What’s the Bandwidth for Democracy? Deconstructing Internet Penetration and Citizen Attitudes About Governance

Recent world events have highlighted the democratic potential of information and communication technologies. This article draws upon the democracy literature to develop a multilevel conceptual framework that links country-level Internet penetration and individual-level Internet use to citizen attitudes about governance in 34 developing countries. In doing so, it deconstructs “Internet penetration” into three dimensions—hardware (e.g., computers), users, and broadband—to provide greater theoretical specificity about how Internet diffusion leads citizens to adopt democratic attitudes. Results from multilevel analyses indicate that individual Internet use and the diffusion of Internet hardware shape citizens’ perceptions of the supply of democracy in their countries, and individual Internet use and diffusion of broadband lead citizens to adopt stronger democratic preferences. Theoretical and normative implications are discussed.     

Jordan's Unfree Workforce: State-Sponsored Bonded Labour in the Arab Region

This article contributes to understandings of contemporary forms of unfree labour by offering an ethnographic perspective on a region which so far has been overlooked in the scholarly literature on the subject – the Arab world. It describes the sponsorship system through which tens of millions of foreign workers are employed in Jordan, Lebanon and the Arabian Gulf states and argues that it constitutes a form of bonded labour. One of the main features of this form of unfree labour is the role played by states in facilitating and enforcing it. This example complicates the commonly held assumption that since slavery and bonded labour have been legally abolished in most countries, contemporary forms of unfree labour exist primarily in extra-legal zones outside the boundaries of government oversight. On the contrary, in the context described here the state is not merely turning a blind eye but actively enabling bonded labour. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Jordan and Sri Lanka, the article focuses on the position of Sri Lankan women employed in domestic service to illuminate workers’ experiences of the sponsorship system and the institutional apparatuses that buttress it.     

Reform and resistance to royal authority in fourteenth‐century France: The leagues of 1314–1315∗

Summary

Among the various assemblies of the Old Regime, the Cortes of Aragon came to be celebrated during the sixteenth century as bulwarks of regional freedoms facing inroads from Spanish Habsburg authoritarianism. Over recent decades, modern historiography has made notable advances in their study. Nonetheless, recent revisionist perspectives on early‐modern parliaments invite new approaches to the Aragonese Cortes. That revisionism has, in turn, also been viewed from a critical standpoint. The aim of this article is to provide a synthesis of the functions of the Cortes; to identify the issues under discussion today; and then to propose a new, more balanced view of their evolution, especially after the dramatic revolt against Philip II in 1591. Events in Aragon will also be considered in the light of recent reinterpretations of the parliamentary history of the neighbouring kingdom of Castile.     

Gender Differences in Health Symptoms Associated with the Exposure to Physical Violence in Family: Data from the 2006 National Health Survey in Serbia

This study analyzed gender differences in exposure to family violence in Serbia and its association with health symptoms. Using data from the National Health Survey 2006 in Serbia, univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were run to examine the association between exposure to physical violence in the family (in the past 12 months) and the occurrence of 15 different health symptoms (in the past 4 weeks). Out of 12,646 interviewed adults (older than 20), women reported experiencing family violence nearly 1.7 times more often than men (1.28 % vs. 0.75 %). Women had nine health symptoms significantly associated with experienced violence, while men had four, even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Depression and insomnia were common for both genders. Results suggest that physicians should pay attention to health complaints, consider family violence as an associated factor, and address violence in a gender sensitive way that is free of prejudice and preconceptions.     

A Contemporary Snapshot of Policewomen Attitudes

Historically, women have been unwelcome in male-dominated police cultures; despite the gains acquired over many tumultuous years, policewomen continue to face significant obstacles. Men officers often promote the subordination of policewomen, and, because of this, some degree of emotional deterioration among women officers would be understandable. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of such a hypothesis. Questionnaires were mailed to all municipal police departments in one southern state with 50 or more sworn personnel (n = 21) and produced 1,114 responses from 16 departments. Analysis revealed that women officers' (n = 89) professionalism, job satisfaction, stress, and confidence levels demonstrate a condition of psychological health and do not differ significantly from those of men officers. Essentially, the findings suggest that policewomen are mentally tough and resilient, and hence quite capable of modulating the demands of police careers.     

Linking informal social control and restorative justice: moving social disorganization theory beyond community policing

Much of what is at the heart of social disorganization theory’s approach to neighborhood crime prevention has been ignored in favor of policies that are more closely associated with deterrence and rational choice theories. Specifically, ideas of informal social control and collective efficacy have often been translated into policies of community surveillance and the reporting of suspicious behaviors to the police. While these policies may make neighborhoods less attractive to offenders because they create higher certainty levels of recognition, and subsequently arrest, social disorganization theory, at its heart, suggests crime prevention policies of a very different nature: policies that are more closely associated with restorative justice, re‐integrative shaming and peacemaking criminology. These associations are highlighted and provide a conceptual model for a community crime prevention program that is more consistent with the underlying nature of social disorganization theory.     

What Happens to Law in a Refugee Camp?

How do people living in a refugee camp engage with legal practices, discourses, and institutions? Critics argue that refugee camps leave people in “legal limbo” depriving them of the “right to have rights” despite the presence of international humanitarian actors and the entitlements enshrined in international law. For that reason, refugee camps have become a highly visible symbol of failed human rights campaigns. In contrast, I found in an ethnography of the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, West Africa, that although people living as refugees faced chronic insecurity and injustice, they engaged extensively with several different facets of the law. I illuminate three interrelated dimensions of their experiences: (1) their development as international legal subjects; (2) their alienation from domestic legal institutions; and (3) their agency within the legal field. The article contributes to the research agenda on law in humanitarian settings an empirically grounded account of the subjective dimensions of legal alienation and mobilization in a refugee camp. More broadly, it contributes to international human rights debates by theorizing a mixed outcome of international human rights campaigns: the emergence of wards of international law, people deeply embedded in the international legal system, but alienated from local law.     

Restorative Justice,Consistency and Proportionality: Examining the Trade-off

Abstract

Restorative justice conferences that operate as sentencing mechanisms involve the making of a trade-off between empowering lay participants to make their own decisions, and the requirements of consistency and proportionality, which are established principles of sentencing. In current restorative justice practice, this trade-off tends to be made more in favour of consistency and proportionality, at the expense of the empowerment of lay participants.

Empowerment is central to key benefits of restorative justice, such as reducing recidivism and increasing victim satisfaction. However, its importance to the effectiveness of restorative justice is not always properly acknowledged. In addition to this lack of acknowledgment, there are both conceptual and practical problems with the principles of consistency and proportionality (particularly in the way that they are presented when considered in relation to restorative justice) that are often overlooked. As a result, the tendency is for assumptions to be made about the necessary supremacy of these principles over empowerment. This paper urges more acknowledgement of the importance of empowerment in restorative justice, together with a greater appreciation of the problems with consistency and proportionality, with a view to challenging assumptions about the way that the trade-off must be made.     

Does providing a written version of the police caution improve comprehension in the general population?

Abstract

Comprehension of the police caution is extremely poor across a variety of populations and jurisdictions and is particularly impaired in vulnerable populations. This has significant consequences for the admissibility of evidence in court. We investigated whether providing individuals with a written version of the caution would improve comprehension in the general population. Sixty participants (30 with low educational attainment and 30 with high educational attainment) were randomly allocated to one of three groups (Verbal presentation; Written presentation; Verbal and Written presentation). Comprehension in the three groups was evaluated using Cooke and Philip's (1998) Scottish Comprehension of Caution Instrument. Results showed that despite 95% of participants claiming to fully understand the sample caution, only 5% of individuals in the verbal presentation group demonstrated full understanding, compared to 40% and 35% in the written and combined verbal and written groups respectively. This highlights both that individuals' self-reports of understanding are higher than actual comprehension and that providing a written version of the caution may improve comprehension in the general population.