“The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts”: Crime in the Melting P(l)ot in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gangs of New York</Emphasis>

This paper explores the multi-layered representations of violence and crime in the recent Hollywood film Gangs of New York [Scorcese (2003) Miramax]. We use our exploration of this film to suggest that popular culture, even through its most mainstream products, can be seen as a critical criminological space where alternative views of law, crime and the state are made available. Rather than understanding Hollywood movies simply as vehicles for disseminating conventional mores, we suggest that they can furnish critical (and complex) points of view on law and crime and that the project of a critical criminology can be strengthened by engaging more forthrightly with these ubiquitous cultural forms.     

Native American Identity and the Limits of Cultural Defence

This article concerns itself with the phenomenon of the cultural defence as it exhibits itself in the US juridical context. Recent socio-legal discussions about this phenomenon reveal three prevalent positions: the illegality of cultural defence on constitutional grounds, the necessity of cultural defence as a matter of discretionary justice, and the intermediary position of working cultural defence into a legal doctrine. By problematizing the operative concept of culture, the author suggests that the idea of cultural defence should be understood in terms of foreignness. This suggestion is supported on the basis of the phenomenological theory of the alien (xenology). In order to illustrate the juridical limits of the cultural defence I examine the history of constructing the Native American as a cultural legal subject. Hence the question that primes this examination: is there a possibility of the traditional cultural defence for the American Indians? After a provisional answer that there is no such possibility, I conclude with the discussion of hospitality as a way to an ethically necessary and legally acceptable idea of culture.     

A re-examination of the MMPI-2 aggressiveness and immaturity indices in law enforcement screening

This study reports an analysis of Bartol's (1991) Immaturity Index and Hargrave and associates' (1988) Aggressiveness Index as a measure of police conduct. The correlations between the supervisory ratings and the Immaturity and Aggressiveness indices were examined for 1020 law enforcement officers. The results showed that Immaturity Index was related to termination for failure to complete training and insubordination. The Aggressiveness Index was related to a termination for failure to complete training and several other problematic police behaviors, but was not found to be specifically linked with acts of aggression. Implications for using these two indices in law enforcement selection are discussed. Authors' Note: Cary Rostow, Ph.D. is president of Matrix, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is in private practice in Baton Rouge. Robert Davis, Ph.D., is executive vice-president and director of science, research, and development for Matrix, Inc., and has a private practice in Baton Rouge. James B. Pinston, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist within the department of neurology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and School of Medicine in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dennis R. Combs, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Tulsa. Dennis R. Dixon, M.A., is currently a doctoral student at Louisiana State University.     

The Cultural Context of Restorative Justice: Journeys Through Our Cultural Forests to a Well-Spring of Healing

In the field of Conflict Transformation, Restorative Justice (RJ) is often perceived as a transformative process focused on healing relationships after a specific harm. The parties considered in a RJ setting are those harmed, those responsible and the community impacted. This is particularly true in the field of criminal and transitional justice, and in an extended and spiritual view, there is reconciliation with the parties and God. Despite cultural differences, RJ theory and concepts have been accepted favorably in the many countries. From a viewpoint focused on methodology and process, however, cultural differences have a significant effect for implementation. For example, important concepts such as control, choice, harm, responsibility, apology, shame, reconciliation and forgiveness vary greatly in the manner in which they are perceived from culture to culture and may create obstacles for successful implementation of a successful process when one culture’s process and definitions are forced upon another. Therefore, promotional factors (i.e., culture and religion) and the implication of semiotics (cultural definition or meaning) are an absolute consideration in developing a RJ process within a particular culture. This paper discusses the cultural differences between the United States and Japan with regard to semiotic obstacles in the implementation of a RJ model in the Japanese criminal justice system. While the exploration of cultural differences, particularly between the United States and Japan is not new and has been the focus of many disciplines, little has been considered regarding the assimilation and implementation of a Western RJ model into the Eastern culture of Japan. In sum, is an attempt to clarify and integrate the effects of cultural differences for some factors (i.e., Control/Choice, Harm, Apology, Responsibility, Shame, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation) as they apply to a RJ based reconciliation process focused in Semiotics, Social psychology and the Sociology of law as they apply to the United States and Japan.     

The Integration of the European Union and the Changing Cultural Space of Europe: Xenophobia and Webs of Significance

The dialogic relationship between individuals and the cultural space of Europe embodies cultural definitions, political definitions and individual definitions. As individuals draw from Europe as a cultural space and strive to identify and define themselves, definitions are created against an ??other,?? leading to Europe being defined against the ??other.?? Identity is established through difference, and in this, the relationship between the EU??a force of integration??and Europe as a cultural space is strained. As boundaries change through the European Union, transforming the cultural space of Europe, the ??other?? against whom individuals have traditionally defined themselves is also transforming. This article asks if the integration of Europe through the European Union is resulting in the political mobilization of xenophobia and thereby transforming the cultural space of Europe into a xenophobic space. As many academics and professionals have argued that xenophobia in Europe has been on the rise since the 1990s, this paper will question how the relationship between the European Union??as a force of European integration??and Europe??as a cultural space??is contributing to the construction of xenophobia.     

Cultural Policies and Local Planning Strategies: What Is the Role of Culture in Local Sustainable Development?

The authors draw a strategic framework for cultural planning at the local level. The concepts of industrial district and cluster have strengthened the role of space—in terms of external economies of localization and agglomeration—in economic development. The recent debate concerning contemporary development processes has underlined the increasing role of the cultural dimension for local development and has focused on different paths of clustering around cultural investment. The authors review the latest literature on cultural districts and illustrate some key cases around the postindustrialized world in which culture played a critical role by acting as a catalyst for major economic and social renewal. The authors present a strategic model of a progressive cultural district based on an asset-action matrix that intersects cultural policy drivers with capital resources. The authors define a new model of cultural district—the system-wide cultural district—as an emergent, self-organized model of cultural supply that displays significant strategic complementaries with other production chains with a typical, postindustrial characterization.     

Renewing Criminalized and Hegemonic Cultural Landscapes

The Mafia’s long historical pedigree in Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy, has empowered the Mafioso as a notorious, uncontested, and hegemonic figure. The counter-cultural resistance against the mafiosi culture began to be institutionalized in the early 1990s. Today, Libera Terra is the largest civil society organization in the country that uses the lands confiscated from the Mafia as a space of cultural repertoire to realize its ideals. Deploying labor force through volunteer participation, producing biological fruits and vegetables, and providing information to the students on the fields are the principal cultural practices of this struggle. The confiscated lands make the Italian experience of anti-Mafia resistance a unique example by connecting the land with the ideals of cultural change. The sociocultural resistance of Libera Terra conveys a political message through these practices and utters that the Mafia is not invincible. This study draws the complex panorama of the Mafia and anti-Mafia movement that uses the ‘confiscated lands’ as cultural and public spaces for resistance and socio-cultural change. In doing so, this article sheds new light on the relationship between rural criminology and crime prevention policies in Southern Italy by demonstrating how community development practice of Libera Terra changes the meaning of landscape through iconographic symbolism and ethnographic performance.     

Legal Typologies and Topologies: The Construction of Indigenous Alterity and Its Spatialization Within the Colombian Constitutional Court

This article examines the different legal articulations between indigenous typologies and topologies, that is, the relationship between someone classified as an indigenous subject, a grantee of minority rights, and the spatial arrangements such as reservations or ancestral territories considered necessary for indigenous “cultural survival.” I analyze how the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court manifests and rests on the diverse combinations of these two factors. The typology/topology binary characterizes the manner in which these legal discourses portray indigeneity and culture. This binary also offers insight into a broad range of issues, including the access that indigenous peoples have to minority rights, the use of customary law, and the spatial delimitations that frame indigenous legal jurisdictions. Some of the complexities that arise from this binary are: the conceptualization of indigenous places as habitats, the idea of culture as a list of traits, and the concept of “degrees” of indigeneity that determine these peoples' access to minority rights.     

Reconciling Trade and Culture: A Global Law Perspective

This article provides an overview of the most essential issues in the trade and culture discourse from a global law perspective. It looks into the intensified disconnect between trade and culture and exposes its flaws and the considerable drawbacks that it brings with it. It is argued that these drawbacks become especially pronounced in the digital media environment, which has strongly affected both the conditions of trade with cultural products and services and cultural diversity in local and global contexts. In this modified setting, there could have been a number of feasible “trade and culture” solutions—i.e., regulatory designs that while enhancing trade liberalization are also conducive to cultural policy. Yet, the realization of any of these options becomes chimerical as the line between trade and culture matters is drawn in a clear and resolute manner.     

Welfare state, unemployment, and social justice: Judgments on the rights and obligations of the unemployed

This article reports judgments on the rights and obligations of the unemployed in The Netherlands. A large majority of the Dutch population is shown to support (i) the unemployed’s right to social security as well as their obligation to work, (ii) the principle that declining a job offering should be punished, and (iii) harsh sanctions in some specific cases of job refusal. An emphasis on the obligation to work results from conservative attitudes regarding both distributive justice (economic conservatism) and retributive justice (cultural conservatism). Furthermore, conservative attitudes regarding distributive justice derive from a privileged economic position (especially high income and infrequent experience of unemployment), whereas conservative attitudes regarding retributive justice result from a restricted cultural position (low level of education, technical rather than cultural type of education, and limited involvement in arts and culture).     

A Collective Vision of Artistry: The MacDowell Colony and the Organizational Design of Creativity

This article is a scholarly overview and analysis of Hurricane Katrina's social and cultural devastation of the unique, indigenous culture of New Orleans. This study has been prepared as a scholarly and academic endeavor. However, it is also the basis for consideration of measures that could be taken to facilitate the reconstitution of the living environment of New Orleans in a way that is respectful of its folk culture. The physical devastation caused by the hurricane severely compromised the precious cultural communities of the French colonial Gulf Coast. The impact was most devastating to New Orleans because of its distinctive folk culture, which includes vivid cultural rituals such as the Mardi Gras Indians, jazz, the jazz funeral tradition, second line parades, and local cuisine. This culture is potentially fragile because it is a living culture—not based on collections preserved within the walls of a museum, but rather in the lives of its people. It is indisputably worthy of respect and revitalization. This project, realized through intensive research, will surely benefit the academic community and, most important, the people of New Orleans, to whom this document is dedicated. The project has been interesting, but it is an even greater honor to have the opportunity to advocate the necessity of reconstituting the folk culture of New Orleans through positive action to sustain the city's unique way of life. This will not be easy, but it is crucial for any "new New Orleans."     

论文化法的基本原则

文化法基本原则的确立需要以其基本宗旨为基础、合乎文化现象之规律、公共管理之原则,并尊重产业发展的市场准则。文化法的基本原则应该包括文化自由原则、切实公平享用原则、产业促进原则、文化多样性原则以及精神价值优先原则。同时,这些原则还衍生了非歧视性原则、文化主权原则等。其中,文化自由原则是文化法律实践的逻辑原点,切实公平的文化享用是文化法制与政策追求的最终目标,精神价值优先、文化多样性是对文化本质属性与功能的体现,文化产业促进则是为实现其他原则所必要的工具性原则。多项原则作为一个体系,服务于文化法律实践的最终目标。     

The application of geographic information systems and spatial analysis to assess dumped and subsequently scattered human remains

This study utilizes geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis (SA) technology to address the problems associated with prediction of location and effective recovery of dumped and scattered human remains in Louisiana. The goals are to determine if a selective bias exists in Louisiana as to where and when human remains are dumped and to assess whether or not geographically specific patterns exist in the dispersal of human remains. We hypothesized that a positive relationship exists between postmortem interval (PMI) and dispersal distance, and that there are negative relationships between PMI and dispersal direction and between dispersal direction and distance. Our results indicate that, in Louisiana, remains are more often dumped in rural areas away from a structure, and are found within (1/4) mile of the nearest road. For Louisiana, no seasonal bias was found in the analysis of when remains are dumped. Furthermore, with the exception of the relationship between PMI and the shortest distance remains were dispersed, no geographically specific patterns were detected in the analyses of dispersal distance, dispersal direction, and PMI.     

What is “prison culture”? Developing a theoretical and methodological foundation for understanding cultural schema in prison

What does it mean to say that a prison has a “culture?” Scholars have long emphasized the presence of a “prison code” and, more recently, a “racial code” as salient cultural domains in men's prisons. Yet, even though most people intuitively understand what is meant by “prison culture,” little progress has been made regarding the conceptualization and operationalization of culture as an analytical construct in prison scholarship. The current study makes two primary contributions to this literature. First, drawing on advances in anthropology, cultural sociology, and cognitive science, we incorporate the concept of cultural schema to provide a concrete analytical construct. Second, we test varying conceptualizations of cultural schema as either characterized by consensus or as overlapping relational structures. Using cultural consensus and correlational class analyses among a sample of 266 incarcerated men, we find little evidence of a culture of consensus for either the prison code or the racial code. Furthermore, we show evidence of heterogenous schema among these cultural domains. Our study is relevant to wider disciplinary work on culture as the problem of analytical precision we address is characteristic of much of the work in criminology and criminal justice that evokes culture as an explanatory device.     

新型家庭人口文化——长白山人口文化的重要支撑力

本文以长白山的自然历史概况为切入点,阐释了与之相关的文化内涵,即人口文化、长白山人口文化;明确了家庭人口文化的重要地位,探讨并挖掘了其内在人文价值和社会功能。本文认为,通过提高家庭个体成员的思想道德素质、精神境界,重塑人性美德,不仅有利于统筹解决人口问题,促进人口的均衡发展,而且对整个社会的文明、和谐与进步也起着至关重要的作用。本文还通过剖析构建家庭人口文化面临的困境与挑战,提出创建新型家庭人口文化应以人的价值理念提升为主旨,切忌盲目追求文化的形式,忽略其文化的内涵;要把弘扬民族优秀传统文化与时代精神结合起来并突出其个性特征等相关对策。     

Globalization of gun culture transnational reflections on pistolization and masculinity,flows and resistance

Pistolization indicates the taken-for-granted cultural practice of carrying a handgun as an accoutrement of everyday life (Edwards and Sheptycki, 2009a). It is a socially constructed cultural practice that has links to conceptions of masculine power and, in some instances, has been constructed as a symbol of manly prosperity. Drawing inspiration from the cultural criminology approach, the paper explores pistolization in several differing regional contexts looking for general indications about the place of ‘the gun’ in global cultural ordering. Guns are strongly connected to the construction of masculinity, but gun possession and gun carrying varies dramatically across nations. The logic of pistolization is particularly well-entrenched in the USA. This paper explores the ways in which “gun culture” has been conceptualized and the ways in which it is reproduced. Finally the paper discusses “resistance” to the cultural encroachment of US-style gun culture as a dominant theme in international efforts to regulate firearms.     

The Role of Culture in Legal Languages,Legal Interpretation and Legal Translation

The aim of this short essay is to highlight and concisely explore—but not address in depth—some cultural aspects related to legal languages, legal interpretation and legal translation. We would like to consider briefly the following questions: How can elements of legal language, as exemplified by proper names and euphemisms, be connected with cultural (extra-linguistic) factors influencing language units’ formation? How can judicial discourse reflect the culture of a given justice system? How can the legal interpretation affect the degree of legal culture? Are theories of legal interpretation universal or applicable to specific legal cultures? What is the impact of culture on the context of legal translation? How can the cultural background affect the decision to use terms in translation? How does cyberculture impact legal translation?

     

The Value of Art and Culture in Everyday Life: Towards an Expressive Cultural Democracy

ABSTRACT

Ever since the earliest forms of mass media, the dichotomy of mass culture/high culture has been a topic of debate. The concept of cultural democracy has developed as a way to acknowledge a variety of cultural activities. Despite attempts to develop a broader understanding of culture, cultural policy still seems to reproduce the dichotomies, and to value one over the other. In this article, we would argue for an expanded understanding of cultural democracy, which may serve as a starting point for a turn of perspective of arts advocacy and cultural policy—the perspective we call an expressive cultural democracy.     

Cultural Planning and Urban Renewal in South Africa

The author explores the role of cultural planning as a planning tool in South Africa. He argues that cultural planning contributes to arts "as an intrinsic part of the way humans operate in the world" (Bamford 2006, 19), thereby focusing on cultural identity, creativity, and the globalization of culture. Arguing that cultural planning, as an engine for community development, is essential in South Africa, the author examines the broad definition and importance of cultural planning; the status of South African cities, particularly Johannesburg and Tshwane in Gauteng Province; and the requirements for successful cultural planning.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cultural Criminology: An Invitation</Emphasis>… to What?

Since the mid 1990s, a strand of criminology emerged that is concerned with the co-constitution of crime and culture under the general rubric of ‘cultural criminology’. In the titles Cultural Criminology Unleashed and Cultural Criminology: An Invitation, criminologists spearheading this brand of criminology make claims for its originality and its status as a subversive alternative to conventional criminological approaches to studies of crime and deviance. The basis for the ‘new’ cultural criminology is its ostensible ability to account for the culture and subcultures of crime, the criminalization of cultural and subcultural activities, and the politics of criminalization. This paper offers a comparison of cultural criminology to 1960s and 1970s labeling theory to assess whether or not cultural criminology has developed a grammar of critique capable of resolving fundamental contradictions that haunt critical criminology and contesting contemporary administrative criminology. Points of comparison are made through ontological categories of power and criminal identity and a consideration of the epistemological categories of the respective bodies of literature.