Law’s (Masculine) Violence: Reshaping Jurisprudence

This article critiques and expands upon the jurisprudence of law’s violence from feminist and lesbian/gay/queer perspectives. The incorporation of gender and sexuality into the jurisprudence of law’s violence, via the social experiences of women and gay men, highlights the masculine and heteronormative character of law’s violence, while bringing into view particular forms of law’s violence, and forms of extra-legal but thoroughly legitimate heterosexual male violence, that have remained invisible in previous accounts. A feminist analysis of violence also suggests that law’s regime of violence is neither totalising nor inevitable, and that possibilities for resistance, if not avoidance, do exist.     

Myanmar's Electoral System: Reviewing the 2010 and 2012 Elections and Looking Ahead to the 2015 General Elections

Myanmar's 2010 multi-party election was the nation's first in two decades, signaling a manufactured transition from nearly half a century of military dictatorship toward parliamentary democracy. The current single-member district, plurality voting electoral system limits the parliamentary representation of smaller, ethnic political parties, and inflates the influence of larger, enfranchised parties, jeopardizing peaceful national reconciliation between various factions and the country's inchoate democratic institutions. Myanmar's Union Electoral Commission should consider electoral reforms that: (a) maximize proportional representation; (b) guarantee peace and political stability; and (c) guarantee a sufficient parliamentary majority that can govern the nascent democracy. The ideal system for the upcoming 2015 general elections is a Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) one, with one parliamentary house electing ministers by plurality in regional districts and the other with proportional representation by party list. This paper considers alternative electoral systems in light of the status quo and argues that MMP would produce the most stable and representative results for all parties concerned.     

The US Approach toward Islamic Militancy: Current Policies in Historical Perspective

Following the events of 9/11, the US declared a global war on terror and a new strategy based on preemption for defeating Muslim extremism and terrorism. However, the new US strategy so far has not been more successful than earlier strategies in combating either Muslim extremism or international terrorism. Arguably, it may even have contributed to the strengthening of the appeal of Islamic extremism and certain terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. The principal reason for this lack of success has been the historically inconsistent and contradictory approach of the US to dealing with the problem of Muslim militancy and its manipulation of it for short-term objectives.     

Developmental Pathways in Youth Sexual Aggression and Delinquency: Risk Factors and Mediators

Childhood exposure to violence against females and male-modeled antisocial behavior were examined as risk factors for sexual aggression, and nonsexual aggression and delinquency, in a sample of 182 adolescent male sex offenders using structural equation modeling. Both risk factors produced direct and indirect effects on nonsexual aggression and delinquency with Psychosocial Deficits and Egotistical–Antagonistic Masculinity playing important mediating roles. Exposure to violence against females helped explain sexual aggression through the mediating role of Psychosocial Deficits. As hypothesized, youth who sexually offended against prepubescent children manifested greater deficits in psychosocial functioning, committed fewer offenses against strangers, and demonstrated less violence in their sexual offending than offenders against pubescent females. Findings are discussed within the context of two major evolutionary psychological concepts for explaining human sexual behavior: intrasexual selection and intersexual selection.