Forgotten victims: students’ attitudes towards and responses to male sexual victimisation

This paper will examine students’ attitudes and responses to male sexual victimisation in England. In particular, it focuses on their thoughts, beliefs, views, and understandings of male rape. It does this by empirically researching male rape with the use of qualitative questionnaires, from 100 students of a university in West Yorkshire, England. There are some serious concerns that were highlighted by the findings. For example, the myths that “male rape is not a serious issue” and “male rape is solely a homosexual issue” (and more) emerge from the findings. This warrants close attention and analysis, given that students are a part of the community in which male rape often occurs. This paper outlines the implications of the findings. It argues that, in certain contexts, students’ attitudes and discourses about male rape are being shaped and re-shaped; this suggests that their thought patterns are fluid with regard to male rape, shaped by the contexts in which they are situated.     

‘Legislative frame representation’: towards an empirical account of the deliberative systems approach

The systemic approach to deliberative democracy is an empirically underexplored topic. Since ‘classic’ micro indicators for deliberation are at loggerheads with the idea of distributed deliberation, appropriate assessment techniques for large-scale public deliberation are few and far between. This paper aims at exploring a novel pathway into the empirical translations of the deliberative systems approach, using discourse content and the representation of policy frames in the legislature. I argue that legislative frame representation (LFR) is a crucial indicator for the level of sub-systemic deliberative uptake and policy responsiveness. Next to the necessary theoretical and methodological work, the results of an explorative case study for the immigration discourse in the US and Canada are presented. The results indicate that there are considerable differences in the systems’ capacities to take up discourses from civil society and that LFR can be an important tool to explore deliberative systems empirically.     

Realizing ‘Political’ Neutrality

Political liberalism is supposed to be neutral among reasonable comprehensive doctrines, including comprehensive liberalism. Some critics think that it implicitly assumes comprehensive liberalism. I argue that political liberalism has the resources to avoid this charge and chart a path between sectarianism and unprincipled accommodation that allows a range of policy justifications onto the political agenda of a scope that honors the ideal of neutrality.     

An exploratory study of women prisoners’ attitudes towards their self-harm and the use of medical skin camouflage

Self-harm is a growing problem in UK prisons with women self-harming more than men. Self-harm can leave permanent scarring. Research on scarring suggests that living with scars can lead to psychological difficulties; however, there is little research on the specific effects of self-harm scars. Medical skin camouflage (MSC) can be used to cover numerous skin conditions. The use of MSC for women in prison with self-harm scars has not been examined previously. A focus group involving 10 women prisoners aimed to (1) explore feelings about self-harm scars, (2) examine effects that scars have on life in prison and (3) examine thoughts on using MSC in prison. This group formed part of a larger project designed to test the feasibility and acceptability of MSC for women who self-harm in prison. A topic guide was created with two service user researchers with experience of self-harm in prison. The results have been divided into three themes: (1) feelings about self-harm scars, (2) covering self-harm scars and (3) attitudes towards MSC. Our findings indicate that women in prison tend to feel embarrassed and self-conscious about their scars, and the presence of scars affects their relationships within prison. The women were enthusiastic about MSC, suggesting that it has the potential to affect women’s well-being and ability to engage with others.     

Parents’ knowledge and attitudes about youths’ interrogation rights

Some states and police agencies require youth to consult with parents before or during interrogation by police, yet these policies rely on the untested assumption that parents themselves are knowledgeable about police interrogation practices and youths’ rights. This study assessed knowledge of, and attitudes about, juvenile interrogations in a sample of parents (N?=?294) recruited from urban locales. On average, parents correctly answered fewer than half of the questions about juvenile interrogation practices; knowledge about parental notification procedures was especially poor. At the same time, parents strongly endorsed youths’ rights to support (including support from parents) during police questioning contexts and only moderately endorsed youths’ decision-making autonomy, even for older youth who are legally adults.     

The Legal Subject in Althusser’s Political Theory

There are three dominant conceptual developments in Althusser’s work that suggest the significance of the subject. One is the perpetual work of ideology—its interpellation of individuals. The second is the primacy of the class struggle in relation to the state, and the consequential function of law and rights. The third is the materialism of the encounter as a process without subject. An examination of these three areas (in part, utilising a Foucauldian analysis of subjectivity and power relations) reveals the potentially and strategically important role of legal subjectivity in Althusser’s theory of the political.     

Might informative media reporting of sexual offending influence community members' attitudes towards sex offenders?

The media represents one of the main sources of public information about sexual offending. However, the media sensationalises sexual crimes through its focus on exceptional cases, contributing to an inaccurate representation of the population of individuals convicted of sexual offences. The resulting negative community attitudes towards released sex offenders may create barriers to community re-entry and promote ill-informed legislation. The aim of the current study was to explore whether informative reporting of sexual offending might result in less negative public attitudes towards released sex offenders. Eighty-seven participants were presented either with an informative media portrayal of a recently released sex offender, a fear-inducing, typical portrayal or no media portrayal (control condition). We measured three components of participants' attitudes (affect, cognitive beliefs and behavioural intensions) towards sex offenders, in addition to participants' non-conscious, implicit, attitudes. The results showed that the informative media portrayal significantly influenced the cognitive and behavioural components of attitudes; however, the affective component and implicit attitudes remained consistently negative. Our findings suggest that the media may play an influential role in influencing public opinion about sex offenders. The potential, and the challenges, for using media to influence public attitudes towards sex offenders are discussed.     

Political representation in the networked society: the Americanisation of European systems of responsible party government?

The Internet provides a new technological opportunity structure for political representatives to communicate with constituents. Its potential for decentralised, interactive mass communication allows MPs to bypass intermediary organisations such as political parties and to establish a direct relationship with their constituents. Students of electronic democracy are divided over the political consequences of this technological change in telecommunications. While cyber-optimists envisage a transformation of responsible party government into a more direct, individualised type of political representation, cyber-sceptics adopt a more cautious approach and predict a reinforcement of established systems of political representation in the networked society. This article aims to develop a theoretical foundation as well as to carry out an empirical test of both positions. In the theoretical section, these two contradictory positions are modelled on the assumption that party government is a rationalistic concept. In the empirical section, both positions are tested in a statistical analysis of the use of personal websites in the German Bundestag, the Swedish Riksdag and the US House of Representatives.     

Gender attitudes and the police in Bosnia and Herzegovina: male officers’ attitudes regarding their female counterparts

Utilizing survey data collected from 127 male Bosnian police officers, this study examines the impact attitudes toward women, individual characteristics, and work experiences have on officers’ perceptions of their female colleagues. It is hypothesized that officers who hold more traditional, patriarchal attitudes toward women will view females as incapable of effectively carrying out police work, regardless of their own work experiences, or demographic characteristics. Results suggest that a majority of Bosnian policemen believe that women are equally as effective as men in all aspects of policing, however, many still cling to stereotypical views of policing and continue to view female officers negatively.     

Spinoza’s Conception of Personal and Political Change: A Feminist Perspective

Law and Critique - By focusing upon three figures: a trade unionist, who can no longer understand or reconcile himself with his past misogynist behaviour; Spinoza’s Spanish poet, who loses...     

A control group study of incubators’ impact to promote firm survival

It is widely unclear as to whether start-up firms supported by publicly-initiated incubator initiatives have higher survival rates than comparable start-up firms that have not received support by such initiatives. This paper contributes to the underlying discussion by performing a large-scale matched-pairs analysis of the long-term survival of 371 incubator firms (after their graduation) from five German incubators and a control group of 371 comparable non-incubated firms. The analysis covers a 10-year time span. To account for the problem of selection bias, a non-parametric matching approach is applied to identify an appropriate control group. For neither of the five incubator locations, we find statistically significant higher survival probabilities for firms located in incubators compared to firms located outside those incubator organizations. For three incubator locations the analysis reveals statistically significant lower chances of survival for those start-ups receiving support by an incubator. The empirical results, therefore, raise some doubts regarding the impacts of incubation on long-term firm survival.     

Political Embeddedness and its Impact on Chinese Lawyers’ Practices in Criminal Defense Cases

Based on survey data of 348 lawyers in Fujian, this study empirically tests how lawyers' political embeddedness (i.e., lawyers' bureaucratic, instrumental, and/or affective ties to the courts and prosecutors) has impacted upon their defense practices in criminal trials and their pursuit of liberal values. Our data reveal that politically embedded lawyers report more (not fewer) difficulties in practice (e.g., in requesting witness testimony in court, requesting new evidence, and requesting new evaluations and investigations of the case). Clients are more satisfied with representation by politically non-embedded lawyers than lawyers who are embedded. Using statistical evidence, this paper analyzes potential reasons and draws out the implications.     

Removing the barriers; adolescent coping and attitudes towards mental health services in custodial settings – Can we improve services?

Young people in custodial care are known to have high levels of mental health and emotional problems, and recent policy and service developments have sought to improve their access to services. However, little is known about how they cope or about what would increase their uptake of services (when such services are available). This study aimed to develop, validate and use a standardised measure to examine the coping, help-seeking and attitudes of a larger cohort of young people in custody. There was a marked reluctance to seek help for any but the most serious of problems, but there were also indicators of what would make services more acceptable to this population, with implications for both commissioning and delivering services. In particular, greater involvement of parents and carers, offering a wider range of interventions and offering them more flexibly, and challenging stigma within the secure environment may increase uptake of services.     

Does public criticism Erode trust in the police? The case of Jari Aarnio in the Finnish news media and its effects on the public’s attitudes towards the police

A significant part of the general public’s observations and image concerning the police comes through the mass media. It has been assumed that one factor affecting the level of trust is the way the media handles the police. This article describes the media uproar that arose in Finland in November 2013 about police misconduct, and its effects on the public trust in the police. Two hypotheses were tested in the study: (a) negative publicity always decreases trust, and so, too, in this case; and (b) a change in trust is affected by the public’s independent interpretation of the publicity battle, in which case criticism might also increase trust. The study materials comprise the news coverage concerning the uproar and four opinion surveys collected after it occurred. The first survey was conducted immediately after the press conference of the case in week 48/2013 and the other ones in three-week intervals. The results show that following the uproar, compared to the earlier results of the European Social Survey, trust in the police did not decrease—on the contrary, it increased slightly. Our results suggest that in this case a large part of the audience has taken, to use the term of Stuart Hall, the oppositional position when interpreting negative news about the police.     

Transnational innovation networks aren’t all created equal: towards a classification system

This paper examines the growth of transnational networks of innovation and proposes a preliminary classificatory system of four distinct kinds of forces which give rise to social networks that facilitate knowledge flows, relationship building, and collaborative activities important to accessing global markets. The networks may form around a technology sector, be identity based, emerge from a government-led initiative, or be stimulated by a civic or philanthropic organization. Each has a different mode of organizing, financing, and meeting its objectives, as shown by examples presented in the paper. The proposed classification of these characteristics is intended to open a conversation within the social sciences and among policy makers about how better to understand the ways in which transnational networks get formed, operate and produce desired results.     

Agency and similarity effects and the VC’s attitude towards academic spin-out investing

Our research seeks to develop understanding of the factors explaining venture capital investment managers’ attitudes towards investment in the unique context of academic spin-outs. We provide a novel integration of both VC fund characteristics and investment managers’ human capital characteristics with a unique hand-collected dataset of 68 early stage VC investment managers in Europe. Attitudes toward academic spin-out investing are positively affected by the presence of public sector capital and by investment managers who are more intensively involved with the entrepreneur. Specific human capital in investment managers who had worked in an academic environment is more likely associated with investment in academic spin-outs. In terms of general human capital, financial experience is positively related while entrepreneurial experience is negatively associated with investment attitude towards academic spin-outs. There may be a need to facilitate the attraction of people from industry and investment banking into public VC funds in particular.     

Social Workers’ Attitudes towards Intimate Partner Abuse in Younger vs. Older Women

Intimate partner abuse is defined as threatened or actual physical, sexual, or psychological abuse by a current or former partner. The present study examined responses of 212 social workers, who were randomly assigned one of four case vignettes describing intimate partner abuse. Vignettes varied by age of perpetrator and victim (elderly vs. young) and type of abuse (emotional vs. physical). Social workers tended to define intimate partner abuse against an elderly woman as non-abusive, in contrast to intimate partner abuse against a young woman. As a rule, social workers tended to favor therapeutic interventions more than legal interventions. However, in the case of intimate partner abuse against an elderly woman, social workers tended to prefer legal interventions. Specific training designed to help social workers to better understand their own ageist attitudes (i.e., age related discrimination) should supplement the training of social workers.     

What’s the Party Like? The Status of the Political Party in Anti-Defection Jurisdictions

Law and Philosophy - This paper explores how political parties should be regulated in jurisdictions with anti-defection laws, which constitutionalise parties’ control over the legislative...