Restorative Justice and “Empowerment”: Producing and Governing Active Subjects through “Empowering” Practices

During the last quarter-century, restorative justice has emerged as a widely-utilised response to crime in Western nations. This article, which stems from a Foucauldian genealogy of restorative justice, argues that its embeddedness within the discourse of “empowerment” renders restorative justice a politically acceptable response to crime. “Empowerment”, it is argued, is one of many conditions of emergence of restorative justice. The discourse of “empowerment” underpins restorative justice in tangible ways, and has informed legislation and policy in Western jurisdictions. This article seeks to problematise the taken-for-granted nature of this discourse. It argues that the discourse of “empowerment” produces restorative justice subjects who are increasingly governed and governable. As “empowering” restorative practices are targeted towards “disempowered” individuals and communities, concerns are raised about the potential of restorative justice to disproportionately impact upon socially marginalised populations and to increase social exclusion.     

Assessing the Violent Offending and Violent Victimization Overlap Among Discharged Psychiatric Patients

Prior studies have documented linkages between mental disorder and both offending and victimization. However, few studies have examined the violent offending–violent victimization overlap among mentally disordered individuals and none have examined the factors that are jointly related to their covariation. Here, we assess this overlap during the first ten weeks following hospital discharge among a large sample of psychiatric patients from three large cities. Findings indicate that: (1) violent offending and violent victimization show substantial covariation; (2) although each of the two outcomes were predicted by a few unique risk factors, several risk factors were similarly predictive of both outcomes; and (3) even after adjusting for demographic, clinical, and social risk factors, the correlation between violent offending and violent victimization remained robust. Implications for theory, research, and policy are highlighted.     

Gender Harassment: Broadening Our Understanding of Sex-Based Harassment at Work

This study challenges the common legal and organizational practice of privileging sexual advance forms of sex-based harassment, while neglecting gender harassment. Survey data came from women working in two male-dominated contexts: the military and the legal profession. Their responses to the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) revealed five typical profiles of harassment: low victimization, gender harassment, gender harassment with unwanted sexual attention, moderate victimization, and high victimization. The vast majority of harassment victims fell into one of the first two groups, which described virtually no unwanted sexual advances. When compared to non-victims, gender-harassed women showed significant decrements in professional and psychological well-being. These findings underscore the seriousness of gender harassment, which merits greater attention by both law and social science.     

Legal Statements and Normative Language

Can there be a non-reductivist, source-based explanation of the use of normative language in statements describing the law and legal situations? This problem was formulated by Joseph Raz, who also claimed to have solved it. According to his well-known doctrine of ‘detached’ statements, normative legal statements can be informatively made by speakers who merely adopt, without necessarily sharing, the point of view of someone who accepts that legal norms are justified and ought to be followed. In this paper I defend two theses. I argue, first, that the notion of a detached statement cannot be made to work, and that Raz’s problem is thus not thereby solved. But the problem itself, I also suggest, is a false one.     

Awareness of Domestic Violence Within the Evangelical Community: Romania and Moldova

Domestic violence is a serious problem worldwide and is often perpetuated by complex social and cultural factors. The former post-communist countries of Romania and Moldova are no exception despite recent social attention. Many evangelical churches have not addressed this problem. The purpose of this project was to begin to assess the understanding of clergy and congregation members from evangelical churches in Romania and Moldova about domestic violence. Findings indicate that domestic violence occurs within the evangelical church in both Romania and Moldova, and that cultural and religious factors influence its prevalence. Suggestions for further research and training are included.     

Physical Abuse in a College Setting: A Study of Perceptions and Participation in Abusive Dating Relationships

This study explored the relationships between college students’ self-identification as recipients and/or perpetrators of abuse in their dating relationships and abusive behaviors reported. A cross-sectional examination of 1,530 undergraduate students was conducted. Results indicated that one in four college students were involved in a physically abusive dating relationship (involving at least two acts of physically violent behavior), and that over 85% of them failed to self-identify as ever having received and/or perpetrated any act of physical abuse. College students involved in abusive dating relationships were more likely than those not in abusive dating relationships to be in a relationship of a longer duration, to have been in a previous abusive dating relationship, and to be more accepting, in general, of physical abuse as a means of conflict resolution.     

Intergenerational Associations Between Trauma and Dissociation

The purpose of this study was to investigate intergenerational relationships between trauma and dissociation. Short and long term consequences of betrayal trauma (i.e., trauma perpetrated by someone with whom the victim is very close) on dissociation were examined in a sample of 67 mother–child dyads using group comparison and regression strategies. Experiences of high betrayal trauma were found to be related to higher levels of dissociation in both children and mothers. Furthermore, mothers who experienced high betrayal trauma in childhood and were subsequently interpersonally revictimized in adulthood were shown to have higher levels of dissociation than non-revictimized mothers. Maternal revictimization status was associated with child interpersonal trauma history. These results suggest that dissociation from a history of childhood betrayal trauma may involve a persistent unawareness of future threats to both self and children.