Does Terrorism Pay? An Empirical Analysis

Does terrorism help perpetrators to achieve their demands? Few research questions about terrorism generate as much controversy. This study contributes to the debate in two main ways. First, we identify major limitations within the burgeoning literature on the effectiveness of terrorism. Specifically, we highlight the main methodological problems vexing empirical assessments of whether terrorism promotes government concessions. Second, we present a research design that circumvents those recurrent methodological shortcomings. In short, we find no empirical evidence to suggest that terrorism pays. In fact, multiple variants of the tactic in hostage standoffs impede the perpetrators from coercing government compliance. The negative effect of terrorism on the odds of compliance is significant and substantial across logistic and multilevel logistic model specifications, particularly when civilians are killed or wounded in the coercive incident. These findings have important implications for both scholars and practitioners of counterterrorism.     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF ARREST FOR COLLEGE ENROLLMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF LONG‐TERM EFFECTS AND MEDIATING MECHANISMS*

This study draws on labeling theory and education research on the steps to college enrollment to examine 1) whether and for how long arrest reduces the likelihood that high‐school graduates will enroll in postsecondary education and 2) whether any observed relationships are mediated by key steps in the college enrollment process. With 17 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) and propensity score matching, we derived matched samples of arrested and nonarrested but equivalent youth (N = 1,761) and conducted logistic regression and survival analyses among the matched samples to examine the short‐ and long‐term postsecondary consequences of arrest. The results revealed that arrest reduced the odds of 4‐year college enrollment directly after high school, as well as that high‐school grade point average and advanced coursework accounted for 58 percent of this relationship. The results also revealed that arrest had an enduring impact on 4‐year college attendance that extended into and beyond emerging adulthood. Two‐year college prospects were largely unaffected by arrest. These findings imply that being arrested during high school represents a negative turning point in youths’ educational trajectory that is, in part, a result of having a less competitive college application. Implications are discussed.     

The price that US minority communities pay: mass incarceration and the ideologies that fuel them

Mass incarceration of minorities has generated alarming attention. This concern is a result of the massive social injustice perpetrated by the ideologies that force mental and physical imprisonment on the poor. The outcome of this social injustice generates punitive inequalities that become entrenched in US social experiences. Once incarcerated, an individual carries a permanent label that brands him/her as an eternal ‘criminal’ and deactivates him/her from mainstream society. This translates into exclusion from responsible educational and occupational participation. Disadvantaged members of minority groups caught in this unforgiving social imprisonment often turn to the underground economy, which, unfortunately, increases the possibility of arrest, or re-arrest. The imprisoning ideology that stereotypes the disadvantaged community, leads to increased incarceration, hypersegregation, social abandonment, and creates a theater for venomous law enforcement practices. The impact of mass incarceration and the ideologies that sustain them on disadvantaged minority communities is the focus of this examination.     

The remote securitisation of Islam in the US post-9/11: euphemisation,metaphors and the “logic of expected consequences” in counter-radicalisation discourse

This article critically analyses the securitisation of Islam post-9/11 in the US and argues that this securitisation is a remote securitisation whereby the securitisers – the security practitioners – are placed at a distance from the securitisees – the Muslim community. This is achieved through two processes of security practice: linguistically by euphemising language and using metaphors, and analytically by understanding radicalisation through a rationalist perspective, which follows the “logic of expected consequences”. This article further problematises the rationalist view of radicalisation in the counterterrorism sector in the US and concludes by introducing a Bourdieusan concept of relationality to critical counter-radicalisation studies.     

Beyond ethics and evidence: Learning to look at the intended and unintended consequences of our actions

The human service professions have traditionally taken a narrow perspective on what constitutes ethical and effective practice. We are taught to use simplistic code-based models to judge whether our actions are ethical and in-the-moment measures to determine if we are being effective. If we observe no harm in the period of our intervention, then we believe our actions are ethical. Similarly, if we observe some positive change, then we believe our interventions are effective. However, when we examine our work within a broader context and over a longer period of time we can come to different conclusions. This article illustrates several problems with these current methods and suggests alternative ways of examining ethics and effectiveness.     

Unintended Consequences of EU Democracy Support in the European Neighbourhood

ABSTRACT

The European Union’s (EU) impact on the political governance of the European neighbourhood is varied and sometimes opposite to the declared objectives of its democracy support policies. The democracy promotion literature has to a large extent neglected the unintended consequences of EU democracy support in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. The EU has left multiple imprints on the political trajectories of the countries in the neighbourhood and yet the dominant explanation, highlighting the EU’s security and economic interests in the two regions,cannot fully account for the unintended consequences of its policies. The literature on the ‘pathologies’ of international organisations offers an explanation, emphasizing the failures of the EU bureaucracy to anticipate, prevent or reverse the undesired effects of its democracy support in the neighbourhood.     

论结果加重构成犯概念的提倡

在我国刑法中应当提倡结果加重构成犯的概念,刑法分则中以结果出现为犯罪成立要件的,不一定都是结果犯,而可能是结果加重构成犯。对于滥用职权罪和玩忽职守罪等罪来说,实质上包括双层次的危害结果,属于结果加重构成犯的范畴,其罪过形式类似于结果加重犯的罪过形式。     

煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视罪的司法定位变化与刑事应对

煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视罪在立法之初保护的是公民的民族平等、团结的民主权利,但近年来该罪出现了被恐怖组织所利用,危及社会稳定,甚至引发严重暴力恐怖活动的趋势。本罪作为应对恐怖主义犯罪罪名体系的基础性罪名,与涉及恐怖主义犯罪的煽动分裂国家罪,组织、领导恐怖组织罪等罪名在司法上相结合形成阶梯式罪名体系。由此,在立法上应当提升该罪的分则地位,加重法定刑,在司法上应树立对煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视罪危害后果的正确认识。     

树立依法治国理念依法实施侦查行为

依法治国是社会主义法治的核心内容,树立依法治国的理念,就是在全社会和全体公民,特别是执法者中养成自觉尊重法律、维护法律权威、严格依法办事的思想意识.在刑事程序法领域贯彻依法治国理念,就是坚持刑事程序法定原则.在侦查实践中,违背刑事程序法定原则任意实施侦查行为是一个不容忽视的问题,不仅事关一个国家的法治进程,而且对当事人、侦查人员、证据材料和案件事实均可能造成不利影响,因此有必要采取有效措施予以遏制.