Looking for the state and finding god: conceptions of security among low-income Cairenes

This article analyses how low-income individuals in Cairo, Egypt interpret the aspects of security and insecurity that affect their daily lives. Particular attention is paid to crime and failing transportation infrastructure during Mohammed Morsi’s presidency, 2012–2013. Primarily, I show how religion is both a tool and coping mechanism to help combat chronic periods of insecurity. Participants invoke religion to force officials to perform their duties and to perform them honestly. Secondly, religion is called upon as a final form of mental and spiritual relief against injustice and the trials of daily urban life. This paper seeks to make an intervention into security studies by showing how Egyptians defend themselves through personal and communal understandings of religion in distinction to security practices enacted by the state and other national and international organizations.     

Polycentric Governance and Irrigation Reform in Kenya

In Kenya, as in many developing countries, centralized control over water resources was implemented to improve agricultural productivity. By the 1980s, however, Kenya's postindependence policies of bureaucratic control were in disarray, and conflicts over water use were common. More recently, Kenya has embarked on a series of reforms that create a polycentric approach to water governance, in which decision making about water resources is shared among multiple, overlapping local, regional, and national authorities. Drawing on archival and field research, we examine these reforms in their historic context and argue that whereas centralized control was poorly adapted to the Kenyan context, polycentric governance is better suited to Kenya's variable social and ecological conditions and the available resources of its administrative agencies.     

Damage characteristics of fabrics created by TASER probes

TASER® weapons are conducted energy weapons (CEWs) that are frequently used by police departments around the world. CEWs can be deployed in two methods: drive stun application and probe deployment. This study aims to examine damages caused by TASER devices on fabrics and whether types of fabric material and TASER models could contribute to different damage features. Three types of white fabric were used, including 100% cotton, 100% polyester, and 65:35 polyester-cotton blend. Three models: TASER X26P, TASER X2, and TASER 7 were shot onto each type of fabric, with five repetitions each. Each damaged area on the fabric caused by a probe is a sample (n = 90) and was examined with a Keyence digital microscope. Images were captured by the Keyence microscope and measurements were recorded, including damage dimensions, fabric condition, evidence of burning, and extra findings. The presence of fused yarn ends was found to be statistically significant across the fabric types, and no damage features were found that may assist in the identification of TASER models. Other damage features including damage dimensions, discoloration, and fiber deformation were not found to be showing apparent differences according to statistical analysis. The conclusions made by this research should be used with caution due to the small sample size.     

The interface between exercise of state power and personal powerlessness: a study of police perceptions of factors impacting professional practices

Police legitimacy is crucial to the maintenance of law and order in any society. In communities marred by high instances of societal manifestations of dysfunction, tenuous legislative frameworks, poradic implementation, and dismantling of crime fighting strategies, there is greater emphasis placed on quick-fix crime fighting solutions and policing initiatives. The focus is placed primarily on what police officers are mandated to do as opposed to practical applications underscored by systematic hindrances to professional practice. Examining interview data from a pilot study on police fear of crime in Trinidad and Tobago, this study is intended to explore connections between police perceptions about personal powerlessness and the exercise of state power. Here we examine the discourses of N = 12 senior police officers with an average of 22.83 years of service to attain a preliminary understanding of instances presenting a conflict between professional practice and perceptions of self-preservation. The findings suggest a need for officers’ constant consideration of the repercussions of professional competence and the need for continued navigation of blurred constructions of police legitimacy and subjective determinants of criminality against a backdrop of acknowledged personal powerlessness.     

Placating the Powerless: Effects of Legitimate and Illegitimate Explanation on Affect,Memory, and Stereotyping

In an experimental study involving power differences between groups, the effects of legitimate and illegitimate explanations for power were investigated on measures of affect, stereotyping, and memory. We found that powerless groups reported more positive affect (relative to negative affect) when explanations were provided for their powerlessness, whether these explanations were classified a priori as either legitimate or illegitimate. Members of powerless groups also attributed greater intelligence and responsibility to the outgroup when it was in a position of high power rather than equal power, and these effects on stereotyping were enhanced when explanations for the power differences were provided. Finally, research participants tended to misremember the reasons given for the power differences as more legitimate than they actually were. These results support a system justification theory of intergroup behavior (Jost and Banaji [1994] Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 33:1–27) in that people seem to imbue placebic explanations with legitimacy, use stereotypes to rationalize power differences, and exhibit biases in memory such that the status quo is increasingly legitimized over time.     

Examining Rates of Sexual Offenses from a Routine Activities Perspective

Recent policies enacted regarding sex offenders include the formation of a publicly accessible sex offender registry, community notification, and residential restrictions. Often the motivation behind these policies is to get information out about sex offenders to community members so that these communities can effectively guard against any revictimization by the sex offenders among them. Theoretically, the premise for this type of legislation corresponds to relationships specified by routine activities theory. The theory states that if guardians can interrupt potential offenders as they are preying on suitable targets, these crimes-in-the-making will not occur. The present study assesses routine activities theory via a study of the presence of potential offenders (as measured by the number of registered sex offenders in the area), as well as community and resident characteristics that measure the presence and types of suitable targets and the existence of guardians and guardianship structures. We find that only the presence of certain types of suitable targets has an influence on the variation in the rate of sex offenses across these communities. Policy implications are discussed.     

Public values, health inequality, and alternative notions of a "fair" response

The fact that disadvantaged people generally die younger and suffer more disease than those with more resources is gaining ground as a major policy concern in the United States. Yet we know little about how public values inform public opinion about policy interventions to address these disparities. This article presents findings from an exploratory study of the public's values and priorities as they relate to social inequalities in health. Forty-three subjects were presented with a scenario depicting health inequalities by social class and were given the opportunity to alter the distribution of health outcomes. Participants' responses fell into one of three distributive preferences: (1) prioritize the disadvantaged, (2) equalize health outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, and (3) equalize health resources between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. These equality preferences were reflected in participants' responses to a second, more complex scenario in which trade-offs with other health-related values - maximizing health and prioritizing the sickest - were introduced. In most cases, participants moderated their distributive preferences to accommodate these other health goals, particularly to prioritize the allocation of resources to the very sick regardless of their socioeconomic status.     

Ethiopian taxicab drivers: forming an occupational niche in the US Capital

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the relative roles of cultural and structural factors in the emergence and solidification of taxi driving as an ethnic occupational niche among Ethiopian immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area within the wider context of globalization and immigrant integration. An ethnic occupational niche is the concentration and specialization of members of an ethnic group in a particular occupational activity. Using data from the US Census Bureau and in-depth interviews with 25 (male) Ethiopian cab drivers and three Ethiopian cab company owners, it examines the factors that affected the entrance of first-generation Ethiopian immigrants in this occupation since the 1980s. This research demonstrates that mixed embeddedness or the interplay of structural factors such as blocked mobility as well as cultural factors such as the strong social networks that exist among Ethiopian immigrants were important in the induction of new immigrants into taxicab driving. The demographic composition of the Washington metropolitan area and policies of the DC Taxicab Commission that allow for fairly easy entry of new drivers in the taxicab business also facilitated the emergence of this occupational niche.