Risk for Revictimization of Intimate Partner Violence by Multiple Partners: a Systematic Review

Are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) by multiple partners (MP) different from victims of IPV by one partner? Are there different victim-related risk factors for IPV by MP? This systematic literature review identified seven empirical studies that related to these issues. The review findings indicated that (1) empirical research on IPV by MP appears to be scarce, with only limited recent development; (2) there were significant differences between women who had been subjected to IPV in a single relationship and women with IPV by MP; (3) IPV by MP was significantly associated with childhood domestic trauma, drug abuse, IPV characteristics, and attachment style; (4) regarding PTSD and personality disorders, the results were mixed and inconclusive; and (5) depression did not appear as a salient risk factor for IPV by MP. Interpretations must be made cautiously because of the wide diversity in measurement approaches. It is important that service personnel and researchers attend with increased awareness to women with IPV by MP.     

Achieving the 1.5 °C objective: just implementation through a right to (sustainable) development approach

Achieving the 1.5 °C objective of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in a just manner requires equitably sharing the responsibilities and rights that relate to this objective. This paper examines how international law concerning the Right to Promote (Sustainable) Development can contribute to determining what would be a “just” approach to achieving the 1.5 °C objective. This entails building on both the Right to Development (RtD) and the Right to Promote Sustainable Development (RtPSD). The RtD is a central notion within international human rights law and the RtPSD has been adopted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Based on a literature review and legal analysis, we argue that, although the two Rights are prima facie different, in the context of the unanimously adopted Agenda 2030, including the SDGs, they partly complement and partly merge with each other. Together they provide a framework for assessing how a just transition towards a low greenhouse gas development process could be achieved and what this means for phasing out fossil fuels especially in the context of prospective oil producing countries.     

A measure of risk taking for young adolescents: Reliability and validity assessments

Researchers often define adolescent risk taking in terms of individual behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, early sexual activity, and reckless driving. It is not clear whether these behaviors defined by adults as risky have the same meaning for adolescents. This paper describes the development and preliminary testing of an instrument to assess risk taking among young adolescents. The six item scale was constructed by asking small groups of eighth grade boys and girls to describe things that teenagers your age do for excitement or thrills. The measure was then used in a longitudinal study of 758 young adolescents from three rural counties in Maryland. The scale shows good reliability, as indicated by coefficient alpha and factor analyses. Eighth-grade scores on the scale are associated with the initiation of sexual activity and substance use in ninth grade among virgins and nonusers of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and pills in eighth grade.     

Konjunktur und Krise des Europäischen Sozialmodells. Ein Beitrag zur politischen Präexplantationsdiagnostik

The article sheds light upon the political and scientific career of the conception of a “European Social Model”. In a first step, it gives a comprehensive review of the literature to answer the question for the common characteristics of the European societies. The authors claim that the European Social Model as realised in these societies is characterised by structures and processes of ordered diversity and social compensation. In a second step, the development of the political integration project which is also referred to as the “European Social Model” is lined out. The authors focus on the idea of a regulated capitalism by Jacques Delors, which in the 1990s has been reformulated into a eurokeynesian strategy, as well as on the discussion about a “Third Way” which finally led to the promotion of a ‘new’ European Social Model. It is shown that the principles of the ‘new’ European integration model conflict with and indeed contradict the old structures of the European Social Model, i.e. the shared characteristics of the European societies.     

Going beyond technocratic and democratic principles: stakeholder acceptance of instruments in Swiss energy policy

Policy Sciences - This paper is about stakeholders’ acceptance regarding regulatory instruments in energy policy. We expect that today’s introduced instruments not only correspond most...     

On the front lines of welfare delivery: Are workers implementing policy reforms?

The impact of policy changes on the local delivery of services has been overlooked in several decades of largely unsuccessful efforts to “reform” welfare. This article uses one case of state-level welfare reform in the early 1990s to examine the implementation of policy changes in local welfare offices. Direct observation of transactions between welfare workers and clients suggests that policy reforms were not fully implemented by street-level bureaucrats. The instrumental transactions that continued to dominate interactions with clients were consistent with processing claims and rationing scarce resources, but they were poorly aligned with new policies aimed at changing the services and message delivered to welfare clients. The failure to fully implement reforms on the frontlines has implications for the achievement of policy objectives and for equity in service provision. Implementation issues will have even greater urgency as welfare is devolved from federal to state governments.     

Arbeit und Organisation in der funktional differenzierten Gesellschaft

This article identifies central dimensions of the concept of labor and integrates this concept into a systems-theoretical framework. It proposes to describe labor as the inclusion of persons in the performance of organizations. We demonstrate that by using this reconceptualization it becomes possible to situate the concept of labor within organizational theory and theories of society. Furthermore, empirical sketches of labor in firms and schools show how this reconceptualization of labor fosters our understanding of work in contemporary societies.     

Explaining variations in enforcement strategy: A comparison of the Swedish health care,eldercare, and compulsory school sector

This article analyzes whether, and if so, why, national inspectorates adopt different enforcement strategies when controlling the provision of welfare services, such as health care, eldercare, and the compulsory school. The findings show that the Swedish Schools Inspectorate uses a predominantly strict strategy, while the Health and Social Care Inspectorate relies on a more situational strategy. To explain this variation in enforcement strategy, the article tests four hypotheses derived from the literature on regulatory enforcement. The findings suggest that the variation between the agencies is not primarily the result of differences in resources or the authority to issue punitive decisions, as suggested by previous research. Instead, we find support for the hypothesis that the definition of quality can explain variation in adopted strategies, and partial support for the hypothesis that differences in regulatory mission can account for a variation in the agencies' formal enforcement strategies.