Trauma Severity,Poly-victimization,and Treatment Response: Adults in an Inpatient Trauma Program

The goal of the current study was to evaluate the extent to which abuse history predicted change in treatment in an inpatient setting. Poly-victimization and trauma severity were examined as predictors of treatment response measured by the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 and the Symptom Checklist-90-R at admission, discharge, and 6-months follow-up. Data from 161 clients of an inpatient trauma treatment program were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that level of poly-victimization predicted treatment response from admission to discharge on two of four outcome variables; however, this relationship was not found at follow-up. Further analyses suggest that the difference in treatment response at discharge among clients with higher rates of poly-victimization was an artifact of scores at admission. Trauma severity analyses reveal that differing types of abusive experiences generally did not predict treatment response. Overall, results demonstrate that this inpatient treatment program is similarly effective for a broad array of patients, including those with a greater number, and higher severity, of victimizations.     

Islamism in Azerbaijan: How Potent?

Azerbaijan is deemed to be the most secular of all post-Soviet Muslim counties. Nevertheless, growing independent Islamic activism, inspired by the international Islamic discourse and helped by foreign Islamic actors, and combined with a repressive regime response to this activity carried out under the banner of antiterrorism may contribute to make Islamism a potent factor in Azerbaijan. This article maps out independent Shi’a and Sunni activism and regime response in Azerbaijan. By assessing the dynamics between these two factors the article draws conclusions on the potential for politicization and radicalization of Islam in Azerbaijan.     

Toward a Theory of Terrorism: Human Security as a Determinant of Terrorism

In this article, we investigate the relationship between human rights conditions and terrorist activity. We begin by outlining a theory for the genesis and growth of terrorism and argue that states which deny subsistence rights along with civil and political rights create an environment that is conducive to the development of terrorism. However, we conclude that it is the denial of security rights that is a necessary condition for the creation and growth of terrorism. We then examine the causes of terrorism in Northern Ireland in light of this theory. Specifically, we explore the extent to which human rights abuses contributed to the formation and growth of terrorists within Northern Ireland. We find that limits on the civil and political rights of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland played a significant role in the genesis of terrorism. More importantly, British abuses of security rights increased the number of Irish citizens who supported and participated in terrorist activity.     

Pastoralists under Pressure: Double Exposure to Economic and Environmental Change in Niger

Interdisciplinary science benefits from frameworks that bridge different perspectives and methodological approaches in order to understand and solve complex problems. This article applies the double exposure framework to analyse how economic and environmental change drives recent political instability and food crises in Niger and the resultant implications for the food security of pastoral populations. Findings illustrate how processes of global change are undermining the historic resilience of pastoral communities within the region. Community and regional responses to new and unfamiliar conditions have resulted in heighted political instability that limits pastoralists’ ability to cope with future shocks.     

Only If We Agree? How Value Conflicts Moderate the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation

Existing studies find positive associations between transformational leadership and public service motivation (PSM), but value conflict may moderate the relationship. This is investigated for Danish University Colleges using a mixed-methods design. These colleges educate future teachers, pedagogues, nurses, and social workers, and their strong public service-oriented missions and potentially conflicting public values make this sector a well-suited case to test whether consensus on public values is a precondition for a positive association between transformational leadership and employee PSM. Based on a survey of 968 employees combined with qualitative interviews concerning specific public values, we find that the less value conflict, the stronger the positive relationship between the direct managers’ level of transformational leadership and the employees’ PSM. This is also the case for the top management. This implies that transformational leadership might be a way for managers to enhance employee PSM, but only if there is no severe value conflict.     

Treated sex offenders as “paraprofessional” co-workers in the treatment of the sex offender

This paper will briefly review the utilization of the paraprofessional in a community-based sex offender treatment programme in Merseyside, UK. The paraprofessionals are treated paedophiles in the role of treatment co-facilitators. Further thoughts on the role dynamic, training issues and supervision are discussed. This is an example of service-user involvement in practice.     

On a Governmentality Analytics of the ‘Deliberative Turn’: Material Conditions,Rationalities and the Deliberating Subject

Amongst social and political researchers, as well as diverse policy actors, debate has of late grown around the role deliberation can and could play in addressing contemporary social, political and environmental issues. Substantial conceptual and empirical concerns remain about this ‘deliberative turn’, including the strictures of achieving ‘true deliberation’ and a lack of focus to date on the contexts and ‘material conditions’ of deliberative events and spaces. In response, this paper argues that the recent growth of research utilising Foucault's governmentality thesis can provide a fruitful analytics to explore aspects of the deliberative turn, in particular the rationalities and subjectivities that undergird it. This argument draws on recent debates in both deliberative politics and governmentality studies, as well as examples of past and on-going deliberative research.     

Estimation of housing needs amid population growth and change

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical framework and more accurate methods for projecting the household growth component of estimates of housing needs. These estimates combine empirical evidence with normative assumptions about the quantity of housing expected with population growth. Recent California experience illustrates the theoretical and practical issues involved. Alternative empirical methods are used to model changes in per capita household formation and homeownership rates over time.

The results show great instability between 1960 and 2000 in the linkage between population and housing needs, casting doubt on which linkage to use for future projections. Past changes in housing growth are attributed to changing population composition and occupancy patterns for subgroups. Estimates based on a cohort method are lower than those using constant rates of housing consumption and conform much more closely to recent experience, but it may not be desirable to lock in the deficiencies of the past when projecting needs.     

Who supports tax limitations: Evidence from massachusetts' proposition 2½

The vote on Massachusetts' Proposition 2½—and by extension the votes to restrain or roll back taxes in other states as well—should not be interpreted simply as expressions of the narrowly defined self-interest of the voters. This study shows that other characteristics such as sex, race, religion, occupation, educational background, and political orientation also have an important influence on voting behavior. These characteristics combine with self-interest measures such as public sector employment and voters' likely gains from tax reduction to push individual voters in different directions on the issue of tax limitation. Consequently, we find little polarization in the electorate along demographic lines.