Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague.

This is an analysis of divorce trends in the Netherlands in the second half of the nineteenth century. "Use was made of a case-control research design in which the social characteristics of all marriages which ended in divorce were compared with those of a random sample from the marriages which ended in widowhood. The author analyzed a group of 2,300 marriages contracted in The Hague from their inception until their dissolution by death or divorce. All migrants were followed to their new place of residence. Multivariate (proportional hazards) analysis showed that the highest probability of divorce was found among persons who had already gone through a divorce before. Other factors related to divorce were high mobility, low ages at marriage, and large age and religious differences between spouses. Higher social classes had relatively high divorce risks."     

Aggressive reactions to social injustice by individuals and groups as a function of social norms,gender, and anonymity

Two conflicting approaches to the study of group aggression are compared: the deindividuation theory of Zimbardo (1970) and the emergent norm theory of Turner and Killian (1972). To test these two conflicting hypotheses, the frustration-aggression theory of Brown (1986) is used which assumes that individuals and groups, male or female, will react with angry aggression when important social justice norms are violated. It was hypothesized (i) that groups will be more aggressive than single individuals; (ii) males will be more aggressive than females; and (iii) that more aggression will occur when people can be easily identified than when they remain anonymous to each other. These hypotheses received some support. Unexpected interactions between these variables are discussed in some detail. Generally, more support is found for the emergent norm theory than for deindividuation theory.     

Criminological theory in the digital age: The case of social learning theory and digital piracy

To date, few studies had attempted to extend existing theories of crime to technology driven crimes, such as digital piracy. To address this gap in the literature, this study explored the ability of Akers’ social learning theory in explaining the likelihood of engaging in digital piracy. Also explored was the extent to which the social learning process mediated the impact of several noteworthy correlates of digital piracy among college students attending different universities (n = 585), relying on a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. The findings were modestly supportive of social learning theory as it may apply to digital piracy. The findings are discussed in the context of extending existing theories of crime to account for contemporary technology driven crimes, such as digital piracy. Policy implications and direction for future research are discussed.     

Internet and social networks: freedom of expression in the digital age

New technologies have revolutionised the way we communicate and the meaning of freedom of expression. As the Internet increasingly represents a key tool for individuals to exercise their right to freedom of expression, providing universal access should therefore be a priority for countries in order to achieve development goals. The Internet and the proliferation of online social networks have an important impact on privacy, forcing a re-evaluation of the limits to the right to freedom of expression. The author examines the issue of liability of Internet providers and analyses criminal prosecutions in the context of online social networks. As liability for comments made through online social networks becomes more common, questions arise as to what is deemed offensive and whether prosecution should take place in all cases. The article tries to provide answers to those questions through an analysis of case law from various Commonwealth jurisdictions.     

Explaining the process of change taking place in legal rules and social norms: The cases of institutional economics and new institutional economics

This paper deals with the phenomenon of institutional change and has been conceived as an attempt to answer the following question: Can we retain theimage of institutional change contained in a theory when we replace a methodological foundation on which the theory was built by a different and alternative one? For an answer to be developed, special attention is paid to the contributions made by institutional economists (IE) and those made by transaction cost—new institutional economists (NIE). The question clearly shows that it is a paper on applied methodology rather than a survey on institutional change contributions. Because of that, its main purpose is not to increase our knowledge about the characteristics of real changes in legal rules and social norms, their causes, their processes, or their effects, though several examples are given of those institutionalist and new institutionalist contributions that analyze those changes. Our purpose is to investigate the way in which these two groups of economists approach the object of analysis already mentioned. Our conclusion will be that institutionalist and new institutionalist contributions are built on two different and mutually exclusive approaches because their respective methods of analysis (holism versus methodological individualism) are different and, above all, because they build their respective analyses on some concepts that are mutually exclusive (concepts showing power or nonvoluntary influences versus concepts showing voluntary transactions). Their analyses contain different and mutually exclusiveimages of the changes taking place in legal rules-formal institutions and social norms-informal institutions. Some comments about the limitations of the holist method of analysis are made in the paper.     

The peculiar case of age discrimination: Americanising the European social model?

The Lisbon Strategy commits the EU to making labour market regulation more employment friendly with commentators anticipating some resulting convergence on the US model. Surprisingly, part of this post-Lisbon convergence has taken the form of a major extension of EU Social Policy with the expansion of anti-discrimination policies to address the case of age discrimination. We argue that unlike the US experience, it is the current preoccupation with raising European employment rates that has led to this expansion of ‘hard law’ Social Europe. We are unable to provide an efficiency rationale for this extension and assess alternative explanations. We also provide arguments suggesting that its impact is likely to differ from those experienced in the US.      

The legalisation of euthanasia in the Netherlands: lessons to be learnt

The euthanasia debate has been re-ignited by the decision of the Dutch Parliament to legalise the practice. This will make the Netherlands the first nation in the world to legalise euthanasia. This paper explains the key aspects of the legislation and considers whether it provides a viable model for reform.     

Justice in old age: An analysis of corporatist social theory

It is sometimes argued that a tacit contract exists between the generations in industrial society that requires that the present structure of Social Security benefits not be altered in any way that would serve to diminish the present benefit levels. The demands of social justice, it is thought, require that Western societies maintain their commitments to Social Security programs, especially to those programs of the type administered in the United States. This paper examines questions of justice pertaining to the aged in contemporary society. It is argued here that the demands of justice pertain not only to the satisfaction of basic needs for subsistence but also to the satisfaction of the need for self-realization. The commitment of capitalist nations like the U.S. to social justice for the aged is analyzed using a theory of justice that is based on Durkheim's political writings on corporatism and the solidarist theory of the Catholic social movement. The corporatist theory of justice would require that public pension systems like Social Security be revised to provide more adequately for the social needs of the working-class aged.     

An economic model of social sensitivity: The case of individual criminal behavior

In general, economists have modeled criminal behavior as a problem in time allocation under uncertainty. Their Friedman-Savage utility models have been based on the binomial probability distribution and then tested using aggregate data on crime rates and neglect the nonpecuniary aspects of crime. This paper overcomes the shortcomings of previous work. Specifically, criminal activity is modeled with an underlying geometric probability process and explicitly accounts for the moral and social compromise involved in becoming a criminal. The empirical model enables the quantification of the criminal's moral and social sensitivity using data based on a consolidated file of police records and a cohort survey of criminals and noncriminals. On the basis of this unique data set, it is found that the included individual criminals are risk averse and that gang membership reduces social sensitivity.     

Life histories of single parents and illegitimate infants in nineteenth-century Sweden.

"This essay presents tentative findings for the Sundsvall area of Sweden, which is being studied in a recent project on the decline of infant and childhood mortality in the Nordic countries. The focus is on the complete reproductive histories of single mothers and the life expectancies among infants born to women who at least once in their reproductive life history experienced the birth of an illegitimate child. In Sundsvall, industrialization only temporarily affected the illegitimacy ratio, but its effect was obvious even in agrarian parishes. The number of illegitimate children per woman remained relatively stable over time, with the exception of the town of Sundsvall. It was more common in the urban environment to give birth to several illegitimate children. Mortality was also higher among these infants, but the negative effects can be seen equally among both legitimate and illegitimate children."     

Netherlands Insolvency Law: The Netherlands Bankruptcy Act and the Most Important Legal Concepts

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia in The Netherlands: Dutch perspectives

During the summer of 1999, twenty-eight interviews with some of the leading authorities on euthanasia policy were conducted in the Netherlands. They were asked about cases of non-voluntary (when patients are incompetent) and involuntary euthanasia (when patients are competent and made no request to die). This study reports the main findings, showing that most respondents are quite complacent with regard to breaches of the guideline that require the patient's consent as a prerequisite to performance of euthanasia.