WHO KILLS WHOM IN SPOUSE KILLINGS? ON THE EXCEPTIONAL SEX RATIO OF SPOUSAL HOMICIDES IN THE UNITED STATES*

A hitherto unremarked peculiarity of homicide in the United States is that women kill their husbands almost as often as the reverse. For every 100 US. men who kill their wives, about 75 women kill their husbands; this spousal “sex ratio of killing” (SROK) is more than twice that in other Western nations. Our analyses of spousal homicide samples from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain indicate that this contrast cannot be attributed to greater gun use in the United States, nor to a domain-general convergence of the sexes in their uses of violence. Significant predictors of the spousal SROK include registered versus de facto marriage, coresidency versus separation, ethnicity, and age disparity, but the impacts of these variables are not sufficient to explain the differences between US. and other nations’victim sex ratios.     

Green houses for terrorism: measuring the impact of gender equality attitudes and outcomes as deterrents of terrorism

Recent research suggests that there are links between terrorism and gender inequality. This study is a cross-national times series estimation for 57 countries for the period 1994–2002 to examine the impact of attitudes and actual outcomes of gender equality on levels of terrorism experienced by a country using World Values Survey and Global Terrorism Database. The results suggest that actual outcomes of gender equality have a significant and consistently negative impact on terrorism. Women’s actual advancement and equality in higher education, jobs and political representation are more effective in reducing terrorism than cultural attitudes supporting these rights. Additionally, comparing attitudes and outcomes of gender equality in a country, I find there is a gap between the two. This study has important public policy implications for focusing on greater levels of social, economic, and political gender equality for reducing the levels of terrorism.     

少数人权利及其保护的平等性

少数人作为弱势群体的一部份 ,其权利日益受到各国的关注与重视。然而 ,在对少数人具有重要意义的经济、社会、文化权利上 ,各国却有不同的看法 ,本文在比较了各国在权利问题上的文化传统和近现代的各种平等理论之后 ,分析指出在以经济、社会、文化权利为核心的相当一部份权利上 ,各国政府应当在避免形成“反向歧视”的前提下 ,采取积极措施 ,让少数人有更多机会参与社会竞争 ,实现社会整体的平等和更公正意义上的平等     

Cross-Cultural Preferences for Distributive Justice Principles: Resource Type and Uncertainty Management

Drawing on social resource theory, we investigated the evaluation of distributive justice principles in relation to material benefits (monetary rewards in working life) and symbolic benefits (praise at university) in a cross-cultural study. We predicted that the equity principle would be perceived as more just for distributing culturally valued resources, whereas the equality principle would be perceived as more just for resources that are less valued within culture. Moreover, applying uncertainty management theory, we predicted that cross-cultural fairness evaluations would be more pronounced for individuals with higher (vs. lower) uncertainty avoidance or lower (vs. higher) uncertainty tolerance. Data of 608 Canadian and German students were collected in a two-wave survey. As expected, when allocating material benefits Canadians found the equity principle to be more just than did Germans, whereas Germans perceived the equality principle as more just than did Canadians. When allocating symbolic benefits, by contrast, Canadians perceived equality as more just than did Germans, though unexpectedly culture did not influence evaluations of the equity principle. Finally, consistent with uncertainty management theory, some of the cultural differences in the evaluation of distributive principles were more pronounced among people with higher uncertainty avoidance and lower uncertainty tolerance. Implications for cross-cultural research on distributive justice are discussed.     

Sex Equality in Social Protection: New Institutionalist Perspectives on Allocation of Competence

This article examines the development of regulation in the European Union (EU) of sex equality in social protection. It applies research methodologies suggested by 'new institutionalist' and 'historical institutionalist' perspectives on European integration. It does not aim to replace existing accounts, but simply to add an additional perspective to the analysis. The article suggests that new insights can be gained by observing the impact of the question of 'division of competence' on the issue of regulation of sex equality in social protection by the EU. The focus on division of competence illuminates relationships between institutions involved in the process of policy formation and implementation, especially the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. It may also illuminate policy outcomes and the directions in which the EU's sex equality law (and possibly social law more generally) has developed and may develop in the future.     

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND VIOLENCE: A SUB‐NATIONAL TEST OF INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY*

Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory is grounded in the assumption that relatively higher crime rates in the United States are due to (1) the overwhelming influence of economic motives and institutions in society, and (2) the subjugation of all other social institutions to cultural economic interests (e.g., the American Dream). Our analysis is designed to extend the limited body of empirical research on this theory in several ways. First, we seek to test the utility of institutional anomie theory for predicting crime rates across aggregate units within the United States (counties). Second, we draw out the theory's emphasis on instrumental crime and suggest that measures of noneconomic social, political, familial, religious, and educational institutions will be particularly relevant for explaining instrumental as opposed to expressive violence. Third, in contrast to prior research, we develop conceptual reasons to expect that these factors will primarily mediate (as opposed to moderate) the relationship between economically motivating pressures and instrumental violence. Our negative binomial regression analyses of data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports and various censuses indicate that the measures of noneconomic institutions perform well in explaining both instrumental and expressive homicides, but that these measures mediate the impact of economic pressures (as measured by the Gini coefficient of family income inequality) to commit instrumental violence most strongly. Further, we find only very limited support for the more popular moderation hypothesis.     

Cultural Criminology and Sex Work: Resisting Regulation through Radical Democracy and Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Taking a feminist cultural criminological analysis to the regulation of sex work in the United Kingdom, this paper argues against the dominant deviancy and the increasingly abolitionist criminal justice model for regulating sex work. The paper begins by offering a critique of the dominant regulatory regimes which have operated since the Victorian era, amended in part in the 1950s with Wolfenden, and currently being reinscribed with the Home Office strategy on prostitution and various pieces of legislation. The focus is specifically upon research with female sex workers and the usefulness of using Participatory Action research methodologies (PAR) with sex workers, agencies, and policy makers in order to foreground the diverse voices and experiences of sex workers, challenge the current focus on abolitionist criminal justice regimes and outcomes, and offer an alternative framework for a cultural materialist analysis of sex work, drawing upon the work of Nancy Fraser.     

论国家主权的让渡

全球化浪潮的兴起对传统国家主权理论产生挑战和冲击,国家主权让渡理论应运而生。学术界对该理论众说纷纭,莫衷一是。从国家主权可分理论出发,分析主权让渡的现实可能性。国家政治主权、经济主权、文化主权的部分让渡是国家主权让渡的具体表现。世界各国让渡部分主权要坚持国家主权平等原则,建立平等互利的国际关系,以谋求人类社会的长足发展。     

论《世界人权宣言》的思想基础和权利体系

《世界人权宣言》以自由和平等为其思想基础,构建了世界各国和人民努力实现的共同标准。它所设定的权利体系不仅包括公民权利和政治权利,而且还涉及到经济、社会和文化权利,为国际社会提供了一份详尽的人权保护清单,成为国际人权法的基本法律文书。     

Resource Priority,Fairness, and Equality-Efficiency Compromises

A central issue in theories of social justice is the potential conflict between equality and efficiency in the distribution of resources. We suggest here that resource priority is a key factor that moderates the perceived fairness of equality/efficiency compromises in resource allocation. Participants were presented with scenarios involving a policy change that pitted equality against economic efficiency in the allocation of a variety of resources that differed in their importance levels (basic versus non-basic). We found that participants gave more weight to efficiency considerations at the expense of equality in distributing non-basic (higher-level) resources than in distributing basic resources. We discuss the priority hypothesis in connection with norms of justice, human motives, the need hierarchy (deficiency versus growth needs), the consumption of basic versus non-basic resources, and the legitimacy of allocation policies. The paper is based on portions of doctoral research conducted by Eviathar Matania under the supervision of Ilan Yaniv.     

Sex disparities in arrests by residence,race, and age: An assessment of the gender convergence/crime hypothesis

In this report we examine whether differences in sex disparities in crime exist by population subgroup (residence, race, and age), using arrest data from the Uniform Crime Reports. We assess the utility of the gender equality/crime position as an explanation of any differences that do exist, and we propose alternative interpretations of the data. The major finding is that for most offenses, the differences in the female percentage of arrests (FP/A) are borderline or negligible. In those few instances where differences in FP/A exist across the comparison groups, they appear to have little or no relation to levels of gender-role convergence from one subgroup to another. Instead, we conclude that the differences in FP/A can be explained better as due to differences in willingness to sanction female offenders, to variations in opportunities for traditional female-based consumer crimes, and/or to differing levels of economic vulnerability among some groups of females.     

The Punitive Repertoire of Children's Homes and Reformatories

Although equality before the law is one of the fundamental principles of modern democracy, current Western research has shown that discrimination exists within the justice system when enforcing traditional crimes. However, in Scandinavian research on economic crime, the question of equal treatment has been neglected. Based on Swedish data of suspected offenders during 2003, we examined whether different social groups received differential treatment in investigations of traditional and economic crimes. Further, we compared the Regular Police with the Economic Crimes Bureau (ECB) to examine whether the professional specialization of street-level bureaucrats influence the occurrence of differential treatment. We also examined the efficiency of the authorities and more specifically to what extent they issue a waiver of prosecution, a prosecutor's fine, or a court indictment. Besides supporting earlier research on traditional crime, our results show that differential treatment also exists in relation to economic crime, but the patterns of differential treatment are not identical with the ones for traditional crimes. We also found that the two agencies, the ECB and the Regular Police, treat diverse social groups differently. Although the ECB is somewhat more efficient, professional specialization does not appear to be an important factor concerning the issue of differential treatment. It exists regardless of investigating authority. Further action is being taken more often in relation to men and those with a lower level of education at both agencies. However, in some cases the suspect's background does have a different effect on the work of the two agencies, with the ECB less often taking further action against ‘Swedes’ and those on ‘high incomes’, while the Regular Police less often take further action against ‘immigrants’ and those on ‘low and middle incomes’.     

Disability Rights Commission: From Civil Rights to Social Rights

This paper argues that, although originally conceived as part of the ‘civil rights’ agenda, the development of disability rights in Britain by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is better seen as a movement towards the realization of social, economic, and cultural rights, and so as reaffirmation of the indissolubility of human rights in the round. As such, that process of development represents a concrete exercise in the implementation of social rights by a statutory equality body and a significant step towards the conception of disability rights as universal participation, not just individual or minority group entitlement. The paper considers the distinctive features of that regulatory activity. It asks what sort of equality the DRC set out to achieve for disabled people and where, as a result, its work positioned it on the regulatory spectrum. From the particular experience of the DRC, the paper looks forward to considerations of general relevance to other such bodies, including the new Equality and Human Rights Commission.     

Legitimacy of Inequality in a Highly Unequal Context: Evidence from the Chilean Case

Economic inequality is usually assumed to be a threat to social cohesion and democracy. Nevertheless, this opposition of inequality and democracy is based on further assumptions such as (a) that people perceive economic inequality accurately, and (b) that, by and large they consider inequality unjust. Research into distributive issues has not found consistent support for neither of these assumptions. Quite the contrary, empirical evidence indicates that economic inequality is widely misperceived and that inequality is to some extent considered legitimate. So far most of the empirical evidence in the area of legitimacy comes from experimental studies in the developed world. The present research aims at widening the scope of legitimacy studies by focusing on Chile as a case country, one of the societies with the highest economic inequality worldwide, guided by the question to what extent is economic inequality considered legitimate in a context of high economic inequality? In addressing this question, and based on previous evidence, the article proposes a way to evaluate (a) the legitimacy of inequality at a country level via survey research, and (b) the role of inequality perception and justice ideologies in the justification of economic inequality. The data to be analyzed is the public opinion survey International Social Justice Project (ISJP), implemented in Chile in the year 2007 (n = 890). Multivariate analysis results reveal signs of legitimacy of inequality in Chile, opening a series of issues regarding the acceptance and stability of unequal distributions.     

Progress toward racial equality and reduction of black criminal violence

Trends in racial inequality and in black involvement in violence were examined to determine whether black progress toward equality and the Black Power Movement could have contributed to a reduction in black violence. The belief that egalitarian trends and the Movement could have ameliorative effects on violence is supported by subcultural theories, Fanon's Colonial Model, and other social scientific statements. The trends are consistent with the belief, structural changes indicated by educational and political progress being closely associated with violence reduction. But cultural change seems important too because, despite a period of black economic progress, no violence reduction occurred before an improvement in black self-concept. Indeed, the earliest black income and occupational gains were associated with several years of increasing black violence. Thus, the purely structural explanation of Blau and Blau (1982) and their emphasis on economic progress are questionable. In addition, Skogan's (1979) demographic explanation of the decrease in black violence in the early 1970s is shown to lack merit.     

Institutional anomie and cross-national differences in incarceration†

Messner and Rosenfeld's (2007) institutional anomie theory (IAT) has mainly been applied by criminologists to explain crime rates at various aggregate levels. However, Messner and Rosenfeld also suggest that the same social and cultural forces that lead to high crime may explain differences in punishment, although this latter proposition has yet to be subject to empirical testing. Using a variety of data sources for 41 countries measuring various structural and cultural configurations, in this study we assess the extent to which IAT can explain cross-national differences in incarceration. Our results indicate that the strength of the economic institution and the extent of institutional imbalance reflecting a dominant economic institution are positively associated with incarceration rates when the national culture is characterized by individualism, a competitive achievement orientation, or both. A national culture characterized by both collectivism and a cooperative achievement orientation, however, serves as a buffer against the punitive effects of an institutional imbalance that favors the economy. Our results are discussed in the context of the extant IAT literature and future research on cross-national incarceration.     

Managing Equality in Social Dilemmas: Emotional and Retributive Implications

The equality rule is an important coordination rule in symmetric public good dilemmas. Although prior research emphasized that people use the equality rule out of efficiency concerns (as it helps to obtain the public good in the most efficient manner among group members), it may also reflect a true preference for fairness. More precisely, research examining emotional and retributive reactions as a result of a violation of the equality rule by a fellow group member showed that equality indeed is related to people’s personal values and what they consider to be fair. The present paper suggests that a violation of the equality rule results in emotional reactions, and these emotional experiences encourage further retributive actions. The different reactions following an equality violation are described as a function of three features: (1) the motives to use equality, (2) attributions for explaining the violation, and (3) the honesty of the given explanation. The write-up of this paper was partly supported by GOA/05/04 from the Research Fund of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The research and write-up was supported by a fellowship of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, Grant No. 016.005.019), awarded to the second author.     

Strategic Decision Making in Arts Organizations

Despite the growing economic and cultural importance of artistic institutions, relatively little is known about how aesthetic concerns and the demands of artistic production influence administrative roles. In this article, we investigate the strategic decision-making process in a varied sample of Canadian arts organizations, concentrating on the issues that emerge as crucial for the organization and the individuals and groups that participate in the decision-making process.     

Stereotypical Knowledge and Age in Relation to Prediction of Public Support for Rehabilitation: Data from Taiwan

Studying public attitudes toward rehabilitation is not a new phenomenon. However, not much research is available on this topic from Asian countries. The present study explores public attitudes among Taiwanese people toward rehabilitation efforts in general, and the Rehabilitation and Protection Act (RPA) in particular. Using a sample of N?=?333, we asked Taiwanese residents age d18 and older about their support for the RPA, and their support for rehabilitation initiatives for three types of criminals: drug offenders, violent offenders, and sex offenders. Using a univariate model, we found that only two variables??age and stereotypical knowledge??had a statistically significant effect on whether an individual supported rehabilitation initiatives. Findings also indicate overwhelming support for the RPA and rehabilitation in general. We discuss these findings in a cultural context, and make recommendations for future research.     

论文化权利的宪法保护

公民的文化权利与公民所享有的政治、经济和社会权利一样,都是公民作为国家和社会主人翁所必须享有的法律利益。我国是社会主义国家,保护公民权利是社会主义事业一贯的宗旨。从宪法角度来保障公民的文化权利,最主要的是应当加强相关的制度建设。应当在宪法文本中明确文化权利的基本权利宪法地位,明确国家和政府在保障文化权利方面应当承担的职责或义务,加强对文化权利的平等性的保护以及应当制定文化基本法律,来保障文化权利的实现真正做到有法可依。