Particular Rights and Absolute Wrongs: Giorgio Agamben on Life and Politics

Over the past decade, as human rights discourses have increasingly served to legitimize state militarism, a growing number of thinkers have sought to engage critically with the human rights project and its anthropological foundations. Amongst these thinkers, Giorgio Agamben’s account of rights is possibly the most damning: human rights declarations, he argues, are biopolitical mechanisms that serve to inscribe life within the order of the nation state, and provide an earthly foundation for a sovereign power that is taking on a form redolent of the concentration camp. In this paper, I will examine Agamben’s account of human rights declarations, which he sees as central to the modern collapse of the distinction between life and politics that had typified classical politics. I will then turn to the critique of Agamben offered by Jacques Ranciere, who suggests that Agamben’s rejection of rights discourses is consequent to his adoption of Hannah Arendt’s belief that, in order to establish a realm of freedom, the political realm must be premised on the expulsion of natural life. In contrast to Ranciere, I will argue that far from sharing the position of those thinkers, like Arendt, who seek to respond to the modern erosion of the borders between politics and life by resurrecting earlier forms of separation, Agamben sees the collapse of this border as the condition of possibility of a new, non-juridical politics.

Forensic utility of the mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 of domestic dogs, in conjunction with breed and geographic information

The 608-bp hypervariable region 1 (HV1) sequences from 36 local dogs were analyzed to characterize the population genetic structure of canid mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Sixteen haplotypes were identified. A 417-bp segment of this sequence was compared with GenBank sequences from a geographically representative sample of 201 dogs, two coyotes, and two wolves. Sixty-six haplotypes were identified including 62 found only in domestic dogs. Fourteen of these correspond to the 16 local haplotypes and were among the most frequent haplotypes. The local sample was judged to be representative of the much broader geographic sample. No correlation was observed between local haplotypes and the owner's characterization of dog breed. A 60-bp variation "hotspot" within the canid HV1 was identified as a potentially valuable molecular tool, particularly for assaying limited or degraded DNA samples.     

A three-year follow-up of the performance of a class of state police academy graduates using the MMPI-2

Research has demonstrated the utility of the MMPI-2 in identifying good and poor performance, dissatisfaction, termination, low performance ratings, unsatisfactory and satisfactory criterion groups, problematic behavior, corruption, and aggression. There is much research to suggest that certain patterns of responding to this measure by officer applicants predict job performance behaviors that supervisors and police executives view unfavorably. This study illustrates the fact that variables which are likely to predict police performance are less obvious and more subtle. Discussion centers on repression and underlying hostility. Authors' Note: William U. Weiss, Ph.D., is professor of psychology, The University of Evansville, 1800 Lincoln Avenue, Evansville IN 47722. At the time this study was done, Jessica Johnson was an undergraduate student research assistant. Gerald F. Serafino, Ph.D., and Ann Serafino are in private practice in Roswell, New Mexico.     

Like Talking to a Brick Wall: Implications of Emotion Metaphors for Mediation Practice

In this article, the authors discuss the role of emotions in mediation with the goal of providing practical insights that can improve the mediation process. Their assumption is that emotion is ever-present, particularly in conflict, and that acknowledging and addressing underlying emotions facilitates conflict transformation during the mediation process.     

‘How good are we?’ culture and the Cold War

This analysis addresses the question of how different levels of culture were used in the Cold War by political and civil institutions to influence public opinion in Western Europe, and, more specifically, in Germany. It illuminates how what are commonly defined as ‘cultural exports’ or ‘cultural propaganda’ refer to a highly heterogeneous and complex group of governmental and non-governmental agents, actions and motivations. While governmental exports focused increasingly on highbrow products such as book and art exhibits, manifestations of popular culture were only admitted if they revealed a specific educational purpose. It can be argued that high culture provided the basis for much Cold War propaganda as much as the Cold War manipulated representations of high culture. Competing against communist claims that America had no high culture, US Cold War programs invoked previous instances of high cultural exchange, particularly with Germany. In doing so, they sealed and politicized a cultural partnership that had been in existence for almost 100 years.     

Hawks,Doves, and Peace: An Experimental Approach

An old adage holds that “only Nixon could go to China”; that is, hawkish leaders face fewer domestic barriers than doves when it comes to pursuing reconciliation with foreign enemies. However, empirical evidence for this proposition is mixed. In this article, we clarify competing theories, elucidate their implications for public opinion, and describe the results of a series of survey experiments designed to evaluate whether and why there is a hawk's advantage. We find that hawks are indeed better positioned domestically to initiate rapprochement than doves. We also find support for two key causal mechanisms: Voters are more confident in rapprochement when it is pursued by a hawk and are more likely to view hawks who initiate conciliation as moderates. Further, the hawk's advantage persists whether conciliatory efforts end in success or failure. Our microfoundational evidence thus suggests a pronounced domestic advantage for hawks who deliver the olive branch.     

Does victimization reduce self-control? A longitudinal analysis

Purpose

To examine the effect of victimization on self-control.

Method

Five waves of data from the GREAT survey are analyzed; the effect of prior victimization on subsequent self-control is estimated using the dynamic panel generalized-method of moments.

Results

Victimization reduces subsequent self-control in the near term.

Conclusions

The findings point to another source of low self-control, help to explain why prior victimization is linked to subsequent victimization, and provide support for general strain theory - which predicts that strains such as victimization will reduce self-control.     

Estimating the Impact of Classification Error on the “Statistical Accuracy” of Uniform Crime Reports

This paper offers a methodological approach for estimating classification error in police records then determining the statistical accuracy of official crime statistics reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Classification error refers to the mistakes in UCR statistics caused by the misclassification of criminal offenses, for example recording a crime as aggravated assault when it should have been simple assault. Statistical accuracy refers to the estimated true total of each crime type based on cancelling effect of undercounting and overcounting crime due to misclassifications. The population for the study consists of the 12 largest municipal police agencies in a mostly rural southeastern state. Based on a sample of 2,663 records, the authors illustrate the impact of classification error on the total population of reported offenses. Misclassifications result in overcounting and undercounting certain crimes. The true number of each crime type, as well as the aggregate Index Crime, Violent Crime, and Property Crime totals, is estimated based the evaluation of offsetting misclassifications. The findings show that certain UCR crime categories are greatly undercounted while others are overcounted. The index crime and violent crime totals are also significantly undercounted; however, when simple assault is added to the index and violent crime categories, the error in these aggregate numbers is reduced to less than 1%. The results provide a benchmark for assessing the statistical accuracy of the UCR data.