Building Community One Relationship at a Time: Consequences for the Seeking and Acceptance of Help

Three studies test the hypothesis that a perceived relationship is relevant to seeking and accepting help. The results first indicate a direct effect for a perceived relationship on the extent to which people are willing to seek and accept help. The findings further indicate that perceiving a relationship increases the importance of procedural justice judgments in shaping the decision to seek and accept help. This was true both in vertical relations (e.g., student–professor, resident–police officer) and in horizontal ones (e.g., student–student). The research extends prior findings showing that common group membership increases the influence of procedural justice judgments on whether people cooperate with fellow group members. The results show a parallel with the effects of a perceived relationship, suggesting a comparability between “relational” and “collective” levels of identity.     

The perspective of “justice” of international law in the global context

After the Cold War and the quick development of globalization, non-state acts by international organizations, transnational corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), etc., are becoming more active. Global issues with regard to, inter alia, environment, human rights, terrorism are constantly emerging, which bring great challenge to the Westphalia System that is based on state sovereignty and centered on the national state. At the same time, the values, which include “individualism” and “global justice,” are constantly casting impact on international legal system. Doubtlessly, in the current context of international relations, “justice among states” is still the reasonable positioning of the value of modern international law. However, making “individualism” and “global justice” compatible and modifying “justice among states” is an inevitable trend. At the same time, the rule brought about by the modification on the value of justice must be handled properly.     

Cracking Through Hegemonic Ideology: The Logic of Formal Justice

In this analysis I argue for the independent effects on social change of the internal logic of formal justice. Institutionally, oppositional ideas that challenge the legitimacy of a hegemonic system emerge in “safe spaces” that subordinate groups create within a culture dominated by hegemonic ideas. The oppositional ideas derive in part from an existing informal culture of opposition, access to repertories of contention, and favorable openings in the political system. In addition, however, these ideas are often propelled independently by the logic of formal justice, in which, when the reasons for separate treatment have been discredited, equality is the default option. The analysis demonstrates the power of this logic and suggests that it spreads through the mechanism of “organized activist” variation and “everyday activist” selection.     

Spousal violence: Police officer attitudes and arrest response

Conclusion On the 15 propositions, three propositions were found to support the general hypothesis. The findings indicate that as police officers showed an increase in attitudes supporting spousal violence the following occurred: (a) “frequent calls for police assistance from the household” became less important to police officers who were deciding to arrest; (b) “Jail overcrowding” became more important to police officers who were deciding not to arrest; and (c) “participant’s first encounter with the police” became more important to police officers who were deciding not to arrest. The other 12 propositions did not support the general hypothesis which suggested that the priority of all extralegal factors would relate to the ABUSE score.     

Understanding gender differences in distributive and procedural justice

Gender differences in treatment and in judgments of distributive and procedural justice were examined. Three hundred nine litigants who had been involved in arbitrated auto negligence lawsuits responded to exit surveys. Two mechanisms by which gender might influence justice perceptions were explored. First, we examined whether a “chivalry bias” might be operating, in which the procedures systematically favor women over men. If such biases occur, women might feel they had been treated more fairly because of egocentric biases. Results provided only modest support for the chivalry bias. While women received slightly better awards and perceived somewhat more control than men, these differences had no effect on perceptions of distributive or procedural justice. Second, we examined whether men and women differ systematically in the factors they use as indicators of distributive and procedural justice. On the basis of group-value theory we predicted that women might place more emphasis on standing or on outcome favorability. The study revealed that men and women did differ in how they defined distributive justice, with women placing more emphasis on their perceived standing and on their perceptions of the favorability of their outcomes. There were no substantial gender differences in how procedural justice was defined. Results are interpreted in terms of how women might be responding to insecurity about facing a justice system historically dominated by men. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Workplace justice and employee worth

Distributive and procedural justice gain new meaning in light of other distinctions about how organizations value employees (the employees' “worth”). Fair compensation gives employees worth as achieved status: how the employee is like some employees (similarly rewarded) and not like others (dissimilarly rewarded). But employees also want to be treated uniquely as individuals and in other ways to be treated like all other employees, both reflecting worth as ascribed status. Such worth need not involve the distribution of outcomes; it can be gained if procedures function as ends in themselves. Different types of worth thus become the source of different criteria for justice. Based on a paper entitled “Justice as Worth,” which was prepared for the Third International Conference on Social Justice research (held in the Netherlands during July 1991).     

Justice and Emotions

Sociological theories of justice emphasize (a) the level of discrepancy or congruence between shares of resources received relative to individuals’ perceptions of “just shares” and (b) the emotions aroused with either discrepancy or congruence. While these theories tend to have precision and elegance, they generally do not specify the full range of reference points that can be used to establish what is considered a “just share,” nor do they explore the complete array of emotions (and targets of these emotions) aroused during justice evaluations. In this article, an effort is made to expand the conception of reference points elicited in justice evaluations, the structural processes that determine the specific emotions that will be aroused during justice evaluations, and the psychodynamics that mediate among reference points, structural processes, emotional arousal, and targeting of emotional reactions onto self, others, and social structures. The article concludes with some hypotheses about the emotions aroused and targeted during justice evaluations employing varying reference points and arising under specific structural conditions.     

Nanotechnology and the US national innovation system: continuity and change

A substantial literature on nanotechnology innovation and commercial development has characterized several elements of these phenomena as constituting new developments in the US national innovation system. Among these elements are the (asserted) “post-academic” nature of US universities’ involvement with nanotechnology R&D, and federal funding of nanotechnology R&D on goals related to economic competitiveness. This paper challenges the “novelty” of these elements, while suggesting that other elements of nanotechnology R&D, including the extensive patenting of the results of nanotechnology-related research and the emphasis within many university-industry collaborations on patent-based channels for “technology transfer,” may indeed be new and raise questions for the long-term efficiency and innovative performance of nanotechnology-related R&D.     

Interaction of criminological research and public policy

We examine here some of the interactions of research and policy over the past several decades. The “rehabilitation period” was effectively terminated by nulleffect evaluations of various rehabilitation techniques. The “just deserts-utilitarian period” was fed by research estimates of the deterrent and incapacitative effects of criminal justice activities. The more recent “overt politicization period” saw the earlier attempt to bring rational and theory-based perspectives to policy development replaced by much stronger emphasis on political concerns. We explore possible ways to reestablish the research-policy connections. This paper was prepared for the Plenary Session,Journal of Quantitative Criminology 10-Year Anniversary, 1995 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Boston, MA.     

The White March as a Belgian Body without Organs: On dissipative structures, strange attractions and empty signifiers

This essay comments on the so-called ’White March‘ which, in the aftermath of the Dutroux-case (which was about multiple child abuse and child murder), led one out of 30 Belgians to participate in the biggest demonstration, albeit a silent one, Belgium has ever known. It is argued here that this White March can be read, in a Deleuzean way, as a rhizomic flash, or, using metaphors from chaos theory, as a dissipative structure, which was strangely attracted around empty signifiers (e.g. “Whiteness”), to form a Body without Organs. This formation, or build-up of a white (Belgian) Body without Organs is explained by pointing at two complementary processes which post-Fordist, flexible, “hypermodern” Belgium is sliding into: 1) under “hypermodern” conditions of flexibility, of post-Fordist regulation, of de/re/centring subjectivities and of budgetary austerity, the old Belgian regulatory mode of political pacification through pillarization is becoming more and more obsolete, and, at the least, is growing incapable of regulating ever proliferating nomadic subjectivities; 2) de/re/centring, nomadic subjectivities, in Belgium, losing the old comforts of pillarized regulation and pacification, are floating and whirling freely in Belgium's political void, since there is no alternative mode of regulation – such as a public space or culture of civic negotiation – in sight/site. This has brought Belgium's mental and political landscape on the verge of deep instability, or, in the language of chaos theory, in a phase of exploding bifurcations, in which small causes can produce big consequences – a phase, that is, in which tiny particles of social energy can rapidly cluster together (around “strange attractors”) to form dissipative structures, mostly around “empty signifiers”, in a (Deleuzean) Body without Organs. This happened, in Belgium, when, in August 1996, the Dutroux-case broke out. The Dutroux-case gathered – rhizomically – huge portions of “White material” of unregulated discontent from Belgium's multiple locations of multiplicity to form a Body without Organs, which, in turn, materialized in the White March of October 20th 1996, after it had been named by Marc Dutroux's legal counsel, who suddenly spoke a language of universalism, equality, and civic culture. When the counsel spoke words, that is, which did not match with Belgian everyday life experience, still submerged as it was (and is) in the old mental habits of Belgium's politics of pillarization, with its trench mentality, and its war-of-position-like strategics. The essay closes with some considerations on the future of Belgium's emerging White Movement. In a sense, this essay aims at two goals: it tries to read one of the most significant events in Belgian history using rather “unusual” metaphors, and, secondly, while doing so, it aims at showing that metaphors from chaos theory and from Deleuzean post-structuralism can be merged together while describing (or explaining) concrete historical events. This essay, then, tries to contribute to what might be called a historiography of rhizochaotics, or a psycho-geography of rhizomic and chaotic socio-mental energies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

“Convergence of three nets” and its law transformation in China

The convergence of the three nets of telecommunication, television and Internet is a general trend of development. Though the “convergence of three nets” promotes the competition in the relevant markets, it causes relatively big impacts on the existing legal order. To meet the challenges brought forth by the “convergence of three nets”, many countries and regions have successively adopted effective measures for legal transformation, not only integrating laws and regulations on the telecommunication industry, but also attaching high importance to the transformation of the legal adjustment and control mode where increasingly more emphasis is laid on the influence and functions of competition law in the “convergence of three nets”. China’s antimonopoly law shall also play an important role during the process of the “convergence of three nets”. With respect to the definition of the relevant market and identification of monopoly practices, we shall closely combine the features of the “convergence of three nets” and pointedly apply the antimonopoly law.     

Seeing the improvement of the criminal trial structure from China’s criminal courtroom arrangements (tribunal design)

The setting of criminal court has become an important representation of the criminal trial structure due to its visual and vivid reflection of the legal position and relations among the three parties of litigation, i.e. the prosecuting party, the advocating party and the judge. As a result of the influence of ancient “inquest” centered trial mode, lack of the defendant’s right to silence and incomplete revolution of the criminal trial mode, the existing criminal court setting features an umbrella shaped structure. To reform the criminal trial structure in China, we should eliminate the air of “inquest” from the existing court interrogation mode, strengthen the hearing of evidence and set up a equiangular triangle shaped trial structure of neutral trial, equality between the prosecuting and advocating parties and litigant oriented. __________ Translated from the Jurist Review, 2005, (2) (in Chinese)     

Campaign finance reform legislation in the United States Congress: A critique

Legislation to reform campaign funding in the United States must produce a system which reduces the potential for corruption, real or perceived, and creates greater equality of fund raising opportunity between incumbents and challengers. Bills before the 104th Congress would require bureaucratic and arbitrary systems of regulation; they would not produce workable reform. Within the existing full disclosure system,two reforms would be most effective: setting maximum dollar amounts for “soft money” contributions; and limiting fund raising by lobbyists. An even more effective system would be to “blind” contributions made to the campaign committees of individual candidates. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Young Children’s Competency to Take the Oath: Effects of Task,Maltreatment, and Age

This study examined maltreated and non-maltreated children’s (N = 183) emerging understanding of “truth” and “lie,” terms about which they are quizzed to qualify as competent to testify. Four- to six-year-old children were asked to accept or reject true and false (T/F) statements, label T/F statements as the “truth” or “a lie,” label T/F statements as “good” or “bad,” and label “truth” and “lie” as “good” or “bad.” The youngest children were at ceiling in accepting/rejecting T/F statements. The labeling tasks revealed improvement with age and children performed similarly across the tasks. Most children were better able to evaluate “truth” than “lie.” Maltreated children exhibited somewhat different response patterns, suggesting greater sensitivity to the immorality of lying.     

The battle for patent rights in plant biotechnology: evidence from opposition fillings

This paper describes and analyzes the occurrence and extent of oppositions initiated against plant biotechnology patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO). The opposition mechanism is a legal procedure that allows any third party to challenge the validity of patents awarded by the EPO. Results indicate that the opposition rate is far greater in plant biotechnology than in other emerging industries. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the empirical findings suggest that opposed patents are disproportionately those that score high on features that proxy for their “value” or “quality”. In contrast to previous findings, however, the results show that large-volume applicants are more likely to be opposed. Because the boundaries of plant biotech patents are ill-defined, large patent portfolios do not promote cooperative behavior such as licensing or settlements. The analysis rejects the hypothesis that awardees are subject to “nuisance” or “frivolous” oppositions. Instead, the opposition procedure serves as an error correction mechanism.     

Does Moral Conviction Really Override Concerns About Procedural Justice? A Reexamination of the Value Protection Model

A large research literature on procedural justice demonstrates that people are more accepting of decisions that they do not feel are advantageous or fair when those decisions are arrived at using just procedures. Recently, several papers (Skitka, Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 28:588–597, 2002; Skitka and Mullen, Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 28:1419–1429, 2002) have argued that these procedural mechanisms do not have a significant influence when the decision made concerns issues about which those involved have strong moral feelings (“a moral mandate”). A reanalysis of the data in these two studies indicates that, contrary to the strong position taken by the authors, i.e. that “when people have a moral mandate about an outcome, any means justifies the mandated end” (Skitka, Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 28:594, 2002), the justice of decision-making procedures is consistently found to significantly influence people’s reactions to decisions by authorities and institutions even when their moral mandates are threatened.

The Role of Beliefs,Attitudes and Adverse Childhood Experiences in Predicting Men’s Reactions Towards Their Spouses’ Violence

The purpose of the present article was to determine the ability of cognitive factors (beliefs and attitudes) and adverse childhood experiences to predict men’s reactions towards their spouses’ violence. To do so, 120 males who had referred to family court to seek divorce due to spouses’ violence were randomly selected and an author’s -made questionnaire containing 27 subscales was administered to them. Four of the 27 subscales comprised of 22 questions regarding “types of reactions towards spouses’ violence”, “attitudes towards spouse”, and “experiencing family violence during childhood”. Our results showed that witnessing violence during childhood could positively predict reactions such as “cessation of relationship” and “reprisal”. Men’s beliefs regarding “permission to use violence” could positively predict reaction such as “cessation of relationship”. Furthermore, factors such as “Believing his wife is more knowledgeable” and “Wife’s Physical Appearance” negatively predicted reactions such as “Cessation of relationship” and “Tolerance”. Also “Man’s perceived career success” positively predicted the reaction of “Attempts to Resume Relationship”. These results are discussed in the context of the existing literature.     

Policing the industrial reserve army: An international study

Over the past three decades, the industrialized world has witnessed four resilient social trends: (1) the consistent erosion of union-membership; (2) an increase in income polarization and inequality; (3) a dramatic resurgence in popular protest; and (4) a steady rise in public and private policing employment. In this paper, we examine the relationship between these trends by theorizing and operationalizing the notion of the “industrial reserve army” and a series of related tenets in order to conduct an international (N = 45), empirical test of a nascent Marxian model of policing. By treating total policing employment as an empirical barometer of bourgeois insecurity we find that this insecurity is conditioned by two elements of Marxian political economy: (1) relative deprivation (income inequality) and (2) the rise of an industrial reserve army (manufacturing employment and unemployment). Second, while surplus value and labour militancy (strikes and lockouts per 100,000 population) rise along with union membership, the presence of higher rates of unionization appears to ameliorate the need for more policing in all but post-USSR countries. While unions assist in checking the immiseration of workers through labour actions, union membership is nonetheless inversely correlated to policing employment, giving credence to the Marxian idea that while unions help mitigate against the exploitation workers, they also act as “lieutenants of capital,” performing an essential policing function under capitalism.