Civilian self-defense militias in civil war

To mitigate the costs associated with suppressing rebellion, states may rely on civilian self-defense militias to protect their territory from rebel groups. However, this decision is also costly, given that these self-defense groups may undermine control of its territory. This raises the question: why do governments cultivate self-defense militias when doing so risks that these militias will undermine their territorial control? Using a game theoretic model, we argue that states take this risk in order to prevent rebels from co-opting local populations, which in turn may shift power away from the government and toward the rebels. Governments strategically use civilian militias to raise the price rebels must pay for civilian cooperation, prevent rebels from harnessing a territory’s resources, and/or to deter rebels from challenging government control in key areas. Empirically, the model suggests states are likely to support the formation of self-defense militias in territory that may moderately improve the power of rebel groups, but not in areas that are either less valuable or areas that are critical to the government’s survival. These hypotheses are tested using data from the Colombian civil war from 1996 to 2008.     

Post‐crisis reforms in banking: Regulators at the interface between domestic and international governance

Post‐crisis international standards have been agreed on in certain areas of banking regulation, namely capital, liquidity, and resolution, but not others, namely bank structure – why? We articulate a two‐step analytical framework that links the domestic and international levels of governance. In particular, we focus on the role of domestic regulators at the interface between the two levels. At the domestic level, regulators evaluate externalities and adjustment costs before engaging in cooperation at the international level. This analysis explains why regulators in the United States and the European Union act as pacesetters, foot‐draggers, or fence‐sitters in international standard setting; that is to say, why they promote, resist, or are neutral toward international financial standards. At the international level, we explain the outcome of international standard setting by considering the interaction of pacesetters and foot‐draggers.     

Forensic Use of A Subtropical Blowfly: The First Case Indicating Minimum Postmortem Interval (mPMI) in Southern Brazil and First Record of Sarconesia Chlorogaster from a Human Corpse

Southern Brazil is unique due to its subtropical climate. Here, we report on the first forensic entomology case and the first record of Sarconesia chlorogaster (Wiedemann) in a human corpse in this region. Flies' samples were collected from a body indoors at 20°C. Four species were found, but only Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) and S. chlorogaster were used to estimate the minimum postmortem interval (mPMI). The mPMI was calculated using accumulated degree hour (ADH) and developmental time. The S. chlorogaster puparium collected was light in color, so we used an experiment to establish a more accurate estimate for time since initiation of pupation where we found full tanning after 3 h. Development of C. albiceps at 20°C to the end of the third instar is 7.4 days. The mPMI based on S. chlorogaster (developmental time until the third instar with no more than 3 h of pupae development) was 7.6 days.     

Fear of Crime or Fear of Life? Public Insecurities in Chile

Chile is regarded as one of the safest countries in Latin America. Crime rates are extremely low when compared to the rest of the region, and the police are widely considered to be efficient and trustworthy. Despite these objective trends, fear of crime is widespread throughout Chile. Why are Chileans so fearful when their country is so safe? We argue that fear of crime in Chile does not reflect fear of criminal acts per se, but is rather a manifestation of a wide range of daily insecurities. That is, fear of crime is rooted in other economic, social, and political insecurities featuring prominently in Chilean life today. To substantiate this argument, we test the ability of these “other” insecurities to predict fear of crime using a recent survey conducted by the International Labor Organization in 2001. We test our hypothesis alongside counterhypotheses prominent in the literature: social identity characteristics, victimization, trust in the media, urbanization, and community participation. We find that political, social, and economic insecurities best predict fear of crime; however, victimization, urbanization, and trust in the media are also significant. Our results suggest that scholars should study fear of crime not only as it relates to victimization and criminalization, but also in a context of insecurities generated by increasing rates of unemployment and poverty.     

Cross-cultural Validation of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory in Belgium (Flanders): Relations with Demographic Characteristics and Parenting Problems

This study examined the reliability and the validity of the Dutch CAP Inventory, a screening instrument that measures parents’ potential for child physical abuse (Milner, The Child Abuse Potential Inventory: Manual (2nd ed.), Psytec, Webster, NC, 1986). The CAP Inventory and measures on parenting stress and parents’ emotions and attributions with regard to childrearing were administered in a nonclinical sample of randomly selected mothers (N = 362) with a 4-to-11-year-old child. The CAP Inventory Abuse scale showed high internal consistency and split-half reliability. Twenty-four CAP Inventories (6.6%) were invalid, because mothers tended to present themselves either as too good or too bad. Sixteen valid CAP Inventories (4.4%) were indicative of high potential for abuse. Scores on the Abuse scale were significantly predicted by an external locus of control with regard to childrearing and by high levels of parenting stress. Results supported the cross-cultural generalizability of the CAP Inventory Abuse scale.     

Zwischen „der Eurokratie“ und „den Leuten“: Zum Problem der professionellen Vermittlung von Europapolitik

EU politics is strongly shaped by the activities of experts and professional actors with special knowledge of EU-specific rules, standards, semantics and institutional procedures. These EU professionals serve as important transmitters and brokers of European affairs in national contexts. They bundle and represent interests, provide information on EU policy proposals or support local and national organizations in their attempts of obtaining EU funding. In this way, these specialized actors have an important intermediary position between the “Eurocracy” and national citizenries as well as local addressees of EU policymaking. Building on classical and contemporary sociological discussions on the problem of professionalization in politics and on interview data the article analyzes the activities of these actors and scrutinizes what particular practices and strategies of interest mediation and policy transfer look like. What types of transmission and mediation can be found? Can EU professionals really be regarded as mediators and transmitters between European and local interests, or should they rather be seen as a relatively closed and self-referential group of specialists using their special competences mainly for their own sake and for positioning themselves within closed expert circles? Which difficulties and limitations can be seen with regard to practices and strategies of mediation in contemporary EU affairs?     

Should Empathy Play any Role in the Interpretation of Constitutional Rights?

This paper explores the role that empathy can play in the interpretation of constitutional rights. It starts by analyzing the complex concept of empathy, comparing it with similar yet distinct concepts such as projection, sympathy and emotional contagion, then it discusses the widespread distrust of empathy among lawyers and legal thinkers. It will be argued that empathy can play a significant role in the interpretation of constitutional rights, mostly in identifying the interests and needs put forward in the claims and counterclaims of the parties. In the final section, the impact of empathetic judging on judicial minimalism will be briefly discussed.     

The Politics of ‘Third Country Equivalence’ in Post-Crisis Financial Services Regulation in the European Union

After the global financial crisis, the European Union has adopted a new regulatory approach towards foreign countries by making use of equivalence rules in finance. Why? This paper argues that it is the EU’s attempt to restore financial stability in its territory and maintain the competitiveness of its financial industry. However, this ‘old’ dilemma between stability and competition in financial regulation is further complicated in a regional jurisdiction, such as the EU, because different regulatory paradigms play off in the dilemma.