The Voices of Youth in Out-of-Home Care Regarding Developing Healthy Dating Relationships

Minimal attention has been focused on difficulties for youth in residential care regarding building healthy dating relationships, despite the significant risks to this group of adolescents. This study provided a unique opportunity to conduct focus groups with youth in residential care on issues surrounding dating relationships. The majority of youth feedback centered on the themes of desiring support developing relationship boundaries, establishing trust in relationships, understanding the consequences of sexual activity, and having real world examples regarding dating relationships. The data were examined for differences between the genders and recommendations for next steps provided.     

Women in Iran: An Online Discussion

This debate on the role of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran was conducted early in 2001 as part of the Gulf/2000 project at Columbia University, directed by Gary Sick. Normally these online discussions are reserved for members, but this topic is of such general interest and aroused such intense emotions that two of the participants were asked to edit the discussion for a wider audience. The final version was edited by Nikki R. Keddie, professor emerita of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, based on the selection and organization of the texts by co-editor Azita Karimkhany, alumna of Columbia University and researcher in Middle Eastern studies. For additional information on Gulf/2000, see the project website at http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/.     

The influence of contextual information regarding the breakdown of relationships and perpetrator-target sex composition on perceptions of relational stalking

ABSTRACT

The present study examines the influence of prior relationship (with contextual information regarding the breakdown of the relationship) and perpetrator-target sex composition on perceptions of relational stalking. The study employed an experimental 7?×?2 independent measures design, and the sample comprised 1,260 members of the community residing in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Participants received one of 14 versions of a hypothetical scenario and responded to scale items concerning the situation described. The situation was perceived to be most serious when the perpetrator was a stranger or a physically violent ex-partner and least serious when the perpetrator was an ex-partner of an unfaithful target. Scenarios involving a male perpetrator and a female victim were also perceived to be more serious than scenarios involving a female perpetrator and a male target. It is apparent therefore that the context of the relationship breakdown and the sex of the perpetrator and target significantly influence perceptions of relational stalking.     

The belated autopsy and identification of an eighteenth century naval hero--the saga of John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones, the "Father of the American Navy," is known for the battletime assertion that he had "not yet begun to fight." His central role in a triumph of scientific forensic identification more than a century after his death is less known. John Paul Jones died in 1792 and was buried in Paris, France. The location of his grave was lost over time and a search for his corpse began in 1899. Remains matching his physical characteristics and circumstance of burial were discovered in 1905 and returned to the United States for a hero's burial. Some questioned the identification at the time and the major source of identifying information has since been shown to contain false information. The published forensic literature fails to address existing critiques of the identification. We provide a substantive analysis and conclude that the available evidence supports the identification of the unknown remains as those of John Paul Jones.     

Predictive Models of Domestic Violence and Fear of Intimate Partners Among Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Women

Despite a growing body of knowledge concerning family abuse, there is little research focusing on domestic violence in rural settings. Likewise, there is a paucity of research on family abuse among low-income and racial/ethnic minorities who reside in rural areas. This study examined the prevalence of domestic abuse experienced by low-income, predominantly Latina farm worker women. Using logistic regression analysis, we analyzed factors that predict victimization and the influence of those factors on women's fear of their intimate partners. Survey data were collected from 1001 adult female patients of 11 migrant farm worker health care clinics in nine states. Among the study participants, 19% had been physically or sexually abused by a husband, boyfriend, or companion. The strongest predictors of domestic abuse were drug/alcohol use by the respondent's partner, pregnancy, and migrant status. The factors that most influenced respondents' fear of their intimate partners were abuse and frequency of abuse. The article concludes by discussing implications of the study for domestic violence intervention, treatment, and research in rural settings.     

Queer pleasures: Some thoughts

Queer praxis is often conceptualized as a creative construction of alternative ways of being; a strategic practice of self‐(trans)formation. The practice of queer pleasures constitutes one such mode of possibility. Within this model, queer pleasures represent the threshold of a politics that promises a radical confrontation with inhibiting normalities. Yet by applying political priorities to pleasure, and by incessantly equating pleasure with the sexual, there is a risk of re‐establishing hierarchies and conventions, and, moreover, of reinforcing a notion of the subject as self‐transparent, autonomous and intentionally motivated. This paper explores some of the dimensions of pleasure that this politics tends to ignore—the trivial, quotidian, accidental, embarrassing, boring, insignificant, mediocre—and asks whether this overlooking is accidental or a structural inevitability. I will explore queer's investment in the politics of pleasure, and speculate about alternatives