Revisiting the role of communication in adolescent intimate partner violence

A growing literature suggests that communication strategies can promote or inhibit intimate partner violence (IPV). Research on communication is still needed on a group ripe for early IPV intervention: high school-aged adolescents. This article revisits our previous analyses of young female reproductive clinic patients (Messinger, Davidson, & Rickert, 2011) by examining how the adolescent and young adult respondents differ. To explore replicability of the adolescent results across populations, they are compared to 487 adolescent female students sampled from four urban high schools. Across samples, all communication strategies were used more frequently within violent relationships. Multivariate analysis identified escalating strategies used and received as being positively associated with physical violence used and received in all three samples. Regarding verbal reasoning and temporary conflict avoidance, substantial differences appeared between the young adult and adolescent clinic samples, and results from the adolescent clinic sample were largely replicated with the adolescent school sample, suggesting that young adult samples in this literature are not adequate proxies for adolescents.     

Doing Politics: Journey to the Centre of the (Academic) Universe: 20 Steps on Getting Published in Journals

As postgraduate students, researchers or junior lecturers, we all aspire to climb the highest peaks of academic life, to bask in our reflected glory and to have the (small disciplinary) world at our feet. Yet how do we assail those peaks? More often than not, they seem like sheer cliff faces or mountain ranges where the noviciate assemble at the bottom and gaze skywards in disbelief. When we look around at academics who have successfully scaled those heights, it is obvious that an effective publication record is essential, where refereed journal articles are particularly prized. Yet the numbers who gather to attempt their own ascent ask the question – is there any straightforward publication route the beginner can follow? Surely we cannot all be left to cut our own path without really knowing where, how, or even whether we should be travelling at all? This article argues that writing academic journal articles has been mystified. For many wanting to get started, it seems like the final destination is a secret place, somewhere that you might stumble across but one where the locals jealously guard the short-cuts. Here we aim to de-mystify journal article writing and provide 20 steps for the prospective writer. These 20 steps, however, provide more a series of useful directions than a definitive map of the terrain. As beginning academics themselves, the authors are, at best, merely amateur cartographers.     

Putting the nation back into ‘the international’

Alex Callinicos and Justin Rosenberg have both drawn on the concept of uneven and combined development to resolve what they see as deficiencies in international relations theory: in the case of the former, the absence of a non-realist explanation for the persistence of the states system; in the case of the latter, the absence of a sociological dimension to geopolitics. However, Callinicos omits any consideration of the ‘combined’ aspect of uneven and combined development, while Rosenberg ascribes characteristics of transhistoricity and internationality to uneven and combined development which it does not possess. Against attempts to either restrict or over-extend use of the concept, I will argue that its theoretical usefulness depends on understanding the limits of its spatial and chronological reach. An alternative, if still partial, explanation for the continued existence of the states system will emphasize the continuing indispensability of nationalism as a means of both containing class conflict within capitalist states and mobilizing support for ‘national capitals’ engaged in geoeconomic and geopolitical competition.     

Sperm elution: An improved two phase recovery method for sexual assault samples

This report describes the validation of a two phase cell recovery technique for the elution of two common cell types, epithelia and spermatozoa, from frequently examined items submitted as part of sexual assault casework. Furthermore, separation of cell types prior to microscopic examination of cell pellets improves the scientist's confidence in observing and scoring spermatozoa that may be present. During the validation, Orchid Cellmark's Sperm Elution© method consistently recovered a greater number of spermatozoa from simulated sexual assault items and swabs taken following consensual sexual intercourse compared to a water extraction technique. On average the Sperm Elution method recovered over twice the number of spermatozoa compared to the water method. The ability to separate the cell types present allows a rapid microscope slide search for spermatozoa and faster DNA extraction protocol in comparison to Cellmark's previous preferential method.     

Comparison of methods for visualizing blood on dark surfaces

Difficulties can arise when screening dark casework items for blood, a poor contrast between blood and the background can mean stains are not always evident. Typical indirect searching methods can be time consuming and may result in potentially important bloodstains being missed. Luminol, fluorescein, hydrogen peroxide, ultraviolet light and infrared photography were tested in an effort to find a rapid and efficient blood search tool for direct application to dark surfaces. Methods were compared in their sensitivity, specificity, ability to work on various surface types and their effect on DNA extraction and typing. Along with experimental results, the ease of use, costs and the health and safety considerations were also compared. Hydrogen peroxide was determined to be the most effective method. However, where blood was likely to be dilute, luminol was proposed due its greater sensitivity.     

Politics-as-usual on trial: regional anti-corruption campaigns in Indonesia

Abstract

This article explores to what extent to local pro-reform actors matter in Indonesia through the prism of anti-corruption campaigns in the country's regions. I argue that the rash of anti-corruption campaigns and related trials involving legislative members, especially from mid-2004 onward, can be attributed neither to the resources lavished on anti-corruption organizations based in Jakarta, nor to the popularity of President Yudhoyono's anti-corruption rhetoric. Instead, it can be traced to a particular anti-corruption campaign that began in earnest in 2002 in Padang, West Sumatra. Using a multi-dimensional approach, a small group of activists relentlessly pursued their newly elected provincial legislators to be accountable to their democratic mandates and as important, to respect the rule of law pursuant to new national anti-corruption legislation. The guilty verdicts of May 2004 galvanized similar groups across the country to investigate their respective legislative bodies. This exemplary case of societal accountability also demonstrated the leverage activists can gain over local politicians when they forge coalitions with other elite actors, especially those in Jakarta. I further explore two anti-corruption cases in the province of West Kalimantan to place post-Padang developments in their proper perspective. If hopes were raised that regional anti-corruption movements–based on the Padang model–might accomplish more than sensational trials but help consolidate democracy at the regional level by holding elected officials accountable, these two examples show how fleeting these expectations might be. The trials that took place but which produced no convictions resulted from the fallout of local political tussles, and not from local civil society organizations galvanized by the ideals of transparency and good governance.