law). These factors have led to the development of a ‘Court French’ which necessarily shapes the case law produced and has implications for its development, particularly insofar as it inevitably leads to a type of precedent in that case law. That case law also undergoes many permutations of translation into and out of up to 23 different languages. The resultant texts that make up the case law are hybrid in nature—consisting of a blend of cultural and linguistic patterns, constrained by a rigid formulistic drafting style and put through many permutations of translation. The present paper investigates the production of the Court’s multilingual case law and considers whether the hybrid nature of that case law can actually aid the presentation (and thus the development) of a ‘uniform’ EU case law.     

‘We the People of the United States…’: <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Matrix</Emphasis> and the Realisation of Constitutional Sovereignty

In its enunciation of “We the people,” the Constitution of the United States of America becomes a constitution of the flesh as it simultaneously invokes a constitution, a nation and a people. Correspondingly, its amendments as a list of rights pertaining to sex and race discrimination, and freedoms of bodily movement and action, assert the Constitution’s authority through the evocation of “natural” human bodies. In this article, I explore the way in which a sovereignty of the United States’ Constitution is realised in the particularlised bodies of its citizens. The fundamental and foundational laws of the United States, and the narratives and myths used to interpret them, are in part rendered legitimate by the Constitution’s embodiment, which extends from its physical manifestation in written documents into the flesh of its citizens. In order to make this argument, I turn to the film The Matrix (1999), the success of which relies on an investment in bodies and the United States’ Constitution as matter through its interwoven narrative themes of human slavery and emancipation, reality and computer-generated simulation. At the same time, The Matrix extends its ideological play into the bodies of its audience, who experience the film’s thrillingly sensorial fantasies of constitutional rights while enjoying its affective special effects. Thus, the sovereign authority of United States constitutional law is experienced as “natural” through the phenomenological experience of cinema.     

Administration of Justice and Multimodality in Media: Semiotic Translation,Conflict and Compatibility

Law as one sign system can be recorded and interpreted by another sign system—media. If each transaction in court is taken as a sign, it can be interpreted or transferred by different signs of media for the same purpose, though with different effects. This study focuses on the transformative effects of the semiotic revolution in media on law. The present research revealed that the evolution of media has driven the administration of justice to pay more attention to the process of court proceedings. This research also discusses the semiotic conflict and compatibility between the sign subsystems within media upon interpreting the administration of justice. In addition, disequilibrium between different sign systems highlights the consequent need for intersemiotic translation, consciousness and evaluation as part of decision making on court domains.     

Zoologian Jurisprudence

This essay examines the iconography and role of animals in medieval and early modern bestiaries. In being without original sin “God’s creatures” were deemed proximate to divine perfection and to salvation. Animals, whether symbolic or actual, both instructed man’s moral behaviour and ushered man towards salvation. Bestiaries, it will be argued, are keys to understanding how modern law would eventually co-ordinate itself in relation to the concept of a future salvic moment.     

Leistungsfähigkeit der Verfassung

Der Beitrag besch?ftigt sich mit der Leistungsf?higkeit der ?sterreichischen Verfassung. Er setzt sich zuerst mit der Frage auseinander, was das Konzept der Leistungsf?higkeit im Zusammenhang mit Verfassungen bedeuten kann. Weiters mit der Frage, was eine Verfassung überhaupt leisten soll und wie sie das zu Leistende leisten kann und schlie?lich mit der Frage, ob die ?sterreichische Verfassung leistet, was sie leisten m?chte.     

Verfassungsfragen einer Reform des österreichischen Bundesheeres

Die Diskussion über eine Abschaffung der Wehrpflicht und einen Umbau des österreichischen Wehrsystems muss auch die verfassungsrechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen mit in den Blick nehmen. Die Bundesverfassung verankert nicht nur die allgemeine Wehrpflicht und das Milizsystem als Organisationsmaximen des Bundesheeres, sondern trifft auch eine abschließende Regelung der Aufgaben des Bundesheeres. Darüber hinaus ergeben sich aus der Neutralität Österreichs und aus dem in Art 4 EMRK normierten Verbot von Zwangs- und Pflichtarbeit verfassungsrechtliche Kriterien, die bei der Entscheidung für ein bestimmtes Wehrsystem zu beachten sind.