Conceptualization of Intimate Partner Violence: Exploring Gender Differences Using Concept Mapping

While numerous studies have explored prevalence and determinants of intimate partner violence (IPV), one area that has yet to be sufficiently explored is whether men and women agree on the acts, behaviours, and attitudes that comprise IPV. Through the use of concept mapping, we examined the similarities and differences in the conceptualization of IPV among a diverse sample of men and women. Although men and women conceptualized physical and sexual violence similarly, men tended to rate non-physical behaviors related to control as less important to the definition of IPV than women. Moreover, even when men and women used similar labeling language for grouping of items, the statements included in each cluster were substantially different for non-physically abusive items. A greater understanding of similarities and differences in the conceptualization of IPV by gender can help inform appropriate gender specific IPV intervention and prevention efforts.     

Debates over the 1949 ‘Leningrad Affair’ in the Contemporary Russian Popular Press

Sergei Kremlev, Zachem ubili Stalina? Prestuplenie veka. Moscow: Yauza, Eskmo, 2008, 480pp., 237 rubles.

V. D. Kuznechevskii, ‘Leningradskoe delo’: Naivnaya popytka sozdat’ etnicheski chistoe russkoe pravitel’stvo byla utoplena v krovi. Moscow: Rossiiskii institut strategicheskikh issledovanii, 2013, 84pp., 207 rubles.

Sigizmund Mironin, Stalinskii poryadok. Moscow: Algoritm, 2007, 272pp., 126 rubles.

Elena Prudnikova, 1953—Rokovoi god sovetskoi istorii. Moscow: Yauza, Eksimo, 2008, 416pp.

Svyatoslav Rybas, Moskovskie protiv piterskikh: Leningradskoe delo Stalina. Moscow: Algoritm, 2013, 256pp., 231 rubles.     

The Effect of Race-Based Admissions in Public Universities: Debunking the Myths about Hopwood and Proposition 209

In the debates over the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding race-based university admissions, speculation has focused on how affirmative action affects minority undergraduate enrollments. This paper uses a rational choice framework to test the conventional wisdom about the effect of race-based admissions, focusing on the landmark Hopwood judicial decision and California's Proposition 209. This study offers more generalizable findings by incorporating all public universities bound under Hopwood and Proposition 209 using data spanning 1990–2000. Findings indicate that the effect of race-based admissions standards is not what might have been predicted: Shifts in minority enrollments that are attributable to affirmative action hinge on university-specific characteristics—namely, the level of selectivity.     

Evaluation of a Teen Dating Violence Prevention Intervention among Urban Middle-School Youth Using Youth Participatory Action Research: Lessons Learned from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Start Strong Boston</Emphasis>

Almost half of adolescents aged 11 to 14 have dated and between 10 and 30% report experiencing Teen Dating Violence (TDV). However, there are no evidence-based TDV prevention interventions designed for afterschool, community-based settings with middle-school youth, in high-risk neighborhoods. Start Strong Boston (SSB) is a model that fills all three gaps, founded on partnerships between the Boston Public Health Commission, community afterschool sites, academic experts and evaluators, and youth. Here, we describe the SSB program and discuss how this collaboration built upon successes of this peer-engaged intervention, by developing and implementing a youth participatory action research (YPAR) evaluation study of SSB. Use of the YPAR framework tested the feasibility of employing Peer Researchers in an interdisciplinary evaluation team. We describe how through participation in evaluation research, Peer Researchers improve professional and leadership skills while informing measurement and conceptualization of a program affecting their own neighborhoods. Lessons learned are presented.     

A Review of: “Ronald J. Olive. Capturing Jonathan Pollard.”

Augustus Richard Norton and Martin H. Greenberg, The International Relations of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989. Pp.233.

Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse (eds.), Jahrbuch Extremlsmus und Demokratie. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag, 1989. Pp.379.

Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse, Politlscher Extremlsmus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Band I: Llteratur, Pp.312; Band II: Analyse, Pp.384; Band III: Dokumentation, Pp.344; Köln: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik Berend von Nottbeck, 1989.

Richard L. Clutterbuck, Terrorism and Guerrilla Warfare: Forecasts and Remedies. London: Routlege, 1990. Pp.235. £25 (hardback).

President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism, Report to the President. Washington, DC: US. Government Printing Office, 1990. Pp.v + 182.     

Civil society and democratization: The role of service-providing organizations amid closing civic spaces

This article argues that current democracy promotion strategies relying on rights-claiming advocacy NGOs are falling short of their democratization goals, as authoritarian regimes are closing the space through restrictions on the NGOs that attempt to carry them out. In response, we suggest a reexamination of earlier approaches to involving civil society in democratization efforts by shifting the focus back on service-providing civil society organizations that have largely become side-lined in democracy-building agendas. Specifically, service providers tend to be more capable of functioning “under the radar” thus contributing to democracy in both direct and indirect ways, and thus escaping closing space restrictions. The key concerns about their independence from the state, as well as under what conditions the state may be less successful in coopting the independent service-providers, however, remain unresolved and warrant future research.