Timothy E. Cook: 1954–2006

Abstract

This article describes the organizational and operational aspects of diplomacy's interplay with the news media in Britain. It examines the media's role as a source of information for ministers, officials, and the wider public; the media's effect on official and unofficial thinking; the media's roles in interdepartmental coordination and during international negotiations; and the uses of the media by the government as channels to mold public attitudes at home and abroad. It concludes by considering the implications of advancements in media technology, and greater public interest in international affairs, for media diplomacy.     

Causes of the growth of homelessness during the 1980s

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the factors that predicted 1989 homelessness rates in large U.S. cities. Data were collected to describe homelessness rates in the 182 cities with populations over 100,000. In addition, variables were assembled to represent many factors that have been hypothesized to cause homelessness, including each city's housing and income conditions, household resources, employment conditions, employment structure, available public benefits, and cost of living. The researcher used regression analysis to assess the impact of each hypothesized causal factor on between‐city differences in 1989 homelessness rates for the 147 primary cities in the data set (excluding suburbs) and for subgroup breakouts based on level of manufacturing employment and population growth from 1980 to 1986. The article ends with a discussion of policy implications of the patterns discovered.     

Domestic Violence Victims Support Mandatory Reporting: For Others

Five states now have mandatory reporting laws when a victim of domestic violence is identified in a clinical setting, and many other states are considering such legislation. Advocates for battered women have frequently warned that abused women may not wish mandatory reporting laws. Published data derived from the opinions, wishes, and beliefs of women victims of domestic violence have been noticeably lacking. This study presents a preliminary study of 45 abused women. Results indicate that women victims overwhelmingly support mandatory reporting laws. In an apparent paradox, however, they were much less certain that mandatory reporting would have been helpful to them in their specific case.     

Precision of estimating time of death by vitreous potassium--comparison of various equations.

This paper is a study of the precision of estimating the time since death comparing the equations developed by different authors. Our aim is to determine with the maximum degree of accuracy the exact time of death of the individual. We consider that the study has been fully justified by the observed differences in the results obtained from the different equations under study when the concentration of potassium in the vitreous humour was identical.     

Reading The Economist on Globalisation: Knowledge,Identity, and Power

The UK-based magazine The Economist portrays globalisation as a positive extension of liberal capitalism. While consistent with the magazine's pro-market bent, the rationale for the coverage is complex, since many readers presumably share the magazine's dominant code and do not need persuasion. This paper first explores tactics used to limit discourse on globalisation to realms of economic knowledge, while devaluing knowledge from other domains. Then, using cultural theories of how people read, I argue that coverage provokes reader anxieties about a changing world--while allaying them through tales of a future in which growth continues, the lot of the poor improves, and power remains vested in the institutions, knowledge, and people that have it currently. As such, The Economist provides a utopian vision of the future and tools for shaping identity to fractions of dominant groups seeking to define their strategies in a changing world.     

Relationships among alcohol outlet density, alcohol use, and intimate partner violence victimization among young women in the United States

Greater access to alcohol has been widely found to be associated with many negative outcomes including violence perpetration. This study examines the relationship between alcohol outlet density, alcohol use, and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization among young women in the United States. A direct association between alcohol outlet density in one's neighborhood and the likelihood of IPV victimization was examined. Data were from Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which followed a nationally representative sample of adolescents into adulthood. Participants were young adult females age 18 to 26 at Wave III. Of the 4,571 female respondents who reported a current heterosexual relationship and had IPV data, 13.2% reported having been the victim of physical violence only and 6.5% experienced sexual only or physical and sexual violence in the relationship during the past year. In the regression models tested, there was no significant direct association between neighborhood alcohol outlet density and IPV victimization nor was there an association between outlet density and drinking behaviors, thus eliminating the possibility of an indirect association. Results of fully adjusted models indicate females who drank heavily, whether infrequently or frequently, were at significant risk for experiencing sexual only IPV or sexual and physical IPV. Asians and Native Americans were at significantly greater odds of experiencing sexual only or sexual and physical IPV compared with non-Hispanic Whites, while non-Hispanic Blacks were at significantly greater odds for physical only IPV. We conclude that a continuous measure of alcohol outlet density was not associated with IPV in models controlling for individual and other neighborhood characteristics. Young women who drink heavily, whether infrequently or frequently, have greater odds of experiencing sexual only or sexual and physical compared to abstainers. Similar to previous study findings, young women living with or married to their partner were at far greater risk of experiencing physical only and/or sexual only or sexual and physical IPV. The study adds to the growing body of literature that examines how community characteristics such as outlet density influence the likelihood of IPV.     

Poisoned social climate, collective responsibility, and the abuse at Abu Ghraib--Or, the establishment of "rule that is lack of rule"

The authors draw upon the experiences of one of the co-authors as an expert witness in sociology for mitigation at three of the courts-martial pertaining to the abuse at Abu Ghraib that were held at Ft. Hood, Texas in the year 2005 (for Javal Davis, Sabrina Harman, and Lynndie England). In addition, this paper is based upon the thousands of pages of affidavits, testimony, and U.S. Government reports concerning Abu Ghraib. These internal government reports, as well as the Levin-McCain report, point to collective responsibility and the responsibility of individuals high in the chain of command for establishing unlawful techniques. We review the shortcomings of a purely psychological approach for understanding the abuse, and turn to Durkheim's original understanding of anomie as a state of social derangement or rule by lack of rule to introduce the ideas of the social origins of and social responsibility for the abuse. We conclude with sociological suggestions for reforming some of the legal, medical, psychiatric, and other professional complicity in the abuse at Abu Ghraib.     

The 2D:4D Ratio as a Predictor of the Risk of Recidivism after Court‐mandated Intervention Program for Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators

Differences in aggressive behavior could be partially explained by differential prenatal exposure to testosterone (T). A peripheral marker of prenatal T exposure is the 2D:4D ratio, which has shown a negative correlation with self‐reported aggression in violent men. This study tested the direct association of the 2D:4D ratio with anger expression and the risk of recidivism in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators after psychotherapeutic intervention program. The sample consisted of IPV perpetrators, whose 2D:4D ratio was measured before the intervention. Moreover, after the intervention, anger expression and risk of recidivism in IPV were assessed. Smaller 2D:4D ratio, especially of the right hand, was related to higher anger expression and risk of recidivism in IPV perpetrators. The contribution of this prenatal marker together with other psychobiological variables could play a key role in the propensity to react aggressively when coping with environmental demands.