Baboon taphonomy and its relevance to the investigation of large felid involvement in human forensic cases

Eight complete baboon carcasses were fed individually to two captive leopards. These experimental feedings generated two separate bone assemblages, one composed of those bone specimens not ingested by the leopards (i.e., the refuse assemblage), and one composed of those bone specimens ingested and subsequently voided by the leopards (i.e., the scat assemblage). The two assemblages are separable using measurements of skeletal part representation. Distinguishing characteristics of the assemblages are summarized and explained in relation to observations of leopard feeding behavior and intrinsic qualities of baboon postcranial bones (i.e., bulk bone mineral density, maximum length, volume and cross-sectional area). Because baboons and humans share the fundamental primate body plan, these baboon carcasses approximate human cadavers ravaged by large felids. Thus, our results can inform death scene investigators about the expected human body part representation in large felid feeding residues versus those expected in regurgitations and feces. Since different body parts have different body-identification potentials, knowing these expected differences in body part representation is particularly valuable in forensic settings.     

The scope of exclusionary public response to the European refugee crisis

We know from previous research that an exclusionary reaction in public opinion is likely following a sudden and large-scale influx of refugees of the sort experienced in many European countries in 2015. Yet, we know much less about the scope of these expected reactions. This article makes a conceptual and empirical contribution to the analysis of the scope of exclusionary reactions following a refugee crisis. Conceptually, we distinguish between three scope dimensions: substantive reach, duration and politicization. Empirically, we evaluate each of the scope dimensions using seven-wave panel-data collected before, during and after the large-scale influx of refugees to Norway. We find that the expected exclusionary reaction (a) spilled over to opinion about immigration broadly speaking; (b) endured in that it lasted long after the situation in Norway had been brought under control; (c) encompassed voters of all political stripes. Nevertheless, we also document an important limitation to the scope of the reaction: The sudden influx of refugees to Norway did not cause a permanent shift in public opinion. Approximately two years after the situation had been brought under control, opinion about both refugee rights and immigration generally had reverted back to pre-crisis baseline levels. Interestingly, the conceptual and empirical analysis suggests that public opinion dynamics following a sudden and large-scale influx of refugees is similar to that found in response to other forms of large national or international crises.     

Constructing Crime against the Elderly in Swedish Crime Prevention Campaigns

The study investigates how crime prevention activities frame the problem of crime against the elderly, regarding character, causes, effects and solutions. Data was collected through participant observations, interviews and analysis of a film produced by a local crime prevention council in Sweden. It is concluded that crime prevention for seniors produces complex and contradicting images of the problem. In situational crime prevention seniors are warned to look out for strangers stalking them or trying to access their homes. Statements that victimization is uncommon among the old are combined with warnings that invoke images of mysterious ever-present perpetrators. In social crime prevention, where causes and interventions of crime are discussed, crime prevention officers link the problem to established social problems such as drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. This way of framing the problem is typical for a Swedish Social Democratic perspective, where lack of community and integration are defined as causes of social problems. It is concluded that warnings to look out for strangers who ask for help may be at odds with this striving towards community.     

Postcards and Propaganda: Cartographic Postcards as Soft News Images of the Russo-Japanese War

Postcards are an important resource that has been largely overlooked in mainstream research on historical events, political attitudes, perceptions, propaganda, and communication. Accordingly, this article expands the relevance of the postcard from social artifact to historical document embodying social and political messages. In particular, the article examines the images and representations used in cartographic postcards during and after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). Not only is this relevant to the study of political propaganda, but also for the study of historic media, popular consumption of political messaging, and as an additional tool with which to study the history of international politics and communication. The political history leading up to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War is briefly covered. Images of cartographic postcards are examined in context of the conflict, with the goal of gaining a greater appreciation for postcards as a form of early “soft news” visual mass media. As such, this is a means by which imperial attitudes and public opinion were shaped. Recommendations are made to broaden the use of postcards as primary documents, especially as these cards are enjoying an online renaissance (e.g., collecting, displaying, discussing). They are valuable in augmenting a variety of research agendas and are fruitful for the study of early modern mass media, social history, public discourse, and political messaging with regard to soft news and public opinion.     

Election law violations as campaign effort: turnout in Japan's House of Councillors elections

Electoral fraud is a form of corrupt behaviour but it is also a form of electoral behaviour. Once the grosser forms of stuffing the ballot box have been eliminated, illegal campaigning often involves precisely the same activities as does legal campaigning. What makes it electoral fraud is ‘stepping over the line’, spending X?+?Y when the legal limit is X for example. In this study we analyse the determinants of legal and illegal campaign efforts as well as the impact of such efforts on voter turnout. We use the aggregate number of election law violations per district as a measure of Y, which is normally unobserved because it is illegal and thus unreported. We further distinguish between various types of election fraud such as vote-buying and canvassing and determine their effects on turnout. We find that electoral fraud is more common in close races and when there is intraparty competition. Similarly, illegal campaign effort in general mirrors legal efforts in increasing turnout although its effects depend on the type of violation in question.     

Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence, Depressive Symptomatology, and Personality Traits

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and personality disorder symptoms controlling for depressive state. Victims of IPV (n?=?176) and non-abused women (n?=?193) completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ), Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). IPV victims scored higher than non-abused women on Intimacy Problems, and scored lower on Rejection traits, after adjustment for depressive symptoms. Severity of the IPV was related to Cognitive Distortion, Suspiciousness, Restricted Expression, and Intimacy Problems, and the length of the IPV was negatively associated with Rejection. The current study suggests only modest differences in personality traits between IPV and non-abused women. The DAPP-BQ traits associated with severity of IPV, in a dose-response manner, would partially reflect the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), although this possibility deserves further study.     

The Hidden Arm of the Law: Examining Administrative Justice in Gun Carry Licensing

Responding to calls to “decenter” American penality beyond the carceral apparatus, this article ethnographically examines administrative process and dissects how it interlocks with criminal justice. To do so, it draws on an admittedly unusual, but theoretically generative, case: administrative gun boards, charged with issuing, denying, revoking, and suspending licenses to conceal carry a firearm. While scholars have examined gun ownership and gun carrying as a social practice, less attention has been paid to gun licensing as a state practice. Drawing on observations of over 900 cases from gun board meetings in two counties in Michigan, this paper examines how administrative process mimics, supplements, and facilitates criminal justice through three mechanisms: procedural pains, in which administrative process resembles criminal justice; parallel punishment, in which administrative process supplements criminal justice through withholding of benefits, entitlements or licenses; and valve‐turning, in which administrative process funnels, or threatens to funnel, claimants into the criminal justice system. Revealing how administrative process and criminal justice become mutually reinforcing, the findings extend and integrate scholarship that shows the material, symbolic, and psychic implications of criminal justice contact, on the one hand, with the increased tendency of administrative contexts to resemble criminal justice institutions, on the other.