Characteristics of court-involved men and non-court-involved men who abuse their wives

The characteristics of court involved (CI) (n=86) and non-court-involved (NCI) men (n=42) who abused their wives and attended a treatment program were investigated. The groups experienced similar childhoods concerning family violence. The NCI men had more years of education, were more likely to be employed full-time, and tended to earn more money than the CI men. The NCI men also had more social support and scored higher on interpersonal problems than the CI men. The CI men were more likely to be separated, more reported drinking during their most recent assaultive occasion. Compared to the norms on the Basic Personality Inventory, both groups scored significantly higher on depression, anxiety, feelings of alienation, hypochondriasis, and impulse expression. CI men had higher denial and social introversion scores and NCI men had higher interpersonal problem scores than the norm. These findings have some implications for the planning of treatment programs.     

A forensic international market survey of condom lubricants and personal hygiene products using ATR-FTIR coupled to chemometrics

Condom residues may be encountered in forensic investigations as traces in sexual assault or rape cases. Casework studies have shown the value of distinguishing condom residues from other types of personal products used by women. However, up to now, there has been no investigation of their chemical variability within an international context. This work employed attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with chemometrics to provide objective characterisation of condom lubricants and personal hygiene products from the international market. 166 samples were obtained covering five major classes of products likely to be used by women. Principal component analysis distinguished most major classes based on their spectral profiles, with subsequent support vector machine models yielding discrimination accuracies over 90%. A two-step approach was subsequently developed and enabled both classification and a discrimination accuracy of 100%. This could provide greater confidence in chemical discrimination of residues from these products when conducting investigations and help assess the origin of the chemical profile obtained. Further testing using three validation sets produced an identification accuracy of 100% for generic classes, which may allow investigative leads to be more readily obtained from recovered evidence.     

Young people,family relationships and civic participation

This article examines young people’s civic participation and the extent to which this is influenced by the family. Although literature on young people’s civic participation is abundant, the role of the family in influencing this participation is largely absent. Drawing on survey data collected from 976 young people aged 13–14 in South Wales, we outline the extent and nature of civic participation and how this varies according to relationships with parents and grandparents. Our data show that relationships with mothers and grandparents are particularly important in young people’s accounts of their participation, suggesting that family is far more important in developing a propensity for engagement in civil society than is commonly understood.     

Law From Below: Women's Human Rights and Social Movements in New York City

Despite the ambivalent history of the domestic application of human rights in the United States, human rights increasingly offer important resources for American grassroots activists. Within the constraints of U.S. policy toward human rights, they provide social movements a kind of global law "from below": a form of cosmopolitan law that subalterns can use to challenge their subordinate position. Using a case study from New York City, we argue that in certain contexts, human rights can provide important political resources to U.S. social movements. However, they do so in a diffuse way far from the formal system of human rights law. Instead, activists adopt some of the broader social justice ideas and strategies embedded within human rights practice.     

Unmarried Fathers and Parental Responsibility: A Case for Reform?

Following a Consultation exercise conducted by the Lord Chancellor's Department, the U.K. Government has announced its intention to amend the Children Act 1989 so that the unmarried father who jointly registers the birth with the mother will acquire parental responsibility automatically. In this paper, I draw on the responses made to the L.C.D. Consultation, in order critically to evaluate the arguments for and against reform. A poverty of relevant empirical research makes it impossible to reach a properly informed view on the positive or negative impacts of implementing the proposal. However, the principled arguments: that unmarried fathers and their children are subject to discrimination, or that it is unfair for men to pay child support, yet have no automatic rights with regard to their children, are ultimately unconvincing. I also attempt a more explicitly sociological exploration of the Consultation and reform process, focusing on what it can tell us about evolving social attitudes towards the statuses of `father' and `family' and how they should be valued and protected.     

‘Couldn't You Have Got a Computer Program to Do That for You?’ Reflections on the Impact that Machines Have on the Ways We Think About and Undertake Qualitative Research in the Socio-Legal Community

This article addresses the role that computer software programs play in the sort of textual analysis that has typically been the preserve of the qualitative researcher. Drawing on two distinct research projects conducted separately by the authors, it considers the transformation of social science software from a competent assistant that can help to sort and retrieve data, to an intelligent assistant capable of independently finding trends and counter-arguments, to a co-investigator capable of doing things that human researchers cannot. In addition to challenging some of the claims of ‘siliconistas’, this article considers the impact of new technology on the aesthetics of research and the professional identity of qualitative researchers. In doing so, it raises some important questions about how well we are training early-career academics for the challenges that they are likely to face in the future world of socio-legal empirical research.     

Book reviews

General

Asia's Population Problems. With a discussion of Populations and Immigration in Australia. Edited by S. Chandrasekhar. London, Allen and Unwin, 1967. Pp. 311. Map. Index. 45s.

Central Asia

Islam in the Soviet Union. By Alexandra Bcnningsen and Chantal Lemercier‐Quelquejay. London, Pall Mall Press in association with the Central Asian Research Centre, 1967. Pp. xiii + 272. Maps. Bibliog. Indexes. 50s.

A Sino‐Soviet Cultural Frontier. The Hi Kazakh Autonomous Chou. By George Moseley. Harvard University Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. viii + 163. Index. 24s.

Afghanistan. By John C. Griffiths. London, Pall Mall Press, 1967. Pp. viii + 179. Maps. Index. 30s.

Afghanistan. By W. K. Fraser‐Tytler. Third edition, revised by M. C. Gillett. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. xvi + 362. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. 45s.

The Northern Tier: Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. By Rouhollah K. Ramazani. Van Nostrand Inc., London and New York, 1966. Pp. 142. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 12s.

South Asia

Cabinet Government in India. By R. J. Venkateswaran. London, Allen and Unwin, 1967. Pp. 200. Bibliog. Index. 35s.

Experiment with Freedom. India and Pakistan, 1947. By Hugh Tinker. Published for Chatham House by Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. x + 165. 15s.

The Making of Pakistan. A Study in Nationalism. By K. K. Aziz. London, Chatto and Windus, 1967. Pp. 228. Bibliog. Index. 35s.

Pakistan: Its Ideology and Foreign Policy. By Arif Hussain. London, Frank Cass, 1966. Pp. 186. Bibliog. Index. 35s.

Land Tenure in Village Ceylon. A Sociological and Historical Study. By G. Obeyesekere. London, Cambridge University Press, 1967. Pp. xi + 319. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 70s.

South West Asia

The Middle East Crisis: A Personal Interpretation. By Glubb Pasha. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1967. Pp. 48. Maps. 3s. 6d.

The Communist Movement in Iran. By Sepehr Zabih. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. London: Cambridge University Press, 1966. Pp. viii + 279. Bibliog. Index. $6.00. 48s.

South East Asia

Vietnam. A Diplomatic Tragedy. Origins of U.S. Involvement. By Victor Bator. London, Faber and Faber, 1967. Pp. 253. Map. Index. 42s.

Victor Charlie. The Face of War in Vietnam. By Kuno Knoebl. Translated from the German by Abe Farbstein. London, Pall Mall Press, 1967. Pp. xiv + 304. 42s.

A Concise History of Southeast Asia. By Nicholas Tarling. London, Pall Mall Press, 1967. Pp. xvix + 334. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 52s. 6d.

Malaysia and its Neighbours. By J. M. Gullick. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967. Pp. xiii + 194. Map. Bibliog. Index. Hard cover, 25s. Paperback, 12s. 6d.

Ideology in Indonesia. Sukarno's Indonesian Revolution. By Donald E. Weather‐bee. Yale University. South East Asian Studies. Monograph Series No. 8, 1966. Pp. x + 125. (No price.)

International Aid to Thailand. The New Colonialism. By Ronald C. Nairn. London, Yale University Press, 1966. Pp. vi + 228. Bibliog. Index. 48s.

The Rice Bowl of Asia. By David M. Davies. London, Robert Hale, 1967. Pp. 176. 25s.

Far East

Stages of Industrial Development in Asia. By Sung Jae Koh. University of Pennsylvania Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. 461. Index 96s.

Britain and the Rise of Communist China. A Study of British Attitudes 1945–54. By Brian Porter. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 195. Bibliog. Index. 35s.

Political Participation in Communist China. By James R. Townsend. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967. Pp. 233. Index. 44s.

The Function of “China” in Marx, Lenin and Mao. By Donald M. Lowe. University of California Press, 1967. Pp. xiv + 200. Bibliog. Index. 40s.

The Party and the National Question in China. Edited and translated by George Moseley. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1966. Pp. ix + 186. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 60s.

The Role of the Chinese Army. By John Gittings. London, Oxford University Press for Chatham House, 1967. Pp. xix + 331. Bibliog. Index. 50s.

China Looks at the World. Reflections for a dialogue: eight letters to Tang‐lin. By François Geoffrey‐Dechaume. Translated from the French by Jean Stewart. Foreword by Philip Noel‐Baker, M.P.; Introduction by Professor Paul Mus. London, Faber, 1967. Pp. 327. Index. 36s.

The Chinese Chameleon. An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civilization. By Raymond Dawson. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 235. Illus. Bibliog. Index. 42s.

Biography and Autobiography

Gandhi's Emissary. By Sudhir Ghosh. London, The Cresset Press, 1967. Pp. 351. Illus. Index. 42s.

Rudyard Kipling. Realist and Fabulist. By Bonamy Dobrée. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. x + 244. Index. 30s.

Early English Travellers in India. By Ram Chandra Prasad. Delhi, Sunderlal Jain, 1965. Pp. xxii + 392. Map. Illus. Bibliog. Index. Rs.25.

Warlord: Yen Hsi‐shan in Shansi Province, 1911–1949. By Donald G. Gillin. Princeton University Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. xiv + 334. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 72s.

Ts'ao Yin and the K'ang‐hsi Emperor: Bondservant and Master. By Jonathan D. Spence. Yale University Press, 1967. Pp. xiv 4. 329. Map. Bibliog. Index. 56s.

Culture and civilization

Modern Arabic Short Stories. Selected and translated by Denys Johnson‐Davies, with an Introduction by Professor A. J. Arberry. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 194. 25s.

The Tree Climber. A Play. By Tewfik al Hakim. Translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson‐Davies. London, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. 87. 6s. 6d.

Javid‐Nama. By Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Translated from the Persian with introduction and notes by A. J. Arberry. London, Allen and Unwin, 1966. Pp. 151. Bibliog. Index. 27s.

History

North‐West Frontier. People and Events 1839–1947. By Arthur Swinson. London, Hutchinson, 1967. Pp. 354. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. 45s.

The West in Asia 1850–1914. By Michael Edwardes. London, Batsford, 1967. Pp. 216. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 42s.

Indochina. By Bernard Philippe Groslier, trans. James Hogarth. London, Frederick Muller, 1966. Pp. 283. Endpaper maps. 35 colour plates; 110 monochrome plates. Bibliog. Index. 70s.

Malaysia: Selected Historical Readings. Compiled by John Bastin and Robin W. W. Winks. Kuala Lumpur; London, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. xvi + 484. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £4 10s.

Henri Mouhot's Diary. Edited and abridged by Christopher Pym. Kuala Lumpur; London, Oxford University Press, 1960. Pp. xxii + 160. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. 37s. 6d.

Stories by Sir Hugh Clifford. Selected and introduced by William R. Roff. Kuala Lumpur; London, Oford University Press, 1966. Pp. xviii + 225. 42s.

Trente Siècles d'Histoire de Chine. By Roger Lévy. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1967. Pp. 309. Maps. F.10.

Strangers at the Gate. Social Disorders in South China, 1839–1861. By Frederic Wakeman Jr. University of California Press; London, Cambridge University Press, 1967. Pp. 276. Maps. Bibliog. Index. 48s.

Feudal Control in Tokugawa Japan. By Toshio G. Tsukahira. Harvard University Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 228. Bibliog. Index. Paperback, 28s.

Foundations of Constitutional Government in Modern Japan, 1868–1900. By George Akita. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. viii + 292. Bibliog. Index. 68s.

Political thought in early Meiji Japan, 1868–1889. By Joseph S. J. Pittau. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. vi + 250. Bibliog. Index. 56s.

Religion and philosophy

Islamic Reform. The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida. By Malcolm H. Kerr. University of California Press; London, Cambridge University Press, 1967. Pp. vii + 249. Bibliog. Index. 42s.

Travel

Tibetan Venture. By C. G. Lewis. London, Robert Hale, 1967. Pp. 191. Illus. 21s.

Tribes and Tribulations. By Peter Somerville‐Large. London, Robert Hale, 1967. Pp. 188. Map. Illus. 25s.

Love and Hate in China. By Hans Koningsberger. London, Jonathan Cape, 1967. Pp. 150. 21s.