Refugees: The security dimension

In the 1990s doors have been closing in the Western world against refugee claimants. Although there are multiple causes for declining generosity towards refugees, arguments that refugees pose security problems to host nations have been particularly prominent. An historical analysis reveals that the so‐called ‘golden age’ of postwar refugee settlement from the 1940s to the mid‐1970s was a by‐product of Cold War security and propaganda considerations. The end of the Cold War and the pressures of refugee movements generated by Third World and former Communist bloc conflicts has restructured Western refugee discourse. Refugees now tend to be seen as importers of external political conflicts into the West. At the same time growing European and North American resentment of ‘foreigners’ competing for declining job opportunities and reduced social services have encouraged anti‐immigrant political movements. By tightening barriers and controls over refugees on security grounds, Western governments are able to respond in part to these pressures. The Cold War policing and security alliance in Europe has been retooled to form the basis of a new post‐Cold War cooperation over immigration and refugee security, without the necessity of creating a new framework of supranational institutions.     

Can Local Ordinances Prevent Neighborhood Destabilization?

This article assesses the ability of local housing ordinances to prevent neighborhood destabilization, specifically that arising as a consequence of the most recent housing crisis. We evaluate the degree to which vacancy registrations and point-of-sale inspection requirements influenced housing market outcomes during the housing crisis. With comprehensive real property data from Cuyahoga County, Ohio, we measure outcomes that characterize housing market distress including foreclosures, sales below the tax-assessed value, bulk sales, flipping, and property tax delinquency. We evaluate outcomes across properties in regulated and unregulated municipalities using matching procedures on linked data containing property, neighborhood, loan, and transaction characteristics. We find evidence that vacancy registrations substantially reduce foreclosures. In contrast, we find little evidence that point-of-sale inspections reduce undesirable transactions. Rather, properties in cities with inspection requirements displayed higher levels of foreclosure and tax delinquency relative to the control group during the study period.     

Voting on a constitution: Implications for democracy in Kenya

In November 2005, Kenya held its first-ever national referendum on a proposed constitution. After a contentious review process, 58% of voters rejected the final document. It is common in the analysis of Kenyan politics to rely on ethnic explanations; indeed, the referendum results cannot be understood without exploring ethnic cleavages in Kenyan society. However, an exclusive focus on ethnicity obscures other factors that influenced voters, including the controversial process of drafting the constitution, the mobilisation efforts of the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns, and the perceived performance of the government. In the end, the referendum was seen as a positive step toward democratic consolidation in Kenya and raised hopes for the future. For the second time in three years, voters rejected the preference of the sitting government, which respected the results. Hopes were dashed, though, when irregularities marred the 2007 election and the announcement of contested results sparked a wave of violence. Under intense domestic and international pressure, the opposing sides reached a power-sharing agreement, as the need for a new constitutional order in Kenya became even more apparent.     

Explaining accommodation and resistance in Kentucky

A primary tenet of critical theory is that capitalism and economicinequality produces crimes of resistance and crimes of accommodation andthus excessive social control. Although most tests of this paradigm focus onthe urban poor or people of color as oppressed groups, this paper addressesKentucky counties as aggregate groups suffering from industrial exploitation,economic oppression and excessive social control. We hypothesize that thecapitalist exploitation and colonization of the region's natural resources willlead to crimes of resistance, or marijuana cultivation, and crimes ofaccommodation, or child maltreatment. Findings reveal that exploitativeeconomic conditions within Kentucky counties increase marijuanaproduction while only physical exploitation of the labor force affects childmaltreatment.     

The propensity of individuals to deposit DNA and secondary transfer of low level DNA from individuals to inert surfaces

We have shown that there is a difference between individuals in their tendency to deposit DNA on an item when it is touched. While a good DNA shedder may leave behind a full DNA profile immediately after hand washing, poor DNA shedders may only do so when their hands have not been washed for a period of 6h. We have also demonstrated that transfer of DNA from one individual (A) to another (B) and subsequently to an object is possible under specific laboratory conditions using the AMPFISTR SGM Plus multiplex at both 28 and 34 PCR cycles. This is a form of secondary transfer. If a 30 min or 1h delay was introduced before contact of individual B with the object then at 34 cycles a mixture of profiles from both individuals was recovered. We have also determined that the quantity and quality of DNA profiles recovered is dependent upon the particular individuals involved in the transfer process. The findings reported here are preliminary and further investigations are underway in order to further add to understanding of the issues of DNA transfer and persistence.