Conflict diamonds and the Kimberley process: Mission accomplished—or mission impossible?

The Kimberley Process, which seeks to eradicate the sourcing and sale of conflict diamonds, underwent a three‐year review in 2006, which highlighted the success of the initiative to date and the challenges that remain.     

Left Activism,Succour and Selfhood: the epistolary friendship of two revolutionary mothers in 1970s Britain

At the height of mass activity on the Left, the ascendancy of the women's liberation movement (WLM), and the beginnings of real social and personal change for men and women, the 1970s are increasingly seen as the decade when sixties permissiveness began to be truly felt in Britain. This article draws upon a personal archive of correspondence from this turbulent decade, between two revolutionary women, Di Parkin and Annie Howells. It argues that the women's letters form an important contribution to new understandings about the construction of the post-war gendered self. The letters represent an interchange of motherhood, domesticity, far-left politics, and close female friendship. The article will show how the women's epistolary friendship offers intimate insight into female self-fashioning at a breakthrough social and political moment in 1970s Britain. As they reflected on some of the key political and social themes of the decade—class, labour, race and gender relations, as well as international politics—Di and Annie sought to negotiate themselves in relation to shifting discourses and social patterns. Writing as relational female subjects and individuals, the women's letters became simultaneously a private and shared space in which to compose themselves as women, revolutionaries and feminists, and autonomous sexual subjects. As a result, this article will show, the epistolary lives of these two radical women inform valuable understanding about some of the complex ways in which post-war individuals used available cultural and political resources to find meaning in their lives.     

Ghana: A donor success story

Ghana's long engagement with the multilateral institutions has made the country a success although the downside is the continuing dependence on them. This article analyses the relationship and outlines Ghana's more recent democratic and economic gains following a period of near collapse.     

A REVIEW OF ONLINE DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Divorce education programs first surfaced over four decades ago. Today, many states mandate parents to participate in a divorce education program before their dissolution can be finalized. Changes in the technological landscape have allowed innovative practitioners to create online divorce education programs, yet these programs have not been formally evaluated for quality. Adapting a research design for evaluating face‐to‐face programs, we created an online divorce education review form and reviewed online divorce education programs that parents use to meet court‐mandated requirements. Results reveal that online programs have significant potential to help divorcing parents, yet there are areas of online program content and instructional strategies that can be improved. Program content that includes legal and court focused topics or modules, or that offer advice for families facing special circumstances such as domestic violence, could be enhanced. Additionally, most of the instructional strategies were passive. With this research, recommendations were made for improving program content and instructional strategies for online divorce education programs.     

Digital evidence from mobile telephone applications

In this paper we examine the legal aspects of the forensic investigation of mobile telephone applications. Mobile telephone applications might be involved with a variety of types of computer misuse including fraud, theft, money laundering, dissemination of copyrighted materials or indecent images, or instances where mobile telephone applications have been involved in the transmission of malware for malicious or criminal purposes. In this paper we examine the process of the forensic investigation of mobile telephone applications, and the issues relating to obtaining digital evidence from mobile telephone applications.     

Reclassifying Chinese Nationalism: the geopolitik turn

This article assesses the rise of China by exploring a number of recent popular Chinese political texts to go beyond explanations that take the international system as the level of analysis. It proposes that a merging of nationalism and geopolitical thinking is taking place, resulting in the emergence of a new form of nationalism that can be categorised as ‘geopolitik nationalism’ because it deploys many of the themes evident in the political thought of Germany and Japan before the two world wars. By considering the impact of such ideas, it is possible to gain new insights into recent assertive actions in Chinese foreign policy.     

Toward a Balanced Approach: Defining Police Roles in Responding to Domestic Violence

Responding to domestic violence poses unique challenges to law enforcement officers. Prior research has focused on issues such as officer safety and arrest policies but overlooked a critical component—the officers’ perception of their role in responding to domestic violence incidents. This study explores how police officers define their roles through the use of focus group interviews with detectives assigned to a domestic violence unit. Findings include the identification of three role perspectives. Recommendations for a more balanced approach of these role perspectives in responding to domestic violence crimes through the use of more effective training, supervision, and evaluation are proposed.     

A mobility strategy for improving opportunity

Abstract

Postwar changes in the metropolitan settlement structure have profoundly altered the geography of opportunity in the older cities of the Northeast and Midwest. Poverty is concentrated in once‐central cities, while employment continues to deconcentrate to the suburbs. In the face of these changes, antipoverty policy has become a geographic exercise of moving people and resources from certain places to other places.

The three main strategies for confronting inner‐city poverty are dispersal, development, and mobility. These strategies are discussed and compared, with particular emphasis on the mobility approach. The article argues that the mobility approach—which connects poor inner‐city residents to suburban employment opportunities without changing the location of households or firms—is the most promising near‐term strategy for combating urban poverty.