A European Security Policy? The Attitudes of Candidates for the European Parliament*

It has been argued that the credibility of the American nuclear deterrent is declining in Western Europe. Whether this is true or not, it seems clear that support for the NATO alliance had reached a remarkably low level among Western European political elites as the 1970s drew to a close. One possible alternative to continued reliance on the Atlantic Alliance would be for Western Europe to develop its own independent defence capabilities. Certainly, in terms of economic and technological resources, this option should be within reach of an integrated European Community. And indeed there seems to be widespread support among European political leaders for the principle of having Western Europe play a more independent role vis-à-vis both superpowers. But there is no clear consensus in favour of the increased defence expenditures that such a policy would entail. Nor is there a consensus in favour of developing a unified West European security system inside or outside the institutional framework of the European Community. Our evidence in support of these conclusions is based on interviews carried out with candidates for the European Parliament in all nine member countries during the months immediately preceding the first direct elections in June, 1979.     

Males and females as victims of childhood sexual abuse: An examination of the gender effect

The data for this study were provided by a poll of 2627 adult Americans carried out by The Los Angeles Times in 1985. Five hundred and eighty five respondents (416 females and 169 males) reported having been victims of sexual abuse before they were 18 years of age. A portion of this subsample was used to systematically explore gender differences in the nature and context of abuse. Abusers where overwhelmingly male; however, differences were apparent among their victims. Males were more likely to report being victims of nonrelatives, with the abuse taking place outside of their home. Males were older than females at the time of first abuse and their abuser tended to be relatively close in age to them. Their abuse was more likely to be more severe than that of females but they were less likely to have reported it. Dichotomizing the sample into those abused by relatives and nonrelatives revealed that a number of differences in the profiles of male and female victims relate to the nature of their relationship to the abuser.