Actor Fragmentation and Civil War Bargaining: How Internal Divisions Generate Civil Conflict

Wars within states have become much more common than wars between them. A dominant approach to understanding civil war assumes that opposition movements are unitary, when empirically, most of them are not. I develop a theory for how internal divisions within opposition movements affect their ability to bargain with the state and avoid conflict. I argue that more divided movements generate greater commitment and information problems, thus making civil war more likely. I test this expectation using new annual data on the internal structure of opposition movements seeking self‐determination. I find that more divided movements are much more likely to experience civil war onset and incidence. This analysis suggests that the assumption that these movements are unitary has severely limited our understanding of when these disputes degenerate into civil wars.     

Women and Organized Racial Terrorism in the United States

Racial terrorism—violence perpetrated by organized groups against racial minorities in pursuit of white and Aryan supremacist agendas—has played a significant role in U.S. society and politics. Women have been important actors in much of this violence. This article examines women's involvement in racial terrorism from the immediate post-Civil War period to the present. Although organized racial violence by women has increased over time, this trend may not continue. The strategic directions and tactical choices of Aryan and white supremacist groups are likely to alter the extent and nature of women's involvement in racial terrorism in the future.     

Behavioral and Attitudinal Factors Differentiating Male Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators With and Without a History of Childhood Family Violence

This study utilized a sample of men (N?=?340) charged with assault against a female partner to assess differences among IPV perpetrators with and without a history of childhood family violence on factors such as angry, controlling and violent behaviors, substance use related behaviors, and attitudes towards women. Over two-thirds of the sample reported childhood exposure to maltreatment or witnessing IPV. Chi-square analyses and t-tests indicated significant differences between perpetrators with and without a history of family violence on eight of eleven measures. Findings suggest perpetrators with a family violence history more strongly endorse ideas that present women and feminine attributes in a negative light. This research demonstrates that while exposure to family violence during childhood is not necessary for IPV to occur, its presence may be a marker for more severe attitudinal and behavioral problems. Findings highlight the need for primary prevention efforts and can inform secondary prevention strategies.     

Assessing the Needs of Women Recently Released From Prison

The growing number of females incarcerated in the United States suggests that greater importance needs to be placed on preparing practitioners and communities for their eventual release from prison. Female offenders present a unique set of needs, including greater mental health, substance abuse, and medical health problems than their male counterparts. Furthermore, women may possess unique needs at various points of their involvement with the criminal justice system (i.e., before, during, and following a period of incarceration). The current study examines the needs of female offenders while they are reentering the community from the perspective of community service providers who work directly with recently incarcerated women. Survey results reveal that community service providers identify needs in 7 domains. Prevalence and urgency measures provide unique profiles of the needs of female offenders, and respondent reports of the effectiveness of the existing community-based service sector lead to numerous implications and suggestions for future research.     

Domestic violence case processing: a matter of local legal culture

As one enters a courthouse, its culture is communicated to its listening visitors. The manner in which the security guards speak; the length of time victims are kept waiting; the amount of bail a defendant is assessed; communicate messages to those who are paying attention. Domestic violence cases have long suffered from lenient treatment and dismissals in our criminal courts. This paper examines a unique explanation for this problem: the court’s local legal culture. The elements of two courts’ local legal culture that most profoundly impacted their processing of domestic violence cases are examined. Over a six month period, 23 in depth interviews were conducted with court workgroup members in two courts, one with a specialized domestic violence session and one without. Court room observations were used to supplement these interviews. The results were insightful and telling about how a court’s culture can, at times, be more influential on case processing than the law itself.     

The meaning of “the public interest” in communications policy,part I: Its origins in state and federal regulation

In the United Kingdom, a super-injunction is an interim action that prevents those against whom it is issued and any third parties who have notice of the injunction – including members of the media – from communicating about the subject in question. The media are not allowed to even reference the fact that there is an injunction in place. Often, the proceedings are anonymised, meaning the identities of the applicant and respondent are unknown, with initials replacing names. Super-injunctions and anonymised orders create tension between freedom of the press and privacy and deviate from fundamental principles of open justice. This article examines the role of super-injunctions in English media law, the tension between individual privacy and the need for an open justice system, and the implications of social media sites such as Twitter in the super-injunction process.     

Privacy Remedies and Costs in the UK: Uncertainties in Access and Relief

Due to the global and pervasive nature of the Internet, the increasingly intrusive nature of reporting by tabloids, the high cost of bringing privacy actions, and the difficulty and complexity involved in removing private information from the World Wide Web, privacy costs and remedies are under scrutiny in the United Kingdom. This article examines some of the proposed changes in this area including the availability of injunctions, pre-publication notification, levels of damage awards, opportunities for alternative dispute resolution, conditional fee agreements/success fees, and potential global solutions that may have an impact on the United States. The article argues that due to the nature of privacy claims initiated from information on the Internet, damage fee levels should be increased as well as the use of mediation and conditional fee agreements.     

Promoting Postsecondary Education in Low-Income Youth: The Moderating Role of Socio-Behavioral and Academic Skills in the Context of a Major Educational Reform

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Governments around the world are pressed to invest in postsecondary education. However, little research exists to document whether large-scale educational reforms...