Marital Satisfaction and Marital Discord as Risk Markers for Intimate Partner Violence: A Meta-analytic Review

A meta-analysis investigating the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and intimate partner violence (IPV) in heterosexual relationships was conducted with 32 articles. Overall, a small-to-moderate effect size (r = −0.27) indicated a significant and negative relationship existed between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV. Moderator analyses found no differences between effect size based on construct examined (discord or satisfaction). However, the magnitudes of observed effect sizes were influenced by other moderator variables, including the use of standardized versus non-standardized measures, gender of the offender and victim, role in the violence (perpetrator versus victim), and sample type (clinical versus community). The data suggests that gender is an especially important moderator variable in understanding the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV.     

The future of copyright in India

Legal context: The copyright laws in India are set to be amended with the introductionof the provisions for anti-circumvention and Rights ManagementInformation in the Indian copyright regime although India isunder no obligation to introduce these changes as it is nota signatory to WCT or WPPT. Key points: The main purpose of these provisions and measures is to preventillegal commercial copying, a menace which hits the Indian movieand music industry significantly enough to ensure that the industryforms a strong lobby in such proposals. India has amended itscopyright legislation over the years to accommodate technologicalchanges and prevent piracy; however, the problem has only escalatedover the years. Technological measures impose restrictions onthe access to content and impose other restrictions on the useof the same. Practical significance: Who are the actual stakeholders behind advocating these changes?Is it Bollywood or the same Hollywood studios which lobbiedfor the same changes in international legislation? What maybe the cultural implications of adopting such changes in Indiancopyright laws? The paper would attempt to assess the culturaleffect of the combined legal and technical measures being proposedunder the copyright laws in India.     

White Supremacist Activity and Crossburnings in North Carolina

This study examines whether the incidence of crossburnings rises in areas where white supremacist organizations, such as the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, have held rallies or demonstrations. Using data from two public interest groups, Klanwatch and North Carolinians Against Racial and Religious Violence, we track crossburnings and white supremacist activities in 100 North Carolina counties annually for the period 1987–1993. Various statistical models, including an event count analysis that allows each county to have its own level or reporting bias, indicate that the base rate at which crossburnings occur rises sharply in counties where a demonstration has taken place. Since none of the suspected crossburners has apparent ties to white supremacist groups, it may be that white supremacist rallies encourage fellow travelers to engage in this form of racial intimidation.