Local level political and institutional changes in Japan: An end to political alienation?

Background  In Japan, a steady increase of non-voters is evident on the national and local levels over the past few decades. However, since the mid-1990s, a new wave of political participation at the local level has attracted politicians as well as social scientists. Citizen participation is increasing in terms of the number of non-profit organizations, participatory procedures, and engagement in new political networks. Citizens growing involvement in local politics coincides with institutional changes that offer new autonomy in respect of local policy-making.Objectives  In this paper, we will argue that these local trends might have an impact on national politics through the repolitization of citizens. However, preconditions are, ceteris paribus, the restoration of political trust through participation and institutional changes that support citizen involvement in politics.The authors have been engaged in a project on “Civil Society in Japan: Partnership as a New Item of Japan’s Local Politics” since 1 March 2006. The project is located at the Department for Japanese Studies at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) and financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

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Sexual violence and reproductive health among young people in three communities in Jamaica

A secondary analysis of data collected from 1,130 young people ages 15 to 24 in a population-based household survey to assess the reproductive health needs of young people in three communities in Jamaica was conducted to determine the relationships among three measures of sexual violence, background variables, three measures of sexual risk taking (early sexual debut, multiple partners, and no condom at last sex), and two reproductive health outcomes (genital discharge within the past 12 months and pregnancy). In the multivariate analyses, forced first sex increased the likelihood of genital discharge among males (odds ratio, OR = 5.33) and females (OR = 2.02) and pregnancy among females (OR = 2.05), controlling for background characteristics and sexual risk taking. Associations between sexual violence and reported genital discharge and pregnancy that were not mediated by our measures of sexual risk taking were found. More research into the causal mechanisms for this association is needed.     

Analysis of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in spiked water and beverage samples using solid phase microextraction (SPME) on fiber derivatization/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS)

Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is a CNS depressant that has been abused recreationally for its purported euphoric and relaxation effects and for the purposes of drug facilitated sexual assault due to its sedative and amnesic effects at higher doses. The dramatic increase in the abuse of GHB and association in criminal investigations over the past decade has created the need for forensic laboratories to develop analytical methods to detect GHB in a variety of matrices. The method developed in this work used solid-phase microextraction (SPME) to extract GHB from aqueous samples followed by on-fiber derivatization and analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). This method detected GHB in aqueous matrices with good sensitivity, high precision, excellent linearity from 0.01 mg/mL to 0.25 mg/mL, and without the need for sample manipulation that could cause interconversion between GHB and its lactone, GBL. The method was successfully applied for detection of GHB in spiked water and beverage samples.     

Chess algorithms of supreme court decision making: A bioconstitutional politics analysis

This paper examines, from a biopolitical perspective, the methodologies by which Supreme Court justices have interpreted the Constitution, assessing their decisional algorithms against models owing an intellectual debt to evolutionary theory. The models themselves are drawn from the chess literature, itself the most viable game theoretic context for living constitutional play. A proper appreciation of chess mastery yields the salient conclusion that a functionalist algorithm of data characterization is optimally adaptive for these purposes, usually proving more robust than competing structuralist and heuristic algorithms in resolving complex constitutional issues.     

Exploring psychological features in adolescents who assault their parents: a different profile of young offenders?

This study aimed to explore some psychological features of adolescents who have been reported by their parents for being violent towards them, analysing how they differ from other young offenders and from non-offender adolescents. Concretely, the presence of clinical diagnosis was explored and whether these juveniles received some psychological/psychiatric treatment. Moreover, this study examined substance use and some variables that characterise the social-cognitive style of these juveniles, along with the level of self-esteem. Information concerning clinical diagnosis and psychological/psychiatric treatment was extracted from the young offenders’ legal files. Measures included the social-cognitive subscale from the attitudes and social-cognitive strategies questionnaire (AECS), Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and a structured interview to assess substance use. Results indicated that juveniles who assaulted their parents present a different profile when compared to the other groups, as they showed a higher presence of psychopathology and more social-cognitive difficulties. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the design and implementation of specific treatments with these aggressive adolescents.