Perceiving and Communicating Environmental Contamination and Change: Towards a Green Cultural Criminology with Images

In this article, we will respond to recent calls for a ‘green cultural criminology’ by attempting to open the way for new visual explorations of environmental harms and crimes, and by suggesting some methodological perspectives that can be advanced by the use and analysis of the photographic image. To demonstrate the power, potential and possibility—as well as some potential limitations—of a green cultural criminology with images, we draw on two ethnographic studies carried out in Huelva (Spain) and central Appalachia (United States). The described methods have the advantage of (1) bringing together the multiple and complex experiences of those who live in polluted areas; (2) considering the cultural meaning given to experiences of ecological change and destruction; and (3) exploring how those experiences are represented, communicated and understood. We conclude with a call to use qualitative visual approaches for carrying out research in an emergent green cultural criminology designed to develop a complex understanding of the multiple forms of environmental harms and crimes.     

Developing Public Safety and Crime Indicators in Taiwan

Many countries and international organisations (for example, the USA, England and Wales, Japan, the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) have developed measures of public safety and measures of the effectiveness of criminal justice agencies. This paper briefly considers the background to such comparative developments and relates these to the specific contextual conditions of Taiwan. We report the results of a study which reviewed the state of empirical indicator availability in Taiwan and sought to develop an indicator framework for those charged with the governmental task of ‘public safety’. The paper concludes by considering how such a framework can be implemented in Taiwan.     

The role of beliefs about aggression in cyberbullying and animal abuse

ABSTRACT

The current study sought to examine the associations between involvement in bullying (traditional and cyber), attitudes about aggression, and animal abuse. Four hundred and thirty-nine undergraduate students (267 females and 172 males) enrolled in Introductory Psychology completed surveys assessing bullying involvement, normative beliefs about aggression, and animal abuse tendencies. Results revealed that animal abusers reported significantly higher rates of bullying (traditional and cyber) and significantly more accepting views of aggression when compared to non-abusers. A logistic regression model indicated that bullying perpetration (traditional and cyber), normative beliefs about aggression, and gender were significant predictors of animal abuse. In addition, the findings suggest that normative beliefs about aggression may serve as an underlying mechanism linking traditional bullying, cyberbullying, and animal abuse. Implications for prevention and intervention programs for aggression toward humans and animals are discussed.     

A social-cognitive model of animal cruelty

ABSTRACT

Recent decades have seen the emergence of social cognitive models of interpersonal aggression. These models, which have focused primarily on childhood aggression, have been the subject of extensive theoretical, methodological, and empirical attention. More recently, researchers have used social cognitive models to address adult interpersonal aggression as well as child abuse and neglect. This article will discuss the ways in which researchers can potentially extend this model to understand the abuse and neglect of animals. After a brief review of the literature on social-information processing, schemas, and normative beliefs about aggression, I will apply these mechanisms and findings to what we know about animal cruelty. I will also use current social cognitive models of aggression to describe potential directions for future research within the field of animal abuse and neglect scholarship.     

Eyewitness Memory in Context: Toward a Taxonomy of Eyewitness Error

Although eyewitness memory and identification have captured substantial research interest in the past decades, an understanding of the types and prevalence of errors typically made by eyewitnesses is lacking. The purpose of the present research was to begin the development of a taxonomy of eyewitness error, employing standardized stimuli and established techniques. Respondents were exposed to a crime scene modeled on SWAT-training scenarios for systematically varied exposure times, and were then asked to describe what they had seen. The stimuli and questions employed were prepared with the aid of senior police field training officers. As anticipated, eyewitness performance in general was subject to a variety of inaccuracies. Physical errors, such as mistakes in the clothing or physical characteristics of the perpetrator, or in details of the environmental context, predominated. However, other less-expected errors were also observed: in relatively low numbers of cases, witnesses inferred emotional states or intent on the part of the perpetrator or victim. Some contributed wholly artificial backstories, reported the future actions of the perpetrator or victim as memories, or even inserted themselves into the scene. The pattern of results was shown to interact with exposure time, gender of the perpetrator, and the presence or absence of weapons in the scene. The results of this study are consistent with reconfigurative theory dating to Bartlett (1932), with subsequent research, and with more recent work under the aegis of Gestalt/Feature-Intensive Processing theory. These findings provide information on types and prevalence of eyewitness error which should prove useful in investigative and courtroom settings.     

Do Debt Policies Make a Difference in Finance Officers' Perceptions of the Importance of Debt Management Factors?

This article explores the importance of various debt policy factors using a national survey of government finance officers. Further, it examines whether the presence of a particular factor in a debt policy influences finance officers' perception of its importance. We find that debt policies tend to be technical in nature and that broad policy issues are most often not included in debt policies. Moreover, we find that the inclusion of debt management factors in debt policies has a powerful influence on their perceived importance by public managers.     

Cultural Stressors and the Hopelessness Model of Depressive Symptoms in Latino Adolescents

Depressive symptoms in Latino youth have been related to both culturally-universal and culturally-based stressors. However, few studies have examined the unique contributions of culturally-based stressors above and beyond other types of stressors. Moreover, no past studies with Latinos have examined the role of culturally-based stressors within a hopelessness model of depressive symptoms, a cognitive model with the strongest empirical support in adolescence. The current study examined these issues in a sample of 171 Latino adolescents (7th-10th grades; mean age?=?14; 46?% male). The Latino adolescents were primarily Mexican-American (78?%) and born in the United States (60?%). Students completed measures during a school period on their experiences of parent-child conflict, economic stress, discrimination from peers, and acculturative stress as well as depressive symptoms and attributional style. The results indicated that culturally-based stressors (e.g., acculturative stress and discrimination) predicted greater depressive symptoms even when controlling for culturally-universal stressors (e.g., parent-child conflict, economic stress). Moreover, a negative attributional style moderated the relationship between culturally-universal stressors and depressive symptoms, but this was not the case for culturally-based stressors. Culturally-based stressors play an important role in depressive symptoms among Latino youth. These stressors predicted greater symptomatology even when controlling for other types of stressors and a negative attributional style. These findings suggest that there may be other cognitive risk factors associated with culturally-based stressors.     

Taking Murals Seriously: Basque Murals and Mobilisation

The purpose of this article is to take the admonition of taking the visual seriously into the realms of murals. It will present empirical data on contemporary murals in the Basque Country with a view to examining why murals are important to the abertzale-left, the broad left-wing nationalist movement in the Basque Country which includes but ranges far beyond the armed group ETA. The struggle for Basque autonomy from Spain has its roots in a nationalist awakening in the late twentieth century. It has developed through the struggle with fascism; the prolonged authoritarian, centralist state; and the transition to democracy after the death of Franco. Central to this development has been the definition of Basque identity in terms of culture rather than birth. Language has been key, but there has also been a visual strand to the struggle. The article will examine the state of that visual strand currently by examining murals on a range of themes: language and culture, independence and socialism, armed struggle, political prisoners, torture and repression, martyrs and heroes, women and environmental issues.     

Socioeconomic Stress and Academic Adjustment Among Asian American Adolescents: The Protective Role of Family Obligation

Socioeconomic stress has long been found to place youth at risk, with low family income conferring disadvantages in adolescents’ school achievement and success. This study investigates the role of socioeconomic stress on academic adjustment, and pinpoints family obligation as a possible buffer of negative associations. We examined direct and interactive effects at two time points in the same sample of Asian American adolescents—early high school (N = 180 9th–10th graders; 60 % female) and 2 years later in late high school (N = 156 11th–12th graders; 87 % of original sample). Results suggest that socioeconomic stress is indeed associated with poor academic adjustment, measured broadly through self-reported GPA, importance of academic success, and educational aspirations and expectations. Family obligation was positively related to adjustment, and also was found to buffer the negative effects of socioeconomic stress, but only during adolescents’ later high school years. Adolescents reporting more family obligation experienced less of the negative effects of financial stress on academic outcomes than those reporting lower obligation. Cultural and developmental implications are discussed in light of these direct and moderating effects.