Making Room for Hate Crime Legislation in Liberal Societies

There is a divide within political and legal theory concerning the justification of hate-crime legislation in liberal states. Opponents of Hate-Crime Legislation have recently argued that enhanced punishment for hate-motivated crimes cannot be justified within political liberal states. More specifically, Heidi Hurd argues that criminal sanction which target character dispositions unfairly target individuals for characteristics not readily under their control. She further argues that a ‘character’ based approach in criminal law is necessarily illiberal and violates the state’s commitment to political neutrality. In the current paper, I attempt to show the difficulties and absurdity that follows from Hurd’s characterization of hate- rimes. I aim to show that punishment for undesirable character traits is consistent with western conceptions of criminal law. Upon doing so, I then go on to construct a positive argument for the justifiability of punishing for character traits as well as for the enhanced punishment associated with hate-motivated crimes.     

The applications of MicroCT in studying age-related tooth morphological change and dental age estimation: A scoping review

Conventional dental age estimation relies on destructive methods such as sectioning and staining, which are unpreferable when the tooth is required for evidential or archeological preservation. MicroCT is a non-destructive, high-resolution imaging technique that allows for accurate morphometrical measurement. Although microCT technology has been applied in a variety of dental studies, studies focusing on dental age-related change and dental age estimation based on microCT imaging remain lacking. Based on the question: “How has microCT technology been applied in studying human age-related tooth morphological change and dental age estimation studies?”, the authors conducted a scoping review in accordance with the Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A literature search using five major scientific databases identified 452 articles, with 11 full-text articles being eligible to be included in the scoping review. Furthermore, 6 out of the 11 studies performed dental age estimation modeling. An overview of the parameters used in the selected articles revealed a variety of tooth characteristics, such as pulp cavity to whole tooth volume ratio, secondary dentin, as well as the diameter of root canal orifice. The findings of this scoping review highlight the extent microCT is used in studying dental age-related changes, as well as the effectiveness of microCT in dental age estimation studies. This review serves as a guide for future forensic odontology age estimation studies.     

Between class and nation: Ideology and radical Basque ethnonationalism

This article uses the case of the Basque country as an example of the apparently ironic situation where, in the face of the demise of Socialist regimes in Europe after 1989, ethnic nationalist movements pursue an avenue of continued radicalism. These movements, which include political parties, trade unions, youth movements, and other organizations, try to combine a leftist appeal to the working class with a call to support the nationalist demands of a given ethnic group that the movements claim has been oppressed by other groups. The article explores how these movements justify their ethnonationalistic appeals to the working class. It also examines the relevance of these movements to their respective regions and the support that they find within these regions. Lastly, the paper speculates on what direction the politics of their respective regions might take in the future.     

Can Demographic Characteristics Influence Perception on Internal Control System？

The purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and valid construct for internal control system and to assess the association between respondents＇ demographic factors and their perception on internal control system. The fraud triangle theory underpins the development of the survey instrument. Survey questionnaires were administered to 553 respondents out of which 334 were usable responses in the Malaysian financial sector, using face to face data collection procedure. Cochran＇s method was adopted for sample size determination. The confirmatory factor analysis （chi square = 3.09; AGFI = 0.81; NFI = 0.89; TLI = 0.91; CFI = 0.92; RMSEA = 0.08）, normality （skewness 〈 1.50） and reliability （composite reliability = 0.95; average variance extracted = 0.46） results were convincing. It was found that respondents＇ age （p = 0.02） and working experience （p = 0.01） had significant bearings toward their perception on internal control system within the Malaysian financial sector.     

Questioning pathways out of poverty: Indonesia as an illustrative case for the World Bank's transforming countries

The World Development Report 2008 uses Indonesia as an illustrative case for what it calls ‘transforming countries’. The main argument of this paper is that the three pathways out of poverty (commercially-oriented entrepreneurial smallholder farming; rural non-farm enterprise development, and out-migration) prescribed by the Report should be theoretically and empirically questioned because of the possibility of a reverse consequence: the perpetuation of poverty in Indonesia.     

Can Lebanon Survive Future Earthquake Disasters by Relying on a Military Response Strategy?

Inefficient responses by civilian emergency organizations during crises have prompted Lebanese authorities to rely on the military for disaster response operations. Although understandable, this reliance might be insufficient to achieve desirable response efficiency. This article demonstrates that neither civilian emergency organizations nor military forces can unilaterally and efficiently handle the response to large-scale disasters, such as earthquakes, without a major restructuring of the current emergency response management. Therefore, this article describes the potential role of the integration of the military and Hezbollah in future response operations and proposes a model to improve the efficiency of future response operations.     

Micro-enterprise development initiatives and entrepreneurial competencies,innovativeness, and social capital in Malaysia

This article examines the effect of participation in development programmes designed for women micro-entrepreneurs on the development of entrepreneurial competencies, innovativeness, and social capital. The study employed a cross-sectional design and quasi-experimental approach, and collected data from 417 women micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Findings reveal that the participants possess a significantly higher level of social capital, innovativeness, and entrepreneurial competencies. Development organisations should therefore focus on redesigning their policies and programmes to improve the breadth and depth of the development programmes that they offer, which ultimately lead to an improvement in the social-economic condition of low-income households in Malaysia.