Perceptions and prevalence of stalking in a male sample

Abstract

Most research into stalking has focused on males as perpetrators and females as victims. The present study investigated firstly how males perceive the crime of stalking and secondly the prevalence of stalking and other intrusive activities in a male population. A sample of 210 British men was asked to indicate which of a continuum of 42 behaviours they believed to represent stalking. Clear subtypes of perceived stalking were identified, and these did not significantly differ from those produced by a female sample in earlier work (Sheridan, Davies and Boon, 2001). Thus, male and females hold similar views on which activities do and do not constitute ‘stalking’, Respondents were then asked to indicate whether they had personal experience of the same 42 behaviours and if they had, to provide free narrative on their ‘worst experience’. As expected, males reported substantially less experience of intrusive behaviour than females, and just 5.2% were judged to have suffered ‘stalking’. Whilst this figure is significantly below estimates made for females, it still indicates a notable risk for males and suggests that complaints of stalking made by males should be taken as seriously as those made by females.     

The IMF Forever: An Analysis of the Prolonged Use of Fund Resources

Considerable concern has been expressed about the prolonged use made of International Monetary Fund (IMF) resources by a number of member countries. Some commentators have seen this as being fundamentally at odds with the role of the IMF as a source of temporary balance of payments support and as one aspect of mission creep by the Fund. The perceived importance of the issue is reflected by the fact that the first report of the Fund's Independent Evaluation Office focused on it. This article provides a detailed analysis of the prolonged use of Fund resources. It assesses the extent to which it is a problem and draws on available empirical evidence (both qualitative and quantitative) to isolate the causes of prolonged use. It concludes by examining the policy questions to which prolonged use gives rise.     

Commitment issues: security and belonging in a white Kenyan household

Once the archetype of romantic colonialism, white Kenyans with personal or familial ties to colonialism face a multitude of challenges with respect to their history and political status. In this article, I examine how discourses related to whites “belonging” in Kenya have constellated around the issue of security, especially in Nairobi, where crime (and recently, terrorism) makes security a potent and political topic. Of particular importance is the staff that white Kenyans employ in their homes. In contexts where African neighbours are predominantly impoverished, I emphasise employer–employee relationships as a key performance of commitment to the Kenyan community. As amendments to the Kenyan constitution have brought forth new issues related to citizenship and “commitment” by white Kenyan citizens, I also proffer that domestic projects of securitisation help to establish their investment or commitment to Kenya, constituting both a grounded and discursive defence against crime or political antagonism.     

The Digital Knowledge Economy Index: Mapping Content Production

We propose the construction of a Digital Knowledge Economy Index, quantified by way of measuring content creation and participation through digital platforms, namely the code sharing platform GitHub, the crowdsourced encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and Internet domain registrations and estimating a fifth sub-index for the World Bank Knowledge Economy Index for year 2012. This approach complements conventional data sources such as national statistics and expert surveys and helps reflect the underlying digital content creation, capacities, and skills of the population. An index that combines traditional and novel data sources can provide a more revealing view of the status of the world’s digital knowledge economy and highlight where the (un)availability of digital resources may actually reinforce inequalities in the age of data.     

Reviews

This focuses on the August 2009 election which saw the massive victory of the Democratic party led by Yukio Hatoyama. The Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which had ruled Japan virtually without a break since 1955 paid the price for economic failure and long term voter dissatisfaction which was masked for a time by the skills of Koizumi. The new government is trying to rebalance relations with Asia, including China and the United States, where the marine base in Okinawa poses a particular challenge.     

Foreign aid,debt relief and Africa's development: problems and prospects

In recent years, the Paris club granted a number of African countries, including Nigeria, debt relief. This elicited widespread celebration in the capital cities of affected countries, where it was portrayed as a veritable launch-pad to Africa's development. This paper takes a critical look at the debt relief, with emphasis on its problems and prospects for Africa's development. It is argued that while debt relief does offer some prospects for development, there is little or no evidence to suggest that such an outcome is automatic. The conditions that precipitated the debt crisis in the first instance, including an inequitable international economic order and political conditions tied to aid, are still very present in the debt relief regime. Corruption of the foreign aid regime by both internal and external actors has been compounded by the recent global economic crisis, posing further constraints on the effectiveness of foreign aid in Africa. If debt relief must yield the desired result, it has to be accompanied by a sustainable campaign to fundamentally reform the world order to make it more equitable, together with a drive for good governance that is not only democratic, but also efficient and development-oriented in Africa.     

Economic faith,Social project and a misreading of African society: the travails of neoliberalism in Africa

This article is interested in the nature of the neoliberal project's expansion in Africa. The starting point for this exploration is a need to reflect on how the concept of neoliberalism is defined, especially the way it signals an economic doctrine which can only be realised as a broader sociopolitical project. The article goes on to show how, inasmuch as neoliberalism has consolidated itself in African states, it has done so by expanding its boundaries from macroeconomic fundamentals into broader concerns of state reconstruction. Most profoundly the full realisation of neoliberal social transition relies on expectations about the way societies behave. Here neoliberal approaches reveal themselves as nothing so much as faith statements, or convictions about the market-like sociability of African communities. The article ends by reflecting on more historical and structuralist approaches to the way markets have evolved within societies, concluding with an entreaty to ‘bring accumulation back in’ as a way of understanding markets and their developmental possibilities.     

Going Public as Political Strategy: The Bush Administration,an Echoing Press,and Passage of the Patriot Act

Research suggests that political elites excel at controlling political and media information environments, particularly in times of national crisis, such as the events and aftermath of September 11. This study examines the creation and passage of the Patriot Act, which was proposed by the Bush administration following the terrorist attacks and quickly passed with strong support by the U.S. Congress. We argue that (a) the public communications of the Bush administration, particularly those by George W. Bush and John Ashcroft, and (b) news coverage about the legislation were instrumental in this outcome. Public communications by Bush and Ashcroft and news coverage about the Act were content analyzed to identify the timing of the messages and the themes and perspectives emphasized, and congressional debates and activities were examined for insight into their relation with administration and press discourse. Findings suggest that Bush and Ashcroft's communications, in combination with a press that largely echoed the administration's messages, created an environment in which Congress faced significant pressure to pass the legislation with remarkable speed.