The portrayal of elder abuse in the national media

Over the last two decades, researchers and policy makers have begun to devote more attention to the problem of elder abuse. Still, compared to studies on other types of family violence, research on elder abuse is scarce. To better understand how elder abuse is portrayed in the media and using “newsmaking criminology” as a theoretical framework, this study considers how 11 newspapers describe the phenomenon. In all, 530 articles about elder abuse were content analyzed using standard rules of content analysis. Results suggest that certain types of elder abuse are excluded from the press. In addition, the press tends to define elder abuse as a crime, but not as a domestic violence offense. Implications are provided.     

The Public Voice of Women

This article, first published in the London Review of Books on 20 March 2013, takes the long view on the subject of women's public voice. From antiquity to the present day there are countless examples of women either excluded from speaking out in public life or ridiculed for doing so. This essay examines the nature and experience of oratory in Western culture and the ways in which public speaking has become gendered and how issues of voice and gender continue to span the public spheres from traditional politics to modern forms of social media.     

Injury analyses of fatal motorcycle collisions in south-east Scotland

The timing of death and pathological findings in fatal motorcycle accidents in south-east Scotland between 1987 and 1997 were investigated. Of the 59 motorcyclists who died, 38 were dead when found at the accident scene, six others were alive when found but died at the scene, two died in an ambulance in transit to hospital and 13 died after reaching hospital. Scoring of the injuries according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale revealed Injury Severity Scores (ISS) ranging from 25 to 75. Overall, injuries to the head, neck and chest were responsible for the most severe injuries. Twenty-five motorcyclists had injuries acknowledged to be unsurvivable (ISS = 75), most of which involved the thoracic aorta, brainstem and cervical spinal cord. The greatest potential to reduce the death rate amongst motorcyclists lies with accident prevention/injury reduction measures, rather than through improved treatment of injuries. Efforts to try to alter driving behaviour and to improve the design of vehicles and helmets need to continue.     

Democracies and Deficits: Prospects for Fiscal Responsibility in Democratic Nations

The financial crisis had significant implications for the fiscal positions of OECD. As nations seek to cope with the economic contraction, budget deficits and debt have risen to near record postwar levels. As the crisis in Europe and other advanced economies has deepened, fiscal consolidation will have to be coupled, and even preceded, by actions to jump‐start crippled economies. Nonetheless, when fiscal consolidation becomes necessary, nations that procrastinate by waiting for a crisis to provide cover for the politically hard choices will pay a steep price indeed both economically and politically. Many in the academic and policy community have raised questions about whether advanced democracies have the political wherewithal to respond to gathering fiscal pressures through early and timely action. Recent fiscal actions in advanced nations suggest that democracies are not doomed to wait for market shocks and crises. Rather, leaders have shown that fiscal sacrifice can be achieved in ways that promote electability. In this article, we discuss the impetus for democratic fiscal actions and the strategies used to gain public support.     

Brazil's South–South development cooperation: Principles and experiences of the domestic bureaucracy

How did Brazilian bureaucrats view President Lula's approach to the provision of development assistance in the context of South–South cooperation (SSC)? How did they see their own bureaucracy's role, as a provider of such assistance? This paper addresses these questions within the broad context of Brazil's development assistance program. The analysis begins with an elaboration of the internal legal and political structure supporting the country's provision of development assistance. Then, it addresses the research questions by drawing on original material obtained from 54 interviews, conducted in Brasilia, with diplomats and public servants from 25 federal ministries and institutions directly involved with implementing technical cooperation agreements. Evidence leads to three main observations: (a) the bureaucracies' limited autonomy vis‐à‐vis the Presidency's command of the Brazilian development assistance program; (b) great convergence in the worldviews and principled values upheld by public servants and diplomats in regard to Brazilian foreign policy; and (c) the existence of interbureaucracy complaints and struggles related to the operational side of agreement implementation. These findings are relevant for understanding the inner workings of Brazilian SSC, as well as in comparison to other national bureaucracies' involvement in the conceptualization and implementation of South–South knowledge transfers.     

Book reviews

Simon Singh, The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography (London: Fourth Estate, 1999). Pp.xiii + 402, illus., bibliog., index. £16.99. ISBN 1–85702–879–1

Alan Judd, The Quest for C: Mansfield Cumming and the Founding of the Secret Service (London: HarperCollins, 1999). Pp.501, illus., bibliog., index. £19.99. ISBN 0–00–255901–3.

Michael Smith, Station X: Decoding Nazi Secrets (London: Channel 4 Books, 1999). Pp.184, 8pp illus., bibliog., index. £14.99. ISBN 0–7522–2189–2.

Hugh Skillen (ed.), The Enigma Symposium, 1998 (Privately printed, 1998). Pp.ix + 205, illus., facsims., no index. £9.95. ISBN 0–95–313300–1.

Frank B. Rowlett and David Kahn, The Story of Magic, Memoirs of an American Cryptologic Pioneer (Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1998). Pp.266, 12 b/w photos., no index. $32.80. ISBN 0–8941–2273–8.

David Alvarez, Secret Messages: Codebreaking and American Diplomacy, 1930–1945. (Lawrence, KS: UP of Kansas 2000). Pp.292, photos, bibliog., index. $35. ISBN 0–7006–1013–8.

Michael E. Haas, In the Devil's Shadow: U.N. Special Operations During the Korean War (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000). Pp.xx + 243, 1 map, 5 illus, 26 photos, notes, bibliog., index, chronology. $29.95; £26.50. ISBN 1–55750–344–3.

Stephen G. Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). Pp.257, bibliog., index. £31.95 (cloth); $17.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8078–2461–5.

L. V. Scott, Macmillan, Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis (London: Macmillan Press, 1999). Pp.x + 251, bibliog., index. £45; $65. ISBN 0–333–71470–9.

Ezra Y. Siff, Why the Senate Slept: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Beginning of America's Vietnam War (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999). Pp.xi + 172, illus., notes, bibliog., appendices, index. $37.50. ISBN 0–275–96389–6.

Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of the War in Vietnam (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999). Pp.xxv + 529, bibliog., index. $35. ISBN 0–520–21511–7.

John Prados, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War (New York: John Wiley, 1999). Pp.432, index. $35. ISBN 0–471–25465–7.

Kenneth Conboy and Dale Andrade, Spies & Commandos: How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000). Pp.347, illus., bibliog., index. $34.95. ISBN 0–7006–1002–2.

Anne Hessing Cahn, Killing Detente: The Right Attacks the CIA (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998). Pp.232, index. $24.50/£17.38 (paper). ISBN 0–271–01791–0.

Thomas K. Adams, US Special Operations Forces in Action: The Challenge of Unconventional Warfare (London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass Publishers, 1998). Pp.xxviii + 360, 11 photos, glossary of acronyms and terms, bibliog., index. £42.50/$59.50 (cloth); £19.50/$27.50 (paper). ISBN 0–7146–4795–0 and ‐4350–5.