Old Becomes New Again: Kidnappings by Daesh and Other Salafi-Jihadists in the Twenty-First Century

Daesh fighters have taken hostage over 100 foreigners in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere since 2012. The kidnappings drew international attention in August 2014, when American journalist James Foley was decapitated and a video of his death was posted online. But the pattern of kidnappings and gruesome videos distributed by violent Salafi-jihadists extends back over a decade to the killing of Daniel Pearl in 2002. This article traces shifts in the strategic rationale of Al Qaeda and Daesh for beheading Western hostages. It argues that terrorists altered their calculations on foreign hostages beginning in 2012 and U.S. counterterrorism policy does not take these shifts into account.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Discrepant Perceptions of Racial Socialization between Parents and Adolescents within Mexican-Origin Families

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Parents and adolescents often have different views regarding parental racial socialization practices; however, studies documenting such discrepancies remain...     

School Engagement Among Youth Entering Probation

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Strong school engagement is crucial for school success among adolescents and particularly important for reducing recidivism. Yet, little is known about school...     

It's the Inside that Counts? An Explorative Analysis of Finnish Parties’ Opinions Concerning the Importance and Use of Their Websites,and Website Contents,in Relation to Party Characteristics

According to one theoretical point of view, the character of a political party, especially its general goals, would be reflected in the contents of its website. In this article, the plausibility of this view, which is called an 'actor-constructivist' view in the article, is explored by means of a twofold analysis. The Finnish parties' opinions concerning the importance and use of their websites, and the contents of their websites, are both analysed for potential linkages to four party traits: party goals, party organisation, party size and type of voters. The data consists of a questionnaire sent to the Finnish parties' leading information officials. Additionally, a quantitative content analysis of the party websites found in January 2006 was conducted. Two separate automatic cluster algorithms were run in order to identify groups of parties based on the questionnaire and the content analysis. These groups were then explored for potential connections to the party traits. The main findings of the study are that the Finnish parties' internal 'view' of their websites does not appear traceable to any of the party traits; the view varies from party to party and can hardly be used for generalisations concerning parties in general. However, the contents of the party websites appeared related to party size inasmuch as the websites of all parliamentary parties were significantly richer on information and more sophisticated in presentation than those of the parties outside parliament. The article also serves to demonstrate the difficulty of applying the 'actor-contructivist' view in empirical research.     

Adolescent death: a 15-year retrospective review

Adolescents comprise an eclectic mix of people vitally important to society yet long-term comprehensive studies on the circumstances of their deaths are lacking in the pediatric forensic literature. The authors reviewed all forensic cases referred to the Medical University of South Carolina Forensic Pathology section over the fifteen years between January 1989 and December 2003. In accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of adolescents, only decedents 10-19 years of age were included. The authors examined the cause and manner of death, age, gender, and race of the victims in all cases. The toxicology results, perpetrator, death scenario and location, and victim traits were analyzed when available. For all adolescents, the most common manner of death was accident followed by homicide, suicide, natural, and undetermined. Within the adolescent population two distinct groups, 10-14 years old and 15-19 years old, were identified. Though both groups were similar in that they experienced a high number of accidental deaths, decedents of older age group suffered a higher percentage of violent deaths while decedents of the younger group were more likely to die of natural causes. Many of the accidental deaths in this review were preventable, including deaths due to motor vehicle collisions and drowning. In deaths due to homicide, the perpetrator was often known to the victim, whether as an acquaintance or family member. Toxicology testing was often positive in decedents of the older age group, while only rarely positive in decedents of the younger age group. With a solid understanding of the circumstances, it may be possible to predict, and hopefully prevent, future cases of adolescent death. The authors present their findings in this 15-year retrospective study to better aid forensic pathologists, death investigators, law enforcement, and epidemiologists.     

Risk reduction in general practice and the role of the receptionist

Medical receptionists play a crucial role in any practice as they are usually the first points of contact for patients and the intermediaries through whom contacts with medical practitioners are made. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of medical receptionists undertaken to explore their role in general practice, particularly in relation to activities involving direct patient assessment, monitoring, counselling and therapy. The findings highlight a number of significant issues in relation to the potential liability of receptionists, medical practitioners, medical centre owners and insurers.